God’s Graciousness in the Midst of Fear

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​What are you waiting for in your life? Really sit back and think about it for a second. Maybe you are in the midst of a family situation or physical pain that you would say you are waiting for it to stop. Maybe you are waiting for kids to get a bit older, or have a bit more money in the old account, or hit a certain level of your career. Why are you looking forward to these things? If I could venture a guess, based on my own mind, we’re really looking for peace. It’s not really looking for nothing happening in our lives, just the ability to move through life only thinking about what is in front of you. 

The characters in our passage this story have many things occupying their minds. We’ve got a famine, a grave concern we’ve not had to feel; we have lingering guilt from a two decade’s old betrayal; we have a family conflict stemming from favoritism strengthened from loss; most severely, we have the crushing parental dread of a child potentially in harms way. Where on earth does this family find peace? They are so far in the hole. We can say that they need to trust God, and we find evidence here that they do, but it is pretty buried in a lot of other motivations? Can they find peace, and if they can, can we? 

Today, our main point is this: God can use even fear-filled obedience to bring peace to His people. 

God can use even fear-filled obedience to bring peace to His people. 

​In these first ten or so verses, we aren’t seeing the ideal of unshakeable faith in this family, but there are some bright spots. 

If you remember from last chapter, we left Jacob refusing to let Benjamin go down to Egypt, effectively consigning Simeon to life-long prison in Egypt. However, some time has passed as they’ve gone through all the grain. He approaches the brothers to tell them to go get a little bit more food. But there’s a problem: they can’t get any without Benjamin coming with them! That old family wound again! 

Jacob’s fear flares into another wild accusation towards the brothers: the only reason he is in this position is because of their loose lips, certainly not his fearful hesitation! He blamed them for the loss of Simeon, so why not this? The men respond to this with the obvious truth that they are just as surprised as Jacob, but it is Judah who steps forward to actually solve the fight: he will personally offer his life in exchange for Benjamin. 

Judah is appealing to a couple things here. One, unlike Reuben, he puts himself at risk, not a grandson, and then subtlety in verse 10, tells Jacob that this could have been over with already. It has been such a delay, they could have come and gone twice. This is an appeal to pragmatism and personal emotional comfort of Jacob. 

What is missing here in this exchange? ANY reference to the promises of God! Has He not promised that Israel would be a great nation? That there would be descendants and a blessing protecting them from the nations surrounding them? Has not God already delivered Israel’s grandfather from the very country he fears to go? 

In Israel’s response, he relies on a few coping mechanisms to deal with the fear. He resorts to an old trick, send a gift. After all, it seemed to work with Esau (see chapter 33), so let’s do that with this “lord of the land.” Obviously, we will attempt to return the money, after all, maybe the whole thing is just a misunderstanding (a misunderstanding that happened with ten sacks that all happened to belong to the same family? A stretch—but whatever you have to tell yourself). 

These aren’t wrong things to do, of course, but they make a poor substitute for God’s promises. We are always looking for iron-clad guarantees on everything from shake weights to parenting, but there is no formula for making life the way you want it. In fact, the only real guarantee we have from the Bible is that there will be trials (James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7). Yet even in the midst of trials, we can answer Gordon Lightfoot’s question: “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turns the minutes to hours?” by saying that it is in wave itself, for it sent by God’s own hand (Hebrews 12:11). Suffering refines the very faith it is attempting to break. We of course, wouldn’t choose that path which is why we try to grease the wheels as it were. What if I do make sure I read my Bible every day? What if I pray for an hour a day? What if I become a preacher, go to this parenting conference? Will that mean I won’t have to suffer? No. There is no formula to avoid suffering, because that is the usual way we are made more like Christ. More of us is painfully chipped and shaped away, as the image of Christ emerges. As an anonymous poet wrote in a piece called “The Sculptor” “‘Tis as the marble groweth less, the likeness growth more.” 

However, to his credit, we see the reason why he is called Israel rather than Jacob in verses 13-14a. He actually does offer up his son, and offers up a prayer for mercy. Keep that in mind, as we will return to this word later. It closes with a less than “heroic,” “if I am bereaved, I am bereaved” (Ian Duguid, ESV Commentary, 378). Kinda pessimistic resignation. Not exactly spotless faith, but it is obedient nonetheless. And perhaps a deeper faith than we think. As one commentator points out, when his sons disappear over the horizon, Israel is left by himself. No sons, potentially seeing them for the last time, means he is really going to have believe what God said about “descendants like the sand of the sea” (Duguid, 378). 

The story picks up with increasing drama as the brothers—all of them this time—make it to Egypt. Joseph sees that they have indeed followed through on bringing Benjamin, so it is time to move to the next phase of testing. He instructs his steward to invite them for lunch. 

Now, we might think this is a sure sign of favor, but the brothers aren’t so sure. For one, Egyptian officials kept dungeons in their houses, so going to the house wasn’t necessarily a guarantee of safety (Duguid, 379)! Second, they already suspect that God is after them for what they did to Joseph, and there is nothing like a guilty conscience to make one a little jumpy. They imagine all the possibilities: they will surely be beaten, enslaved, and even the donkeys will be taken! Does anyone think of the donkeys?? Trying to head off these troubles, they fall over themselves to present the money that they think this is all about, but the steward, in on the ruse, responds that the money must have simply appeared in their sacks as a gift from God. No need to worry. 

God is truly watching out for them in deeper ways than they could possibly imagine. Rather than being beaten, enslaved, and having donkeys confiscated, their feet are washed! Simeon is returned! Even the donkeys are fed! God has truly taken care of everything. 

