Genesis

Chapter Forty-four

Preface

This chapter reveals the final test by Joseph on the sons of Jacob.  It indicates that the guilt from their treatment of Joseph earlier in their lives had never left them.  And it reveals a type of the Savior in the actions of Judah and even a change of character within all of the brothers regarding the value and treatment of one of their own.

Genesis 44:1-5

And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack.  Also put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain money.” So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.  As soon as the morning dawned, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.  When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?  Is not this the one from which my lord drinks, and with which he indeed practices divination? You have done evil in so doing.’”

After the feast depicted in chapter 43 Joseph initiates one more test for his brethren by directing his steward (house-manager) to once again place the money they had brought to purchase grain on top of the grain in their sacks.  Additionally, he instructed that his personal silver cup be placed on top of the grain in Benjamin’s sack, the youngest of his brethren and his full-blood brother (the only other brother of his father Jacob and his mother Rachael).

He then commanded his steward to follow them outside of the city the next morning and confront them with their “illegal” possession of both the money and the cup.  Joseph either used his cup for “divination” or the story was simply a ruse he wished to use in explaining the value of the cup, since he was apparently well known as an interpreter of dreams—prior to and during his stay in the land of Egypt.

What kind of divination did Joseph do? (44:5, 15) This kind of divination was accomplished by placing oil drops upon water and observing the resulting patterns.  Divining God’s will through dreams, the budding of plants, sheep fleeces and the casting of lots was not condemned in the Old Testament.  People believed God was totally in control and spoke through these means.  (The Mosaic Law does not forbid divination, but it condemns consulting the dead through mediums.) The Quest Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, 1994)

To be distinguished from divination are the use of the lot, dreams, and signs.  In the OT God used the casting of the lot for certain purposes, such as the allocation of territory for the ten tribes (Josh 18:10), the choice of the goat to be sacrificed on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16), the choice of a guilty person (Josh 7:14; Jon 1:7), the assignment of temple service (1 Chr 24:5), and once in the NT for the choice of a successor to Judas’ lost apostleship (Acts 1:15-26).  It is significant that the use of the lot ceased with Pentecost. (Wycliffe Bible Dictionary, Hendrickson Publishers, 2000, Allen R. Killen, Th.D., Professor of Contemporary Theology, Reformed.  Theological Seminary, Jackson, Miss.)

Genesis 44:6-13

So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words.  And they said to him, "Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from us that your servants should do such a thing.  Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord's house?  With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord's slaves." And he said, "Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless." Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack.  So he searched. He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.  Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.

The steward carried out Joseph’s plan.  The brothers were so certain that they had did nothing wrong that they committed themselves to death and slavery even before their sacks were opened to be searched.  But the steward exclaimed that only the one found with the cup would be held accountable and the rest would be held “blameless.”  But once they saw the money and the cup, they “tore their clothes” indicating their extreme agony.  In times past these brethren showed the capacity of abandoning one of their own (Joseph) to achieve self-preservation and/or self-promotion.  Then they might have released Benjamin to the steward and gone on their way home.  But this was to be no longer the case; they all returned to the city.

Genesis 44:14-16

So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there; and they fell before him on the ground.  And Joseph said to them, “What deed is this you have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?” Then Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord's slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup was found.”

Judah became the spokesperson for the brethren.  He probably meant they were caught with the goods and therefore must be considered guilty.  However, Judah’s statement had broader applications, connecting the brothers to the guilt stemming from the mistreatment of Joseph years before.  God worked through these events to call their minds to that primary guilt.

Genesis 44:17-34

But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father.” Then Judah came near to him and said: “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh.  My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ And we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’ So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord.  And our father said, ‘Go back and buy us a little food.’ But we said, ‘We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since.  But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’ Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad's life, it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave.  For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.  For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?”

Judah mounts a compelling defense for his brother Benjamin, recounting the events that preceded their particular dilemma and the serious consequences that would befall their father should Benjamin not return home.

And then Judah requests that he take the place of Benjamin to pay the penalty-price for Benjamin’s transgression.  Judah, from whose progeny would come the “Lion of the tribe Judah,” the Messiah (Revelation 5:5); here offers to become a type of Jesus Christ who paid the penalty-price for the sins of the world, a vicarious (substitutional) sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, which would then allow all mankind to appropriate eternal salvation by faith alone in Christ alone.