40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 40 Minutes In The Old Testament: Episode 53

Episode Date: July 14, 2016

Chad and Daniel talk about Joseph's interaction with his brothers and their interaction with Jacob. Money is given back, people are panicking, Grandsons are offered as collateral and tough decisions must be made. When we view God primarily through the Law we see everything as consequence... but something better is going on.

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. I am Daniel Henry Price and I am joined by Chad Bird. Chad, how are we doing this fine morning? I'm doing good. Doing good. Got my Bible open. Got my coffee inside me. I'm raring to go. That's all the gifts you need this morning for this ridiculous... Caffeine and scripture. We're ready to go.

Yes, sir. All right, man. Well, we left off at a pretty exciting spot. You want to recap where we're at? Yeah, let's do that. Yeah, in fact, one of my friends from work, Gary, who listened to this program, he was upset with us because we left him hanging. You know, we bring you up to the climactic moment, and then we make you wait. Hey, man, we end when 40 minutes ends. That's right.

We have no control over this, right? All right, so, yeah, so we're in Egypt, of course, with Joseph. Have been for a while. but what happened last time is that you know that we had the dreams and joseph's plan of action that he gave to pharaoh seven years of plenty seven years of famine so stock up during those seven years get ready because it's coming and then it comes and as we discussed the the famine wasn't just an egyptian famine it hit all the surrounding countries so people hungry all over the place not just the egyptians so uh this this affects as as the famine uh includes more more land it affects

joseph's long lost family back in the promised land and so they uh send uh the group of brothers down there into egypt to buy some grain and to bring back the the food to uh to feed the family and they get down there and surprise surprise they have trouble with this mysterious uh guy who's in charge of all the food in egypt which which of course is joseph but they don't know it's joseph because too much time has has gone by in almost almost 20 years so joseph recognizes them but they don't recognize joseph he disguises himself and it says in verse 7 of chapter 42 that he spoke harshly to them and and the way he spoke harshly to them is he accused him of being a big spies so they they begin you know to defend themselves no we're not spies uh you know we're

just we're just a bunch of brothers from from uh the land of canaan we're hungry we're here to buy food and we have a dad you know there's there's uh it used to be 12 of us now there's only 11 because one of the brothers is no more and we left our youngest brother back with with our father so that they're divulging all of these all of these uh details about their family which is of course just what joseph wanted them to do because he doesn't know anything about what's happened with his family over the course of his time in Egypt. All he knows, the last thing that he knows about his brothers is that they stabbed him in the back. They sold him to these traitors. And for all he might know, they did the same to his full brother, Benjamin, just like they had done to him.

So Joseph's basically kind of feeling them out so he can get some details about what's happened over over the course of the years and finally uh joseph really doesn't drop the accusation that they're there as spies but what he says is is look if if you're really honest if you are honest men then here's what we're going to do we're going to we're going to kind of do a trade here so i'm going to hold one of your brothers hostage and you go get your youngest brother that you claim that you have and bring him back and if you bring back your youngest brother then we'll be good your brother that i'm taking into custody he'll be released and everything will be you will have proven to me that you are in fact honest men and you're not here you're not here as spies

so joseph says all these things and that's kind of and that's kind of where we're left off uh uh that and then we were talking about verse 21 which was which is insignificant and it's where the brothers say to each other after all this happens the brothers say to each other truly we are guilty concerning our brother their main they mean joseph because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us yet we wouldn't listen therefore so because of all that this distress has come upon us so we talked about how you know old guilt never rust that that phrase from luther that uh all these years they have been troubled by what they did to joseph and now they think that everything that's happening to them especially this is kind of karma i guess

you'd say all of this is coming back to finally to bite them i think it's what they did in the past. So that's kind of where we left off. Long recap, but that kind of sets the tone for what we're about to see. So what happens next? Well, Reuben, remember he's the oldest, he's the first one. Reuben picks up the conversation there in verse 22. He kind of takes advantage of the situation to say, I told you so. He says, did I not tell you don't sin against the boy and you wouldn't listen to me. Now comes the reckoning for his blood. See, if you remember, if you remember the story back in the day when they had Joseph down in the pit, Reuben was not party to the scheme to sell Joseph. He wanted actually to rescue his brother. And then when he comes back

