29 of Genesis 42, and we left off last time with Joseph's brothers making their way home and discovering that their sacks had the money in it. When they came home, verse 29 says, they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan and told him all that befell unto them, saying, The man who is the Lord of the land spake roughly to us, and took us for spies in the country. And we said unto him, We are true men, we are no spies. We be twelve brethren, sons of our father, one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the Lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men. Leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone. And bring your youngest brother unto me. Then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men. So will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land. And it came to pass, as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee. Deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. And he said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead. and he is left alone. If mischief befall him by the way in the which he go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grief. Amen, and God will bless the reading of his word. Now, in verse 28, it says, when the brother discovered that the money was in his sack. The Hebrew word that's translated field here. It's a very strong Hebrew word. It has the idea of shaking, began to tremble when he discovered. Really what Joseph has been doing throughout this interaction with his brothers, he's trying to waken them up spiritually. He's trying to awaken their conscience. of what they did to him, what they did against God and their sin. And he's trying to lead them back to repentance. And he's so wise and he's so careful and he's so prudent as he handles this situation. And they eventually come back to Canaan and they begin to tell Jacob, what happened to them down in the land of Egypt. Now bear in mind that Jacob has lived with these boys for many decades. He knows lies just come naturally to them. Deception is just the way of life. And they're starting to tell him this story of what happened to them in the land of Canaan. And they tell him that they spoke to this governor, prime minister, And he was really rough with them and aggressive to them. And that they were honest with him and told him about their family circumstances. And then the man gave them a test. And he says, you have to go back to your father and then bring the youngest back. And that was the worst news that Jacob could have heard. because he only had two children, two sons by Rachel. Joseph, that he states in this passage, to him in his mind is dead. And Benjamin's the last, the youngest, but also the only child remaining in Jacob's mind alive that was born from Rachel. And if there's one thing Jacob didn't want to give up, it was Benjamin. He would rather die than give Benjamin up. And as soon as these brothers revealed what had happened in this interaction with this prime minister of Egypt, Jacob immediately, instead of reacting the right way, instead of being a patriarch and a leader in his home. Bear in mind, Jacob's not a young man. Jacob at this stage is well over a hundred years of age. He's been a believer for many decades. He's watched his sons, no doubt he's prayed for his sons, that God would do something to waken them up spiritually. In fact, the only one that seemed to be spiritual of all of them was Joseph and he was dead. They lost him. And we're told that the end of verse 35, when they all discovered the money in their sacks, they were afraid. Maybe this is the first time Jacob has seen his son's fear. I suspect he could be. He's a hard man. Let me remind you, these were men who committed murder. These were men that were willing to murder their own brother. These were men who had killed many people in Shechem over a slight to their sister by one man. So these were not men of a soft disposition. And now they're afraid. And now there's a famine. And now they're in this terrible conundrum. What to do? Because the food is going to run out soon. Jacob can see that. He's not stupid. He's lived long enough on this earth to know that with all the herds he has and all the servants he has and all the grandchildren, that eventually they're going to have to go back to Egypt And instead of seizing this opportunity to confront his sons about the way they've been living, instead of being like Joseph and using this opportunity to try and lead his nine sons now that are there with him to repentance, what does Jacob do? Jacob makes it all about him. and all about his feelings and all about his wishes and all about his wants. Look at verse 36, and as you read verse 36, notice, as I always say, what's not there as well as what is there. Notice who's not in Jacob's thoughts on this incident. We've noted that as we've gone through the life of Joseph, that Joseph always weaves God into the conversation. He's always got God at the center of his thoughts in every situation. And it just flows out of Joseph naturally. But here's old Jacob, having failed as a