Genesis Chapter 43

Israel Drawn Again To Egypt – Famine Severe – Survival At Stake

Keep in mind that those in other lands have no idea how long this Terrible Famine will last; all they see is that many are starving to death! Jacob’s entire family is also at risk of starvation. As the Holy Spirit reveals the dynamics behind this continuing ‘Tribulation’, keep in mind the future ‘Tribulations’ we must also face. We continue to see History fulfilling the Promises given to Abraham in Genesis 15:13. Look for the figures of speech: SIMILE: Resemblance; ALLEGORY: comparison by representation; METAPHOR: Representation; HYPOCATASTASIS: An implied resemblance or representation; TYPE: A figure or example of something future; ANALOGY: Resemblance in some areas between things otherwise unlike. Again, be aware of things pointing to our Redemption only through Jesus.

43:1-2

The famine is now so severe, that many people and animals are dying of starvation. Although Jacob and his family had carefully rationed out the grain they obtained from Egypt, they saw no lessening of the famine, and their very lives were now threatened. Jacob, who was wealthy, still had money and valuables that might be traded for food to save his family from certain death. So he again tells his sons to go back to Egypt to buy more food for their survival.

43:3

All the brothers knew that they didn’t dare try to return to Egypt unless the met the requirements of the Governor; whom they identified as ‘the man’. So Judah steps up to be the one who confronts his father, by reminding him that ‘the man’ sternly and solemnly warned them not to return to Egypt UNLESS their younger brother, whom they had said was with their father, was with them, and came before him. Judah is seemingly begging his father to send Benjamin with them, so they can safely return to Egypt and purchase the desperately needed grain. Judah also hopes to be able to rescue his brother, Simeon who is being held in the Egyptian prison.

43:4-5

Judah continues his negotiating with his father by telling him that IF he will allow Benjamin to go with them back to Egypt to by ‘you’ food. Notice that Judah tells Jacob the food is being purchased for Jacob! Yet, the food is needed for all of them. Perhaps it was because the responsibility of providing for the family was put on the head of that family, which was Jacob. keep in mind that all the brothers are now adults, some with families of their own! Yet, the survival of the entire ‘family’ or ‘household of Israel’ would fall on the Ruler of that household, who was Jacob. Judah goes on to say that IF Jacob refuses to allow Benjamin to go with them to Egypt, then none of them can dare go, because ‘the man’ said they would NOT be allowed to even see his face unless their youngest brother was with them.

43:6

Now we see the ‘blame game’ we all know so well; Jacob tells them: IF you hadn’t done this wrong, and told ‘the man’ about having another brother, then all this evil would not have come upon me! This disaster is ALL YOUR FAULT… because…. Have we ever done that? Instead of trying to find a solution or remedy for the problem, we begin to point fingers at others, who may even be responsible for the problems, yet, blaming and pointing a ‘you are guilty’ finger at others, never solves the problem, does it? What happens instead? We try to defend ourselves.

43:7

Sure enough! They all begin to defend themselves, saying that ‘the man’ asked them specific questions about themselves and their family. Remember, at first Joseph had accused them of being ‘spies’. They had insisted they were ‘honest men’ and they knew that they had to tell the truth about anything he asked them. Why? Because all Joseph had to do was separate them, ask each one the exact same questions, and the answers would have to be exactly the same, OR he, Joseph, would KNOW they were lying. They were on the defensive, and fearful, after being accused of being spies! So the brothers tell their father that ‘the man’ specifically asked if their father was still alive, and did they have another brother? So they all answered truthfully. Then they ended their defense with: “How could we know that he would demand that we bring our brother back to him in Egypt?.”

43:8

Jacob is silent. Probably because he is dreading making the decision to release Benjamin to them so they can return to Egypt to buy the desperately needed grain. The only alternative is for all the entire family of Israel to die of starvation. Jacob is no doubt frantically thinking what other alternatives he can come up with. Have we ever done that? We can’t face the reality of any of the answers that are before us, all look like disasters to us. That is the position that Jacob finds himself in. Judah again begins to negotiate and beg his father to allow him, personally, to take Benjamin with them back to Egypt so that they may buy the desperately needed grain for Jacob, for their families, and especially the little children, who would certainly die without the grain.

