I am Pastor Nathan, and today we are going to
be seeing a very beautiful example of how to
approach God when we're guilty. You see, I don't
think it really matters how long you're saved.
We're really good at avoiding God when we're
guilty. And we could make up all kinds of excuses
and justifications, but the story we're looking
at here in Genesis 44 is just this wonderful
picture of how we're to approach God in our guilt.
You know, for two decades, from the day Joseph
was sold into slavery until the day that his
brothers have come to stand before him again
for the second time, God has been at work in
their lives through all of it. God is always
working. No matter what is happening, he is always
working. And in Joseph's life, we have been studying
that God's presence was very obvious in his life.
It's been a very steady presence, a very strengthening
presence, a very affirming presence as Joseph
has been affirmed over and over. God is with
him and that he is hearing from the Lord and
that the visions and the dreams are indeed from
the Lord, but with his brothers, God's presence
looked very different. It wasn't the assurance
of outward visible success. It was this relentless,
quiet mercy of God that refused to let their
consciences rest. We've been seeing how God's
presence has been pressing them from all kinds
of different angles with guilt and fear and sorrow.
And he did all this until they could no longer
live with the guilt that they had been hiding
for so many years of this life. And this pressure
in their life, big lesson today for all of us,
wasn't punishment. It wasn't God saying, I'm
punishing you for the sin you've done. It was
God's grace. It was his grace on their lives
because it was, well, it was a grace because
their guilt was real. They were guilty sinners,
right? And feeling that pain of guilt is a grace
of God because it's one of those things that
causes us to reflect and ultimately come back
to the Lord himself. The fear that God had allowed
them to experience was his grace as well because
it was a fear of God that he developed within
them. It was a fear of the Holy and Almighty
One in recognition that their sin was ultimately
against Him. And once we realize that it is God
we have sinned against, we should develop a godly
fear, a healthy godly fear. And then the sorrow
that they had experienced in their life was also
God's grace too because it was developing into
what we call a godly sorrow. The recognition
that as we have sinned against God, we're sad
about that. We've hurt God. We've hurt others.
We've hurt ourselves, and that bothers us. And
so all three of these things in the lives of
Joseph's brothers that we might easily look at
as difficult or wrong or we don't want to deal
with fear and sorrow and all of this, these are
the things that finally led them to finally let
go. to confess, to come to terms, to stop hiding,
and just come out and confess the sin, acknowledge
their guilt, acknowledge the reality that, yes,
we should be punished, we should be judged because
we have sinned, and that is what leads them to
the ultimate grace of receiving salvation. and
forgiveness and reconciliation. And so this is
the brothers' second time in Egypt. As we've
been studying through chapters 42 and 43, we've
been watching the grace develop. as it's been
moving through their lives, as we've seen them
slowly kind of reawaken to their guilt and their
shame, as the sin of selling their brother into
slavery 20 plus years earlier is now being put
back in front of their face, and they're being
awakened to that. They have begun to contemplate
taking full responsibility for what they've done
and stop blame shifting and lying and hiding.
And then, you know, we just saw in the last chapter
where As they've come to Egypt the second time,
Joseph had them go to his house to have a dinner.
And they freaked out, if you remember. They're
like, he's going to kill us. He found out. He
knows. And yet, what happened instead was a wonderful
time of fellowship and hanging out and celebration.
And all of this was a mercy to them because they
knew they were guilty criminals by this point.
And yet, instead of getting punishment and execution,
what they received was kindness. And, you know,
God's not just trying to get them out of trouble.
God is transforming them. And that is the process
that God works in all of our lives, that he transforms
us little bit by little bit in a process of drawing
us to him, drawing us to the place of confession
and repentance. And the chapter we're looking
at this morning, Genesis 44, this is where we
see the life -changing transformation fully unfold
in the lives of these brothers. We see their
conscience lead to repentance and intercession
and sacrifice and substitution and all of that
wrapped in a brotherly love that just very quietly
points past this story all the way to Jesus Christ
himself. And so this morning, we're gonna see
how to approach God in light of our guilt. And
I pray we all take this to heart because we are
all guilty in one way or another, saved and unsaved.
And coming to the Lord is the place of healing.
Coming to the Lord is the place of forgiveness.
It's the place of grace and mercy and everything
we need to live in peace, to live in joy, and
to continue living for the Lord in this world.
But let's pray first, and then we're going to
worship him because he is amazing. God, we love
you. Lord, you are so great, so grand, so awesome.
God, and that word awesome to describe you really
is a true expression of that word that we're
in awe at who you are and in awe at your glory
and your grandeur. Really, God, in awe that you
would love us, that you would just notice us,
God. And yet, Lord, it goes far beyond just notice
that. that you desire a relationship, and you
desire a restored fellowship, and you desire
closeness, God. You want to adopt us into your
family, and Lord, we don't deserve any of that.
But God, today as we've been looking into your
word and studying through the story of Joseph
in Genesis, we've seen so many parallels to who
you are, God. And Lord, we see another parallel
today as Joseph is standing in the place of basically
almighty power as the number two in Egypt and
his brothers. come to him, finally acknowledging
their sin, seeing the circumstances that are
taking place as symbolic of the greater issue,
the greater issue that they are guilty men, deserving
of judgment, deserving of punishment, deserving
of justice, and yet, Lord, they receive grace
and mercy. Lord, it's the same with us. And so
remind us today, God, how we should approach
you. Remind us today that... That guilt doesn't
mean that we should hide, and guilt doesn't mean
that we should make excuses, and guilt doesn't
mean we should hide behind the good things in
our life as if they justify the bad things, but
instead, Lord, that we would come to you humbly,
boldly, in submission, with full ownership of
our sin, that we would receive the promises of
your word, God. We love you, we thank you, and
we praise you, Lord, because you are truly glorious.
