Genesis 43:1-44:34: The Need for Mercy

Genesis 43:1-44:34: The Need for Mercy

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Genesis, and today the next passage we come to is Genesis chapter 43 verse 1 through chapter 44 verse 34, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. It says,

1 Now the famine was severe in the land. 2 And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father [Jacob] said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.”… 12 Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. 13 Take also your brother [Benjamin], and arise, go again to the man. 14 May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” 15 So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” 17 The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph’s house… 26 When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground. 27 And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” 28 They said, “Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. 29 And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!” 30 Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there…. 1 Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, 2 and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him. 3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. 4 They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?”… 6 When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. 7 They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! 8 Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? 9 Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord’s servants.” 10 He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.” 11 Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. 12 And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. 14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. 15 Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” 16 And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Father, we’re taught that the heavens and earth will pass away but that your words will never pass away. They’re eternally true, eternally relevant, and eternally powerful. So, help us to see the truth of this text and understand its relevance and experience its power. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

The prevailing mindset of many in our society today is one that regards positive thinking as an essential ingredient—and perhaps even as the core component—of a person’s mental health. We’re told that we need to do everything we can to avoid negative thoughts and embrace positive thoughts. I imagine most of you probably know what I’m talking about, but I did a quick Google search anyway and came up with some highly recommended statements that we’re apparently supposed to tell ourselves every day. Every morning, when we wake up, we’re supposed to remind ourselves of things like these: “Today will be my day.” “I am the best me there is.” “I know that I’m a winner.” “I can do it. I know I can.” “I deserve to be loved.” “I have the power and the will to survive.” “I’m making progress.” “I like myself.” “My feelings are valid.” “I am smart enough and strong enough.” “I can accomplish whatever I want.” “Positivity is my choice.” “I am amazing.” And the list goes on and on. 

Now, hopefully it’s clear that I’m not actually recommending these mantras but instead am simply presenting them as examples of what we might call the “cult of positivity” that’s been quite popular for a number of years now. And, of course, in order to be positive, we have to not only fill our minds with these kinds of positive thoughts but also eliminate negative thoughts from our minds. The assumption is that anything that makes us feel bad about ourselves is bad. I mean, isn’t our goal to feel good? So, anything that makes us feel bad must be…bad, right? 

Yet when you think about it, that’s not necessarily true. In fact, there are plenty of situations where it’s not true at all. Quite often, there are things that aren’t easy to hear but that we nevertheless need to hear. You know, if my car breaks down and I have to get it towed to the shop and the issue ends up being something that’s really expensive to fix, I need to know that information. Now, it would be wonderful if they told me that it’s an easy fix and will only cost $100. That would make me feel really good. But it wouldn’t actually do me any good for them to tell me that if it’s not true. I need to have an accurate idea of what it’s actually going to cost to get my car fixed. 

Or, to give an example where the stakes are lot higher, if you get a routine cancer screening and the doctor discovers cancer, you don’t enjoy getting that news, right? It’s terrible news that makes you feel awful. But, because it’s true, it’s something you desperately need to hear in order to make an educated and timely decision about treatment options. So, there are plenty of things that we don’t want to hear but that we nevertheless need to hear. 

Yet perhaps the most significant reality we need to hear about that isn’t easy to hear about is our need for God’s mercy. You see, if we’re going to have a right relationship with God, then we need to know where we currently stand before him. We need to have an accurate understanding of our spiritual condition and our moral status in God’s sight. And that’s what our Scripture passage this morning of Genesis 43-44 helps us understand. 

As we’ve been working our way through Genesis, we’ve been reading about a man named Joseph and how Joseph’s brothers were so jealous of him that they sold him into slavery in Egypt. Yet Joseph eventually rose to become the second-in-command of Egypt. And Joseph now has the task of selling grain from the Egyptian storehouses to people from Egypt and from surrounding nations in the midst of the severe famine that’s taking place in that region of the world. Because of this famine, Joseph’s family back in Canaan has grown desperate for food, which has prompted his brothers already to make one trip to Egypt in order to buy food from Joseph. 

Yet even as they were speaking with Joseph on that first visit, they didn’t recognize him. So, Joseph decided to test them to see if they’d changed at all since he last knew them. He needed to know who he was dealing with and make sure that his brothers weren’t the same ruthless lot that had previously discussed the idea of killing him and then greedily decided to line their own pockets by selling him into slavery. Because if Joseph’s brothers hadn’t changed and he did welcome them with open arms in Egypt, it was very possible that they’d cause significant trouble for him there. So, Joseph had to know their character. And that’s why he tested them in the previous chapter and why he continues to test them in these two chapters that we’re looking at today—chapters 43-44. 

