Genesis 44 - 45

In chapter 43 we find Joseph hosting a luncheon for his brothers where the youngest brother, Benjamin, is given a much larger portion of food than the others. This was a test to see if the brothers were still the jealous types. Do you think they passed a test of table manners in this setting or did the servants privately roll their eyes when they saw these recently released prisoners from the country wolfing down food. Napkins? “We don’t need napkins; we have our shirt-sleeves and under shirts.”

Now they are ready for Test Number Two. Verse 2, Joseph tells his servant to fill his brother’s sacks with grain and put the silver they brought with them in there also. Oh, one more thing, take this silver cup of mine and put it in the young guys’ sack. The one at the end of the table with food piled sky high on his plate. So, off the brothers go, back home with sacks of grain. “Won’t dad be proud of us now, for a change? Now we’ll get the acceptance we crave.” What do they see in their rear-view mirrors? Looks like someone was coming after them. You know the feeling, when a police car is coming up behind you and you look down at your speedometer and hope he’s going after someone else? “Oh NO! He’s coming after us.” The authorities search their cargo (no search warrant needed back then) and they found the cup, the very cup that Joseph uses. For divination? Really, Joseph? We’re all a bit disappointed in you. But Joseph now had an Egyptian name and was married to the daughter of an Egyptian priest and so we shouldn’t be surprised if he may have adopted some Egyptian practices. Divination is condemned in Lev 19:26 because it reflects a world controlled by evil forces rather than by God. But this condemnation would come about 400 years later. But, on the other hand, the cup was first described as simply a “my cup” by Joseph. Only later was it referred to by a soldier as the one Joseph divines, and Joseph claims to be able to see the future through divination. So, was he into divination or did he simply say this to make the crime of theft appear more serious?

One of the brothers speaks up and says, “Why would we steal from Pharaoh’s assistant? Didn’t we bring back to him the silver that we found in our luggage? If any of us stole from, then let him die and the rest of will become your slaves.” Have you ever said something and as soon as the words left your mouth you thought, “Oops, I shouldn’t have said that.” Imagine the looks on the brother’s faces. “Become slaves? Speak for yourself, man.” Maybe we shouldn’t be so confident in matter we can’t be 100% sure of.

Verse 11, the brothers sacks were searched, starting from the oldest to the youngest. Can you just feel the tension building as they moved from one brother to another? Guess whose sack they found Joseph’s cup? Everyone is standing there, stunned, and confused. Some thinking, “Benjamin, how could you have done such a thing?” They loaded up their gear and slowly made their way back to the city. The atmosphere has changed completely from a few hours ago. Again, how are we ever going to explain this to Dad?

If we didn’t know better, this whole event sounds like a prank carried out by a middle schooler. What’s he going to do next, toilet paper the Pharaoh’s palace or bubble wrap his statue? But this wasn’t a prank, it was a way to discover their attitude to Benjamin. Had the brothers changed? Had they matured?

The brothers are marched into Joseph’s presence like third graders being marched into the principal’s office, heads down, slowly shuffling in, scared to death. Verse 15, Joseph says (more likely SHOUTS), “What is this you have done?” He puts on quite a show. Then Judah speaks for the group. “We are now my lord’s slaves-we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”

Joseph gives the brothers a break and says that only the person who was found to have the cup needs to stay, the rest of them can go home. The brothers are on this emotional roller coaster just as Joseph was earlier. Now Judah speaks up, repeats the family background (verses 18-32), and then makes a very surprising offer to Joseph.  Verse 33, “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy (Benjamin) and let the boy return with his brothers.” Atta boy, Judah. You rose to the occasion. Judah believed that Benjamin was guilty, yet he was willing to bear the penalty he thought Benjamin deserved. He did this because he cared about his father and wanted to spare him the loss of Benjamin. They could have simply said good-bye to Benjamin and headed back home, abandon Benjamin as they did Joseph. But no, not this time.  Judah, the brother who suggested Joseph be sold as a slave was now willing to become a slave to rescue Benjamin. Judah’s intercession on Benjamin’s behalf shows passed Joseph’s test.

Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio Texas is the headquarters of the Army Medical Department. They have a medical museum there with a statue of a medic kneeling over a wounded soldier.

The work was sculpted by Terrance Patterson. On the base of the statue is the passage from John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.” Of course, the passage refers directly to Jesus, but it also can be applied to others. In this chapter, I would put Judah in this category. Great love for his father and for his little brother led him to sacrifice himself for their benefit.

