Joseph Tests His Brothers

Story:  Joseph Tests His Brothers

Passage: Genesis 44

Characters:  Joseph, Joseph’s brothers, Benjamin, Judah

Summary:  Joseph placed their money back in their sacks.  He also placed his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack.  He sent his servant to accuse them of stealing the cup.  The punishment was that the culprit would become his servant.  Judah petitioned Joseph explaining that their father would die if Benjamin did not return.  Judah offered himself in place of Benjamin. 

Notes:  Joseph’s actions were not cruel, but rather a test of his brothers and a method to bring them to full repentance.  The servant informed the brothers that Joseph used the cup for divination.  While it is possible that Joseph did use the cup like that since there was no command against it yet, it is also possible that his servant just assumed that Joseph’s wisdom came from divination.  The brothers confidently denied the accusations.  They obviously had a lot of trust for each other.  They said if anyone was found with the cup that person would be put to death and the rest of them would become slaves.  This certainly implies to me that they really trusted each other.  Their spirits would have been good too. They had just partied with the second in command in Egypt the night before and became intoxicated according to the last passage.  Now they had their food and were on their way.  Benjamin was safe and they had Simeon back!  Things were looking good; of course they didn’t steal it right?  The drama was intense as the bags were searched in birth order.  When Benjamin was found guilty, the brothers tore their clothes and went back ot Egypt with him.  The same brothers who watched their father’s favorite son be sold into slavery in Egypt are now actively trying to defend their father’s new favorite son as he is being taken to Egypt as a slave.  The brothers have changed!  Even more change is the fact that they offered themselves to serve as slaves with Benjamin.  They were fairly wealthy men resigning themselves to slavery!  Another interesting note from part of the story is that the brothers see this impending slavery in Egypt as punishment for selling Joseph to slavery in Egypt.  Judah then tells Joseph about their father.  He obviously has a lot of conviction about how his father would take the news of Benjamin’s slavery.  This is also totally different than it was when they told Jacob about Joseph.  They were as blunt as they could be then and almost seemed to enjoy telling him that Joseph was no more.  Judah then offers himself as a substitution for the punishment of Benjamin.  For the first time we see Christ like qualities in Judah who would be in the line of Christ.  This willingness to sacrifice is seen throughout scripture and is evidence of a changed life.  It is obvious that these brothers are indeed changed men!

Questions:  How did Joseph react to this reaction by the brothers?  How did his servant?  What did his servant think of the plan to make the brothers think they were guilty?  At what point did the brothers have their change of heart?

Lessons:  Total repentance makes your life look markedly different than it did before.  The brothers were completely different men.  Joseph put them in a carefully crafted situation that mimicked what they had done to him twenty years earlier.  Their response completely different!  Do our lives show this complete turnaround?  Are our lives totally different than they would be if we were not saved?

Joseph's Brothers Return to Egypt

Story:  Joseph’s Brothers Return to Egypt

Passage: Genesis 43

Characters:  Jacob, Judah, Jacob’s sons, Joseph

Summary:  Jacob and Co. ran out of grain.  Jacob tried to send his sons back to Egypt to get more but Judah informed him that the man in Egypt made it clear that they must bring Benjamin.  Jacob did not want to but Judah offered himself in security for Benjamin.  Jacob consented and sent some of the firstfruits of the land with them.  When Joseph saw Benjamin he had the brothers sent to his house.  The brothers stated their case and the steward told them the money they found in their sacks was from God.  Simeon was restored to them and they prepared to eat.  Joseph came home and asked about Jacob.  Then he saw Benjamin and left the room and wept.  The food was served.  Benjamin got five times as much as everyone else even though they were seated in birth order. 

Notes:  Jacob apparently had tried to let the food outlast the famine so his sons would not have to return to Egypt.  He obviously cared far more about Benjamin than he cared about Simeon.  Judah was displaying his first signs of Godliness when he decided to take full responsibility for Benjamin’s safety.  I get the idea that Satan was not aware that Jesus was coming from the line of Judah.  God however knew all along and is obviously still very present in Judah’s life even though he made some mistakes earlier in the story.  The brothers took some of the best fruits of the land.  This is significant since there was a massive famine going on.  They also took double the money with them.  This is very significant.  The word for money and silver are the same.  Since they originally took enough money for ten brothers, they now took enough for twenty men.  Joseph was originally sold by the brothers for twenty pieces of silver.  Now they are bringing him twenty pieces of money.  The brothers probably thought they were going to the man’s house to be killed.  They were freaked out to be sure.  The steward tried to calm their fears by letting them know he had received their money and the money they found came from God.  I find it interesting that the steward calls God the God of their father.  He acknowledges the Hebrew God.  He also tells the truth.  He had received their money, but then he gave it back.  They expected to be treated as criminals, and Joseph had every right to do so, but instead he served them and washed their feet and served them water.  This must have confused the brothers very much!  When Joseph saw Benjamin, he lost his composure.  Benjamin was his only full brother and he had not seen him for over twenty years.  Joseph was a very emotional man from what I can tell, and this encounter was too much for him to handle.  The Egyptians were one of the most racist cultures in history.  They believed they came from the gods and everyone else was inferior.  We see this here when the Egyptians ate separately from the Hebrews and from Joseph.  Joseph, as an Egyptian official, could not eat with his brothers.  However, even with all of his power, he couldn’t eat with the Egyptians either!  God was going to bring Israel to a place where they could live in total isolation from the native inhabitants!  God’s plan was perfect!  The brothers were amazed when they were seated in birth order.  I don’t know how they weren’t suspicious.  For Joseph to get it totally right is almost statistically impossible!  He then served Benjamin more than anyone else.  There are two possible reasons for this.  One is that Joseph was showing favoritism to his only full brother.  The other option is he was testing his brothers.  How would they react to their youngest brother being privileged?  Would they react like they treated Joseph or had they grown?  Joseph was testing them this whole time.  He wanted to know their character before he revealed himself to them. 