As your people here, your body here today, God,
we want to praise your name. We love you and
we thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We are in Genesis chapter 44 this morning. And,
you know, as Joseph has been used by God over
the last few chapters to bring... his brothers
to fully face their sin, what chapter 44 is is
kind of like the final test, right? Joseph has
been in a position where he recognized his brothers
when they showed up to Egypt for food. They did
not recognize him. And his immediate concern
was, these are the guys that sold me into slavery
20 years ago. Hey, how's your... Dad, do you
have a dad? Is there any other brothers, right?
Because he knew, and they had told him, oh yeah,
our father is still alive, and our youngest brother,
Benjamin, is at home. And Joseph, being directly
biologically related to Benjamin, was like, well,
if you guys want to come back and get food, you're
going to have to bring him. Long story short,
I think in the beginning, Joseph's concern was,
I want to rescue my brother from these brothers
who are quite cruel and bloodthirsty. And so
as they've returned the second time with Benjamin,
Joseph has been faced with a little bit of a
conundrum here. And the conundrum is, have my
brothers changed? Are they still the selfish,
bloodthirsty, self -serving people they were
when I was there 20 years ago? Do I have to rescue
Benjamin? Or is there the possibility that I
can be reconciled to my family? Which I believe
was his greatest desire. to have restored relationship,
to have restored fellowship. And so everything
that has been taking place over the last few
chapters has been a part of this process of Joseph
trying to test the waters a little bit to find
out who his brothers are today in the Scripture,
who they are 20 years later. Have they changed?
Have their hearts changed? And so now the test
that he recreates here for them is really...
Almost the same test that they faced 20 years
earlier with him. He kind of recreates the very
temptation, because if you remember, their first
betrayal in the family 20 years earlier dealt
with a situation that involved the favorite son
in the family, Joseph. It dealt with a situation
where there was a group of brothers that resented
him. It dealt with a situation where the opportunity
came for the brothers to remove their irritating
little brother from their life to get rid of
him and to deal with that. There was silver and
money involved and a father who was left in grief.
And this same exact situation is being recreated
in Genesis 44. It's these conditions that are
recreated by God through Joseph to be both a
test, but also the path to transformation for
Joseph's brothers. You might call it a second
chance. another opportunity to do it right, another
opportunity to face a situation where they dropped
the ball once, where they sinned, where they
chose selfishness and all of that, and instead
to do it in a godly way. And God often does that
with us. You know, some of us, myself included,
you know, over the years, we'll be like, God,
why am I still wrestling with that? sin or that
situation. God, why does that scenario keep presenting
itself? You know, I thought we were past this.
And a lot of times God does that because he's
giving us another chance to know and learn that
we are not the same people we were before. Sometimes
we forget that. Sometimes we find ourselves in
situations where we get afraid that we're going
to respond the way we did 20 years earlier, and
God recreates a situation for us that's almost
identical, and we have the opportunity to say,
no, this time I'm going to do the right thing.
This time I'm going to handle it differently.
Why? Because I'm different. I've grown. God has
worked in my life, and so This is what God is
doing with the brothers here. As Genesis chapter
43 ends, we read there that they had been invited
to Joseph's house. Joseph had this big meal with
them. It said they ate and they drank. It was
a great night. It was a night where they kind
of let their guard down because they thought
that when they were taken to their brother's
house in chapter 43 that they were going to be
executed, that they were going to be killed.
God had already begun the process of stirring
up their conscience so they were aware. We're
not innocent men. We're guilty people. We did
something really terrible. And so God is continuing
to build upon all that, but they have this party
at Joseph's house. Joseph gives them all some
food, and then he gives the youngest brother,
Benjamin, five times the amount of food to see
how his brothers would respond. Would his brothers
resent Benjamin? Why does he get five times as
much as us? He's the youngest brother. We're
the older brothers. Would they respond to Benjamin
the way they responded to Joseph 20 years earlier?
Hating him and standing against him. And Joseph
wanted to see what would happen here. And the
good news is they didn't. They didn't resent
Benjamin for having five times as more of them.
Everything was good. And so the night ends. They
go to sleep. And then the time comes for them
to depart back home. And that's where we pick
it up here in Genesis 44 verse 1. It says, Joseph
commanded his steward, fill the men's bags with
as much food as they can carry and put each one's
silver at the top of his bag. Put my cup, the
silver one, at the top of the youngest one's
bag along with the silver for his grain. So he
did as Joseph told him, and at morning light,
the men were sent off with their donkeys. Now,
this whole thing is a setup, right? They're thinking,
woo -hoo, we didn't get executed. We got food.
Everything's great and golden. We're going to
head home, but this is a trap. This is all a
setup to, again, further create the situation
where they're going to be faced with the same
temptation they were once faced 20 years earlier.
Now, fill their bags with as much food as they
carry, put the silver back in the bag, and then
put my cup, right? And it says there in verse
2, they specifically specify, is my cup the silver
one? Why is that an important detail? And I believe
it's just Joseph nodding to a very cutting and
ironic nuance here that 20 years earlier, the
brothers sold Joseph into slavery for 20 pieces
of silver. And so he's going to involve money.
And items of value back into this temptation.
