Read with Me
Genesis 42:25-38 (HCSB)
Joseph then gave orders to fill their containers with grain, return each man’s money to his sack, and give them provisions for their journey. This order was carried out. They loaded the grain on their donkeys and left there.
At the place where they lodged for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his money there at the top of the bag. He said to his brothers, “My money has been returned! It’s here in my bag.” Their hearts sank. Trembling, they turned to one another and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”
When they reached their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them: “The man who is the lord of the country spoke harshly to us and accused us of spying on the country. But we told him: We are honest and not spies. We were 12 brothers, sons of the same father. One is no longer living, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan. The man who is the lord of the country said to us, ‘This is how I will know if you are honest: Leave one brother with me, take food to relieve the hunger of your households, and go. Bring back your youngest brother to me, and I will know that you are not spies but honest men. I will then give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the country.’ ”
As they began emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his bag of money! When they and their father saw their bags of money, they were afraid.
Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything happens to me!”
Then Reuben said to his father, “You can kill my two sons if I don’t bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.”
But Jacob answered, “My son will not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If anything happens to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hairs down to Sheol in sorrow.”
Listen with Me
Over the three days that his brothers had been in the jail, Joseph had devised a multi-part plan to test their integrity before he was willing to reveal himself to them. In the first part, he had his steward place the full money bags they had used to pay for the grain in the top of each man’s grain sack. He knew that they would open the sacks to eat and to feed their donkeys along the way and would thus discover that the silver had been placed there. If they immediately returned to give the money back, that would tell him a great deal about the state of their hearts.
His brother did discover the silver, but they were so freaked out about “the man’s” accusations that they were spies, that they didn’t dare return with the silver and give him ammunition to accuse them of being thieves as well! So, after finding the money bag in the one sack, they kept on going home.
They told the story to their father when they arrived back home, partly to explain their delay, and partly to explain why Simeon hadn’t come back with them. They also told him about the strange man’s demand that they take Benjamin back with them, and that that was the only way to free Simeon from the jail.
But Jacob was adamant that Benjamin would not be allowed to go to Egypt, especially after they discovered the bags of silver in every one of their grain bags. He had already lost Joseph, the first born of his beloved Rachel, to wild animals, and he would not put her only remaining son at risk as well. It hurt his heart that Simeon was going to have to remain in Egypt, but if he had to choose between the two, he was going to choose to keep Benjamin safe.
Pray with Me
Father, it occurs to me that before Joseph’s disappearance, Jacob heard your voice from time to time, at least at important junctures. But it seems that since Joseph had gone away, he hadn’t heard any more from You. I don’t think that that was Your plan. I think that he lost faith in You seeing You as someone who wasn’t able to protect his chosen son. His grief closed his heart to You, and it closed his ears as well. We can make that same deadly mistake today as well, allowing our grief to turn us away from the wholehearted devotion to You that enables us to hear Your voice and receive Your comfort. Help me, Lord, to keep my wholehearted devotion to You strong, regardless of the circumstances I might face. Amen.