The main idea we’re going to see in these chapters is that Joseph’s brothers confess their guilt and plead with him for mercy. Again, Joseph’s brothers confess their guilt and plead with him for mercy.

Chapter 43 begins with Joseph’s brothers having returned home from their first trip to Egypt and discovered, to their surprise, that their sacks of supplies have been loaded not only with the grain they purchased in Egypt but also with the money they thought they’d used to purchase the grain. This causes them no small amount of distress, since they assume that Joseph will assume that they’ve cheated him. In reality, of course, Joseph had arranged for their money to be returned to them as a part of his testing, but they’re not aware of that. 

The story then continues in Genesis 43:1-3: 1 Now the famine was severe in the land. 2 And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little food.” 3 But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’” The “brother” Judah’s referring to there is their youngest brother Benjamin, who was highly favored by their father Jacob and who therefore hadn’t gone along with the rest of the brothers to Egypt on their first trip. And Joseph had noticed that Benjamin was missing and had specifically told them to bring Benjamin with them the next time they came. 

We then read in verses 8-9, 8 And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. 9 I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.” After that, Jacob eventually agrees to send Benjamin along with them. He says in verses 12-14, 12 Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. 13 Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man. 14 May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

The key word for us to take note of in these verses is the word “mercy” in verse 14. Jacob says, “May God Almighty grant you mercy….” That word clues us in to what seems to be the central theme of these two chapters. Joseph’s brothers have a desperate need for God’s mercy—as is about to become very clear to them in the subsequent verses. 

The brothers then take Benjamin and travel once again to Egypt. When they arrive, Joseph tells them to go to his house and wait for him so that they can have a meal together. And they’re immediately afraid that Joseph’s going to harm them in some way. However, contrary to their expectations, Joseph doesn’t harm them but instead has a meal prepared for them. And when he arrives and sees Benjamin with them, he actually becomes overwhelmed with emotion. Verse 30 states, “Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there.” Now, you wouldn’t be able to tell this from the English translation, but when it says that “his compassion grew warm,” that Hebrew word translated as “compassion” is actually the same word translated as “mercy” back in verse 14. So, this is literally saying that Joseph’s “mercy grew warm,” which further establishes mercy as a thematic key to this passage. Then, after Joseph finishes weeping, he washes his face, comes back out, and shares a meal with his brothers. They still, of course, don’t yet know who he is. 

Then, crossing over into the next chapter, we read in verses 1-5, 1 Then he [Joseph] commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, 2 and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him. 3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. 4 They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his steward, “Up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’” 

So, that’s what happens. Joseph’s servants catch up with his brothers, search their belongings, and, lo and behold, discover Joseph’s silver cup in Benjamin’s bag. Obviously, we as the readers know that it’s a setup. But Joseph, remember, is testing his brothers in order to get an accurate assessment of their character. Now that Benjamin was in deep trouble—or, at least, appeared to be in trouble—would the rest of the brothers attempt to help him, or would they just abandon him? Have they changed at all since selling Joseph into slavery? 

We learn the answer in verses 14-16: 14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. 15 Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?” 16 And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” So, the only thing Joseph’s brothers can do at this point, if they want to rescue Benjamin, is to fall prostrate before Joseph and beg for mercy. And that’s what they do. 

Then, in keeping with his commitment, Judah actually offers to trade himself for his brother. He explains the situation to Joseph and elaborates on how Benjamin’s death will be more than his father Jacob can bear and offers to become Joseph’s slave if Joseph will release Benjamin. We don’t have time to read the whole thing, but that’s what the next 17 verses record. For 17 verses, Judah sets aside any last shred of pride or dignity he has and desperately pleads with Joseph to release Benjamin. He concludes in verses 33-34, 33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. 34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.” 

And that’s how Joseph’s brothers—with Judah as their leader—are stripped of their pride and brought to the point of pleading with Joseph for mercy. They find themselves in a desperate situation and recognize that they’re powerless to do anything about that situation and therefore are left with no other option but to plead for mercy. 

Now, of course, we know that Joseph’s brothers weren’t actually guilty of stealing money or the silver cup. Those things were merely elements of Joseph’s elaborate testing. Yet, at the same time, we also know that Joseph’s brothers were genuinely guilty of sinning against Joseph by selling him into slavery and therefore were genuinely in desperate need of God’s mercy. They ultimately needed mercy not from Joseph but from God. And it seems that God orchestrated the events of these chapters in order to help them see that. We discussed at length last week how the ordeal Joseph’s brothers experienced in Egypt awakened their consciences to the terrible sin they had committed against their brother. They needed God’s mercy desperately. 

