THE STORY OF JOSEPH. EPISODE 9. GENESIS CHAPTER 44: THE TEST OF LOVE

 

CHAPTER 44: THE TEST OF LOVE

In this chapter:

• ØThe brothers are ready to return home with grain supplies after a great hospitality in Egypt
• Ø  Joseph orders that the get their sacks filled with as much as they can carry and their monies secretly put back in the sacks
• Ø  Joseph also orders that his silver cup also be placed secretly  in Benjamin’s sack
• Ø  The brothers depart at the break of dawn, but after travelling a short distance, Joseph orders his steward to go after them and accuse them of stealing Joseph’s silver cup(of divination)
• Ø  The brothers quickly deny any wrong doing and swear to have the culprit cup thief killed and the rest serve as slaves of the ruler of Egypt, in case the cup was to be found with them
• Ø  Unfortunately, the cup is found in Benjamin’s sack.
• Ø  The brothers are distraught, tore their clothes and all of them saddle back to Egypt
• Ø  Upon arrival, the brothers voluntarily plead guilty and offer themselves, all of them, as slaves to the ruler of Egypt: Joseph. Joseph however offers to release all the others except the one in whose sack the cup was found
• Ø  Judah went to great length to plead with Joseph to release Benjamin and enslave him in Benjamin’s place.
• Ø  The chapter ends on a very tense note

The last chapter ended on a very high note and in a joyous feast. This chapter will see a sudden turn of events to the worst for the very last time and only for a short period of time. It starts early in the morning, at the break of dawn when the brothers are ready to leave Egypt to head back to Canaan taking with them the new grain supplies. But not that fast, Joseph has a surprise for them.

Joseph orders that their sacks are packed with as much as they can carry and their monies be secretly restored back in their sacks in full. We note here that the brothers are receiving not as much as their monies could afford, but rather as much as they can carry. Not only is their money not needed or taken but also, they get much more than their money could ever afford.

This is a good reminder of the verse we discussed earlier about the free gifts of God that we are called to partake to our full. The Prophet Isaiah proclaims: Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. (Isaiah 55:1-2, NKJV)

Something else to glean from that verse is that the brothers ended up carrying as per their capacity not per their liquidity. We can say that when we come before God, we should come expecting so much; we should expand our capacity to receive from God, of His grace and mercy and love. What we receive from God is not determined by how much we bring but how much capacity to receive that we bring along. The bible actually teaches that God is able to do abundantly, exceedingly above what we can think or imagine, just as we highlighted in the previous chapter. Earlier on in the study we mentioned how we ought not to expect anything much from man and how we should instead expect as much as possible from God and here is yet another illustration of that truth.

In fact, we can also note that Joseph does not order that the brothers be served with as much as there is to be served but rather as much as they can carry. Again, we can say here that, in the presence of God, there is more than enough grace and mercy, goodness and kindness than we could ever need. We can never exhaust God’s goodness; his mercies, the bible says, are new every morning. We can come for some more each moment and each passing day. The psalmist writes: How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. (Psalms 139:17-18, ESV)

Joseph however orders for something extra to be done unto the brothers: he orders that his silver cup be placed on Benjamin’s sack. This is intended to be the last of a series of tests that Joseph takes his brothers through as we shall soon see. The brothers are quick to depart from Egypt having received more than they bargained for. They must be super excited to return to their elderly father as well as their possibly starving kin carrying loads of supply and an exciting story of their great experience and success on their second mission down in Egypt.

I tend to think that this time they should have been keen enough to check their sacks, just in case some monies were left back in their sacks, in order to avoid the trouble and embarrassment like the one they got from their previous visit. But they are too caught up in the excitement to take any precautions. It seems that they never learnt a lesson from that ‘ugly’ experience from their previous visit. We must not be those that never learn lessons from our past mistakes. We must not throw caution out of the window just because the circumstances seem too favorable for us or just because we are too excited about something.

Joseph waits for the brothers to get on their way for a short distance before he raises the storm on them. Joseph is gracious enough to not allow them to travel too far out before they are forced to turn back. He again shows mercy on them and makes sure that his tests on them are not punitive but rather just intended to prove them. So, his steward catches up with them and stops them with very serious accusations: stealing from the ruler of Egypt! This was a serious offence that would most likely carry a heavy penalty such as capital punishment. The brothers are therefore shaken to the core on hearing the allegations.

Their first instinct is to deny vehemently and even make some irresponsible pledges in case they are found guilty. You see how these folks are unwise in always telling more than they have been asked and pledging more than they could safely or rightly fulfill. They pledge that the one found guilty of stealing the rulers silver cup be put to death and the rest be made slaves to the ruler, if at all the cup is found to be in their midst. They should have at least checked their sacks at first before making such outrageous pledges. This is the same lesson we learned from the previous chapter about not taking oaths or swearing but rather letting our yes to be yes and our no be no. 

