Alright, hey friends, welcome back.
It is Wednesday and we are
moving into Genesis 43 today,
this sort of continue,
this continued drama that is unfolding as one of the brothers of Joseph Simeon is in Egypt, under guard.
The other brothers have returned home to tell Jacob what has happened,
to tell them about
the request to bring Benjamin.
Jacob has been reluctant,
in fact he’s refused,
but we move into the story and this is one of those,
I would say this is a pretty jerky transition,
whether it’s a change in sources
or whether it’s just the way the story is told,
it’s going to sound like we’re starting
over or we’re crossing over ground we’ve already been over,
but then it changes.
So let me just read quickly here the front part of this and we can talk about it.
Now the famine was severe in the land and when they had eaten up the grain that they
brought from Egypt, their father said, “Go again and buy us more food.”
Judah said to him,
“The man solemnly warned us,
saying, ‘You will not see my face unless
your brother is with you.
If you will send our brother with us,
we will go down and buy you food.
But if you will not send him,
we will not go.’
For the man said to us,
‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’”
Israel said, “Why do you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?”
They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred,
saying, ‘Is your father still alive?
Have you another brother?’”
What we told him was an answer to the questions.
Could we in any way know that he would say,
“Bring your brother down.”
Then Judah said to the father,
“Send the boy with me.
Let us be on our way so that we may live and not die,
you and we and our little ones.
I myself will be surety for him.
You can hold me accountable for him.
If I do not bring him back to you and send him before you,
then let me bear the blame forever.
If we had not delayed,
we would now have returned twice.’”
So let’s stop there.
Again, the tension in this story,
it’s odd that Jacob sort of says,
“Why don’t you guys
go get more food?”
Like, they haven’t already had the conversation,
but that could be just the way the story’s told.
Maybe it’s a reflection of him getting older.
The Bible doesn’t generally do that,
but it’s possible.
And then he blames them saying,
“Well, why did you even mention you had a brother?”
And they explained to him that they had no choice.
And again, Judah then says,
“Hey, this will be on me.
You have my word that I will take care of this.”
Though Jacob doesn’t seem to be reassured by that.
I think what is really interesting about the story is a detail that’s not mentioned.
And we don’t know how long it took to go through the grain that they had brought back with
them.
It must have taken some time,
at least the Bible seems to
indicate that it’s been a little bit of a
stretch since that happened.
And this whole time Simeon has been in prison.
One wonders how long he’s been there.
And again, this has echoes and shadows of the Joseph story who was carted off to Egypt
and in prison.
There’s a little bit of a bell that we have
heard rung before.
But it would be interesting to know how long he’s been waiting for them to come and get him.
Yeah, let’s not miss this point.
If we’d not delayed,
we would have now returned twice.
Just imagine the time that’s gone on here in the brothers’ minds,
knowing that their one brother is in prison,
knowing that the famine is not breaking with this long period
of time.
Maybe there was a hope that they could outlast it.
And who knows what was going to happen to Simeon should that have panned out.
But ultimately,
it seems clear,
like you said, Clint, we’ve got some details we’ve had before.
What the text has made abundantly clear is we’ve reached a point of impasse.
The conversations come up again.
Clearly, Judas sort of laid his cards on the table again and said,
you know,
I will be personally responsible for the boy.
There’s really no other option.
He goes so far as to say,
our little ones are at risk here.
You know, we have to feed our families.
And so we find ourselves in a position where there are less options than we’re even there
to start.
The food is no longer enough to sustain them.
And so it’s going to force the action that’s going to push this story along.
It’s in some ways a little bit of a messy bridge.
It repeats details we’ve had before,
but it makes it clear that we’ve run out of options,
that now we have to have some sort of remedial work here or it’s not going to work out.
So I’m just going to tell the next part of the story rather than read it.
Jacob sends them back.
He does send Benjamin.
He tells them,
take gifts with them.
He says here, take the fruits of the land,
take honey and gum, resin,
pistachio nuts,
almonds,
and double the money.
You might remember that they brought money back with them.
They found the money that they’d taken to buy grain,
returned to them in their sacks
when they got home.
So he says, take that money with you as well and an extra portion of money.
In other words,
clearly trying to be generous,
clearly trying to show that there’s no animosity between them.
Not necessarily trying to buy Joseph,
but trying to be generous,
trying to make a great
impression as to remove suspicion and to remove animosity.
And so they do that.
They go on their way and they take Benjamin and then verse 15 ends with these words.
They went on down to Egypt and they stood before Joseph.
So now they are again in the presence of Joseph and this time Benjamin is with them.
Yeah, I think the key wording here Clint comes all the way back in verse 11.
Here Israel says, if it must be so,
then do this.
I think that is the key.
If it must be,
it must be.
That’s the point that we find ourselves at.
And so this is an accommodation to what must be done.
Verse 13, we even have this prayer that he gives to them.
May the God Almighty grant you mercy before this man,
this idea that sending them out with hope.
Of course, there’s a lot of risk in this and the text makes it clear that there’s a lot
of anxiety about what’s going to happen sending the youngest son.
So we as readers should be clued into the fact that the text has already really plowed
the ground for us and made it very abundantly clear that the sending of the youngest is
likely to be fraught.
There’s been so much talk about it already.
It clues us into this movement within the text that that’s going to be there.
And,
you know,
that’s one of the things I love about the biblical story as you read it is
it’s well written and well crafted so as to even anticipate what’s going to come later.