Questions:  Was Joseph’s servant a follower of God?  Did any of the brothers start suspecting that this man was Joseph?  Did the fact that he knew their birth order and didn’t sit with the Egyptians not tip them off?  Did Jacob expect to ever see Benjamin again?  Did he care if he saw Simeon?

Lessons:  God was giving the brothers a second chance.  They had mistreated Joseph and He had given them time to grow.  Now Joseph was observing how they would treat Benjamin in a similar circumstance.  Sometimes, God tests us,  lets us grow and then tests us again.  Are we striving to always grow and learn how to walk with the Spirit?  Do we expect to be able to perform better by our own strength?

Judah and Tamar

Story: Judah and Tamar

Passage: Genesis 38

Characters: Judah, Tamar, Er, Onan

Summary: Judah married a Canaanite. They had three sons. Er, his firstborn, married Tamar, but the Lord put him to death before they had children. Judah told Onan to have children with Tamar for Er, but Onan intentionally failed at this and he was also put to death by God. Judah told Tamar to wait for the next son but he never gave her to him. When Judah’s wife dies, Tamar dressed like a prostitute and slept with Judah. She took some of Judah’s items as a pledge. When Judah heard Tamar was pregnant he was going to have her killed, but she produced his pledge and he realized he was the father. He recognized that he had sinned more than her. She had twins, Perez and Zerah. Zerah’s arm came out first, but after they had tied a scarlet cord on his wrist, Perez came out.

Notes: First off, what a weird story! Judah had not distinguished himself yet as being worthy of the inheritance which Reuben, Simeon, and Levi had lost. I don’t feel like this story helps either, but apparently God still chose Him. This shows God’s incredible grace yet again in the old testament. Judah’s actions and the actions of his family were very sinful here and yet God used these circumstances to continue His redemptive line. Judah married a Canaanite. It is obvious that it would not be long before Israel was completely mixed with Canaan. God had plans to solve this issue though. Anyway, we never hear the name of this woman. She is only referred to as the daughter of Shua. Their sons were apparently quite wicked as well. We don’t know what Er did, but God felt the need to put him to death. In that culture, it was the next brother’s responsibility to have children for his older brother. This was partially to continue the family line, but also because widows were supposed to be taken care of by their children. So to be a childless widow was a grim future. Anyway, Onan did not fulfill his duty. I believe the issue was not that he did not have kids for his brother, but that while refusing to do his duty, he did not refuse to sleep with Tamar. He used her for his pleasure without the responsibility he had. God saw his wickedness and put him to death as well. At this point, can we blame Judah for being scared to let his last son marry Tamar? In his eyes, Tamar’s husbands die. He probably thought she was to blame when in reality, I suspect he was to blame for how he raised his sons. Anyway, when Judah’s wife died, Tamar set her plan into action. She dressed like a cult prostitute and slept with Judah. First of all, prostitution was a significant part of the pagan religions in Canaan. The fact that Judah took part shows us how far he was straying from following the Lord. God allowed her to conceive from this. Obviously, her actions were deceitful and sinful, but God still had a plan for them. Judah tried to find her to give her his payment. He wanted his pledge back, but he couldn’t find her. More specifically, his friend couldn’t find her. This friend was the man who Judah was visiting when he met his wife. Obviously he was very close with this Canaanite. When Judah found out that Tamar was pregnant by prostitution he was ready to kill her. This seems pretty extreme for someone who was obviously himself mixed up with prostitution. Tamar produces his items he had left with her as a pledge. She trusted that he would realize that he was also guilty. He did. He recognized that he was even guiltier than she was since he did not intend to give his son to her to give her children. This was a pivotal moment in the story of Christ. Would Judah recognize his guilt and show Tamar mercy or would he put her to death for her sins? He recognized his sins and showed her mercy. This allowed her twins to be born. This is incredibly important since Perez, the first one who was actually born, is part of the line of Christ. This whole story is a muddled mess, and yet God chose to use this story to continue the line of people leading to His son being born. I also am intrigued that God used Tamar, who is probably a Canaanite, to bring His son to the world. God had a global vision for the church all the way back in Genesis!