and he finds the pit empty, he assumes the worst. He thinks Joseph is gone. In fact, it's almost as if he thinks joseph is dead in fact we don't know for sure if the brothers ever told reuben the whole story of what they did but reuben is is hearkening back to that and he's saying to his brothers look you're right all this is happening to us because of joseph and if you'd listen to me to begin with none of this none of this would have happened so that a family quarrel is going on basically everybody's lamenting what's happened to them they're beating themselves up And then Reuben jumps into the fray and says, I told you so. So all this is going on, this kind of back and forth and arguing and fighting.

And what they don't realize, and this is where the story goes from here, what they don't realize is that Joseph understood every word. It says there was an interpreter between them. So here's Joseph. He's on one side. And here are the brothers. You can see them all kind of standing around arguing with each other. And there's an interpreter that stands between Joseph and his brothers.

but but of course joseph doesn't need the interpreter he knows hebrew his brothers don't realize who he is and they don't realize he knows hebrew but he's listening in on every word they speak now how how does joseph react to this well that that whole thing is weird right there first of all like it's a slick move to bring in an interpreter so that you don't feel like that you don't understand what they're saying but if you do have an interpreter and you're the brothers and you don't if you don't want him to know this which maybe you care maybe you don't care i don't know but you have to assume that the interpreter is going to tell him yeah yeah yeah the brothers weren't thinking this through were they i mean i mean maybe they don't

care maybe they're like well this guy doesn't care if what we did to our brother i don't know yeah maybe so but still it's still a smooth move because if the interpreter's ever you know not in the room they're gonna assume you know hey this guy can't understand us i mean he had an interpreter in here after all right yeah yeah little little deception little deception going on which is which is of course what the brothers are are skilled at so you got this weird situation uh and you gotta wonder okay now how is joseph gonna react to all this you know is he gonna almost kind of laugh under his breath seeing the distress of his brothers uh is he gonna be angry at them still I mean, how's he going to react to this?

Well, it's kind of a weird situation because you have two things happening which seem diametrically opposed to each other in the exact same verse. Two things that Joseph does. So he hears his brothers, and in verse 24 now, it says, he he turned away from them and wept and then he then he must have gone out because it says later then he returned to them so he turns away from them and he weeps and this is the first of many times that joseph cries there's a whole lot of weeping on joseph's part going on in this in this narrative and presumably he's weeping because he's you know he's upset as he listens to his

brothers and and maybe he's thinking back to what happened to him and so maybe they're more tears of of kind of grief over what he's gone through or maybe they're great they're tears of of grief over the fact that his brothers are still divided or that they still feel guilty about what they did i don't know of course tears tears can be interpreted lots of different ways he turns away and he weeps so that happens and he must have gone out like he does and in other situations to kind of clean himself up wash his face when he goes back to them he speaks to them and he takes simeon from them who was the second in line second born and binds him before their eyes see he kind of got a almost a good cop bad cop situation here in which joseph is both

he cries he goes out of the room but then when he comes back he has the one brother simeon bound before their eyes and put into put into custody so that's i guess that's joseph for you he's a he's a man of mystery in some ways throughout this this part of the story in particular i i still am trying to wrap my mind exactly around why joseph does everything that he does and i mean on the one hand as the story goes on it's almost as if this whole thing is nothing more than joseph's way of testing his brothers he's trying to find out first of all if they're still the same men as they were 20 years ago trying to find out if they are repentant over what they did he's trying to find out just basic details about his family i mean did they do

to his brother what they did to him so it's as if he's this whole thing is is kind of a an investigation for him into the into who his brothers are now and then at the same time you have you have him doing things to his brothers which seem which seems rather heartless uh for example keeping one of them in jail for however long we have uh between these two visits to the brothers and uh accusing them and speaking harshly to them so he he acts in a very harsh way toward his brothers but then at the same time he'll turn around as we're going to see in just a minute and for instance give them all their money back that they use to buy the grain he puts every bit of money they they use to purchase grain he gives it back to them so it's an act