43:9

Judah continues to negotiate with Jacob by pledging before all of them that he, Judah, will be the Security for the safety of Benjamin, that he will personally be responsible to bring him back safely to Jacob. If he fails to do so, then he will personally bear the blame forever. By this pledge, Judah is stating that all he has, and is, will be the Surety for his, Jacob’s, beloved son. Not just for this world, but forever, meaning for all eternity. Can we see the prophecy here? Remember, Jesus, our Security for all eternity, was to be born of the house of Judah.

43:10

Jacob is still silent. So Judah continues his heartfelt pleas by stating that the more they linger, the longer it will take to return the second time. This is also a reminder to Jacob that they had returned to him after their first trip to Egypt; so Judah is asking his father Jacob to trust him to also return the second time. Remember it was Judah who had the plan to sell Joseph; now he must again plan for the future good of all of them. Putting off a painful decision sometimes can make the situation worse. In this case, it was the absence of enough food to even survive; so this was certainly true.

43:11-12

Obviously Jacob has been carefully, and no doubt prayerfully, considering exactly how they must plan their return trip to Egypt to see ‘the man’. Jacob’s comment of ‘IF it must be so,’ …means that he concurs with Judah’s plan; that they have no choice, if they hope to survive, they and their families and children. Jacob tells them they must take with them the choicest produce of their land, balm, honey, spices, pistachio nuts and almonds; as a gift to ‘the man’. He then tells them to take double the grain money with them, as well as all the money that had been put back in the sacks. Although Jacob states that the money being back in their sacks ‘might’ have been an ‘oversight’, he probably knows otherwise. He carefully plans everything to make certain that they have made every effort to find favor with ‘the man’. When we are in a difficult situation, do we make every effort to carefully plan out the details of trying to find the ‘best way’ to please or ‘find favor’ with our benefactor? Who, exactly is our True Benefactor?

43:13-14

Jacob then tells them they may take their brother and go and return to ‘the man’. Then Jacob ends with the most important thing he can do: he ends with a prayer for God Almighty to give them all mercy and favor before ‘the man’, that he would release their older brother Simeon as well as Benjamin to them, so that they all may be safely returned to him. Jacob ends with ‘If I am bereaved of my sons, I am bereaved’. He is now openly telling all of them with his heartfelt prayer to God, El Shaddai, that he is willing to accept the Will of God Almighty, no matter what it is. Jacob has no guarantees, yet he is trusting God for the outcome; stating he will accept whatever God allows. Jacob echos True Truth and Faith: “Not my will, but your Will be done.” Can we do that with our prayers? If God allows the outcome to be something painful to us, can we still Trust God and accept His Will? Remember, Jesus did exactly that; He obeyed and trusted His Father and suffered and died, just for us.

43:15

They all take the ‘present’ that Jacob had arranged; also taking double the money for the food they wanted to buy, and also the money that had been returned to them and quickly returned to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

43:16-17

When Joseph sees Benjamin with his brothers, he now knows that they are continuing to ‘turn around’ and do what is right and good. He would have also known that it would not have been easy for his father to allow Benjamin to go to Egypt with the older brothers, especially since he had imprisoned Simeon. So he immediately tells the Steward of his own household to slay an animal and make a feast for all of them; bringing the men to his own home, to eat at noon. The Steward obeys Joseph’s command and has the men brought into Joseph’s house.

43:18

All the brothers now fear the very worst; obviously still feeling the guilt of their past sins against Joseph and their father. They fear that the reason they are being brought to ‘the mans’ house, must be the money that was mysteriously placed in their travel bags; and that Joseph will force all of them to become his slaves, even taking their animals. It’s amusing that they ‘worry’ about losing their animals when they possibly could lose their lives, or be made slaves! Do we also get our priorities mixed up when we fear the worst?