And friends, that right there is the main point of connection between this passage and our lives today. The fact is that, just like Joseph’s brothers, we too stand in need of God’s mercy. That’s not something that’s easy to hear, but it’s something we need to hear. You’re probably not going to see that on any motivational memes that talk about how amazing you are, but it’s something we need to hear—because it’s true. In fact, the more we study the New Testament, the more we see just how similar our situation is to that of Joseph’s brothers in these two chapters of Genesis. 

One key passage that shows us this is Ephesians 2:1-3. The Apostle Paul writes to the Christians of Ephesus, 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 

Now, there’s a whole lot in these verses, but I think a concise way to summarize it is to say that sin dominated our lives. Commenting on these verses from Ephesians, Dane Ortlund writes, “Consider the overall impact of these three verses. Paul is not speaking of sin the way we often do: ‘I messed up,’ ‘I made a mistake,’ ‘I’m struggling with …’; Paul identifies sin as the [all-encompassing] flow of our lives. Our sins are less like an otherwise healthy man occasionally tripping up and more like a man who is disease-ridden from head to foot—or if we take the language of Ephesians 2 seriously, dead.” 

That’s, of course, the word Paul uses in verse 1. He says we were “dead in…trespasses and sins.” We weren’t just sick or injured. We were dead. We had no ability whatsoever to help ourselves or do anything about our spiritual condition. We were just as powerless to start living for God as a physical corpse is to wake up and start walking around. We weren’t just sick and in need of healing; we were dead and in need of resurrection. 

Yet, that’s not all—because, in addition to that, Paul goes on to say that we were also actively following Satan, regardless of whether or not we consciously realized we were following Satan. That’s who Paul’s referring to in verse 2 when he says that we were “following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Notice that word “in.” Satan’s power wasn’t just something external that we sometimes yielded to. It was something that was “at work” within our very hearts. 

Paul then states in verse 3 that “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.” We didn’t just indulge in sinful desires on occasion. We actually “lived in” those desires. They were the air we breathed. Ortlund says that what water is to fish, the vilest of desires were to us. He writes that, “Beneath our smiles at the grocery store and cheerful greetings to the mailman we were quietly enthroning Self and eviscerating our souls of the beauty and dignity and worship for which they were made. Sin was not something we lapsed into; it defined our moment-by-moment existence.” 

Now, maybe at this point, you’re tempted to think that this passage doesn’t really describe you. After all, you try to live a relatively moral and ethical life most of the time. You’ve never engaged in any criminal activity, you’re usually kind to the people you encounter, and you often help other people when opportunities arise. Maybe you even try to come to church when you can—hence, your attendance here this morning. So, maybe you’re tempted to think that these verses in Ephesians 2 must be talking about other people and not you. 

Yet notice the words Paul uses here in verse 2. He says, “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.” He’s talking about every single one of us. Now, how can that be the case? Well, some of us may live in rebellion against God in very obvious ways, while others of us might live what initially appears to be a “good” or moral life on the outside but is actually simply an alternate form of rebellion against God—because we’re still living independently of God and rejecting God’s rule over our lives. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re an immoral sinner or a moral sinner. Either way, you’re still a sinner. You might be an openly “bad” person or a fraudulently “good” person—but you’re still operating in rebellion against God in your heart. “We all once lived in the passions of our flesh,” Paul says.

It was so bad that Paul even goes on to say at the end of verse 3 that we “were by nature children of wrath.” We deserved God’s wrath so thoroughly and completely that we were, by nature, its very children. All of that describes a person’s condition prior to embracing Jesus. They’re dominated in every conceivable way by sin.

You know, my family and I have recently been watching the Star Wars movies. And, believe it or not, this is actually the first time I’ve ever seen Star Wars. For some reason, I was just never that interested in the Star Wars movies before. But I guess 40 years late is better than never. And now that I’m seeing them, I have to admit that they’re pretty decent. And I’m reminded of one scene that I imagine is pretty famous of Luke Skywalker trying to convince his father, Darth Vader, to stop serving the evil emperor and instead to start using his powers for good. And Luke tries to persuade his father to do this by appealing to the good that he believes still exists deep down in his father’s heart. He says to his father that he can feel the good in him. It as if there’s this spark of goodness still present in Darth Vader’s heart that will eventually, Luke believes, lead his father to do the right thing. 

And that seems to be what people often assume, isn’t it? We’re convinced that just about everyone has at least a small glimmer of goodness within their hearts. Yet as we can see from these verses in Ephesians 2, that’s not the case at all. We’re dead in sin, followers of Satan, consumed by sinful desires, and thoroughly deserving of God’s wrath. There is no glimmer of goodness. As a result, just like Joseph’s brothers back in Genesis, we stand in desperate need of God’s mercy. 