of love and mercy toward them so i don't know maybe by the time we finish this we'll uh we'll have this all figured out uh but joseph is right now anyway he's kind of a mystery to me is what his what his real motives are here well he's uh that that revenge is real cold that he's serving up what in in arresting his brother you mean yeah yeah just just messing with him like uh yeah it seems like there's probably like a real um struggle going on here uh joseph being simile and all but like there's probably this real desire to like watch you squirm you know pay pay you back to to some degree anyway a little bit you know um evaluate your regret all that kind of thing but at the same time like obviously he obviously still cares deeply for his

brothers that's why he's out weeping and he didn't want their stuff that's why he's giving it back this is a guy that like ultimately just wants an apology uh and not even not and not even an apology i don't think he needs him to say i'm sorry he just needs to know that there is regret that's enough yeah yeah i think that's uh that's ultimately what he's shooting for if you look at the end of the story he's he he's forgiven them and yet i think he's still working through that forgiveness and maybe and maybe that's uh the way it is in families you know we can whether it's between a husband and wife or between brothers or or between even parents and children you know there can be a a speaking of forgiveness and an accepting of

forgiveness but that doesn't mean that everything is just fine especially in human relationships you know so joseph maybe has forgiven his brothers but at the same time he's uh he's still struggling with this this this very real this very real fight over the desire to make sure his brothers understand just what they've done and to make him squirm as you say yeah well i think i think that when you're, when you're in a relationship with somebody and, uh, and something bad happens, uh, you can forgive, but things aren't sort of restored unless, you know, the, like I can forgive you without you, um, even, and maybe even acknowledging that what you've done is wrong or without you regretting any of it. I can, I can still forgive you. That doesn't mean that like,

we're we're not restored uh just because i've forgiven you and we're not restored like that that would require you know that would require that the other party wishing that hadn't happened uh feel feeling uh regret uh over it and and so i think i think that you have some of that i don't think that he's wanting to withhold forgiveness but can these relationships be restored i would say like i would say well the answer is no if they're if they don't even if they're just like well like we freaking did this thing to our brother and uh you know he was real punk so he deserved it but i guess maybe this is happening to us because of that like no sorrow over it no like oh man like wow man remember when we did that and how bad we feel like that makes it all

that makes it all very different yeah yeah i think that's uh i think you're onto it you're onto it there this this whole narrative is is in sort of a uh a roundabout way joseph or god using joseph i guess i should say to work about the the restoration of the family because there's obviously there's still there's still big problems in this family i mean jacob is still playing favorites that's why benjamin isn't there to begin with on this trip you've got uh uh simeon now separated from the group you've got judah and reuben kind of vying for leadership of the brothers and reuben is is going to fall by the wayside pretty soon and judah's going to assume leadership of the group and you got the dad still back you know in the holy land he's he's

he's holding back on benjamin doesn't want to let him go as we're going to see as the story as the story progresses so yeah it's it's still a family that is is torn apart by uh jealousy and in spite and lies and deceit and all this kind of stuff so this is joseph in his way trying to finally bring about the true reconciliation that that needs to happen and that presumably does happen over time although we're still a ways a ways from that that happening so here's what happens as the story goes on um so he he takes simeon and he puts him in prison wherever wherever he was held and uh then joseph gives orders that when when when his brothers aren't looking that they're supposed to put back into these sacks of grain the money they used to purchase the grain to begin with

so of course they're they're they're unaware of this so he gives him the food he gives him the sacks of grain and they load on their donkeys and they take take off they're they're heading back home and they get to uh you know they get to the motel six that that first night and they're unpacking their stuff and one of the guys happens to look in his bag of food and lo and behold there's the money and so he he calls his brothers together and he says look my money's been returned it's in my sack and this is this is very interesting uh it says their hearts sank and they turned trembling to one another and this is what they said they said what is this that god has done to us isn't that fascinating that's in verse that's in verse 28

what is this that god has done to us what do you think's going on there why would they say that uh we came here to pay for this stuff and now it looks like we're stealing our money back this looks bad this looks real bad yeah yeah of course it makes it look like they're like they're thieves i mean it kind of makes them look as if everything that joseph accused them of uh a being was true you know that they were dishonest men they were they were there not just to get food they were there on a spy mission espionage mission and not only that you know they're not only spies but now they're thieves to boot so and but but what's fascinating to me is that they attribute us to god what is this that god has done to us so it's as if getting