young man, having been given a second chance by God, we could say, at Bethel, And then after failing, as he went back into the land of Canaan with Esau, and then God digging him out of that hole, bringing him back to himself. You would have thought that Jacob would have said to his boys, now we're in a big problem here. Let's stop and ask God. We need to find the will of God in this matter. We need to find the wisdom of God in this matter. I mean, after all, God's brought us through terrible times before. He brought me through the terrible incident with Esau, the confrontation with Esau, and if he could take care of us then, Judah and Reuben and Levi and Simeon, Dan and Naphtali, he can do it again. But instead, no mention of God by Jacob. What does he talk about? Himself. And he says, and you'll notice as you read now the verse, how it's all centered on me, me, me. And I always tell you the middle letter in the word pride is which one? I. It's all about I. I, I, I. Anytime you see a person talking about themselves, when the hero in their story is themselves, you know it's riddled with pride. And pride, of course, is the master sin because it was pride that damned the devil. And it was pride that damned Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when they looked at the fruit and they desired to have it, to make them wise, to make them wiser than God, or as wise as God, and to make themselves independent of God. It was pride that drove them to take the fruit. and to rebel against God. And Satan knew that, of course, because that's what got him in heaven, when he wanted to be like the Most High and have his throne elevated to God's throne. And Jacob here is filled with pride. It's as if God doesn't exist. And he says, me, it's all about me. Have ye bereaved of my children? Now there's a little hint even in that statement that Jacob doesn't quite believe the story about Joseph dying innocently by bad luck. You get his little inkling even in that statement that Jacob suspects that the death or that what he thinks the death of Joseph was no accident. That the brothers had a hand in it and knowing their character It would have been a good guess that they would be involved in something like that. He knew they'd be quite capable of it. And he knew of their hatred for Joseph. And he says to them, me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not. Joseph's gone. He's dead. Simeon is as good as gone. He's never coming back. And he says, and ye will take Benjamin away. And you are now plotting to take the last one, the closest one to me. You're going to take him away. And then he finishes with this cry of pity. All these things are against me, not a single word of faith or trust in God in his remarks." And this is the patriarch. This is the leader of the home. This is the spiritual leader, the pastor of that family. Someone said this, one commentator. Jacob was singing, no one loves me, this I know, because my misfortunes tell me so. Well, we laughed, but it's true, isn't it? That's really what he was saying. No, everything's against me. And you know, here's the amazing thing. Every single statement he made there was false. You hear a lot today about fact checkers. Well, we'll fact check Jacob. Every single statement was wrong. Look at it carefully again. He says, me have ye bereaved of my children. Had he lost his children? No, he hadn't actually lost any of them. They're all still alive. He says, Joseph is not. Joseph's dead. Was he dead? No, he was very much alive. He says, Simeon is not. He's as good as dead. Was Simeon dead or even close to death? No, Simeon was actually thriving in the safest place possible beside Joseph, being taken care of by Joseph. down in Egypt. And he says, and ye will take Benjamin. Was Benjamin going to be taken away from him? No, he wasn't. He wasn't going to lose Benjamin. And then he finishes by saying, all these things, all the circumstances are against me. How wrong he was. Because God was working through this incident. At the very moment Jacob whinged and complained, and dishonored the name of God by his complaining in front of his sons. At that very moment, God was making a way to not only bring the brothers to repentance, but to save the whole family from the famine. Everything wasn't against him. In fact, the very opposite, everything was for him. Of all the families in Canaan, theirs would be the only family that not only survived well the famine, but would thrive in the famine. And yet Jacob, in his lack of faith, in his pity party, in his little self-centered world, missed what God was doing. How sad and how tragic. But let me make the application. How often we do the same, make a snap judgment about God, and even dare to complain in public, dare to complain in front of our family, when we should know better, when we should know from experience. It wasn't as if God hadn't dug Jacob out of a hole before. In fact, God had dug Jacob out of far worse holes before. holes that had been holes of his own making. And yet God had been so good to him. God had made such great promises to him. In