I.
Fulfillment of Joseph’s Dreams (Genesis 42:1-6)
a.
Genesis
42:1- Now when Jacob saw that
there was corn in Egypt , Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?
·
How would Jacob
have seen that there was corn in Egypt ?
o
Likely saw that
his neighbors with provision and inquired as to where they were able to obtain
it
·
“Why are you
standing there looking at each other?”
Seems like a common saying that parents tell their children today
o
What are you
standing around for…get to it!
o
No time for moping
and feeling sorry for yourself, that’s not what we are supposed to be doing
o
2 Timothy
1:7 - For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
§
No time to feel
sorry for yourself, God has given you power and the mind to overcome it
b.
Genesis
42:2- And he said, Behold, I
have heard that there is corn in Egypt : get you down thither, and buy for us from thence;
that we may live, and not die.
·
v. 1 he saw there
was corn in Egypt , v. 2 he has heard there was corn in Egypt
o
Matthew 13:16 -
But blessed [are] your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
o
Jacob was tuned
in to the will of God, he knew that God had made a promise to him and would
make provision for his family.
o
God wants us to
be watchful and be in tune with His Spirit
§
Matthew
26:41 - Watch and pray, that
ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh
[is] weak.
c.
Genesis
42:3- And Joseph's ten
brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt .
·
All but Benjamin
·
Consider the
volume of corn that they would require:
o
Enough for 70
people for some unknown period of time
o
Enough for all
the flocks that Jacob owned
o
Enough for all of
the servants
o
The amount of
corn required would have been a massive amount and possibly the reason that
attention was drawn to them in Egypt .
d.
Genesis
42:4- But Benjamin, Joseph's
brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren; for he said, Lest peradventure
mischief befall him.
·
Jacob shows the
same favoritism toward Benjamin as he did toward Joseph
e.
Genesis
42:5- And the sons of Israel came to buy [corn] among those that came: for the
famine was in the land of Canaan .
·
Israel was not the only family to come to Egypt to buy corn
f.
Genesis
42:6- And Joseph [was] the
governor over the land, [and] he [it was] that sold to all the people of the
land: and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him [with]
their faces to the earth.
·
Genesis
37:7 - For, behold, we [were]
binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright;
and, behold, your sheaves stood round
about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
·
Genesis
37:9 - And he dreamed yet
another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a
dream more; and, behold, the sun and
the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
o
Here we see
Joseph’s brothers bowing down before him thus fulfilling the dreams that he had
over 20 years prior.
o
Joseph is now ~37
years old, he was younger than all of his brothers except Benjamin. They are all in their late 30s and 40s.
o
When we think about
the difference in our thinking processes in our teens and 20s compared to 40s
there is a huge difference in terms of maturity.
·
The famine has
begun, meaning 7 years have passed since Joseph was appointed 2nd in
command. In those 7 years Joseph made no
attempt to visit his family, why not?
·
Joseph traveled
throughout all Egypt , yet did not find the time to visit Canaan .
o
Genesis
41:45b – And Joseph went out
over all the land of Egypt .
·
Joseph trusted
the Lord, sometimes that is hard to do and Joseph seems to do everything
perfectly, the way God would want him to do it.
Its hard to imagine making the right decision every time, but Joseph was
blessed by God and led by His Spirit.
II.
Joseph tests his brothers (Genesis 42:7-20)
a.
Genesis
42:7- And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto
them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.
·
Likely dressed in
royal apparel and virtually unrecognizable to his brothers.
·
Luke
24:13-16 - And, behold, two
of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem [about] threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things
which had happened. And it came to pass,
that, while they communed [together] and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and
went with them. But their eyes were
holden that they should not know him.
And he said unto them, What manner of communications [are] these that ye
have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
b.
Genesis
42:8- And Joseph knew his
brethren, but they knew not him.
·
John 1:10 - He
was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
·
1 John 3:1
- Behold, what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:
therefore the world knoweth us not, because
it knew him not.
·
Zechariah
12:10 - And I will pour upon
the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and
they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in
bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.
c.
Genesis
42:9- And Joseph remembered
the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye [are] spies; to see
the nakedness of the land ye are come.
·
God allows Joseph
to call to remembrance that all of these things were shown to him in his dreams
and that they are all part of His plan.
This may serve to quell any of the resentful feelings that Joseph is
harboring from the past.
·
Do we harbor
resentment for offenses that may have been God’s plan all along? Letting go of
resentment and forgiving others of their offenses is what God wants us to do
d.