their money back was divine retribution for presumably they meant from what they'd done to their brother they don't they don't spell that out here but what is this god has done to us and i was thinking about this and you know this is this is sort of uh this is sort of how guilt works i don't i don't think that joseph gave them their money back to make them feel this way he gave them the money back because like you said earlier he didn't want their money in fact he he wanted to be able to take care of his family so he gave them the money back out of generosity out of out of brotherly love and concern for for their families uh but they interpret that negatively and not only did they interpret that action negatively but they attribute it to god so it's

as if it's as if their guilt becomes the becomes the prism through which they interpret everything that happens to them if you know what i mean so even even good things seem like they're nothing more than kind of trojan horses if you will you know that are that are full of something bad that's that's going to happen it's it's like i guess you could say that the brothers are brothers are fully under the law here and this law has has worked on them to such an extent that everything that happens to them, whether it's a gift or whether it's a true curse, is interpreted as negative. Because that's the only way that they can understand themselves and their actions and what other people do to them. There's no understanding of grace here. There's no

understanding of love. There's no understanding of generosity. It's all law. And since they're under this burden of law, that becomes the prison through which they interpret everything that happens to them yeah yeah it's and it's weird though we we do have this idea of god right like well god's gonna like pay me back for this i mean we we would do the same we might not do it in this way but uh we very much are like well this is what i get god's god is gonna like beat on my head for a while because that thing i did yeah that's exactly what happens uh you know when we when And when we think of God as kind of a tit-for-tat deity, he's always, you know, you do good, God does good to you. You do bad, God does bad to you.

Well, that's interpreting God through completely a law perspective. As if he's nothing more than, you know, he's up in heaven and he's counting your good works. And if you have more good works than bad works, he's going to do good things for you. But if you have more sins than good works, then he's going to do bad things to you. That kind of deity is nothing more than a deity of the law, which that's what the law does, right? Do good, you'll be blessed. Do bad, you'll be cursed. And it completely divorces God from the cross, which is where God discloses to us that he's a God of grace and mercy.

And instead of giving us what we deserve, he gives us the exact opposite. There's an element of karma going on. It's nothing but grace. In fact, it's the exact opposite of karma. Karma says you get what you deserve. Grace says you get what you don't deserve. You get love. You get forgiveness.

You get mercy. But the brothers and we very often are just like this. You know, we we think that God is going to reward us for our good and punish us for for our evil instead of understanding ourselves to be in grace in Christ. And because of that, that we are pleasing to God. And it's not based upon how good or how bad we are. It's based upon who we are in Christ Jesus. And if we are in him, there is no condemnation for us because Christ has endured all condemnation in our in our stead. and so we're able to understand our life differently and not always thinking oh this

bad thing happened because i sinned or oh this good thing happened because i was good no it doesn't work that way we we are we are in grace and because of that we are in christ and yeah there's bad things that are going to happen there's good things that are going to going to happen but it's not it's not as it's not as if god is keeping track track of how much good or bad we've done and acting toward us accordingly he acts toward us according to christ and to christ alone that's right so uh that's where the brothers are what is this that god has done to us we've got this money back that's that's what we that's what we don't need so they uh they make the rest of the trip they uh they get to their father back in the

land of Canaan. They tell him the whole story. This is everything that happened to us. You know, he, the, the Lord of the land, they call Joseph. He spoke, he spoke harshly with us. He, he accused us of being spies. And here's what we told him. I mean, we told him, Hey, we're, we're honest guys. We're not spies. And then they, they tell their father, everything they disclosed to the lord of the land you know about their family and how many brothers there are and and so on and so forth and then then they tell them uh that they can't go back unless they bring benjamin with them that's the only way they're going to be able to prove their their honesty and be able to to trade in egypt so they tell their their father all of this and then

