Genesis

Chapter Forty-two

Preface

This chapter further reveals details of God’s plan for delivering His people Israel from Canaan and the wickedness of its people, not to mention the famine that ravished the land.  After all the difficulties and horror that Joseph was subjected to and endured over many years, he is now in the most exalted position in Egypt, second only to its king.  The following verse of Scripture continues to be exemplified in his life:  Romans 8:28 (And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose).

Genesis 42:1-4

When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die.” So Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.  But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “Lest some calamity befall him.”

Jacob learned, probably by word-of-mouth from travelers, that there was grain in Egypt.  Based on this and the dire circumstances presently facing his family, he took action to bring deliverance from the pain of starvation and certain death.  Although he did not know for certain that there was grain in Egypt, he exercised faith and sent 10 of his sons to Egypt to purchase grain.  In this the reader may gain the lesson that unless one is willing to exercise faith over and beyond his mere knowledge, he will never profit.  When considering the doctrine of salvation as is so frequently expressed in the Bible, it is one thing to become mentally aware of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary and quite another to personally and willfully trust one’s eternal soul and its destiny to nothing else but Jesus Christ and His redemptive work.

It is notable that Jacob was willing to send forth all his sons with the one exception of Benjamin.  Benjamin was not only the youngest of the lot, but he was a child from his beloved Rachel—the brother of Joseph and the only remaining son from the wife he truly loved.

BENJAMIN . . . The youngest of the children of Jacob and the only one of the 13 [12 sons and 1 daughter] born in Palestine.  He was born somewhere between Bethel and Ephrath (Bethlehem), his mother Rachel dying in the act of giving birth.  She called him Ben-oni (“son of my sorrow”).  Jacob fearing the consequences of such a name, renamed him Benjamin (“son of the right hand,” or “son of the South,” i.e., southerner, Gen 35:16-18).

After Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites, Benjamin became the favorite of his father Jacob, as well as of his brothers.  Since he is called a lad in Gen 44:20, 22, his sons and grandsons were most likely born after Jacob brought the entire clan to Egypt during the famine (Gen 46:21 . . .).  There is little besides the events in Gen 24-44 concerning Benjamin himself; later references concern the tribe of Benjamin. (Fred E. Young, Ph.D., Dean, Professor of Old Testament, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Kansas, Wycliffe Bible Dictionary, Hendrickson Publishers, 2000)

Genesis 42:5-8

And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.  Now Joseph was governor over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.  Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, “Where do you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.” So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

Apparently the 10 sons of Jacob were a part of a larger contingent who traveled from Canaan to Egypt, which contingent was only one of numerous delegations from all over the then existing world (it was a worldwide famine).  And when they came into the presence of Joseph, who was personally overseeing (a mark of true leadership) the grain-distribution process, he recognized his brethren.  But they did not recognize Joseph.

Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize Joseph.  Why not?  Well, there are several reasons.  First of all, they thought he was dead; so they were not looking for him at all.  They never expected to see him again, but he did expect to see them.

Then, we must remember that many years had gone by.  He was seventeen when they sold him, and now he is thirty-seven years old, plus however many years the famine has been going.  Let’s say it was one year; so they hadn’t seen him in twenty-one years.  He’s almost forty and he is dressed like an Egyptian, speaks and acts like an Egyptian. (Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1981)

Joseph then decides to test his brethren and gain information regarding his family by taking a harsh stance and tone in responding to them.  By the end of the chapter it will be seen that undergirding his plan is his underlying love and compassion for his brethren.

Genesis 42:9-16

Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land!” And they said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.  We are all one man's sons; we are honest men; your servants are not spies.” But he said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.” And they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more.” But Joseph said to them, “It is as I spoke to you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ In this manner you shall be tested: By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.  Send one of you, and let him bring your brother; and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!”

It is notable that, at least as far as is revealed, Joseph did not recall the past treatment accorded him by his brethren.  Instead he recalled the dreams that he had experienced as a boy pertaining to the sheaves in the field and the celestial bodies in space (Genesis 37), and knew that here before him was the fulfillment of each.