And they're going to be tested again with silver
being a part of it. Just a calculated nod to
the past and the history that Joseph knows is
there. And so at dawn, the brothers get up. Probably
groggy, maybe hungover. But, you know, they're
happy. They depart. And you can just imagine
their relief. Everything's great. We got grain
in abundance. Our brother Simeon has returned
to us. We didn't have to leave Benjamin here.
This is awesome. Dad's gonna be happy. Everything's
awesome. And so they take off. The city fades
behind them. The pyramids fade into the distance.
And then disaster strikes. Verse four. They had
not gone very far from the city when Joseph said
to his steward, get up, pursue the men, and when
you overtake them, say this. Why have you repaid
evil for good? Isn't this the cup that my master
drinks from and uses for divination? What you
have done is wrong. So when he overtook them,
he said these words to them. And they said, why
does my Lord say these things? Your servants
could not possibly do such a thing. We even brought
back to you from the land of Canaan the silver
that we found at the top of our bags. How could
we still steal silver or gold from our master's
house or your master's house? If it is found
with one of us, your servants, he must die and
the rest of us will become my Lord's slaves.
So the trap is sprung, go get them, say this
precise thing, and pay attention to how they
react, right? Now, it's an interesting situation
going on here because from the brother's perspective,
they indeed are innocent, right? How dare you
take the cup from my master? Like, what are you
talking about, dude? We didn't take anything.
What's being developed here is something that
we struggle with a lot. And what I mean by that
is when we're faced with a situation where we're
accused of wrongdoing and we're genuinely innocent,
we will tend to inflate our own self -righteousness
based around that one instance of innocence and
forget of all the other guilt we have in our
life. Now, God has been stirring up their conscience
where they're starting to realize, man, all this
bad stuff is happening to us because of that
thing we did 20 years ago. But it's very easy
for them and for us to associate when things
are good, God's happy. When things are bad, God's
mad. When things are going good, oh, I am under
the favor of the Lord. When things are bad, wow,
I didn't go to church Sunday, that's why. But
that's not always the case. The bad things that
God allows in our lives are sometimes the grace
or sometimes the work that God is doing in our
lives. Because we find ourselves in these situations
where when we're expecting the hammer to drop
on us because we know we're guilty, we know we've
sinned, we know we've done wrong, and maybe it's
stuff we've buried years ago, and all of a sudden
it's bubbling back to the surface. Why am I thinking
about this? Maybe I should go talk to the person.
Maybe I should reconcile. Maybe I should ask
for forgiveness. And then you have this span
of good things happening. The temptation is we
forget all about the guilt. Oh, we're innocent.
We're good people. I'm a good person. Everything's
great. And so they're, in their whole deal here,
they're stunned. They're indignant. How dare
you? And they defend themselves with a really
good argument, right? I'm accusing you of doing
something wrong and the best possible argument
is, I didn't do it. And it's true I didn't do
it, right? You can't have a better argument than
that. And their argument is simply this. Why
would we steal from you? We brought the money
back from the first time. Like, we've already
proved our honesty. We've already proven. I mean,
that would be dumb for us to steal after we've
done that. But it's their presumed innocence,
it's their presumed self -righteousness that
causes them to speak rashly, right? Whoever has
your cup shall die. And we will all voluntarily
become slaves. You see, when we are standing
on a real situation of innocence, it's easy for
us to become so self -righteous that we make
rash oaths. I'm so sure of my innocence that
if you prove me to be wrong, my whole family
will die. And we can't do that because... What's
happening here is although they are innocent
in this one thing, in the big scheme of life,
they're guilty people. They're guilty sinners.
We've all sinned against God in one way or another,
and we all continue to sin against God in one
way or another. And yet sometimes we fail to
deal with those things because maybe we have
one area of our life where we're doing really
well. And we go, look, I'm an innocent man. I'm
an innocent woman. I'm a good person. And I just,
I laugh every time I hear a Christian say I'm
a good person. Because I get to say, no, you're
not. You don't know me. I'm like, I don't need
to. I have the Bible, you know. Well, you know,
and it's like, it's a hard thing for us to accept
when we are endeavoring to do good. And especially
when false accusations come against us, we're
like, I'm innocent. But the problem with them
here is they're, forgetting about their guilt,
and now getting so sure that they are good men
and innocent men who have done nothing wrong
that they make this rash decision or this rash
oath that is going to cost them. And that's just
the challenge for us. That although we might
be doing well in this area of our life, that
we don't let that puff our self -righteousness
up to the point where we forget. The reality
that we're guilty sinners. Or we forget the reality
that given the right set of circumstance, every
single one of us is capable of doing the most
horrible things you can imagine. I would never
do that. Don't say that. Because that's exactly
when the devil goes, challenge accepted. And
he's going to try and push you into that. The
reality is not saying I would never do that.
The reality is saying is I'm capable of anything
but with God. With God, I can walk in holiness.
With Him, I could walk in obedience. And so,
yeah, if you're innocent in a false accusation,
it's fine to say, no, I didn't do that and proclaim
your innocence. But don't let that make you feel
like you're innocent of all things. That you're
a perfect individual. That there's nothing that
could be held against you. And so, verse 10,
the steward replied, and he goes, what you have
said is right. But only the one who is found
to have it will be my slave, and the rest of
you will be blameless. Whoever has your cup will
die. And the steward's like, no, no death, no
death. Just slavery. But only for the one who
has the cup. Very reasonable offer here. But
the trap is being set. I imagine the steward
saying this with kind of like a little inner
smirk on his face because he knows exactly what's
about to happen. And he's watching these guys
proclaim their innocence so grandly that they
will put someone's life on the line for it. And
he's like, I know the cup's in Benjamin's back.
