Genesis 50:20
Although Joseph spent most of his life in Egypt, he represents Jewish manhood at its best . He had clean hands and a pure heart, yet he suffered considerably because of what others did to him. His father pampered him and his older brothers hated him and sold him as a slave. His master's wife lied about him, and he was imprisoned and forgotten by everybody except God.
They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, wrote the psalmist. — Psalm 105:18
The Anglican Prayer Book version of 1877 reads, "The iron entered into his soul ." I have a feeling that Joseph experienced both kinds of suffering. What a man!
It has well been said that what life does to us depends on what life finds in us, and this truth is no better demonstrated than in the history of Joseph. Here we will focus primarily on Joseph, but to appreciate his response to what God permitted him to experience, we must take time to examine the responses of his father and his ten brothers.
THE BROTHERS: "WHAT IS GOD DOING TO US?"
Their actual response was, "What is this that God has done to us?" (Genesis 42:28), and they said it when one of them found his money for grain returned in his full grain sack. What a shock! Each man's conscience was smiting him, and each man was afraid of what the Lord was going to do. Had they thought about the justice of the Lord when they sold Joseph, they never would have sinned as they did, but they were sure they could get away with it.
When they arrived home, they all found their money in their sacks; and then they had to tell their father that Simeon was being held hostage in Egypt. But the news got worse: the Egyptian lord would release Simeon only if they brought Benjamin along on their next trip. Joseph had learned from his dreams that all eleven brothers had to bow before him (Genesis 37:5-11), so he kept Simeon and demanded to see Benjamin.
The brothers' evil conduct was catching up with them. They had hated Joseph and couldn't speak to him without showing their hostility. Jacob, Joseph, and Benjamin had each other, but the ten older brothers made life miserable for Joseph. According to Genesis 50:15, they wronged him, treated him badly (Genesis 50:17), and intended to harm him (Genesis 50:20) . In spite of his tears and entreaties, they threw him into a pit, plotted to kill him, and then sold him — their own brother! — as a slave (Genesis 42:21-22).
In being cruel to Joseph they were also cruel to Jacob. They lied to him and told him that Joseph was dead, and they even manufactured "evidence" to convince their father they were telling the truth. Sir Walter Scott was right — "O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Jacob didn't see his beloved son Joseph for more than twenty years, and he grieved for his son, thinking he was dead. How wicked for those brothers to lay this fictitious burden of sorrow on their father in his old age! Yes, Jacob was being paid back for lying to his own father, but that doesn't excuse the brothers for their lies and cruelty.
What was God doing? He was bringing them to the place of truth, repentance, confession, and forgiveness. God was using Joseph to deal with them in a wise and patient way.
JACOB — "GOD IS DOING NOTHING!"
Jacob didn't say that God was doing nothing, but that's the way he felt in his heart. What he said was,
Everything is against me! — Genesis 42:36,
and it certainly looked that way.
Consider his trials. There was a famine in the land, and his sons had to travel to Egypt for food to sustain the large family. Jacob thought his beloved son Joseph was dead, and now his son Simeon was being held hostage in Egypt. Even worse, the ruler of Egypt said he wouldn't release Simeon until the brothers brought Benjamin with them on their next trip. Both Benjamin and Joseph were the only sons of Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife, now deceased, and Jacob couldn't bear losing both of them. No matter where he turned, Jacob faced painful problems and had to make difficult decisions. Where was the Lord?
Jacob was forgetting the promise God made to him long ago at Bethel.
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. — Genesis 28:15
When Jacob fled from Laban, God said to him,
Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you. — Genesis 31:3
"I will not leave you" — that's the negative. "I will be with you" — that's the positive. And the night that he wrestled with the Lord, Jacob's name was changed from Jacob to Israel. He had struggled with God and was now an overcomer, a prince with God. Surely his ever-present limp would remind him of this.
If God is for us, who can be against us? — Romans 8:31
Let's not be too hard on Jacob; after all, where would he get spiritual help in his family? Furthermore, you and I already know how the story ends, and that makes it easier for us to smile and quote Romans 8:28. "Jacob, don't say that everything is working against you! God says it is all working for your good." But Jacob didn't know Romans 8:28, and he was a man with a broken heart. The next time our own world is shattered and we wonder if God really cares, maybe we'll better understand how he felt.
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