So we're in Genesis chapter 43,
and we're going to read the first 17 verses. So Genesis chapter
43 and verse one. And the famine was sore in the
land, and it came to pass when they had eaten up the corn which
they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them,
go again, buy us a little food. And Judas spake unto him, saying,
The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not
see my face, except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send
our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send him,
we will not go down. For the man said unto us, Ye
shall not see my face except your brother be with you. And
Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell
the man whither he had yet a brother? And they said, the man asked
us straightly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your
father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And
we told him, according to the tenor of these words, Could we
certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down?
And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me,
and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both
we and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him,
of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto
thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for
ever. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned this second time. And their father Israel
said unto them, if it must be so now, do this. Take of the
best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down the man
a present, a little balm and a little honey, spices and nuts
and almonds. And take double money in your
hand and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks,
carry it again in your hand. Peradventure, it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise,
go again unto the man. And God Almighty give you mercy
before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children,
I am bereaved. And the men took that present,
and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin, and
rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. And
when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of
his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready, for
these men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph
bade, and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Sometimes in life, and sometimes
in families, when hard decisions have to be made we just stop
talking about it and hope that the problem will go away. And
usually, it doesn't. And sooner or later, need requires
action. And that's what happened here.
Jacob's sons could not return without Benjamin, But Jacob refused
to let his youngest son leave home. So that there was an impasse. It was as if no one could move.
The brothers couldn't go to Egypt to get food and Jacob wouldn't
let the son, Benjamin, go. No action was taken. But all the time, The corn from
Egypt was being used up and used up until there was very little
left. And Jacob could delay no more. He knew that he had to make a
decision. He knew that he had to let Benjamin
go. It grieved the old man, but what
else could he do? He was forced to agree to let
Benjamin go. And I just want to point out
three little things from this passage that I think it teaches
us today. And it doesn't matter how old
or how young we are. There are things that happen
in life that we would not choose, but which we have no control
over. We do not want those things to
happen, but ultimately we have to accept it because there's
no other option. And that's not a good feeling.
We feel cornered or we feel trapped by the circumstances around about
us and we feel as if we're being forced into something that we
don't want to do. And I think that this is how
Jacob felt. Need, the need of his family,
the need of his sons, the need of their wives, the need of their
children, Jacob's grandchildren, and the needs of the servants
that he had, all meant that he had to give way on this point
about sending Benjamin. Need forced him to act against
his will. There was nothing else for him
to do. But actually, there was something
that Jacob could do. And Jacob acted very wisely in
this bad situation. Do you remember what he did?
He told the sons that they were to prepare a present for the
man. They keep calling him the man,
the governor, the man in Egypt. Little did they know that this
man was really Jacob, their brother, sorry, Joseph. their brother
and Jacob's son. They keep calling him the man
but they were to prepare a gift for the man in Egypt. And that shows us that there
were still some delicacies left in Canaan that they were able
to gather up. These spices and the honey and
the nuts Maybe they were things that were durable and they could
be kept for a number of years and therefore they had them in
store or in stock or something, even in a time of famine. But
there were still some things that bespoke the wealth and the
fertility, the fruitfulness of this land of Canaan. And Jacob
suggested that these are taken down to the man in Egypt for
a gift. Something else he did was he
sent double money. In case there had been any misunderstanding,
in case there had been an oversight or a mistake, he sent double
money, saying you can have the original money and here is money
for some more corn. And so Jacob did both of these
things. He sent a gift and he sent double
money. But most of all, He prayed and
he put the whole matter into the hand of the Lord. I wonder if you noticed that,
how important that was. He asked the Lord for help. He says, God Almighty give you
mercy before the man that he may send away your other brother
and Benjamin If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. You see, Jacob realized that
he was in a situation that he couldn't fix. He was in a situation
that he couldn't do anything but comply. But he did what he
could in a bad situation and he prayed to God and he left
it in God's care and keeping. Sometimes people say to us, don't
worry, God's in control. And that's true. But it's hard
not to worry. Because our thinking and our
flesh and our fear and our anxiety at the unknown causes us to worry. But God is in control. And when we have done all that
we can, we do well to quietly commit our case into God's care
and keeping, and then ask for grace to submit to the outcome
of God's will and God's wisdom for us. So that was the first
thing that I wanted us just to note here, how Jacob placed this
in the hands of God. And the second thing is this,
that this little passage introduces us to the idea of surety and
suretyship. Now that's not a word or words
that we use very often these days. But here's what it means.
It means that one person acts as a surety or security for another. That one person promises to do
something at some time in the future on another's behalf so
that Judah became surety to Jacob for Benjamin and he said Jacob
said to sorry Judas said to Jacob there's too many people's names
beginning with J here Judas said to Jacob that he would ensure
that Benjamin returned he would stand for Benjamin and Benjamin
would come back from Egypt. Now, in a sense, Jacob was, I'm
sorry, Judah was only hoping that everything would go well. But he did pledge his life that
Benjamin would come home. And indeed later he tells Joseph,
we had read on in another chapter, in chapter 44 and verse 32, that
he had indeed become surety for Benjamin and he offers to become
Joseph's slave so that Benjamin could return home to his father. That's an important principle
about suretyship that we begin to see being taught here in this
passage. Because in a book in the New
Testament, the book of Hebrews, we are told that Jesus promised
his father that he would safely deliver God's children, God's
elect, by providing all that they needed, supplying all that
they lacked, paying every debt that they had incurred, and that
he would give his precious blood in death for their sin that they
might have life. Judah, he would do all in his
power for Benjamin's safety and the Lord Jesus Christ has done
all that is necessary for the safety and salvation of the elect
of God. The writer to the Hebrews tells
us in chapter 7 verse 22, by so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. So here is a picture of Jacob
standing for Benjamin before, of Judas standing for Benjamin
before Jacob and of Jesus standing before God his father on behalf
of us. And the third point that we have
is that we shouldn't leave this passage without noting Joseph's
joy at seeing Benjamin. What a change took place here. The last time the brothers heard
from Joseph it was harsh words that he was speaking against
them. Now they are welcomed into Joseph's
own house in order to dine with him. How strange these circumstances
appeared to the brothers. And yet they were not strange
to Joseph because Joseph was working out a plan of salvation
and deliverance for his brothers and for their families. And our
Lord Jesus Christ is working all things together for our good. He delights in you and in me
if we are his followers, just as Joseph delighted in Benjamin. And sometimes the events of our
lives seem strange and puzzling and contradictory and we don't
understand what's happening, like Joseph's brothers didn't
understand what was happening. And though sometimes the Lord
speaks to us harshly, Let us not lose faith in him, but let
us trust in our Saviour. Let us trust our Lord Jesus Christ,
who loves his brothers and his sisters, and who will bring us
safely home. Bring us to his home, that we
might dine with him at his table in heaven. May the Lord bless
these thoughts to us. Amen.