Why is this happening? Because Joseph is interested
in the answer to a final question. What? will
they do with the favored son now? What will they
do with the favored son when there's an opportunity
for them in proclaiming their innocence to walk
away and let that favored son suffer again? That's
what Joseph wants to know. And so the search
begins, verse 11. So each one quickly lowered
his sack to the ground and opened it. The steward
searched, beginning with the oldest and ending
with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. And they tore their clothes. And each one
loaded his donkey and returned to the city. We're
innocent. We're not guilty men. Reuben, very
quickly, sets his sack down. Search. They open
the bag, nothing there. I imagine Reuben swelled
up a little bit. See, I told you. And then you
have the ex -con Simeon, number two. It's in
anybody's bag. It's his. No, it's not in Simeon's
bag. He's like, see? Put me in jail for nothing.
Then it gets to Levi and Judah and on and on
down the line. And again, I think with the opening
of each bag and the proof that they're innocent
men, their self -righteousness just swelled even
more and even more. See, we are good people and
we are righteous people. But then in one horrifying
moment, Benjamin's sack is opened and there's
the cup. It doesn't tell us Benjamin's reaction.
It doesn't even record for us any words. It just
records an action that they all tore their clothes,
which culturally was a sign of great grief, great
contrition. It was a sign of like, oh no, this
is a terrible, terrible situation. That shows
us something about what God has done in the hearts
of these men. Because you remember 20 years earlier
when Joseph vanished years earlier, the only
one who tore his clothes in grief was Jacob,
their father. The brothers didn't tear their
clothes because they knew what happened. They
knew they sold him. They come back, oh, dad,
look, it looks like an animal got him. Dad believed
it, tore his clothes, great grief, because he
believed his son was dead. And what did they
do? Oh, shucky darn, Dad, that's terrible. Okay,
so we're going to go back and take care of the
sheep. But now, when the one brother is now about
to face slavery and an intense sense of judgment,
but very specifically the same thing that their
other brother Joseph was sold into, now they
all tear their clothes. There's a unified grief.
over the fate about to befall their brother.
You see, he already told them, the steward already
said, only the one who has the cup is in trouble.
They could have right then and there went, Benjamin,
you're just like your brother, we're out. We're
not going to put ourselves on the line for you.
You did this. But them all tearing their clothes
shows us that there's a unification here. There's
a recognition of family. There's a recognition
of connection. And again, the question was, what
would they do in this moment? Would they surrender
Benjamin and say, well, sorry, bro? Would they
just go home? Would they tell dad again, oh,
yeah, Benjamin, he got ate by a lion and a giraffe
and whatever else. Oh, it was terrible. There's
no giraffes in Israel, but still. Egypt, it's
kind of Africa. You know, who knows? But something
new was happening. Something different was happening.
They weren't able to watch Benjamin depart as
a slave like they did with Joseph. Here, they're
not able to abandon their father's favorite son.
Here, They're not the same men as they were years
earlier. Why? Because God had been stirring in
them by bringing things back up over and over
and over through this entire situation of the
famine that they would face what they've done.
And they're starting to face the gravity of what
their sin was and understand how bad it was.
And we cannot do this to another brother. So
verse 14, when Judah and his brothers reached
Joseph's house, he was still there. They fell
to the ground before him. What have you done,
Joseph said to them? Didn't you know that a man
like me could uncover the truth by divination?
What can we say to my Lord, Judah replied? How
can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God
has exposed your servant's iniquity. We are now
my Lord's slaves, both we and the one in whose
possession the cup was found. Then Joseph said,
I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose
possession the cup was found will be my slave.
The rest of you can go in peace to your father.
So they go back to the city with Benjamin, who's
the only one in trouble at this point. They all
come in. Joseph is still home, hasn't gone to
work yet. It's probably still early in the morning.
They fall down before him. Again, how many times
is God going to fulfill this dream that he gave
Joseph as a child that his brothers would bow
before him? Joseph maintains his really stern
Egyptian persona, playing the role of the powerful
ruler. Don't you know? But look at... Judah's
response. What can we say? How can we plead?
How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed
your servant's iniquity. What iniquity? They
didn't steal the cup. They all knew that. Nobody
took the cup. Why would they do that? They brought
the money back the first time. But there's...
There's no attempted explanation. There's no
justification. There's no blame shifting. There's
a declaration. Judah is coming to understand
this isn't about the cup. The cup is symbolic
of our sin. The cup is simply symbolic of the
fact. That we are not innocent men, that we are
guilty. God has exposed our sin. He's shifting
in his mind. This happened because we're guilty
sinners and God is exposing us. They've already
asked that question in previous chapters. Why
are these bad things happening to us? Is God
coming against us? And now Judah's finally like,
no, just. What are we going to say? How are we
going to plead? We have no explanation. We're
not going to, why is the cup there and we didn't
do it? He just finally comes out and he says,
look, God is exposing us. We are sinners. We
are guilty men. There's nothing we could say.
