Daily Scripture Reading Genesis 44:18 - 45:3
Humans often make assumptions and under-estimate other people. Sometimes we do bad things and assume no one will know. Or we do something bad to someone without power and under-estimate their ability to rise above their status and gain the position needed to execute revenge or justice.
When Joseph’s brothers sold Joseph, they explained Joseph’s disappearance to their father by pretending Joseph had been killed. Underneath that tactic was an assumption that their father would never learn the truth, and that Joseph would always be a nobody in Egypt. The fact that those assumptions were wrong reminds us of the peril of assuming too much and the potential cost of under-estimating other people. More importantly, it teaches us the danger of under-estimating God.
When Joseph sent his brothers home after their second visit to Egypt, he had his steward put his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack. As soon as the brothers were out of the city, Joseph instructed his steward to pursue the men, and accuse them of having stolen the cup. The steward did so, and found the cup in Benjamin’s sack. The brothers returned to Joseph and offered to be slaves, but Joseph insisted only Benjamin would be his slave and the rest of them were free to return home.
Gen. 44:18 ¶ Then Judah came near to him and said, “O my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are equal to Pharaoh.
Gen. 44:19 My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’
Gen. 44:20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’
Judah stated that Joseph was dead, but Judah and his brothers did not know that. Judah and his brothers sold Joseph to slave traders. For all they knew, Joseph was still alive. However, they had lied to their father and said Joseph had been killed, and by this point in time they were so used to living the lie that Joseph was dead that Judah continued the lie when he was trying to rescue Benjamin. Judah was completely unaware that he was lying to someone who knew he was lying and had the ability to expose his lie.
Gen. 44:21 Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.’
Gen. 44:22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
Gen. 44:23 You said to your servants, however, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’
Gen. 44:24 Thus it happened that when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
Gen. 44:25 And our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’
Gen. 44:26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face if our youngest brother is not with us.’
Gen. 44:27 And your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons;
Gen. 44:28 and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces,” and I have not seen him since.
Gen. 44:29 If you take this one also from me and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in evil.’
Gen. 44:30 So now, when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us—and his life is bound up in the boy’s life—
Gen. 44:31 so it will be that when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.
Judah’s plea shows the extent to which Judah and his brothers had changed. When they sold Joseph, they were either ignorant or indifferent to the negative effect it would have on their father. However, with Benjamin, they were very aware and concerned about the harm that would befall their father if anything bad happened to Benjamin. Perhaps the thing that changed them the most was spending many years watching their father mourn Joseph.
Gen. 44:32 For your servant became a guarantee for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the sin before my father all my days.’
When Judah used the word “servant”, he was referring to himself.
Gen. 44:33 So now, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a slave to my lord, and let the boy go up with his brothers.
Gen. 44:34 For how shall I go up to my father if the boy is not with me, lest I see the evil that would overtake my father?”
Judah was so concerned about his father’s welfare that he was willing to be a prisoner in Egypt rather than go back home without Benjamin and watch his father suffer even more.
Gen. 45:1 ¶ Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he called out, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
Notice the words “could not restrain himself”. Joseph had been holding himself back in order to determine the true character of his brothers at this point in their lives, but he could no longer refrain from revealing his true identity so that he could see his father again.
Gen. 45:2 Then he wept loudly. And the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
The words “wept loudly” tell us the depth of Joseph’s joy and emotion.
Gen. 45:3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were terrified at his presence.
Look at the word “terrified”. For years the brothers had peddled the lie that Joseph had been killed. Now, their dishonesty had been exposed.
When Joseph’s brothers sold Joseph, they explained Joseph’s disappearance by pretending Joseph had been killed. Underneath that tactic was an assumption that their father would never learn the truth, and that Joseph would always be a nobody in Egypt.
Those assumptions were wrong. They under-estimated both Joseph and God. God raised Joseph to be second in command of Egypt, and their cruelty to Joseph and their lie to their father was about to be revealed.
What are some cruel things you did in your life that you assumed you would get away with?
In what way are you currently tempted to do something wrong because you assume you can get away with it?
In what way might you be under-estimating another person of God Himself?
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”