Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Surprises are wonderful things, aren’t they? Normally they bring shouts of joy, big smiles, maybe even leaping up and down simply overwhelmed! I love watching people when they are totally surprised. But once in a great while a surprise is terrifying, isn’t it?
I left you yesterday with 9 brothers walking out of a storehouse city in Egypt, leading their mules loaded with precious grain during a terrible famine. They are all sons of Jacob, heading back on a trip of about 200 miles to their families who are near starvation. As they stop for their first night’s rest, they pull those heavy sacks off their mule’s backs and the record says: “At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey and he saw his silver in his sack. Shocked, he said, ‘my silver has been returned, here it is in my sack!’ Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, ‘what is this that God has done to us?” (Gen. 42:27,28)
I’m sure each of the brothers quickly pulled their grain sacks off their donkey and opened the tie strings to see… and sure enough, the silver pouches they’d given to the Egyptian grain sellers were all back in their sacks loaded with grain. What could it possibly mean? They had been accused of being spies and now they would surely be convicted of stealing this money. The dungeon awaited them for sure, and possibly slavery or even death! Egyptians were ruthless with thieves.
Step back a moment my friends and look closely. Simeon their brother is down deep in an Egyptian dungeon wondering if he’ll ever see the light of day or one more day of freedom, and replaying in his mind the day he and his brothers had sold their younger brother as a slave. Perhaps Simeon looked around this dungeon and wondered if his brother Joseph had ended up in a place like this, maybe even this place, 20 years ago! Oh the remorse Simeon must have grieved that night!
In his palatial bedroom that night, Joseph likely had eaten a great meal, and cool night breezes blew through his windows but he was not in bed…he was likely pacing the floor, unable to sleep, replaying in his mind the events of this day, the look on Simeon’s face when he was shackled and dragged off to prison. The looks on his brothers faces as they watched him go, then loaded their donkey’s with full sacks of grain and headed out into the crowds of hungry people. Joseph wondered, which of the brothers would first discover the surprise? Joseph had shocked the grain sellers when he had instructed them to fill the sacks as normal, but then to replace all the money the brothers had paid for the grain, each back into their sacks, but do so unnoticed. Of course the grain sellers had bowed in respect and done exactly as Joseph had instructed them.
The grace Joseph had shown his deceitful, hateful brothers who had sold him as a slave 20 years ago, was now doubled to overflowing grace as they sat holding their silver in their hands, looking at sacks full of free grain! It’s a picture my friends, another picture of God’s overflowing grace that is poured out on every human being every day. So many people ignore God, refusing to acknowledge God, some declaring there is no God, some mocking God and declaring they have no need of God and no interest in God. And yet the very breath they breathe to speak those words is a grace gift from God! Every heartbeat is a grace gift from God. Every moment of life is a grace gift from God! Think about how much grace God has poured out on YOU my friend, since the day you were conceived!! How do you even begin to calculate the overflowing grace of God and what has been your response to God’s grace gifts to you?? Is there something you want to say to God right now my friends?
I wonder if any of those brothers slept that night? Rising before daylight, they reloaded their donkeys and were on their way, discussing how they would possibly explain this to their old father, Jacob. The record says: “When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them…” My guess is if Jacob was standing when they began their story, it didn’t take him long to sit, and perhaps even begin to tremble in fear. They each opened their grain sacks and showed Jacob. Old Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” (Gen. 42:36) Is there a place beyond despair my friends? If so, that is where Jacob went that day. His heart broke… again. He wept, perhaps inconsolable.
Finally Reuben, his firstborn son said “Father, you may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring Benjamin back to you. Entrust him to my care and I promise I will bring him back.’ But Jacob refused. “My son will NOT go down there with you; his brother Joseph is dead and he is the only son of my Rachel remaining. If harm comes to him on the journey, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in deep sorrow.” (Gen. 42:37,38) Jacob arose from where he sat, took his walking stick and walked away from his sons, probably taking with him his beloved Benjamin. I don’t know exactly how old Benjamin would have been that day, perhaps 30 or 35 years old. I can see them sitting under a tree together weeping. Jacob felt so all alone even though surrounded by his very large family. I wonder what they talked about? Finally, I presume Benjamin left old Jacob sitting in his despair all alone.
As Jacob looked out into the distance, I imagine he replayed his life story in his mind’s eye, going all the way back to his boyhood. Loved by his mother, tolerated by his father, always in rivalry with his brother Esau. Deceitfulness, arguments, running for his life, 400 miles to Haran. Deceived by Laban his uncle, as he worked 14 years for Rachel, but was forced to also marry her sister Leah. Jealous wives, sisters. Barren sisters, so sons by their maid servants as surrogate mothers. Oh my what a dysfunctional family of discord. Rachel’s death as they moved from Bethel, the place where twice Jacob had encountered God! Then that dreadful day when his sons brought that beautiful coat he’d given to Joseph, shredded by an animal and blood-soaked. I think he remembered the thought that day that surely life could never be more painful than that… but today, life reached a new depth of gut wrenching pain for Jacob.
I imagine Jacob looked up to the sky and may have said something like this: “God of my father Isaac and my grandfather Abraham. I have profoundly failed as a father, a husband, and as one entrusted with the great Covenant promise you gave both Abraham and Isaac. Take my life, I am as good as dead. I have no reason to keep living…” We have no record of Jacob saying that, but since we know Moses said something like that one day (Number 11:14,15) and Elijah the prophet said something like that (1 Kings 19:4), I well imagine Jacob did also. May I ask…have you ever been in that deep, dark, desperate place my friends?
Listen to these words from Jesus:
* “Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)
* “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
* “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
* “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20)
And may I offer you these two great Psalms of hope for people in those places of great despair… Psalm 40 & Psalm 116!
We have no record of what happened with Jacob or his family over the next several months, for the next entry in the record of Genesis says: “Now the famine was severe in the land. So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, ‘Go back to Egypt and buy us a little more food.’ But his son Judah said, “Father, the man warned us solemnly, ‘you will not see my face again unless your youngest brother is with you.” (Gen. 43:1-3) I assume they ate that Egyptian grain sparingly, stretching it as far as they could and as those sacks neared the bottom, I can only imagine the pain in Jacob’s heart as he faced the choice… send Benjamin back to Egypt with his sons to buy more grain, or die of starvation! Of course he had no guarantee Benjamin would ever return from Egypt. Oh the painful results of all those deceitful things Jacob had done in his younger years so many years ago.
It’s good for us to look closely into Jacob’s painful situation isn’t it my friends. We reap what we sow, don’t we? What are you reaping in 2021 that you sowed maybe many years ago? Are you ready yet to call upon God for a showering of His overflowing, forgiving, healing grace? I invite you to read those two Psalms 40 & 116 and worship with this song my friends. . .
Today’s Scripture is Genesis 42:27-43:5.
Choose below to read or listen.
Genesis 42:27-38
 |  |
Genesis 43:1-5
| |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email
WhatsApp