Judah's finally at that place where he's seeing
the bigger picture. We deserve judgment. We deserve
punishment. We deserve everything that would
come against us from the Lord because we did
something terrible. Judah displays a very important
insight here. You didn't expose us. God's doing
this. This is God's doing. God is letting this
circumstance happen because this is about something
much bigger, much broader. I know God did it
because God knows things. Don't you know that
this was the cup I do divination in? Bro, your
cup is nothing. God knows everything. Yeah, you
seated us according to our birth order, but the
thing that Judah is wrestling with now, he's
like, God knows what we did, and it keeps coming
back up, and God knows we've sinned, and we tried
to bury it, and we tried to hide it, and we can't
do that anymore. His admission comes from this
deep -seated, growing sense of the wrongness
of what he's done that he's lived with for 20
years. And it was a collective confession. He
says, we have sinned. We have sinned. This whole
situation. This whole situation. Right? Ben wouldn't
be here with the cup in his bag if we didn't
bring him. He wouldn't have come with us unless
we convinced Dad. We wouldn't have to convince
Dad if we didn't come the first time. We wouldn't
have come the first time if we weren't starving.
We're starving because there's a famine. Why
won't Dad let us take Ben? Because go back 20
years. Last time Dad sent his favorite son around
us, he disappeared. And we know why he disappeared.
All these years we've been watching dad languish
in sorrow, languish in misery, lamenting, grief.
His favorite son is dead. He's not dead, or we're
not sure he's dead, but we let him believe that.
We never told him the truth. And now we stand
here again in the same situation. Favorite son
about to be sent away. That's going to destroy
dad. And we did that. So if Ben has to stay,
we're all going to stay. Because we recognize
the gravity of what we have done and we recognize
that we deserve the judgment. Now in a very painful
twist, Joseph's like, nope, sorry. Just Ben.
You can all go home. And he says, in peace. Not,
you need to do this and this and come back. It's
like, no, just go home. You're free, man. No
punishment, no penalty, no nothing. Go to your
father. And now this is fully the opportunity
they once faced, right? The situation with the
favored son and the issue of silver and money
and an opportunity to walk away. It all presented
itself here. But the conditions to entice their
sin were even greater because the first time
it was just 20 pieces of silver and then you
could be without this annoying brother for the
rest of your life. Today, It's their own freedom.
Just walk away. You don't even have to pay 20
silver. Just walk away. And you will be free.
Great temptation. In many regards, very easy
to do. Just sacrifice the innocent and go on
living your life. Don't think about the innocent.
Don't think about his. being bound in slavery.
Just go away. But for them, they're like, we've
done it before. Why not do it again? But it's
the recognition of their sin and what it had
done and whom it had been done to. The pain,
the guilt, the sheer wrongness of it all. They're
like, we can't. We can't do it again. And Judah
steps forward to speak. Verse 18, but Judah approached
him and said, my Lord. Please let your servant
speak personally to my Lord. Do not be angry
with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh.
My Lord asked his servants, Do you have a father
or a brother? And we answered you and said, We
have an elderly father and a younger brother,
the child of his old age. The boy's brother is
dead. He is the only one of his mother's sons
left, and his father loves him. Then you said
to your servants, Bring him to me so that I could
see him. But we told you the boy cannot leave
his father. If he were to leave, his father would
die. But then you said to your servants, if your
younger brother does not come down with you,
you will not see me again. This is what happened
when we went back to your servant, my father.
We reported him the words of my Lord. But our
father said, go again and buy us a little food.
And we told him, we can't unless our younger
brother goes with us. If our younger brother
isn't with us, we can't go see the man because
you told us, right? Don't come back. Your servant
my father said to us, you know that my wife bore
me two sons. One is gone from me. I said he must
have been torn to pieces and I've never seen
him again. If you also take this one from me
and anything happens to him, you will bring my
gray hairs down to Sheol and sorrow. So if I
come to your servant my father and the boy is
not with us, his life is wrapped up in the boy's
life. When he sees that the boy is not with us,
he will die. Then your servants will have brought
the gray hairs of your servant, our father, down
to Sheol in sorrow. They are taking full responsibility
for what they've done and the situation they've
created. This is why we can't leave. This is
why we must stay. Judah coming to the understanding,
we're not innocent, man. We're guilty sinners.
This situation is because of what we did. There
was another brother. He's not with us anymore.
But please understand, Mr. Number two to Pharaoh,
you know, Ben is here because you insisted. And
you asked us if we had a brother, and you said
bring him, and we told you we couldn't, and you
said, well, if you want more food in the future,
you have to, and he's just recounting the whole
story, right? But we came to the place where
we were out of food again and dad said, go get
more food. And we reminded dad about the arrangement.
And in all of that, we were faced again with
the fact that Joseph is probably dead. We were
again faced with the fact of our father's sorrow,
the sorrow we caused, the sorrow we've watched
our father live in for 20 years. We did that.
That is the effect of our sin. And if we come
back now without Ben, it's going to kill our
dad. And that would be our fault too. We can't
do that. That's what we did last time. It was
wrong. We can't do that. Their conscience is
coming alive. Now, what's interesting is this
is the first time Joseph learns what his father
has believed all these years. Right? Joseph didn't
know what his father believed all these years.
Can you imagine Joseph for the first five, ten
years? Why hasn't dad come to get me? The brothers
sold me into slavery. Obviously, they know I'm
in slavery. Why haven't they come to get me?
I thought it was dad's favorite. I thought dad
loved me. Fifteen, twenty years go by. Maybe
he was just like, okay, I'll just come to terms
with it. And now he learns why dad never showed
up. He thought I was dead. You guys let dad believe
that for 20 years? But this is where Joseph learns
that this is the guilt that they have been carrying.
