June 12 Sermon: Joseph's Generosity
Think on these questions as you listen to this week’s message from Genesis 43:1-34:
1. How does the cliche "you will catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" relate to the principle of treating others kindly and the idea that people are more drawn to those who are kind and loving?
2. In the story of Joseph, how does God's sovereign hand play a significant role in the unfolding events, including the reconciliation of Joseph with his brothers and the rescue of his family from famine?
3. What can we learn from Joseph's actions and interactions with his brothers in this passage about the importance of forgiveness, reconciliation, and God's surprising work in our lives?
Transcript:
A common cliche is that you will catch far more flies with honey that you will with vinegar. Now, I’ve never put this statement to a literal test. Perhaps if I had a little more free time this past week I would have gotten things together to have a little experiment of this statement. We know it is likely true without testing it but we know that the point of this cliche isn’t actually whether honey would catch more flies than vinegar. Our grandmothers or some other wise individual that transmitted this information to us were wanting us to understand that if we are kind and loving people are more likely to be drawn to us than if we talk to people harshly and treat them poorly. And while maybe you won’t ever use that old line with anyone, you know the principle to be true. When we are harsh with people we usually find that we receive harsh treatment in return. When we act in kindness and in a pleasant way our treatment of others is reciprocated.
As we come back to the unfolding drama of the story of Joseph we see that this man who was treated harshly by his brothers uses generosity with those brothers who have treated him so poorly.
And so we are going to jump into the passage that we have read for today but before we do so lets outline the story and divide it into three main parts.
First we are reminded of the famine and the concern that this is for the family of Jacob. When we left off last week it seemed as though Simeon was dead to Jacob because he was refusing to send Benjamin into Egypt with his sons to prove that they weren’t spies. But now we find that the famine creates a dilemma for them. They need food, only Egypt has food and only this mysterious governor of Egypt who is holding Simeon is the gatekeeper for the food. The circumstances within their family get dire and so they are forced to go back to Egypt in hopes of saving their clan.
In the second part of the story we see that the sons of Jacob are received well by Joseph. While Jacob was concerned with harm coming to Benjamin we know the deeper workings of the story and know that Joseph would never bring harm to his brother Benjamin.
And in the third section of the story we see that Joseph gives a generous feast to his brothers and he not only shows interest in the welfare of Jacob but he shows intimate knowledge of their family that causes his brothers to be amazed.
As we arrive in this section of the story it is interesting to take a look at the details. As I have mentioned several times as we have been making our way through Joseph’s story, we know the general plot of the story very well and as we take time on each chapter we are able draw out details that perhaps we forgot from Sunday school or maybe we never really caught in the first place.
Genesis 43:1–10
ESV
Now the famine was severe in the land. 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.” But Judah said to him, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall 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 down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’ ” Israel said, “Why did 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? Do you have another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” 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. 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. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.”
Coming to the start of chapter 43 we see a progression from what we looked at last week. As you have heard me say many, many times there aren’t chapter numbers and verses in the original language but the break here in the text feels natural because Moses once again gives us a feeling of the passage of time, doesn’t he. The famine in the land was severe. The feeling we are getting is that time has moved on and even though Jacob seemed willing to leave Simeon to rot in Egypt because he didn’t want to risk losing Benjamin.
We get the idea that this famine is no joke. This is the idea that the dreams of Pharaoh planted in our minds earlier on and now we are seeing that the extreme image of skinny cows eating fat cows and unhealthy, skinny grain eating healthy, fat ears of grain was very much warranted. And, once again, we are reminded of the degree to which it extends beyond the borders of Egypt to Canaan where Jacob and his family are residing.
And you kind of have to appreciate the way in which Jacob tells them to acquire more food. Go, and just buy us a little. My mind was immediately drawn to the kid who knows that his parents won’t allow him to have something but they get a little desperate and ask for just a little. The reason I feel that way is there is no way that Jacob wasn’t aware on a daily basis of the reason they couldn’t go get more food. Simeon was not among them. They would have not only missed his presence but you would think they would have to care for his family as though he had died. When someone is missing from your family it is not something you forget or just pass off. It is something that you are daily reminded of.
