Genesis chapter 44, and we'll
read from verse one. And we're speaking about Joseph
here, and we're still in the history of Joseph and his brothers. And he commanded the steward
of his house, saying, fill the men's sacks with food, as much
as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. and put my cup, the silver cup,
in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did
according to the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning
was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses. And when they were gone out of
the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward,
Up, follow after the men, and when thou dost overtake them,
say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is not this it in which my Lord
drinketh, and whereby, indeed, he divineth, or maketh trial? Ye have done evil in so doing. And he overtook them, and he
spake unto them these same words. And they said unto him, Wherefore
saith my Lord these words? God forbid that thy servants
should do according to this thing. Behold, the money which we found
in our sacks' mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land
of Canaan. How, then, should we steal out
of my Lord's house silver or gold? Whomsoever of thy servants
it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my Lord's
bondsmen.' And he said, Now also let it be according unto your
words. He with whom it is found shall
be my servant, and ye shall be blameless. Then they speedily
took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every
man his sack. and he searched and began at
the eldest and left at the youngest and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. Then they rent their clothes
and ladied every man his ass and returned to the city. And
Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet
there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said
unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? Wot ye not
that such a man as I can certainly divine? And Judah said, What
shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall
we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants,
both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said,
God forbid that I should do so. But the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my servant. And as for you, get
you up in peace unto your father. Then Judah came near unto him
and said, O my Lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a
word in my Lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against
thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh. My Lord asked his
servant, saying, Have ye a father or a brother? And we said unto
my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old
age, a little one. and his brother is dead, and
he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. And
thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that
I may set mine eyes upon him. And we said unto my Lord, The
Lord cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father,
his father would die. And thou saidst unto thy servants,
Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall
see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we
came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my Lord. And our father said, Go again,
and buy us a little food. And we said, We cannot go down,
If our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down. For
we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be
with us. And thy servant my father said
unto us, Ye know that my wife bear me two sons. And the one
went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces,
and I saw him not since. And if ye take this also from
me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my grey hairs
with sorrow to the grave. Now therefore, when I come to
thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that
his life is bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass,
when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die,
and thy servants shall bring down the grey hairs of thy servant
our father with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became
surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto
thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore
I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad as bondsman
to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how
shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me, lest
peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father? Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. It does appear that Joseph's
purpose in all the schemes that he has devised to test these
brothers is to discover what they really think about Benjamin. You'll remember, of course, if
you've been following through these stories, how they have
been jealous of Joseph, sufficient, indeed, to kill him. and only
in the end sold him into slavery, which in their own minds was
the same thing. Were they jealous also of Benjamin? That's what Joseph had to find
out. If Joseph could find out this,
then he would know better how to deal with the Ten Brothers
and how best to protect Benjamin. This wasn't a game that Joseph
was playing with his brothers. Joseph's plan was to gather information
about the brothers' true feelings so that he could act accordingly. And the ruse of placing Joseph's
silver cup in Benjamin's corn sack would reveal the true attitudes
of the brothers towards Benjamin. Would they, for example, abandon
Benjamin just as they had abandoned Joseph? There are three quick
lessons that I want to draw from this little chapter, this narrative
today, and we'll pick them out from the verses. The lessons
are this. There's a lesson here about feelings,
and there's a lesson about guilt, and there's a lesson about the
Lord. And the first one is about feelings. And I just want to draw this
to your attention. Feelings are very useful. And sometimes we get a feeling
that something isn't right. And that can be a good indication
that probably it isn't. and we become alert to the possibility
of danger. And that feeling makes us wise
to watch and be careful about what is happening. But sometimes
feelings can deceive us too. Joseph's brothers were heading
home and they had got up and they had left early in the morning. They probably felt very good
with themselves. They'd had a successful visit.
Everyone was safe. They'd got Simeon back. They
had got lots of corn, more than they had expected. They had got
their money back. They hadn't had to pay the money
that they had brought down from the first time. Maybe somebody
even had a sneak look in some of the sacks to see whether this
time's money was there. Joseph had been friendly to them,
they had feasted at his table, he had welcomed them into his
house and despite all the previous worry, suddenly everything seemed
good about life. They felt good, but what they
didn't know was that even at that very moment when they felt
so good that Joseph's servant was chasing after them and everything
was about to go wrong. But what else they didn't know
was that after this Joseph would reveal himself to be their brother's
and everything would be alright again. And this is the lesson that I
want to draw to your attention. It's a lesson about feelings. That whatever is happening in
our lives to make us happy or to make us sad or to make us
angry or to make us worried and anxious, we should remember that
those feelings will pass and others will come along and take
their place, and they will pass, and then others will come after
them. And we have to be careful sometimes
about the way that we feel. But we must remember that God
is always in control, and God is always to be trusted. So that
whether our life seems bright or dark, We always remember that
God is in control and that our God and our Lord knows what he
is doing. The second lesson that I want
to draw to your attention is about guilt. Because guilt is
a feeling too. Someone once said that feeling
guilty was a waste of time. But God gives us feelings for
a reason. and whether they are good or
bad, they are God's gift to us. God gave us a conscience to teach
us that we need forgiveness. The Apostle Paul calls this the
testimony of our conscience. and we can see the effect of
guilt and conscience when we listen to Judah speaking to Joseph. He doesn't know that it's Joseph,
his brother, and he is speaking to him and he has opened his
heart to Joseph. Joseph asked him a question in
verse 14. Joseph asked, what deed is this
that ye have done? And Judah replies, God hath found
out the iniquity of thy servants. And I don't think that Judah
was referring to the silver cup at that moment. It had been more
than 20 years since Joseph had been sold into slavery, but still
the guilt remained like an open wound on the consciences of these
brothers. Feelings do come and go, but
when God uses our guilt, when God touches our conscience to
show us that we have a need of forgiveness, then it is wise
to go to Him for the help that only He can give. True forgiveness,
the kind that removes guilt, cleanses the conscience comes
only by the blood of Jesus Christ because the blood of Jesus Christ
God's Son cleanses us from all sin. And the third little lesson
that we have from this passage today is this, it's a lesson
about the Lord. Judah explained that he had become
surety to Benjamin, or for Benjamin, to his father, to Jacob, and
that Judah would bear the blame to his father forever. So Judah wanted to become the
servant of Joseph that Benjamin would be able to go free. That
Judah would take the responsibility of Benjamin's guilt and that
he would carry it instead of Benjamin. That's what a surety
was and it's a lovely picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done for his church and for his people. He has become surety
before God, his Father, for his brethren, his people and his
church. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
commit our crime, but he has taken our guilt and he has borne
our punishment, making it his own guilt, his own sin and his
punishment as our substitute and surety. The message of the
gospel is that while we are sinful and we are guilty of sin, we
obtain forgiveness and peace with God by faith in the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith is God's gift to sinners
like us and if the Holy Spirit shows us our sin and our guilt,
we may look to the Saviour Jesus Christ as the only way of peace
with God and the only way of freedom from sin and guilt in
this world. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.