As Joseph is trying to find out, are you guys
the same guys you were 20 years ago? Have you
changed? Do you still hate the favorite? And
now he's realizing, oh my gosh, they've been
racked with guilt for 20 years carrying this.
this thing they've done and the effect it's had
on their father. And so what's really interesting
is Judah isn't speaking here without any resentment
about Jacob's favoritism. Remember how much they
resented that 20 years earlier? Ripped the coat
off of him. We just hate you. And now as he's
retelling the story, there's no resentment in
his story. He's actually citing the fact that
Ben is dad's favorite. And the effect it'll have
if he doesn't get home on their father, he's
citing that as that's why we have to return with
him. We can't go in peace because there will
be no peace. We'll kill our dad if we return
without Ben. I mean, he speaks of it as if they've
all come to terms with it, right? His life is
wrapped up with the boy. It's kind of like, we
get it now. Benjamin is dad's favorite. Okay.
That's just how it is. And it's interesting because
this is where we see the sons of Leah no longer
raging against the sons of Rachel. There's unity.
There's compassion. So verse 32. Your servant
became accountable to my father for the boy saying,
if I do not return him to you, I will always
bear the guilt for sinning against you, my father.
So Judah then is saying, we've sinned. This situation
is da -da -da -da, and that's our fault. And
if we don't return, we're going to be the ones
responsible for our dad's broken heart and his
death. But then he goes on to say, but this is
personally important to me too because I myself
am responsible for his life. I promised my dad.
Judah and his brothers have made their father's
grief. his pain their own. There's an acceptance
and responsibility of that, and they're not just
sympathetic to how their sin has affected their
father, like, oh, poor dad, but it's changed
them. They've been changed. Their actions are
different now because they've accepted we're
sinners, and we're guilty, and we deserve the
punishment, and this hurt other people, and I
can't do it anymore. This isn't the old brotherhood
of cold, self -protective, jealous brothers.
This is the beginning of covenant community.
This is the beginning of a community united in
love. This is a community that is forming here
where it's not about me, it's about you. And
the pinnacle of this transformation is we see
Judah moving from we to me. Verse 33, now please
let your servant remain here as my Lord's slave
in place of the boy. Let him go back with his
brothers. For how can I go back to my father
without the boy? I could not bear to see the
grief that would overwhelm my father. Now there's
not just collective accountability and responsibility
and acceptance, it's personal. Like I can't go
do this to my dad. I recognize what we've done.
Now this is interesting, you know, because this
is the guy who came up with the idea. How about
we sell him into slavery? That was Judah's idea.
Well, let's not kill him. Sell him into slavery.
We're good. We did the right thing. 20 years
of dealing with that, watching his dad just suffer,
and Judah's like, no, I can't anymore. My heart
has changed. I feel the wrongness of this. And
so his intercession becomes self -sacrifice.
I will take the punishment. I deserve the punishment.
Not Benjamin, not my brothers. I will stay here.
Let them go home. That my dad won't hurt anymore.
That things will be okay. His repentance at his
own sin and going, I deserve it, is now him going,
put me. I will willingly take the punishment.
I will be the substitute for Benjamin. His love
now takes responsibility and offers itself in
the place of another. Again, this is Judah. This
is the man who helped sell Joseph. This is the
man who was all about personal benefit. Remember
that whole chapter about Judah and Tamar? That
was all to show us that he was a man about protecting
his own reputation, protecting his own stuff,
making sure that he didn't spend too much on
things. But God's grace and his mercy and his
kindness and his love has transformed this man,
Judah. His humiliation became the ground for
deep and powerful work as he is no longer calculating
profit. He's now counting the cost of his sin
and counting the cost of what his sin has cost
him and cost others, and he can't bear it anymore.
Now, of course, his willingness to suffer as
a substitute, it foreshadows the substitutionary
atonement of Jesus Christ. There's a reason why
Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
Where he's the one that stepped in and said,
no, I will take the punishment. I will take all
that they owe. And Judah here, we're long past
the cup. We're long past the cup. Judah here
is now on a whole different level. The cup was
just symbolic of the problem. We're guilty. We're
guilty and we accept it and we recognize it.
And so God, over those almost silent decades
in the brothers' lives as they were toiling in
Canaan, he was working. He was working in them
and stirring and stirring and stirring all the
way to the point where the famine came and they
went and working and working through all of these
things to bring them to a place of drawing them
to face their sin and to acknowledge the wrongness
and the depth and the depravity and the cost.
To bring them to a place of accepting, I do deserve
punishment. He does the same thing today. But
God doesn't do that just to point the finger
at us. He doesn't just rescue us from things.
He transforms us through things. He doesn't just
pardon our sin. He remakes us, right? There's
so much language in the New Testament. And the
Old Testament, too. Pull out your heart of stone,
give you a heart of flesh. Behold, you've become
a new creation. All things have passed away.
Behold, all things are new. You're a new person
when you come to the Lord. And that is the process
of Him bringing you. Because without the Lord,
you're a terrible person. You're a sinner. You've
broken God's law. And your sin has hurt so many
people. Take a moment to think back over the
life of sin that you've lived and all the people
that have been hurt because of your selfishness
and because of your... inability to put the needs
of others above your own and all of that. But
the gospel brings transformation if you respond
to its message. You see, when God brings a conviction
into our heart about sin, don't despise that
thing. Don't ignore that thing. Don't think,
oh, as a Christian, therefore there's no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus, so I rebuke
this guilt. No, no, no. You're not condemned
if you're a Christian. But the guilt can be God's
grace because he's refusing you to let you numb
your soul to the effect of sin. He often recreates
old temptations that we'd have our second chance
to choose the right thing, to choose the godly
thing, to do the right thing. And when we have
truly repented of long forgotten sin, one of
the things we find in the process of coming to
that is that we're going to have a greater empathetic
responsibility for those we hurt. Beforehand,
it's a no, no, no, no, no, but when God does
this work in your heart, you're going to find
you're going to be really bummed if you hurt
others because of your own sinful choices. More
importantly, you might recognize that you hurt
God, and that might wreck you. I had that experience
once. I was engaged. Our relationship wasn't
good. We were doing things we shouldn't be doing.