And Judah is the one who reminds his father of the state of affairs. No Benjamin. No food. Benjamin is the key and we find Jacob thrusting the blame in the direction of his sons. Why did you tell him about Benjamin? And Judah tells him that he was merely asking questions. As people sitting over this story with knowledge of all the angles we kind of appreciate the way Joseph has played his knowledge of the family to his advantage. Simple questions that if you are in our position seem like a giveaway but not too obvious if you are the brothers and think that there is no way this high ranking Egyptian official could ever know your situation.
But we see that the situation is desperate and so Judah does some negotiating. He is looking to save himself and his family. Send Benjamin along and the argument is you can either risk Benjamin going with us to Egypt or you can lose us all to starvation. Once again, we are meant to feel the gravity of all that is going on here. Their backs are against the wall. Either Jacob allows this or the whole family dies from his stubbornness. But Judah turns the knife here a little too in verse 10. You know dad, if we would have done something about this right away we could have done this twice.
Now, this was likely not the first time a man avoided a difficult or awkward situation and it most assuredly wasn’t the last and the state of affairs is so dire that we see Jacob agreeing to let Benjamin go but he wants to catch a fly with honey and get rid of any idea that they thought about bringing vinegar.
Genesis 43:11–15
ESV
Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. 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. Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man. 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.” 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.
And because of the tension in the story we get this move, don’t we. They came back with all their money in their sacks and so who knows what is going to happen when they go back. Again, we have all the details as we read the story but settle in for a second and put yourself in the shoes of Jacob and his sons. This is a desperate state of affairs. They need food. The one place they can get it they have a serious issue they need to address. Therefore anything you can do to try and seem as though you are grateful and generous is going to be on the table.
And we see a list of stuff that they take along. Some of these gifts we don’t know much about but as we look at it, you might be confused a little. If they have the fruits of the land, why are they trying to get food from Egypt. Well, it is likely that the food they have was harvested prior to the famine or it is food that was not affected by it in the same way that grain would have been. There is just some food that grows in different conditions than others. All of these items were things that were grown in Canaan and would have been considered more of a premium type of item. It’s kind of like when you bring some fish or some local meat to family and friends who don’t live around here. People will fall over themselves to get to a good walleye filet or a good cut of steak that you might have rather regularly. In addition, we don’t get an indication of the size of this gift. It is a famine after all any food is at a premium. They probably weren’t bringing in truckloads, right? Just transporting a significant amount of anything would have required more help to take to Egypt and that would have meant more rations being used up on the journey. This is a significant gift but chances are it wasn’t very much. Probably not like a small chocolate sampler box or anything but definitely not wagon loads of the stuff either.
And in addition to the food they doubled the money in hopes that the money being put back in their sacks was an oversight.
Finally, we see Jacob conceding to send Benjamin. And here he says that his hope is that God will grant them mercy. And with this we fully get a sense of the gravity of the situation here. In the previous chapter, he was concerned that the grief of losing another son would send him down to the grave but the state of affairs is so bad that he now is willing to be bereaved of his children. Their ability to survive clearly is at risk here if he is willing to give up his sons for the grain from Egypt. And imagine the gravity with which the sons of Jacob make this journey. There really isn’t a sense of time in this section of the passage but it had to have taken a substantial amount of time to travel there and they had to wonder what the outcome would be when they would come before this Egyptian official who could grant them food to save their families.
Genesis 43:16–18
ESV
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.” The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph’s house. And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house, and they said, “It is because of the money, which was replaced in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.”
When they arrive Joseph sets up a meal and a significant one. They are going to slaughter an animal and make a full meal for these guys. And you can understand why this must be disconcerting to the brothers. I’m sure they were wanting a nice, quick interaction. They explain that they brought double money, their brothers, and oh, here is some fancy things from our part of the world, and we would like some more food. Sounds good, we’ll be hitting the road then.
But instead they are told they are being fed and they are concerned. Initially you might think that this is odd, who doesn’t want a free meal, but feeding people coming to get food can’t be standard operating procedure. If you were in this situation you’d be shaking in your boots too.
Genesis 43:19–23
ESV
So they went up to the steward of Joseph’s house and spoke with him at the door of the house, and said, “Oh, my lord, we came down the first time to buy food. And when we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks, and there was each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us, and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.” He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.