Thankfully, though, as Paul goes on to explain in Ephesians 2, there is good news. Right after giving us the bad news in verses 1-3, Paul gives us the good news in verses 4-5. He writes, 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. Isn’t that good news? It’s often noted that those first two words of verse 4 are two of the most precious and wonderful words in the Bible—“but God.” Yes, we were indeed dead in sin, followers of Satan, consumed by sinful desires, and thoroughly deserving of God’s wrath, “but God” intervened. Even when we deserved nothing but wrath, God showed us mercy. Like Joseph’s brothers, we stood in desperate need of mercy. And that’s exactly what God showed us. 

In fact, we see here that God isn’t just merciful but is “rich in mercy.” In other words, he has an abundance of mercy or a surplus of mercy. We might even say he’s overflowing with mercy—like a river that has so much water that it just overflows its banks. As the Puritan author Richard Sibbes famously said, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” And notice, in the verse, why God’s so inclined to help us. It’s not because of something attractive he saw in us. Remember, we were thoroughly sinful. Paul even emphasizes again in verse 5 how “we were dead in our trespasses.” So, we had nothing within ourselves that made us attractive to God. Everything about us was repulsive. Instead, Paul says in verse 4, God reached out to us in this way “because of the great love with which he loved us.” God rescued us not because of something that was in us but rather because of something in him. He rescued us because of the love that was in his heart, not because of anything worthy or attractive in ours. 

And the way he rescued us was through Christ. Notice how verse 5 says that “when we were dead in our trespasses,” God “made us alive” in what way? He “made us alive together with Christ.” In other words, there’s a link between our resurrection from spiritual death and Christ’s resurrection from physical death. His resurrection is understood to be the prerequisite for ours. Our rescue from sin rests on the foundation of what Jesus accomplished 2,000 years ago. And, of course, Christ’s resurrection implies his crucifixion. Jesus was able to be raised because he had first died on the cross to pay for our sins. That is the very core of the Christian message. Jesus died on the cross in our place, taking on himself the punishment our sins deserved. 

You know, going back to our main passage in Genesis, we read in Genesis 44:33 how Judah offers himself in Benjamin’s place. Remember, Benjamin had been caught with Joseph’s silver cup in his luggage. And a reasonable penalty to expect from that would, at the very least, be enslavement, and perhaps even imprisonment or even execution. Yet, Judah pleads with Joseph on Benjamin’s behalf. He says, “Now therefore, please let your servant [me] remain instead of the boy [Benjamin] as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.” 

And it was no accident that Judah was the one to offer himself as a substitute for Benjamin. Judah is the one from whose lineage Jesus would come. Jesus is actually referred to in the book of Revelation as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Therefore, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect Judah in the book of Genesis to foreshadow Jesus. And that’s exactly Judah’s function in our main passage. Judah’s willingness to substitute himself for his brother Benjamin foreshadows the way in which Jesus has substituted himself for us. And it’s on the basis of what Jesus has done in his death and resurrection that God offers mercy to each one of us. 

In order to receive God’s mercy, we have to come to the end of ourselves—just as Joseph’s brothers do in Genesis as they prostrate themselves before Joseph and plead for his mercy. We have to essentially do that same thing, recognizing that we have absolutely nothing to offer God and no ability whatsoever to make ourselves acceptable in his sight.

And then, as we come before God with the empty hands of a beggar, we have to look to Jesus as our only hope of rescue. Earlier in the worship service today, we sang “Rock of Ages,” which I think expresses incredibly well the mentality that’s needed in order to receive God’s mercy. 

We have to come to God and humbly confess, as the song says,

Not the labor of my hands 

can fulfill Thy law's demands

Could my zeal no respite know? 

Could my tears forever flow?

All for sin could not atone. 

Thou must save and Thou alone.

Then, with all of our being, having confessed our need, we have to look to Jesus alone for rescue. Again, as we sung,

Nothing in my hand I bring. 

Simply to the cross I cling.

Naked come to Thee for dress. 

Helpless look to Thee for grace.

Foul I to the fountain fly.

Wash me Savior or I die.

Have you ever come to that point in your life? If not, understand that that’s the only thing that really matters—because it determines where you’ll spend eternity. God’s offers his mercy to you. You know, there are two errors we can fall into, which are opposites of each other: believing that we’re without the need for God’s mercy and believing that we’re beyond the reach of God’s mercy. Yet, at their core, both of these errors are actually just manifestations of pride. So, I’d like to invite you this morning to lay down your pride—however it’s manifesting itself—and cry out for God’s mercy.