I was a Christian. I was leading ministry, and
I was sitting in my room once, and everything
was falling apart in our relationship. It was
really terrible, and I was listening to K -Wave,
and Chuck Smith comes on the radio, and he's
teaching about the letter to the Ephesians in
Revelation, and I'm just sitting there listening.
Then he gets to the part where Jesus says, this
I have against you. You have left your first
love. And I lost it. Because I had realized I
had put this relationship above the Lord. And
that relationship led me into sin. And I had
justified and I had been lying and I had been
hiding. And God just said, you left your first
love. And man, it was rough. And I realized in
that moment, I remember just tears coming down
my face. I'm like, I hurt God. The one who died
for me. The one who loves me. I hurt him. How
can I do that? Now, that recognition in my heart
was just a grace of God. That God allowed me
to feel that so that I would be like, this can't
happen. And I remember I said, God, what do you
want me to do? And he said, you need to break
up. So the next morning I went and broke up.
When we have that sense of the effect of our
sin and we come to the place of a willingness
to accept the consequences ourselves that I've
done this and we know we deserve the fallout
of what we've done, it enables us to approach
God in humility. It enables us to approach him
in submission and say, God, I don't deserve to
talk to you. Right? How did Judah, the model
here for us, how did he approach Joseph, the
Jesus figure in the story? My Lord, you are like
Pharaoh. I'm your servant. I don't even deserve
to be in your presence. I don't even deserve
to talk to you. But if you will let me talk.
It's humility. It's coming to a place where we
realize God is God. We are not God, and everything
is on his terms, for he's our creator. You start
there. And then there's ownership of your personal
sin. God, I've sinned against you, as David said.
You and you alone have I sinned against. God,
I hurt you, the lover of my soul. And I've hurt
so many other people, and I recognize all of
that. That comes from that place of saying, God,
you're God. You already know what I've done.
I can't hide it anymore. I can't pretend it's
not there anymore. I can't overlook it anymore
because God, I know you know. And then you appeal
to what he's already said. You appeal to the
kindness he has already shown you. You appeal
to his word. God, you said this. God, you said
whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. God, I recognize I deserve death because,
again, you're God. I've sinned against you. I'm
your creation. You have the right to destroy
me. I'm a sinner. I'm not an innocent man. I've
broken your law. And I know you know everything
I've done. I'm done trying to pretend. But please,
Lord, you said you'd forgive me if I came to
you. You said you'd wash me clean. And so I'm
here. Our society today more and more trains
us to resist authority, even God's authority.
I think that's spiritually what's behind all
the stuff that's going on today and the rising
division in our politics and stuff where it's
gone far beyond I disagree with you. It's I disagree
with you, therefore I need to destroy you and
harm you and hurt you. and not listen to you
anymore. And that's just the devil. Raising the
next generation in our world to say, if I disagree,
the thing I disagree with must be destroyed.
And that includes God. But Judah didn't approach
Joseph in defiance here, right? He didn't come
up and say, I disagree. He just said, I'm done.
I'm guilty. I can't deal with the guilt anymore.
deal with the reality. It's too much. I can't
do it again. He approached in brokenness, not
blame, right? He said, hey, just to be fair,
Benjamin's here because of what you said, but
he's not going, this is your fault. He approached
with impassion without entitlement, pleading
his case, realizing we're sinners. We deserve
nothing, and then finally it It landed with Judah
saying, let them all go. I'll stay. I'll give
up my freedom. I will give up my life. I will
give up everything because I deserve it. Take
me. And then what do they end up receiving through
all of this? We're going to get to that in the
next chapter. The most beautiful grace. It's
the same grace and mercy that we could receive
today, right now. It's a mercy available to all
of us. The mercy of not receiving what we deserve.
The just and due judgment for all the sin we've
ever committed. We deserve the punishment for
that. We deserve the judgment for that. We deserve
to be held accountable to all of that. But then
the grace of receiving a full pardon. To say,
God, I believe in you. I believe in what you
did. And I put my faith in that. And God says,
great, not guilty. But I'm guilty. And I know
that. And he says, not guilty. Over and over
again. And he gives a renewed heart. And he adopts
us into his family. Wow. With humility and ownership
of sin. appeal to the promises he's made, you
can receive salvation today. You can receive
that gift freely by simply approaching God as
the guilty. You don't need to come to God innocent.
You don't need to clean up your life. You just
need to come to him because like Joseph, he's
sitting there going, I want to bless you and
I want to restore this relationship and I want
to reconcile. I want to fix your life and I want
to give you a new nature and a new heart. just
come to me and receive it. And we're like, no,
I can't. He's going to kill me. He's going to
strike me down. But hopefully today he has revealed
in your heart the gravity and the reality that
you're a sinner and there's nothing you can do
about it. You're a sinner. And you've sinned
and you've hurt people and it's happened. And
God is just telling you right now, look, I said
that whoever believes in me Believes in my death
on the cross. Believes that my death was for
you. I stood in your place. Whoever trusts in
my death as fully satisfying the holy wrath of
a righteous and just God, I said you put your
faith in me, you will be saved. Forgiven. Washed
clean. Will you receive that today? Will you
receive that grace, that mercy? Are you at the
place where you're finally like, I'm done, I
can't hide this anymore, I can't play these games
anymore? This applies to the believers in the
room too because I know many of us, we're carrying
something that we've been hiding and not dealing
with and God keeps bubbling it back up and then
we're like, oh, I need to deal with this and
then God blesses us and we're like, oh, we're
good. And maybe it's bubbling back up right now
and God's going, you need to deal with this.