fact, God had come to him on a number of occasions and told Jacob, I'm going to be with you, and I'm going to take care of you, and I'm going to make of you a great nation and your family. Yet despite all of those experiences of God's provision and God's protection, In spite of all the promises God had made to his grandfather, Abraham, and his father, Isaac, and taking care of them, Jacob, at this moment of crisis, we could say had a spiritual breakdown. And in the worst place, in front of his sons, who at the time of the breakdown needed their father to rise above their circumstances and say, boys, let's just trust God. Sons, let's just get to the altar. Deal with your sin. And if God wants us to perish, we'll perish. But God has promised us that we're going to not only get through this, but he's going to make a great nation from us, and we're just going to believe him in this. That's all he should have said. And you can be sure that if Joseph was standing there that day instead of Jacob, he would have taken a completely different approach. Then Reuben speaks up, verse 37. And you can see why later on Jacob said of him, he's unstable as water. He's just weak. There's always ones like that in the family. And Reuben being a spiritual weak person, he comes up with this typical solution of a weak person. He says to Jacob, slay my two sons. Imagine, what a solution. He says, murder the grandsons if Benjamin doesn't come back. So he says to Jacob, well, if you lose Benjamin, you should just kill my two sons. As if there's a trade off. You can multiply grief and that will make you feel better. And Jacob, he doesn't answer Reuben's foolish offer. He just says, verse 38, my son shall not go down with you. He says, it's not going to happen. I've made my decision. But you know, God has a way of making us do what we even declare we'll never do. And even though he's a believer, even though he's a patriarch, God can turn your decisions upside down. And that's exactly what's gonna happen in the next chapter. Let's go to chapter 43. It says, and the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought up out of Egypt, their father said unto them, go again, buy us a little food. Oh, I'm sorry, did you not, are you not the one who said you'll never, you'll never go? Then you'll never go? God starts to turn up the heat. And Jacob now speaks again. But you notice even in the words that he says, he's still not willing to let Benjamin go. In fact, he's almost suggesting to the sons, as the old Jacob talking here, sneak down and maybe do a wee deal, buy a little food. Try and avoid going through the normal channels Maybe buy on the black market. He says, just go down and get a little food. And then Judas speaks up. Because all the brothers have been watching. And as each week goes past, they know it takes three weeks to go down and three weeks to come back, six weeks. And the food is beginning to run out. And the children and the grandchildren And no doubt the great-grandchildren, they're getting hungry. And they know from measurements what they need to survive for the next month. And the month after that, and the cupboard now is almost bare. There might be enough to survive six weeks of them going down to Egypt, but that's it. Jacob, he comes up with this desperate solution. Just some of you go down and see if you can find a little food in Egypt. And Judah, he just stands up now. And this is the first time he's going to become a man, spiritually, and a leader in the home. And he speaks directly to Jacob. And he says to Jacob, the man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, ye shall not see my face. except your brother be with me. Jacob's unwilling to face reality and Judah he's going to be used by God to remind him. Can't play games here. This man controls all the food and he has made it clear that there's no way for us to come back. unless Benjamin goes with us. He says, if thou will send your brother with you, we will go down and bide us. Jacob, or Judah, just says to the father of the old man, he says, listen, there's no point to us. We'll be wasting our time. In fact, I'm not willing to go. We're not going to go unless Benjamin comes. He says, verse five, 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. Now what will Jacob say now? He's tried everything to avoid this decision. He's even tried to suggest them sneaking down. And now maybe for the first time Judah stands up to him, looks him in the eye in front of all the other brothers. Now you wonder why the others are quiet. But Judah at least has the courage to say to his father, listen, no more games. We're all gonna die. And he says, I'm not even gonna go down. We're not going down. to try to sneak into Egypt and buy some food on the black market. He says, Benjamin has to go. So what will Jacob say? Will he say, well, maybe it's time to pray? Maybe it's time to just surrender this to the Lord. This is providence at work here. And let's just commit it to the Lord and you all go down and we'll leave it in God's hands. Now, notice what he says. Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me? He says, why have you done this on me? It's all about me still. And then he says, as to tell the man whether you had him, he says, why did you tell the truth? Tell that man down in Egypt. And all these years, Jacob has been trying to get his sons to tell the truth. And the irony is now they're telling the truth. And he says to them, why didn't you tell a lie? Why didn't you cover up? The facts, little did he know, of course, that Joseph knew how many sons there were, and what the circumstances of the family was. And here's Jacob, so foolish, so full of self, that his only remarks to Judah is, why didn't you lie? And they said, so here's what happens. When Judah took Salide, and confronts the father the right way. The other brothers now get courage. We often say one torch lights another torch. Now one man doing the right thing in the home, the others now are learning to follow. And Judah's example, and remember Judah's known for his wickedness in the past, but it's a different Judah now. God's beginning to work on him. mold him and shape him. And maybe Jacob had thought, there's no hope for Judah. But now we're seeing there is a hope for Judah. Took many decades, but God's got through to him. The other brothers say, the man asked us straightly of our state and of our kindred saying, is your father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And we had told him according to the tenor of these words, could we certainly know that he would say bring? They said to Jacob, you're being unreasonable, dad. We were just telling the truth. He asked us these questions, and how were we to know that he would turn it around and say, Benjamin must come down? And then Judah speaks once again. Verse eight, and he says to 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. And 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. That's about as strong a statement as Judah can make. That's about as strong an oath as he can make. Now bear in mind, Judah has lived a very dishonorable life. He's been a very dishonorable son to his father. He's brought nothing but shame and trouble to the home and to the name of God. But for the first time, Judas says, I want to do the right thing. And he says to Jacob, I'll go and I'll do everything I can to preserve Benjamin. I'll give my life for him. Now bear in mind, What had caused this great division was the jealousy of the other sons of Jacob for the sons of Rachel. Do you remember? Joseph, and now Benjamin, the last of the sons of Rachel. There was this division in the home, and Jacob had reminded them of it. When he says, Benjamin won't go, he's the last of my favorite sons, and the rest of you can die, but he has to live. And yet Judah doesn't allow that to dissuade him from doing the right thing. The weakness of his father becomes the strength of Judah. And he looks at Jacob and he says, let me do it. Let me go. He doesn't come up with a stupid solution like, Reuben, kill the grandchildren. He says, I'll bear the consequence. I'll bear the shame. Curse me. You're a patriarch. May God judge me if I don't do the right thing here. It's really what he's really saying. And then he says in verse 10, except we had lingered, surely now we had returned. He even scolded him. He says, listen, if you hadn't delayed, dad, we could have been there and back. Now, how will Jacob respond? Have we got time? Or we'll finish this little section. And their father Israel said unto them. So he understands that Judah is speaking for them all. Judah is leading them all. And he says, if it must be so now, do this. So there's a change in tone. Jacob accepts that this is the finger of God. This has to happen. I can't play anymore. The old Jacob has tried all his tricks to get out of this decision. He's played every card he can play. And now Jacob surrenders. And he says, if this has to happen, it has to happen. But notice there's going to be a change now in Jacob's language. And the one person who he had left out of the conversation, is going to be reintroduced to the conversation. And what he should have said the first time, at least he's now getting to this person and bringing him into the conversation. Because you're going to see in Jacob's reply, his surrender here, that for the first time he's going to bring God into the conversation and into what's going to happen. He says, if it must be so, now do this. So Jacob now takes the leadership. Having just been so stubborn and so full of pity and pride and said, no, no, no, no. He says, now it's going to happen. I accept it. In other words, he said, I was wrong. I give up. Judah, you're right. You so have to go. And now Jacob, and you notice the name has changed from Jacob to Israel. The more spiritual name that God gave him, the man who has power with God, the prince who has power with God. The Holy Spirit changes the name of Jacob here to Israel to show there's a change in him. Through this confrontation with Judah and the other sons. And the man who forgot he was a patriarch has suddenly remembered he's a patriarch. And he speaks, and he