It’s setting us up as readers to know that this is going to be an important theme here.
And indeed,
what we’re about to see transpire is it’s somewhat shocking.
Yeah.
So then the next thing that happens,
they take Benjamin with them.
They said to the steward of the house reading in verse 16 here,
bring them in into the
house, slaughter an animal, make it ready for the men to dine with me at noon.
The man did as Joseph told him and brought them into Joseph’s house.
But the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house.
And they said it’s because of the money replaced in our sacks the first time that we
have been brought in so that he may have an opportunity to fall upon us and make slaves
of us and take our donkeys.
So they went up to the steward of Joseph’s house and spoke to him at the entrance.
And they said, my Lord, we came down the first time to buy food.
And when we came to the lodging place,
we opened the sacks and there was money in each
sack, our money in full weight.
So we have brought it back with us.
Moreover,
we brought down additional money to buy food.
We do not know who put the money in the sack.
But he replied,
rest assured and do not be afraid.
Your God and the God of your father must have put treasure in your sacks for you,
for I received your money.
Then he brought Simeon out to them.
And when the steward had brought them in into Joseph’s house and given them water,
they had washed their feet and he had given them their donkey’s fodder.
They made the present ready for Joseph’s coming at noon.
For they had heard that they would dine there.
We’ll stop there for today.
But so this is this is going on.
They try to explain themselves.
They say, hey, last time we were here, we brought money.
We tried to give it to you.
We thought we did,
but we found it on our way home.
We want you to know that wasn’t us.
We didn’t steal from you.
They’re nervous because Joseph has taken them to his house.
They this is probably a difficult thing for us,
Michael.
They know that they are under his control.
There’s no sense of independence here.
If you’ve ever been,
say, crossing a border and been detained,
if you’ve ever been,
you know, checked in line by National Guard or by police,
that that’s the idea.
They don’t have recourse.
They are at his mercy and they are very nervous when he says,
why don’t you guys come to my
house because they can’t imagine that that’s hospitality,
that their fears take over and
they imagine that to be threat.
And they try to explain.
It’s very interesting how he explains this, Michael.
He says,
well, your God,
the God of your father must have put your treasure in the sack.
We received
your money.
Which is clearly not true,
but is part of this ruse that Joseph is pulling on his
brothers and in the story really serves to heighten the tension.
Clint, this is where I think many of us get uncomfortable, right?
Because Joseph has spoken harshly to them.
In fact, that’s the exact word that was used when they go back and report to Israel.
They say, you know, he spoke harshly to us.
So they have had this experience of Joseph as being a very hard,
very incisive individual.
So he’s pushing and he’s been harsh in his language.
So now you’re exactly right.
When they come and they’re invited to dine with him,
their first insight or instinct rather
is not, oh, this is going to be a lavish meal that we get to enjoy,
but rather it’s a trap
that’s going to pull them in and that they’re going to be made all of them slaves,
which is obviously, you know, the worst case scenario that they could possibly imagine.
So we are in a position now where Joseph’s ruse has gone very deep,
right?
We’re on the second wave.
The implications are beginning to really fan out here.
And we see that these brothers are legitimately scared for their well-being.
They’re considering the thought that they might not go home from this encounter.
And so what Joseph frames this to be,
you know, we don’t really know.
His intents are once again not shared with us as a reader.
We don’t really know what’s going on behind the scenes in his mind,
but we’re going to
see that he has real affection for his family.
That’s going to come.
But up to this point,
we see that he’s been very hard nosed and he’s not given them enough
information for them to really feel comfortable with what’s happening.
So we now live in what I think is a very interlude,
intermingled sort of moment where,
you know, they’re struggling.
They’re legitimately afraid for their well-being.
Yeah, this is a very interesting meeting.
Again,
if we try to look a little bit behind the scenes and just imagine the emotions that are here.
You have Simeon brought out to the brothers.
They haven’t seen him.
There’s a reunion of sorts,
but it’s done in a place.
They’re afraid.
They’ve left their father.
So they also have a concern for what’s happening back home.
We have to get there.
What happens if we don’t?
There’s just a lot happening here.
If you crawl underneath the story a little bit and try to get in touch with the feelings that are there,
this is a very profound moment.
We will leave it there and see where it goes.
The text has done a very nice job,
I think, of painting a big question mark for us.
Again,
sometimes it’s a discipline to read this as if we don’t know where it’s headed.
It’s hard when we know the end of the story.
But if you can imagine for a moment that you don’t know what the resolution of this story is,
this is in some ways the Bible’s version of a cliffhanger,
that you have Joseph over
the men, you have them at his house,
you have them being set up,
you have what they’ve
done to him in the past.
Now the power structure is reversed.
He’s in control.
And what is he going to do with that?
And those are all questions yet to be answered.
The last time I remember us being in a situation similar to this,
Clint, is our Jacob and
Esau encounter.
If you remember Jacob sending the waves of individuals out and all of the blessings that
he was going to give to Esau.
Where he legitimately felt afraid for his own safety,
for his family’s safety.
We are in another circumstance here where the big question mark framed here is what is going to happen?
What will the one with power do to and against those who don’t have power?
And yeah, I think that this is one of those unique turns in the story where it’s been carefully set out.
And yeah, I hope you’ll join us tomorrow as we continue to turn through this page turner.
Thanks for being with us.