Interestingly, the steward does not even go along with their radical pledge or punishment proposal but rather lessens the gravity of the punishment that was to fall upon the culprit. The steward will not have anyone killed for the theft nor everyone enslaved but rather he will have only the culprit simply serve as a slave. The truth of the matter is that the LORD our God does not punish as in accordance to the weight of our sins but he has lessened the punishment for us in chastising us. The psalmist notes: The Lord is compassionate and merciful slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. 9 He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. 10 He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. (Psalms 103:8-10, NLT)

Unfortunately, the cup is found among them. And what’s more? It is found in Benjamin’s sack. The brothers are lost for words and simply turn back to Egypt to meet the ruler. Upon reaching before him they fall to the ground defenseless. Judah now steps up and becomes the spokesman for the brothers. We obviously know why he is the one who does step up: the guilty man is Benjamin, and Judah offered himself as the ransom for him. Had the cup been found in the sack of any of the brothers, Judah would have probably held his peace.

But now the guilty one is Benjamin, and Judah is the surety for him before his father. Judah is hereby acting in the most humane and responsible way. He made a pledge to his father and he will do anything to keep that promise. This is very commendable of him. In fact, in realization that Benjamin is now in deep trouble, Judah changes his plea and pledge to the ruler of Egypt. We see this change of tune when we compare the utterances of Judah in verses in verse 9 vis-à-vis those in verse 16. In verse 9 Judah pledges that whoever is found as having the rulers cup in his sack should be killed and the rest be taken as slaves, but in verse 16, the pledge for death is no more, only that of serving as slaves.

It gets better and deeper as the conversation between Joseph the ruler and Judah the spokesman progresses. The ruler not only accepts the new terms but also makes them more favorable. Joseph does not accept to take all of the brothers as slaves but only the one in whose sack the silver cup was found. However, and that notwithstanding, Judah does not accept that lightened punishment. At this point, Judah actually rises up and steps forward towards the ruler of Egypt to plead more vividly before him for the sake of Benjamin.

By daring to step forward to the ruler of Egypt, Judah is risking his life. He is however doing what his fore father Abraham did when he dared to plead with God over the city of Sodom as recorded in Genesis 18:16-33. This is an act of boldness and courage. But more importantly, this is a great act and show of LOVE! Judah could have been satisfied with the lessened punishment and go home to his father one brother less, but he knew that this was not good enough. He cared enough both for his youngest brother as well as their elderly father. He would rather be left behind as the ransom rather than leave Benjamin behind.

It is important to note here that this act by Judah to be the advocate/mediator and even ransom for his brother not only reminds us of the mediation that Abraham made as highlighted above but even more vividly points us to the mediation of Christ, whom the bible clearly says that He “came from the tribe of Judah” (Hebrews 7:14a, NLT).

 Additionally, and on the same note, we see in verse 33 Judah actually offering to take the place of/ be the substitute for Benjamin in the punishment as a slave of the ruler of Egypt. Again, this is a clear typology/picture of Jesus Christ (from the tribe of Judah) who not only is our Advocate but also the propitiation/atoning sacrifice for our sins as recorded in 1 John 2:1-2: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.(NIV). This is the theological concept/doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement/ Vicarious Atonement.

Judah, therefore, engages Joseph in an in-depth and intimate conversation in a bid to convince him to, at the bare minimum, release Benjamin. In fact, the next sixteen verses, from verse 18 all the way to the end of the chapter in verse 33, is simply a monologue by Judah pleading for his brother Benjamin.  In all that while, Joseph does not interrupt Judah or utter even a single word. He listens carefully as Judah explains how much the young man Benjamin means to his elderly father. And do you know why Joseph gave Judah all this airtime and audience? It is because what Judah was saying is what Joseph was seeking to hear from the brothers all along.

It is important to note here that the above monologue is the single longest (uninterrupted) speech in the book of Genesis. It is a speech of and out of love. That, brothers and sisters, should tell us something profound about the place of love in this whole story.

Joseph had strategically set up a test for the brothers to see whether they cared for their youngest step-brother enough to trade their freedom for his. This  would be the proof of their change of character from hatred to love. Joseph had suffered so much from the envy and hate of his brothers from more than 20 years back and wanted to know if they are still the hateful uncaring folks they used to be. Note that  in the previous chapter, Joseph’s act of serving Benjamin five times more  food than the brothers at the table was a test of whether the brothers were still filled with envy. We saw that the brothers passed that test because they did not even murmur about it.