And so to try and keep themselves from being made servants and having their donkeys seized they head over to the house and speak with the steward of Joseph’s house. They explain the situation but it is unnecessary. The steward tells them that their God and the God of their father has put the treasure in the sacks for them. Now, you have to wonder how this was interpreted. What did the brothers think that was supposed to mean? But, the important thing for us as we consider this passage is that this is the case. God has ordained this all to pass. While Joseph was the one who had this done it was God who put Joseph in a position of power to have this happen. Throughout this entire story the big thing that we have been seeing and focusing on is God’s sovereign hand upon his people. And we will hear this idea later on from Joseph himself but we see a foreshadowing of the big theme here in this chapter. God is in control. They should be at peace instead of shaking in their boots at the fact that this Egyptian official is having them over for dinner.
And, if the statement about God putting treasure in their sacks didn’t calm them, you have to think seeing Simeon at least gave them a little bit of ease here. If they were going to lock you up they probably wouldn’t let your brother out of captivity.
Genesis 43:24–25
ESV
And when the man had brought the men into Joseph’s house and given them water, and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.
And, so all of this is set up and the brothers are well taken care of. You would like to think cleaning them up and caring for their donkeys would calm them down but you know how you would probably feel. They are just making me feel better to make what they are going to do to me later all the more crushing. I’m guessing there was a rather large range of emotions and thoughts going through their heads as they waited for Joseph to arrive and when he does get there you have to think they thought the whole thing got even more confusing for them because of his interest in them and their father.
Genesis 43:26–30
ESV
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. And he inquired about their welfare and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?” They said, “Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.” And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. 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!” 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.
And this is really a beautiful telling of Joseph’s interaction with all of his brothers. He doesn’t show his hand yet but he is concerned that Jacob is still alive and once again we get a reminder of how we ended up here in the first place. What do we see the brothers doing? They prostrate themselves. We saw last week that the brothers bowed before him just as the dreams that Joseph had foretold but now all 11 of the brothers are in the room and they do it again. God’s plan is in place. The dreams of Joseph being over his brothers have come to pass by God’s sovereign plan. And, just as I said last week, God has not placed them in this place to rule over them and have them under his thumb. God has placed Joseph over them to rescue them.
And you can again feel the drama of this whole story as he sees Benjamin. This is his younger brother. The only brother of his same mother. The mother who died when he was born. You can understand why Joseph is overwhelmed and has to go somewhere to weep. 17 years of suffering and now you are together with all of your brothers.
Genesis 43:31–34
ESV
Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.” They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.
And the passage closes up with Joseph washing his face and composing himself. And the sneakiness of Joseph comes through again in how this all plays out. Due to the cultural rules they couldn’t eat together and when they get to where they were sitting before Joseph he had them all sat in their birth order. It says that they looked at each other in amazement but I’m guessing they were a little freaked out as well. Bunch of men of different size and different lengths of hair and beards and somehow they got their birth order right. OK. Maybe you could nail the oldest and clearly Benjamin was the youngest but something is up. Mix in the statement that the your God and the God of your father gave you treasure, you know that the brothers were wondering what was going on and curious what God was doing.
And so we finish up by seeing that Benjamin gets five times more food than anyone else. Joseph seems to just enjoy poking at the curiosity of his brothers but perhaps the best part of this whole section of this story is that final sentence. And they drank and were merry with him.
This family has been fractured in a terrible way by the actions of the brothers but now, God has ordained to bring them all back together and by his sovereign hand we see the beginning of reconciliation, despite the evil that was done to Joseph. God truly is working all things together for his people.
And so, as we close up this section of Joseph’s story I have one application and I actually got it from vacation Bible school this week. The theme of VBS was monumental and they took a look at the life of Joseph this week. On Friday I did the opening devotion and so I reviewed the themes for the days with them and then shared the Friday main point with them. It was fun to go through the days because it was a quick refresher on where we have been in the book of Genesis the last several weeks. When we got to Friday the theme was “God is surprising”. I loved that. I had been struggling with the application of this passage all week and this simple phrase to sum up this passage for children absolutely nails the big point.
God is surprising. There was no way the brothers thought that this was Joseph but God had ordained that their brother would be in a position of power to rescue them and God uses this not only to get them food to rescue them from famine but also to begin to reconcile their family.
And so, as we think about this story we need to remember that God does amazing things in our lives. When things seem beyond resolution and reconciliation he is able to do his good will. Whether that is a struggle you are having now or maybe it is a family conflict that has been festering for years, God is surprising and as his people we can trust him to do his good will. Amen.