But then, the music stops, the drama of the moment is tense as Joseph, the lord of the land, enters the room. Promises and prayers are answered in this moment. The brothers, all of them, bow. Chapter 37 finally fulfilled. But then, Benjamin and Joseph’s eyes lock. Joseph utters the words, “May God be gracious to you” and then leaves because compassion wells up in him so much he must run out to cry it out.

 
Now, this part of Genesis is where Moses shows us his literary skill under the inspiration of the Spirit and a deep example of the benefits of deep Bible study. If you want to learn more, join us next week on Sunday night as we dive deeper into the topic. The word used here translated “gracious” shows up four times in Genesis. One of them is here, obviously, and two of those times follows the phrase “lifted up his eyes and saw.” The last time we saw this was when Jacob confronts Esau in chapter 33:5-6. You don’t even have to know Hebrew! It is a reminder how the last time Jacob thought his family was in threat and sent a gift on ahead of him. Esau embraced him and all was well. God does it again! But what about that fourth time? That showed up in the last chapter, where the ESV translators rightly translated the word “begged” referring to Joseph at the bottom of the pit. The very grace they denied him, he bestows! 

And it gets more! The word translated “compassion” is related to the word “womb,” one dictionary (BDB) called it “brotherly feeling.” The fact that Moses writes “mother’s son” sells that emphasis. Now, that isn’t the first time this word has shown up in this chapter. It shows up in only one other place in Genesis, in Israel’s prayer for “mercy.” It’s the exact same word! He has unknowingly prayed that brotherly feeling would be shown to Benjamin by his brother and God answers that prayer! Even in the midst of faith just strong enough to pessimistically trust his Lord. 

Peace is on its way. The word for peace, Shalom, shows up four times in this chapter (Duguid, 377), and God is well on the way to creating it. And it all starts because of the presence of Benjamin, who, so far, hasn’t said a word. 

Wouldn’t you love to go back in time and tell these brothers what is afoot? They’ve likely checked and triple checked that the double money and almonds were in the sack. They likely rehearsed what they were going to say to this lord of the land to convince that they are honest, when the key to everything is walking right beside them, Benjamin. What if you could tell them that this whole thing is a test meant to make them faithful, and the tester is their own brother who loves them so much he can barely look at them without tears? Would they not have entered that house hiding behind Benjamin? Would they have thought about confiscated donkeys? No! Double money and almonds were the very last thing on Joseph’s mind

So why do we? Well, you might say, we don’t have the same guarantee. You’re right, we don’t, we have a better one! Your life is refining you to be more like Christ, and while you are called to live the way God calls you to in obedience to His law, that will not be what the Father is looking for on the day of judgment. When I stand before God on that day, I’m not pulling up my resume! I’m not bringing double coins, I’m hiding behind Christ saying, “I’m with Him!” Don’t come into God’s throne room bringing things you think He’ll be impressed by. That’s what the false converts of Matthew 7 say. “Did we not do such and such?” What does that matter? Did you know the Son, and more importantly, does the Son know you? 

Are you with Jesus? Are you united to Him? You don’t accept Jesus into your heart, He accepts you into His! Has He? That is the most important question you can possibly know the answer to. Literally nothing else matters. To literal hell with the things that you think impress God. It isn’t the sermons you’ve listened to, the Bible studies you’ve led, the prayers you’ve prayed, these things you ought to have done without neglecting faith in Christ. You aren’t saved by works of the law, but by the grace of Christ. Have you come to Him as a beggar, desperately realizing that standing in Christ’s throne room without His grace is mortal danger? Have you thrown yourself at His mercy? 
If you have, it is prayer that He loves to answer. He tells you to come to Him, and He will go with you. That is what will allow you into heaven. In the same way that the presence of Benjamin allowed the brothers to enter the house of Joseph, so will being with Jesus allow you into heaven. 

Now, lest you think that believing this sort of thing would make you sin more not less, let’s apply this logic to the brothers. Imagine yourself coming up to them while they are arguing back in Canaan about leaving with Benjamin. You step in and say, “Hey guys, listen, Joseph is alive. He is the lord of all the land. He’s the one who has provided the food you ate and the money back in the sacks. In fact, this whole thing is about trying to get you guys to get along and reconcile both with him and with each other. You still gotta go to Egypt to get the grain, but you don’t have to worry. Oh, he told me to give you this letter. He said it has everything he wants you to know.” Do you think for even a moment that they wouldn’t bring the almonds, too? in fact, I bet they pack up everything! “Joseph is alive and loves us?! After all we did? Don’t stop at the almonds! Bring the tents, the sheep! Dad, we’ll carry you to Egypt if we have to! We will live as kings in the most powerful kingdom in the world!” Would they not sing the whole way? Would they not have that letter memorized by the time they got there? 

What’s stopping you? Jesus, whom your sins crucified, is alive and loves you. He invites you this day to repent of your sin and turn to Him. Take the offer of grace, relying only on that. And yes, we gather together to worship Him on Sunday. Think you can make it? 

Kids and adults, that’s where you find peace. Everything you go through is from Jesus’ nail-pierced hand, and you are going to a place that this same hand is preparing. Along the way, there’s something you can do. Israel was old, unable to make the journey, but he could pray. The brothers were inexperienced, but they could walk. Benjamin was young and silent, but he could be there. Each one has something they could do, but even each one of those things was a gift of God’s grace, too. 
So, peace be to you, if you are walking in Christ. You just never know what He is up to. But as we will see in the chapters to come, He’s usually up to something pretty good.