There's no condemnation, but that guilt you're
experiencing is because I want to cleanse you
of this, but you need to come to me and you need
to stop hiding. You need to stop justifying.
You need to stop trying to explain and just simply
say, what can I say? I'm a sinner. And that's
not to say, so no big deal. That's to say, God,
I need you. I need you to cleanse me and heal
me and forgive me. I need you to empower me.
I need you to help me get away from this. God,
I keep coming back to this thing and I keep making
the same wrong decision. Lord, this time as I'm
back at this thing and you've recreated the scenario,
Lord, let me make the right decision, God, through
dependence on you and the power of your Holy
Spirit. And maybe that's what God has for you
this morning. If He's speaking to you, respond
to Him. Let's pray. Father, we're all guilty.
We're all guilty sinners. Lord, Your Word's very
clear about that. God, all of us can look back
on the trail of devastation. Look at what our
sinful decisions and our sinful natures and our
sinful selfishness have caused, Lord. Not just
us wrestling with our sin, but Lord, we've hurt
people. We've caused people to live for years
in grief and sorrow because we've wronged them
somehow. And maybe we've lied to them and let
them believe the lie. And yet, Lord, you've been
stirring up the memory of those sins, bringing
them back to the forefront, that we would finally
come to the place of just saying, this isn't
about the cup. This isn't about this particular
situation. This is about the bigger picture.
That I'm a sinner. And any good in me is only
because, God, you live within me. And that, God,
I need to be Wise and humble in recognizing that
given the right circumstances, we would commit
the most atrocious sins. And yet, Lord, you continually
extend kindness to us. And you continually let
situations happen, Lord, that we would step away
from the false reality that, oh, we're actually
really good people. Because, Lord, we're... We're
broken. We need You. Lord, I pray for those that
are in this room this morning or maybe watching
online that have never come to You asking for
the free gift of salvation that You offer to
them. And maybe this morning, God, Your Holy
Spirit has... You've put the finger on the pain.
And they know that The guilt will never be dealt
with unless something greater than them, greater
than this universe, enters in to cleanse and
wash and forgive. Lord, I pray for those right
now that are thinking that, that need to receive
you, Lord, that they would just say, Lord, God,
I believe you. I've sinned against you. My sin
has hurt people. And I can't hide it anymore.
I can't pretend it's not there anymore. I'm guilty.
I know I deserve the penalty, the punishment,
the judgment for what I've done. But God, I want
to believe in your word today and I come to you
humbly, knowing I deserve nothing. But I ask
you to forgive me. I ask you to give me grace
and mercy. Lord, I ask you to give me a new heart,
a new compassion, a new sense of what is right
versus what is wrong, that I would live for you,
God. I'm yours. Be my Lord. Be my Savior. And
God, for those in this room that are believers,
they know you, but like these brothers, they've
just kind of tried to pretend sin didn't happen,
God. We pray. Collectively, we say, God, please
forgive us of our sin. Please forgive us for
hiding our sin, ignoring our sin. Please forgive
us for the sin of thinking that we're righteous
when we're not. Lord, in and of ourselves, we
are not righteous. Because we do good things,
we are not righteous. Because we think we're
good people, we're not righteous, Lord. We're
sinners. And yet the great grace and mercy, God,
that you've extended to us through your kindness
is that we would just come to you and finally
realize That all the little things that have
been happening are just pointing us to the bigger
reality that we have sin we need to deal with.
And so God, we ask you forgive us. We ask that
you would empower us by the power of your Holy
Spirit to make the right decision this time.
To make the godly decision this time. We thank
you, Lord, for the second chance and the third
chance and the hundredth chance. Because that
is your grace. We thank you for the godly fear
you put upon us and the worry and all of that,
Lord, because it drives us to you. Please hold
us. Please carry us. Please use us to spread
the hope of what you have done in our lives to
those who don't yet know it. God, we love you.
And we thank you. and we trust you, and we put
our faith in you. Help us to come to you, God,
as the guilty, to come to you when we're guilty,
to not stay away, Lord, as the enemy tries to
get us to do, to not develop a defiance to your
authority, Lord, but instead to be humble. To
take ownership of our sin and accept the full
responsibility for what we've done. And even
knowing that we deserve every possible punishment
for it. That we would appeal to what your word
says. That we would be healed. That we would
be saved. That we would be forgiven. Because
you said you would do that. And we thank you,
Lord, for all of that. We trust you in all of
that. We love you. for all of that. Bless us,
Lord, as your people. Bless us as your church.
Bless us as a group of sinners who've come to
know a holy and a righteous and a loving God.
Bless us as a messed up people trying to live
for you, God, that you would be glorified, that
your name would be lifted high. that it would
never be about us or our church or any of that.
It would be about you in all things, God, because
you are the lover of our souls. We thank you,
God. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well,
God bless you, church. I pray God blesses you
this week and that the devil is bound and rebuked
in the name of Jesus, that the guilt you have
would be dealt with. that we would boldly and
happily and confidently and fearfully run into
the Lord's arms any time we have fallen, any
time we have stumbled, and to receive the full
gift of that loving embrace that he has for us
every single time. Amen? God bless you guys.