In this chapter now, we see the brothers put thorough the test of love and it is refreshing to note that the brothers, especially Judah, passed with flying colors. We know that because after Judah is done his monologue pleading, we see that in the next chapter, Joseph could no longer control himself. The brothers had passed this all-important test and the time had come for Joseph to reveal his big secret to them. Had they failed this test, the test of love, they would have been in great trouble.

Brothers and sisters, the bible has a special place for the virtue of love, especially among brethren. Let us briefly discuss some of the teachings about love in scripture. But just before we delve into that, we need to quickly give a definition of love.

Of course, the place to start on this topic is defining God’s love because the purest and most complete expression of love is God’s love. The theologian Wayne Grudem puts it this way in his book Systematic Theology: “God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others. This definition understands love as self-giving for the benefit of others. This attribute of God shows that it is part of his nature to give of himself in order to bring about blessing or good for others.” This is clearly demonstrated in many verses in the bible including the most common of them all: For God so loved the world, that He gave….(John 3:16). In our story here we see love demonstrated by the brothers by their refusal to walk away to their freedom, particularly Judah, and instead choosing to offer himself as ransom in the place of his younger brother Benjamin.

Having defined the term love, let’s now look at several verses in Scripture that teach us more on this topic as we look deeper on how it relates to this chapter in the story of Joseph. We shall however restrict ourselves on love for one another as brethren.

When talking on any biblical subject, Jesus is a good place to start. On this topic of love Jesus had evidently a lot to say. When he was asked by an expert Jewish lawyer on what was  the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses, Jesus masterfully summarized the entire Law as follows: ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  (Matthew 22:37-40, NKJV)

What Jesus is saying here is that if we are to a live a life full of love, the first and foremost thing is to love God; that’s where true love stems from. Jesus then quotes the Old Testament from Leviticus 19:18 that says “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.’ (NIV). And what does “loving your neighbor as oneself mean? To understand the meaning, one should read the verse in its context, basically from verse 9 in the same chapter in Leviticus.

This is how gotquestions.org summarizes the meaning in that context: Notice that loving our neighbor would include sharing with the poor and the alien; compassion and absolute honesty and justice in our relationships with others; impartiality; a refusal to be a party to gossip or slander; an absence of malice toward anyone and a refusal to bear a grudge; taking care never to put another’s life at risk and never taking private vengeance upon another. It is also interesting to note that when we have an issue with anyone, we should strive to make it right by going to him or her directly. James calls this the “royal law” (James 2:8). Our Lord taught that we should do to others as we would have them do to us (Matthew 7:12).  (https://www.gotquestions.org/love-neighbor-yourself.html)

The bible makes it clear that one cannot claim to know or love God if they don’t love their neighbor. The first epistle of John has a lot to say about this, for instance, Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love….If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? ²¹ And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. (1  John 4:7-8, 20-21 NLT)

The Apostle Paul writes to the Church at Corinth and makes a long discourse on this topic as recorded in 1 Corinthians 13 which is probably one of the most quoted texts on this topic. In this chapter Paul explains that no matter the spiritual giftings one may display, without love it’s all vanity. He also gives the nature, character and manifestations of love. He concludes this chapter by these words in verse 13:  And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (NIV)

I could go on and on, indeed one could write a PhD thesis on this topic as covered in scripture. But one cannot over-emphasize the importance and place of love among brethren. Jesus left His disciples with this particular command and exhortation: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35, ESV)

It is interesting to note here from the above verse that, the mark that Jesus gave to the world on how to identify his true followers is the mark of love(brotherly love). It is not speaking in tongues, performing miracles and wonders, living flashy lives, or anything like that, as many modern preachers would like us to believe! Remember, also, that Jesus says, while talking about false prophets, that “by their fruit you will recognize them...” (Matthew 7:16a, NIV). Now, the Apostle Paul clearly explains what this “fruit” is, in the lives of those that are walking in the spirit. This is recorded in Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (ESV)

In our story in this chapter Joseph takes his brothers through a test of love. He wants to know if they love their youngest and step-brother enough to sacrifice everything for his sake and also the sake of their elderly father. It is like he was testing whether they had matured to the point that Paul calls for among the believers at Corinth when he exhorts them to “Do everything in love.” (1 Corinthians 16:14, NIV).

When Joseph is satisfied that the brothers have since changed and grown in love, he revealed himself to them as we shall see in the next chapter, and they can  now come with all of their household and enjoy the abundance of Egypt under Joseph’s care and favor. Brothers and sisters, probably the reason Jesus is not fully manifested in our midst as brethren is because we do not yet do everything in love, we do not love one another enough. There is still dishonesty, jealousy and envy among us and the goodness of God cannot be properly revealed to us until we pass the test of love.