verse 35 says they they empty out all their sacks and every man's sack of grain had his money in it and they see it and they're all dismayed and jacob says to and this is jacob's reaction so we had the brother's reaction right what is this god has done to us this is the father's reaction he says you have bereaved me of my children joseph is no more and simeon is no more and you would take benjamin all these things are against me so poor jacob now he thinks he's lost he hasn't lost any sons but he thinks he's lost two and is on the verge of losing losing three as much as we might have said about jacob earlier how you know how selfish and deceitful he was this is at this time in his life has been uh has been the harshest it's it's pretty hard not to feel some some

sympathy for him after all this and then the chapter ends with uh with reuben the firstborn trying to in his in his own kind of twisted way trying to smooth things over and and take leadership, but it doesn't work. He says to his dad, he says, you may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him, he's talking about Benjamin, put Benjamin in my care and I will return him to you. Let's go back to that in a second. But here's how Jacob responds. And this is how the chapter ends. Jacob says, my son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead and he alone is left if harm should befall him on the journey you're taking then you will bring my gray hair down to sheol in sorrow now what i think is fascinating about

reuben's proposal he's like listen listen dad i'm responsible let me take benjamin with me and if anything happens to him if anything happens to him you can put my two sons to death yeah i'm sure that's i'm sure that's something jacob wants to do yeah like like that's something that yeah that jacob wants to hear and and to do now what's fascinating to me is that uh you've got you've got reuben saying this but later on when judah comes up with his own plan judah puts himself responsible and he says look if anything happens then i will be the one who suffers as as punishment yeah i don't i don't think like being like all right listen dad if i don't bring my brother back you can kill your grandkids it's like what what that's

what like there's a why would i like okay i don't like who wants to do that that's not that's not like some kind of guarantee yeah that's that's not what you want to hear that's that's not going to be a motivation to actually follow this plan look if it doesn't work you can kill your two grandkids i mean i don't know ruben after this after this ruben is it fades from the scene that's the last it's this last contribution to the story and it's a it's it's sad way to go out but that's the way it ends trying to trying to put your your a dude's grandkids up for collateral is like not the way to get stuff done no not the way to go and you know it's uh it's interesting historically too just kind of uh to to take a step back from this

narrative to to look at in a broader biblical context because what you see happening here is the is the emergence of judah as the son who becomes the leader of all the other all the other brothers and not only that but judah as a tribe becomes the leader of the other tribes as well you remember that okay reuben is the firstborn and then and then simeon and levi are are the next or the next two well what's happened well Ruben as we heard uh several chapters ago Ruben had had uh had slept with his with his father's with his father's co-wife so kind of not really a stepmother but kind of like that uh and and Jacob found out so back then Ruben basically discredited himself so he he's the firstborn but he's lost really that that leadership authority

i guess you could say the moral authority uh as firstborn because jacob is not pleased with him the other brothers are obviously not listening to him and then the next the second born is simeon well what happened to simeon well simeon is now in jail back in egypt in uh joseph's personal dungeon so he's gone levi levi and simeon were the ringleaders of the the massacre at shechem which we heard about a few chapters ago too when they took vengeance on all the recently circumcised males of shechem went in and killed out killed the whole male population with the edge of the sword so the the first three brothers in order of birth have now fallen out of the father's favor are not going to receive any kind of any kind of blessing and and now have passed

from any kind of leadership role among among the brothers and what happens now is that judah the fourth born judah is the one who comes more and more into prominence as as the leader of the brothers this is gonna this is gonna continue in the in the next chapter because it's judah's plan that finally Jacob listens to as they go back down into Egypt. It will be Judah who steps before Joseph and pleads for the life of his brothers. He becomes really the mouthpiece of the rest of the brothers. And then as the biblical story goes on, it will be Judah who finally emerges as the tribe that will be the the tribe from whence the kings of kings of israel come so uh

david is from the tribe of david is from the tribe of judah and all the kings who follow him will be from the tribe of judah as well and most significantly in uh in the blessing that jacob pronounces upon judah there is uh the prophecy of the messiah who will come from that tribe and of course the messiah is is the son of david in fact he is even called david in some of the messianic prophecies that we see in jeremiah and and ezekiel so already here in in genesis we see the emergence of the what will become the messianic importance of of judah not just as a man but as a tribe, as the regal tribe, as history goes on. It's like so many other things that we see in the scriptures.