In response to Joseph’s accusation that they were spies, the brothers defended their integrity by saying, “Your servants are twelve brothers”; but lest their integrity be gainsaid, they were forced to add: “and one is no more.”  Joseph’s schemes have provoked the first hint that their evil deed accomplished long past may yet rise up against them.  When the brothers recounted this event to their father (v.32), they reported their own words in a different order than that of the narrative in v.13.  Here they mentioned first the “one who is no more”; but when they tell their father about Joseph’s accusations and their response, they mention last the “one [who] is no more” and then tell of Benjamin who is home with their father.  Though subtle, such a reversal suggests that the memory of what they did to Joseph was beginning to rub on their consciences. (NIV Bible Commentary, Zondervan Publishing House, 1994)

At this point in time Joseph reveals one of two plans to test his brothers, the order that only “one” of them should return to bring back Benjamin in order to prove that they were not spies.  As will be seen, the emphasis regarding “one” will take a different tact in subsequent verses.

Genesis 42:17-24

So he put them all together in prison three days.  Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God: If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses.  And bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so.  Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now required of us.” But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.  And he turned himself away from them and wept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

Joseph devised two plans to test his brothers.  The first was that “one” of the brothers should return for the youngest and the rest remain in prison.  After three days the second plan was announced; “one” of the brothers was to remain behind and the others were to return to get the youngest.  The focus is on the “one” brother who rescues the others.  Within the narrative this “one” brother appears to be an echo of the “one [who] is no more.”  No wonder, then, that the brothers’ own conclusion is that their present distress has been caused by the distress that they had brought on Joseph.  When they begin to talk about this distress, we catch a glimpse of where Joseph’s plans are leading.  Reuben’s words focus on the central point:  “now we must give an accounting for his blood.” Joseph’s plans were not in revenge for how his brothers once treated him; rather, they were to show how, in God’s world, the “guilt” of the brothers came back on them and called for justice.  The remarkable message of the narrative, however, is that Joseph had already forgiven his brothers of the evil they had done to him, for he had to turn away from them to hide his sorrow for the distress his plan caused.  What awaited the brothers was not the “evil” they intended for Joseph but the “good” God intended for them through Joseph (50:20). (NIV Bible Commentary, Zondervan Publishing House, 1994)

Genesis 42:25-28

Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man's money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Thus he did for them.  So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there.  But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack.  So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”

Joseph further confounds and increases the fear of his brothers by returning their money hidden in the grain in their sacks.  They immediately realize that it is God that is accomplishing this end.  Though it was Joseph who had the money put back into their sacks, their words identify that it is the work of God that has ultimate control in this series of events.

Genesis 42:29-38

Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying: “The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country.  But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. 'We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.’ Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for the famine of your households, and be gone.  And bring your youngest brother to me; so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’” Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly each man's bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.  And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.” Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.” But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.”

The events are now reiterated in an abbreviated form by the 9 brothers to their father Jacob.  Their focus was on the plan of Joseph for the return of the youngest son.  But what they received in return from Jacob was two guilt-filled reminders of the wickedness they had caused by their treatment of Joseph so many years earlier (vss. 36 & 38).

The “twelve” sons of Jacob are divided into two groups throughout the narrative.  There are the “ten of Joseph’s brothers” and then the “two” sons of Jacob by Rachel—Joseph and Benjamin.  These two sons are contrasted with the two sons of Leah—Reuben and Judah.  Both Reuben and Judah play an important and similar role in the narrative.  They speak on behalf of the other brothers and are the catalysts in the resolution of the plots instigated by Joseph.  It was Judah, however, who saved the day by offering himself as a pledge for the young lad Benjamin; and it was Judah who repeated Jacob’s own thematic words “that we and you and our children may live and not die (43:8; cf. 42:2).  Finally, it was Judah who spoke before Joseph and offered himself as a substitute for Benjamin, lest he cause any evil to come on his father, Jacob (44:33-34).  Throughout the narrative the plot is woven around the interplay between Joseph and Judah, and in the end it is Judah who resolved the conflict. (NIV Bible Commentary, Zondervan Publishing House, 1994)

In response to Jacob’s words, Reuben’s response was meant to ensure confidence in his own resolve to return Benjamin.  But Jacob summarily dismissed Reuben’s pledge.