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Genesis study & commentary

Genesis 44

By Doug Ford
Joseph's Cup
Judah Intercedes for Benjamin

Genesis 44:1-5

The brothers head for home after a great feast.  They have sacks of grain and they are all together.  Things couldn't have gone better.  All their father's worries about sending Benjamin to Egypt were completely unfounded.

 

Joseph gave very specific direction to his steward about what to do.  He was setting Benjamin up.  Would the brothers abandon him when it came down to putting themselves on the line?  Would they give their life for him?  These are his brothers and each dealing with them brings them closer to reconciliation.  However, he needed to know for sure the state of their heart. 

 

It's interesting that Joseph instructed the steward to say the cup was used for divination.  We are left wondering if Joseph really did use his cup in this way.  It was a common practice in the time and culture.  God had not given any known revelation against divination.  This doesn't happen until later as far as we know.  This may also only have been Joseph playing the part of an Egyptian. 

 

Genesis 44:6-9

They had all just enjoyed a good meal, things had gone well, then this accusation came.  It must have seemed like it came out of the blue, it was harsh.  They took it very personal being called a thief.  They were feeling good about how noble and honest they were.  Why would anyone say such a thing?

 

Which one of the brothers do you suppose opened his mouth and made the statement that they would die if the cup was found and they would all be slaves?  Bold statements like that were a way of expressing their innocence and outrage at such an accusation, as well as confidence of their innocence.  Since they had already found their money in their bags previously, more caution might have been appropriate.  How could they be so sure it couldn't happen again? 

 

There was no call for the death penalty in such a case.  There was no reason to offer themselves to slavery. 
 

Genesis 44:10-15

The servant said, "Very well" as if accepting the terms but he modified them to accepting into slavery the guilty party only.  He was clearly after Benjamin.  They 'quickly' lowered their sacks to prove their innocence.  Then their world all came crashing down.  The worst possible scenario happened – they cup was found in Benjamin's sack.  Their father would be crushed. 

 

The brothers were clearly distraught and were feeling and responding as their father had when he thought Joseph was dead (37:34).   The mourning and anguish was want Joseph wanted to hear about.  It showed love and concern for Benjamin and their father.  The thought of telling their father Benjamin was gone was unacceptable.  They had come a long way from thinking it was okay to sell their brother to slavery and lying to their father about it.    

 

Benjamin was brought to Egypt as a slave, the brothers all followed the servant to the house of Joseph.  The brothers fell before Joseph and humbled themselves to plead the case of innocence for their brother. 

 

I believe verse 15 uses divination as part of the ruse.  He is giving credit to divination for knowing their plot when he in fact created situation.

 

Genesis 44:16
We again see Judah speak up in the role as a leader.  This is fulfilling his vow to his father.  It is both significant and ironic.  Judah had been the ring leader in suggesting his brother Joseph be sold into slavery.  Now he offered himself as a slave in place of this brother.  What a beautiful thing when the Lord changes hearts.  Donald Grey Barnhouse comments on a transformed Judah:

 

Here was the eloquence of true love.… Love so burningly manifest, so willing to take full responsibility before God, love which thought only of Jacob and Benjamin, melted the heart of Joseph. Such love moved Moses to ask God to blot his name out of the book of life (Exodus 32:32); such love prompted Paul to wish himself accursed for his brethren if only they could be saved. Judah was transformed by divine love.

 

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:12-13)

 

For all those years, these brothers were kept in slavery to their sin, guilt and shame.  They thought they were free and Joseph was a slave, when in fact it was the other way aroundThe brothers were broken and humbled.  They acknowledged the presence of a longstanding guilt.  They died to themselves that day.   

 

In Romans 6 we are encouraged to do the same.  Don't be slaves to sin.  Acknowledge we once used our hearts, minds, hands, feet and all that we were to serve ourselves, no matter the cost to others.  Our happiness and the preservation of our pride and ego was of the utmost importance.  What a freedom it is to lay that burden down and repent of all the sin.  Suddenly our heart breaks for all those we hurt along the way.  Unlike these brothers, we can claim the rest of the message from Roman's six if we are found in Christ.

 

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

 

No sin is hidden from the Lord.  All sin will have its payment.

 

Genesis 44:17-34

Joseph told them that Benjamin would stay and be his slave.  The others were free to go.  Would they go?  That's the question Joseph needed to know the answer to.  When it came right down to it, would they abandon Benjamin. 

 

Judah stepped up and offered an honest explanation of their predicament.  His heart was broken for his father.  He couldn't go home and tell his father that Benjamin was lost.  Judah offered his own life in exchange for Benjamin's.  His plea was a trade, 'my life for his life'.  After all, this Egyptian servant wouldn't care which life served him.  If the trade were accepted, Benjamin would get to return to his father.  This is a great picture of love and a picture of substitutionary atonement.  Judah was willing to take the penalty so Benjamin could go free.  The change in Judah gives him this Christlike quality. 

 

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. (John 15:13)

 

Jesus Christ did this for us.  He stepped forward and paid our penalty and we received His freedom.  What a great trade for us!!  What a loving God and savior!

 

©2019 Doug Ford