Chapter 45, Joseph’s emotions were rising up inside of him. It is becoming increasingly difficult for him to contain himself and to keep his identity a secret. He asks all his staff to leave the room. Before he can say another word, he bursts into tears. The brothers look at one another. Is this guy having a nervous breakdown? This is weird and a bit scary. He sobbed so loud that even his staff in the other room heard him. “I told him he needed a vacation, that the stress of the job was starting to get to him, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

Verse 4, Joseph says to his brothers, between sobs and blowing his nose, “Come close to me.” They shuffle a few steps forward, and Joseph leans towards them and whispers, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.”

Their first reaction? Might they have thought, “This guy is bonkers, derailed, has flipped out, gone haywire, is loco, mad, has gone round the bend, has become unglued or unzipped?” I wonder what terms they used back then to say that someone has suffered a nervous breakdown. But wait, they look closer at him, he does look a bit like Joseph. Look at his ears. Look at the eyes. It slowly dawns on them that this guy really is Joseph. This is like a Road to Emmaus experience where those walking with Jesus only gradually came to recognize who he was.

Joseph goes onto reassure them, “Don’t be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” He may have also thought, “It certainly would have made my life a bit easier if He had told me ahead of time what He was doing.” Notice that he didn’t try to shame them or frighten them. He absolved his brothers from guilt. And he says that they should not be angry with themselves. Sometimes we are harsher on ourselves than others might be. Sometimes forgiveness needs to be from us to ourselves. Perhaps there are some people who you need to absolve of guilt, if not for their sake, for your own. It’s been said that hating someone or being unforgiving is like drinking poison and waiting for your enemy to die. We’re told to forgive others. Sometimes we are reluctant to do that. But it’s not just for their sake, but for our own.

Then he tells the brothers to head back home and bring Dad back with them before he has a stroke or falls and breaks a hip. He says that he will set aside a large parcel of land in the region of Goshen where the family can sit out the famine.

He must have thought that maybe the brothers still didn’t really believe it was him, that he was really Joseph. Verse 12, “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you.”

The Pharaoh heard about all of this and was thrilled and moved by this story. He wants to be a part of the story, also. He tells them, verse 17, go get your father and bring him here to “enjoy the fat of the land.” I imagine that the Pharaoh was so pleased by this story in part because so much of the news that he was hearing was negative. Is there much good news for the leadership in the midst of a famine? If this happened today, the leader would want to call Steven Spielberg and ask him to make a heart-warming movie about this story. This is what the public needs to hear and see, something uplifting. Sort of like a Frank Capra movie, such as It’s a Wonderful Life.

Pharaoh went even further. He’s going to help cover the costs of the trip and provide transportation for them. He tells an aid, “Call the motor pool. Tell them to provide vehicles and drivers, whatever is needed and be ready to leave within 24 hours.” Verse 19, “Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives and get your father and come. Never mind about your belongings because the best of all Egypt will be yours.” And besides, there is a Walmart down the road you can buy all new stuff.

A caravan of government vehicles, a government credit card, a security detail, mechanics, and vehicle with spare parts and probably a kitchen vehicle all headed towards Canaan.  Verse 22, each was given new clothing. Then, he gave Benjamin a special gift, a fistful of silver not just one set of clothes, but five. And let’s not forget about something nice for Dad. How about some nice farm animals?

Then Joseph sent them all off, again, this time with the admonition, “No fighting.” Really? What would they fight about; the silver given to Benjamin? Who got the best new clothes? Who gets to sit up front? What are they, eight-year-olds in the back of the station wagon heading off to a national park, arguing over who is sitting where?

Verse 25, they made it back home and told Jacob, “Joseph is still alive, in fact, he is the ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned and did not believe them.” He must have thought, “Have you boys been drinking?” They explained to him all that had happened, and Israel said, “I am convinced. . . I will go and see him before I die.”

I don’t think the brothers told him EVERYTHING that happened, especially the details of how Joseph ended up in Egypt. If Israel had asked, “So how did Joseph end up in Egypt in the first place?” the brothers may have said, “Later dad, let’s just focus on getting to Egypt before you have a stroke, ok?”



Do you think that one person can’t make a difference in this world? Joseph’s character blessed the entire nation and those surrounding it. He did what was right, even if he seemed to be the only one doing so. Perhaps God is looking for that one person who He can work through to bring about great change in a certain area in our world today.