43:19-22

So when they came to Joseph’s house they immediately began to tell the Steward of the house of their defense on behalf of themselves. They insisted that they came only to buy food, and that when they stopped at the inn for the night, they ‘discovered’ the money they had paid for the food back in their sacks, not realizing it was there as they had traveled from Egypt. They insisted that they knew nothing about how it got there, and brought back every bit of it to return to Joseph. And in addition, they had brought more money to pay for more food that was needed by their families.

43:23-24

The Steward shocks them by giving them a godly greeting of Peace be to you, fear not! He goes on to say that their God had given them treasure in their sacks. Notice that he identifies God as their God and the God of their father. He states that he had received their money; he then brings Simeon out to join them. So they received a welcome greeting of Peace and were assured they had nothing to fear; and Simeon was released unharmed to them! We can be certain that they were probably in a state of shock; receiving a warm welcome instead of being enslaved! They were fully expecting God’s judgement to fall on all of them, instead they are receiving God’s blessings! They are brought into the house and given the gracious courtesy of giving them water to wash their feet and also the men feed their donkeys. They no doubt wonder, ‘What is happening?’

43:25-26

The brothers quickly make the ‘present’ they had brought, ready to present to Joseph when he came at noon; for they were told they were to eat a meal there. When Joseph arrives, they immediately bring him the ‘present’ and bow down to the earth before him, doing him great honor and respect and again fulfilling Joseph’s dreams of Genesis 37:7.

43:27-30

Joseph continues his testing and questioning of his brothers, still without their knowledge of who he really is. He now graciously asks about their own welfare first, then asks about the ‘old man’ who is their father, and if he is still alive. It is interesting that they refer to their father as ‘Your servant’. They continue to bow down to the earth and indicate total submission to Joseph. Joseph looks up and see’s his brother Benjamin, his mother’s only other son; and asks if this is the youngest brother, whom they had told him of. They affirm he is and then Joseph says “God be gracious to you, my son.” In their culture this would have been a particularly loving and endearing blessing. At this point, Joseph cannot contain his heartfelt emotions and hurries from the room to his private chamber to weep.

43:31-32

After Joseph takes some time to restrain himself, he washes his face to hide his weeping; then return to the room, actually a great hall, and orders that the dinner is to be served. The servants carefully set food before Joseph in a separate area, probably above the lower floor. Then they set food before the brothers, who are served at the lower level at a separate table and area by themselves. They then serve the Egyptians who eat with Joseph by themselves according to their custom. Notice that we are told the Egyptians would have considered it an ‘abomination’ to eat food with the Hebrews. Discrimination against ‘inferior’ people was a part of their culture.

43:33-34

Joseph’s eleven brothers are all given seats below him, where he can see and view them all. Each one is assigned a seat in their exact birth order, from the eldest down to the youngest, Benjamin. All the brothers are amazed and shocked to see that the Egyptians know their very birth order. The mathematical chance of knowing their birth order was one out of 39,917,000! Yet, they seem to minimize this important fact. Then Joseph takes and sends additional servings down to the table to his brothers. The amount he orders given to Benjamin was five times as much as any of the others. They all noticed the obvious difference. They relaxed, and ate and drank freely and became merry with him.
It is interesting that they so easily let their guard down to trust the Steward and of course, the Governor, who is Joseph, after being filled with such fear and dread just a few hours earlier. Perhaps it was because of the special references to ‘their’ God and the blessings pronounced on all of them. The fact that they were placed in their respective birth order for the seating, may have also assured them that God was in charge; yet that fact should have made them uneasy. In any case, when things seem to suddenly improve, we should not become complacent or neglectful of thanking God for His provision and care for us; even thinking that our testing is over. Ever have things get better, or seem to have the difficulties resolved; and you fail to continue to thank and trust God? Little do the brothers know that Joseph is preparing to continue his testing of his brothers with even stronger methods to the point of causing them to fully submit themselves to God. God is NEVER finished testing us; when we finally learn a Truth and fully obey God, new ‘Tests’ will come, count on it! Remember, this is the ONLY way God changes our character traits into those He has planned for us. Our goal should be to become more and more like Jesus. That is exactly what Joseph learned during his years of long and painful trials and tribulations.