says, take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds. Now what's he doing? He's drawing, I believe, on the memory of the past. Because if you remember when Jacob met Esau the first time after their big split, he sent gifts in advance, do you remember? And God used that spirit of generosity and humility and graciousness that Jacob had to Esau to reward him with peace between Esau and him, brought a reconciliation. And Jacob now, I think, is drawing on that memory. And he's now making positive suggestions. He says to his sons, now bring a gift for this man. This is a man of honor, a man of position, and a man that must be respected. And you bring this down and show your humility to him and your thankfulness to him with these gifts. And then he says, verse 12, and take double money. Jacob says, we want to do this right. I want this man to see you're not just people of integrity, Complete integrity. Don't just bring the money back that was in your sacks, bring double, just to show that you're really honest. And he says, verse 13, and this is the hardest thing of all for him to say. You notice he waits, keeps this to the end. He says, bring all the gifts, bring all the money, bring double the money. And then here's the last, will he give up Benjamin? And he says, take also your brother and arise, go again unto the man. And as he said that, he immediately invokes God. And he says, verse 14, and God Almighty, Notice the title he uses of God, the Almighty One, the one who controls the forces of heaven and earth, the one who has all the legions of angels. And we know there are billions of angels from the description in the book of Revelation, a great number that no man can number. And he says, all the billions of angels, the God who controls all those things. He says, may he give you mercy before the man. He knows that's all he can plead for, mercy, because they don't deserve any justice, being sinners and particularly being rogues, whose brothers and his own pride, Jacob's own pride and lack of faith. And Jacob says, may God Almighty will give us mercy. That's all we can ask for. And he's leading, for the first time, these brothers spiritually. And he's pointing them to God. And he's also saying to the brothers, if you read it very carefully, he's saying, the only way this can succeed and Benjamin not lose his life and the family be saved, he says, is if God Almighty shows mercy. Oh, it's a different Jacob talking now, isn't it? Remember what he said previously, in the previous chapter? Oh, he says, all these things are against me, me, me, me, me. Benjamin will never go down. And this time he says, no, Benjamin must go. And may God show mercy. And really what he's doing is he's praying here. These are not just little cliches that he's using for a fridge magnet. No, this is Jacob praying for his sons and sending them on the way. He's the patriarch, remember. And he's giving them this blessing and he's saying, may God have mercy. The almighty God go with you and protect you and give you favor. And he says, bring these men home. Sorry. He says, and he says, and he says, if I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. In other words, he says, whatever God decides, let him decide. I have to accept. I have to surrender. Now, next time when we come back, we'll see what is going to happen down in Egypt and how will Joseph handle these brothers now, particularly Judah and Simeon. But what a story this is. What a drama. And sometimes, you know, when we read these, we think of God's only working in Joseph's life, but we forget When God's at work, he works in everybody's life at the same time. He's weaving patterns, and he's working on Jacob's life, he's working on Judah's life, he's working on the brother's life, he's working on Joseph's life, and he's doing it all at the same time. We tend to look at God in the terms of a purely horizontal relationship, or sorry, vertical relationship between him and us, a very singular way of looking at things. And we forget that when God's at work, he's at work in all these lives at the same time. God's working on this family and he's changing this family for the better. And it's going to be a new family that eventually makes their way to Egypt to live with Joseph. And thank God Joseph had the wisdom to be patient because those brothers had to change. But so did Jacob have to change before he could come down to Egypt. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for what we have learned from this story. What a drama it is, but what a story full of lessons of how God works in people's lives and in our own lives and the lives of our families. in the lives of our children, in the lives of parents, in our lives. Lord, we thank you that although Jacob failed, he eventually got there in the end. While we rightly criticize him for his lack of faith and his lack of leadership, we thank God that grace brought him to the point where he was able, albeit reluctantly, albeit belatedly, say, I surrender all, and I'm handing the matter over to God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.