You see the beginnings already in the book of Genesis of what's going to come to full flower later in the books of Kings and Chronicles and in the rest of the prophets. That takes us to the end of chapter 42. we don't know we don't know how long the time

between the first journey to Egypt to buy food and the second journey to Egypt to buy food happened all that we know is that it was at least a few months so they bring back food enough to take care of them for a while you know

Simeon's absence is felt acutely I'm sure and every time they turn around they realize simi is not there and simi not being there being in egypt in a prison is a constant reminder of of the danger they faced when they were there but the diminishing amount of food on their tables every day is a reminder of how much they have to go back to egypt eventually so that they're kind of caught between these two these two uh negative poles because on the one

hand they're starving to death because the famine is severe on the other hand so that's that's one danger but the other danger is that if they go back down into egypt then they're going to face this guy again this lord of the land down there who seems intent on uh on uh doing them harm so they wait a while the famine is severe and and finally when they're just about down to the last bit of grain that they have finally jacob speaks up and says go back and buy us a little food. And it's at this point that Judah steps forward. Judah addresses his father and he says, look, dad, the man, of course, talking about Joseph, the man solemnly warned us that we would not see his face unless our brother Benjamin is with us. So look, if you send

our brother with us we'll go down and we'll buy food but if you don't send him we are not going down to egypt because the guy said unless your brother is with you you won't see my face so it's pretty cut and dried benjamin goes with us or we don't go at all and israel jacob is is you know he he is wanting to hang it it's just it's as if benjamin has become his idol i mean this is the god he loves and he cannot imagine what would happen to him if he loses benjamin he is so attached to him it's uh it's it's amazing he says his response to judah is why did you treat me so badly by telling the man whether you still had another brother so he's he's shifting the blame on to his sons. Why did you have to bring this up to begin with? Why did you tell him you had

another brother? And Judah responds by telling him the truth. He says, look, the Lord of the land asked us about us and our relatives, and he asked about our father. He asked if we had another brother. So we answered his questions. You know, how are we supposed to know that he was going to say, bring your youngest brother down here? There's no way we could have anticipated that kind of response from him and it's at this point that judah says to to his dad he says look here's what here's what we'll do send the boy he's talking about benjamin send the boy with me we will arise and go that we may live and not die we as well as you and our little ones we got three generations about to starve to death you old man and all of us parents and our kids and then he

says i myself will be surety for him that the hebrew word is uh it's it's almost the idea of a kind of a cosigner on a debt if you will like you know if if he doesn't pay then i'll pay i'm going to be surety for him for benjamin you may hold me responsible for him if i don't bring him back to you and set him before you then let me bear the blame before you forever for if we hadn't delayed by now we could have returned twice so some time has has gone by so i mean say what you will about judah uh in the earlier stories judah emerges as as kind of a uh in a very negative light i mean you have the whole incident with him and Tamar. You have him basically saying, hey, we should sell our brother. But here, he steps forward, and in almost a messianic kind of way, he puts his own

life on the line. He says, look, if things don't go well, you hold me responsible, and I will put myself in a position where I will become the guilty one. I will become the sinful one, if anything if anything goes wrong so you know for uh in this case of in this case of judah he's really he's acting here out of not only need but self-sacrifice too he's putting himself out there as the the surety the guarantee for for benjamin because they have to go back down otherwise uh it's gonna be it's gonna be into the family so it's kind of a that's that's where we're at now in the story we gotta we gotta find out what's gonna happen when they do go back and uh we'll find out also kind of the the plan of attack if you will that jacob comes up

with when they when they do go back down into egypt and uh it's gonna get even more hairier now as the story goes on yeah and at some point it just makes sense because uh you cannot have your son go down to egypt so you don't lose him or you can uh and then he can stay with you and starve to death i mean at some point you're up against it where you're like okay i can either like watch my son starve to death or i can roll the dice on this right yeah it's gotta be one or the other either way something either way something something has to happen yeah they're they're the crossroads right now well all right and that that's gonna do it man that's gonna do this episode so next next week it's gonna get uh get real interesting well we'll see what happens well

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