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6 So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words. 7 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. 8 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? 9 With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.” 10 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.” 11 Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. 12 So he searched. He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city. ~ Genesis 44:6-13
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 44 where we find Joseph's steward catching up to his brothers as they traveled back home to Canaan. The brothers had been set up by Joseph in hopes that they would come clean regarding their earlier sin of selling him into slavery. Joseph had to be tough with his brothers because in order to forgive them of their sin against him they had to confess and repent of said sin.
Confession of our sin and repentance from it is the soil within which the forgiveness of God melts our hearts to the point of our obedience to Him. In Psalm 32 King David illustrates to us the importance of confession. When we remain silent about our sin, when we don’t confess it. When we justify it, ignore it, or excuse it, it will eat away at us. Unconfessed sin has a crippling effect on our whole being, including our body and our soul. Unconfessed sin always leads us to disintegration, perversion and death; and what is worse, it hinders the believer's fellowship with God.
Sin is the enemy of our faith in the God of the Bible. Sin always takes us farther down the road than we wanted to go. It always keeps us longer than we wanted to stay, and it always costs us more than we would ever want to pay. Such is the nature of sin, it is a brutal dictator that wants to rob us of our hearts ability to see God. This is why God makes such a big deal about faith. Faith is seeing Him with our hearts and as our hearts are trained accordingly, when we see Him with our eyes the encounter will be ever so much more profound. We will not see Him in the same way when we see Him with our eyes. Having a heart that is trained to see Him will heighten ever so much more the way we will see Him with our eyes.
In v.6-7 of today's passage we read, "6 So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words. 7 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.'"
During their first visit, Joseph tested his brothers by asking them to go back home and to come back with their youngest brother Benjamin. This latest test was the framing of Benjamin for a crime that he didn’t commit in order to teach the brothers a heart lesson, a lesson of seeing God with their heart. Through his steward Joseph falsely accused his brothers of repaying his good with evil. After hearing the accusation, the brothers entered an immediate protest of innocence. They were confident that they were innocent and had been falsely accused of this crime including Benjamin. They needed broken hearts and God was using Joseph to help them see Him with their hearts. Only broken hearts truly see God.
In v.8-9 of today's passage we read, "8 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? 9 With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves."
In their defense, Joseph's brothers reminded Joseph's steward that they had previously brought back the money from their previous trip, even after they had been out of the reach of Egypt’s authority. They reasoned that it would not have made sense for them to take a cup made of silver when they could have taken more valuable gold. In their attempt to save their butts, Joseph's brothers missed the deeper lesson here which is: "Whose value system defines us most?"
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "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.'"
Joseph declared that the brother who had his silver cup in his sack would be Joseph's slave and the other brothers would be set free to go back home. Fair justice always demands the punishment of a thief. That moment when the thief on the cross heard the words of the Savior, "Today, you will be with me in Paradise" comes to mind here. The one who had the cup would be punished in the place of all others. This was a picture of what the Lord Jesus did for all of us. Benjamin who was falsely accused provided his brothers a picture of the coming Messiah the Lord Jesus. The whole of the Bible makes it undeniably clear that those who trust in the Lord Jesus as our Savior are blameless in the eyes of God.
In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "11 Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. 12 So he searched. He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack."
The steward hid the cup in Benjamin's sack before they had left for Egypt, and in a dramatic and suspenseful way it was discovered on the road back home. He went from one brother to the next, from the oldest to the youngest in the process. The order of the search was carefully pointing us all to a much deeper truth, it points us to the people of Israel and the work of Christ on their behalf. This search went through the sons of Israel and ended with the son whose name means "Son of My Right Hand." Benjamin also known as Ben-Oni, "The son of my sorrow," points all to the cross where the Lord Jesus conquered sin and death for all who would learn to see God with their hearts.
Joseph ordered this scenario because he wanted to know his brother's attitudes toward Benjamin. This is why the steward orchestrated these events as he did. For them the question was: What will you do with Benjamin? For all of mankind the ultimate question is: What will we do with the Lord Jesus' invitation to believe on Him? Will we remain unforgiven and dead in our sin? Or, will we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that the Lord Jesus is Lord over sin and death?
In v.13 of today's passage we read, "Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city."
Once it was revealed to them that Benjamin had the silver cup of Joseph, the brothers collectively tore their clothes as a sign of their deep distress. As a result, they surrendered themselves collectively to whatever fate that awaited them back in Egypt. When we have sinned and we don’t immediately confess it as such, sin will encourage us to avoid the truth by covering up the truth. When we don’t immediately confess sin, we then create shadows that appear true. Unconfessed sin makes us myopic; it makes us nearsighted to the consequences of our sin. When this happens, our ability to reason correctly worsens with time.
Unconfessed sin makes liars of us with time. To cover up our sin is evil. If we do not expose it, it will eat away our hearts for God like a bacterium eats away at one’s flesh. It is difficult to receive God’s love while we continue to hold on to our sin. For those who refuse to let go, God has been known to remove His blessing, not as a form of punishment, but in an attempt to make us feel our weakness without Him. God knows our attachment to our idols hinder us from receiving the full measure of His love, and He loves us too much to leave us to our sin.