Genesis
42:10- And they said unto
him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
e.
Genesis
42:11- We [are] all one man's
sons; we [are] true [men], thy servants are no spies.
f.
Genesis
42:12- And he said unto them,
Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
g.
Genesis
42:13- And they said, Thy
servants [are] twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and,
behold, the youngest [is] this day with our father, and one [is] not.
·
They speak of
Joseph as if they know he is dead by saying he “is not”, how ironic that they are
standing right before him.
h.
Genesis
42:14- And Joseph said unto
them, That [is it] that I spake unto you, saying, Ye [are] spies:
i.
Genesis
42:15- Hereby ye shall be
proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your
youngest brother come hither.
j.
Genesis
42:16- Send one of you, and
let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may
be proved, whether [there be any] truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh
surely ye [are] spies.
·
Joseph initially
was going to keep all of the brothers in prison and send one back to get
Benjamin
k.
Genesis
42:17- And he put them all
together into ward three days.
·
Joseph gives them
a small sampling of the many years he spent in prison
·
He gave them 3
days to decide which brother was going to travel back to Canaan to get
Benjamin, there is no indication that a decision was ever reached.
l.
Genesis
42:18- And Joseph said unto
them the third day, This do, and live; [for] I fear God:
·
God - אלהים 'elohiym,
Joseph uses the generic name for
God rather than the covenant name יהוה Yĕhovah, for that would have surely alerted his
brothers of his identity. This does
convey the message that Joseph is not a worship the Egyptian gods.
·
Nonetheless, these words should be very comforting to his brothers, for
they know that he submits himself to the higher authority, and its not Ra.
m.
Genesis
42:19- If ye [be] true [men],
let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry
corn for the famine of your houses:
·
After 3 days
Joseph changes his mind and decides to allow all of them to go, but kept one
behind, why did he change his mind?
·
Could it be that
he came to realize how much grain he had to send back to Canaan
and one man could not do it by himself?
n.
Genesis
42:20- But bring your youngest
brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And
they did so.
·
What a strange
request, how would this prove they were not spies? This should have seemed like a very strange
demand
·
Bringing Benjamin
back would prove that they were telling the truth about having a brother, but
how does that vindicate them against the charge of espionage?
·
Joseph is not
even questioned, likely because they were afraid to speak to him.
·
We know the
reason Joseph wanted to see the younger brother, but they did not know his reason and should have seemed like a strange
request.
III.
Joseph’s brothers confess their guilt (Genesis
42:21-23)
a.
Genesis
42:21- And they said one to
another, We [are] verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the
anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is
this distress come upon us.
·
Psalm 25:7
- Remember not the sins of my
youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy
goodness' sake, O LORD.
·
20 years later
their guilt is finally confessed in response to their current dilemma, why
would they connect their current situation to their sin 20 years removed.
·
How often does
God allow some calamity to happen in our lives so that we recognize our need
for repentance.
·
2
Corinthians 7:10a - For godly
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of…
b.
Genesis
42:22- And Reuben answered
them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and
ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required.
·
Reuben makes this
statement with the full knowledge that Joseph was sold, not killed yet his
blood is on their hands.
·
Matthew
27:25 - Then answered all the
people, and said, His blood [be] on us, and on our children.
o
Unknowingly the
Jews shout the same thing to Pilate
c.
Genesis
42:23- And they knew not that
Joseph understood [them]; for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
·
If there was an
interpreter available that spoke the same language as Israel , it seems that their language must have been a common
language.
IV.
Joseph weeps and blesses his brothers (Genesis
42:24-25)
a.
Genesis
42:24- And he turned himself
about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them,
and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
·
Isaiah
45:15-17 - Verily thou [art] a God that hidest thyself, O God
of Israel, the Saviour. They shall be
ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together
[that are] makers of idols. [But] Israel shall be
saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without
end.
·
2
Thessalonians 2:13 - But we
are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
o Simeon -
שמעון Shim`own, “hearing with acceptance”
o
Those who hear
the gospel with acceptance are bound to Him
o
We also see the
removal of Simeon from the other brothers which removed their “hearing with
acceptance” they are sent out to their family to “testify without
understanding”
§
Isaiah 6:9
- And he said, Go, and tell
this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but
perceive not.
§
Romans 10:17 - So
then faith [comes] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
§
The taking of
Simeon could be representative of removing their “hearing” and lack of faith
§
This continues
through the present with modern day Judah ho do not have a “hearing ear”
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