Questions: Why would God use such a messed up family in His plans to save the world? If God can use Judah and company, can he use us with all of our brokenness and baggage? Why was Er put to death? How did Tamar feel about her husbands dying? Why was Judah looking for a prostitute anyway? How did this episode influence Judah’s reputation in the area? With his family? Did Judah end up breaking his ties with Canaan?

Lessons: God chooses to use the most messed up rebellious people to do His work. This is good news for us! If God sees a father who is afraid to give his son to his daughter-in-law so instead he sleeps with a prostitute who turns out to be his daughter-in-law and uses the offspring from this incident to bring His son to the world and save it, then I am encouraged and believe that He can use us with all of our issues to serve Him and do His will. It makes no sense, but as we have seen throughout the book of Genesis, God shows mercy and grace to exactly the people who do not deserve mercy and grace!

Jacob's Children

Story: Jacob’s children

Passage: Genesis 29:31-30:24

Characters: Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph

Summary: The Lord saw that Leah was hated and opened her womb. Meanwhile, Rachel was barren. Leah had four sons. Rachel gave her servant to Jacob as a wife and she had two sons. Leah gave her servant to Jacob and she had two sons as well. Leah had mandrakes but gave them to Rachel in exchange for getting to spend the night with Jacob. She had another son. She ended up having one more son and then a daughter. God listened to Rachel and gave her a son.

Notes: This is basically terrible. First off, Joseph apparently hates Leah. God does not hate her however and gives her children. Her names for her children reveal the purpose behind all these kids though. It was a giant competition. Reuben was first, and his name means “See, a son”. Next was Simeon, which means “Heard”. This was because she said that the Lord had heard that she was hated. Next, she had Levi, which means, “attached” because she hoped Jacob would now be attached to her. Finally she had Judah, which means “Praise” because now she would praise the Lord. I wonder if this implies that Jacob now was noticing and caring for Leah. Rachel envied her sister. She told Jacob, “Give me children or I will die!” This was drastic, but it shows how much she envied her sister. Leah envied the love of Jacob which Rachel had and Rachel envied the kids Leah had. Both were too busy looking at their sister to notice what God had blessed them with. Jacob knew that God was the reason Rachel had no children and got mad at Rachel for blaming him. Rachel gave him her servant Bilhah. The deal was that any kids she had would count as Rachel’s. Sure enough Bilhah gave birth to Dan which means “Judge” because God had judged Rachel and heard her voice. She actually believed God was on her side in this dispute. Next Bilhah gave birth to Naphtali which means “Wrestle”. She wasn’t hiding it anymore, she knew she was wrestling with her sister and she literally named her son wrestle! I feel bad for that kid growing up when he explained his name to people! I also find it funny that Rachel decided she had prevailed! Her servant had two sons in contrast to Leah’s four! Anyway, Leah saw that Bilhah was having sons and they counted for Rachel so she gave Jacob her servant Zilpah. Zilpah gave birth to Gad which means “good fortune”. Next Zilpah gave birth to Asher which means “happy”. Leah was happy that she had more sons. She didn’t care about these kids, just that she was better than her sister. All of these sons were brought into the world as the after effects of a heated competition. Now we see a story involving mandrakes. Reuben had given Leah his mother some mandrakes, which were believed to increase fertility. Apparently Leah was even using her sons to help in this battle with her sister. Rachel asked for the mandrakes. The theory was that Jacob would be more likely to go to the sister with the mandrakes. Leah knew Rachel was basically asking to be more desirable to Jacob. So she set up a deal where Rachel could have the mandrakes as long as Leah still got Jacob. Poor Jacob had no part in this deal. When Jacob got home he was informed by Leah that he had been hired with Reuben’s mandrakes. Leah indeed got pregnant again and had Issachar which means “wages”. Leah believed that this was her reward for giving Jacob her servant. Leah had another son named Zebulun which means “honor” because she assumed that now Jacob would honor her. Leah then had a daughter named Dinah. God finally at this point allowed Rachel to bear a son named Joseph which means “May He add” and it sounds like “take away” because god took away her reproach and she wanted Him to add to her another son. Overall, this mess was totally the result of jealousy as a result of favoritism. Neither sister could look at her own blessings but rather looked at her sister’s blessings. As a result, Jacob ended up with eleven sons at this point and one daughter. There is a reason God set marriage up to be between a single woman and a single man. Later He also forbids marrying sisters. This is a perfect example of why that law makes total sense!

Questions: What did Jacob think of all this? How did the children feel when they realized they were the result of a big competition? Did Laban feel guilty that he had made Jacob marry both of his daughters?

Lessons: An important lesson I see here is to avoid jealousy and covetousness. If Rachel or Leah had focused on the ways God had blessed them and not wanted their sister’s blessing as well, this conflict would not have happened. Leah would have been happy having sons and raising them and Rachel would have been happy with the love she was receiving from Jacob. In the same way, if we are wanting to be blessed like someone else we know is, we need to stop and look at all the ways God has already blessed us.