Inactive Engagement
Engage with the Lord: Joseph’s Story • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Redeemed Perspective
Redeemed Perspective
Now the famine was still severe in the land. So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”
But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ ”
Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?”
They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?”
Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.”
Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
Chapter 42 ends with Jacob being so stuck in his desire to control his circumstances in a futile attempt to save himself from being forced to experience the pain of bereavement that would come if anything were to happen to Benjamin. We, like Jacob, can become paralyzed in our fear of “what if” and be even willing to sacrifice things that are important to us (the life of Simeon) to try and keep from having to face that which we fear.
Jacob is continuing to be paralyzed in his fear and unable to give up control even though the circumstances, the family needs grain, demands the need to respond.
Judah steps in to help break his father’s paralysis by pointing his father to the conditions of the agreement for further trade in Egypt. Judah then offers to provide a means to comfort to his father by offering to be the one responsible for his brother’s well being. Take notice that this is a complete shift from the last time that Judah stepped up on behalf of one of his brothers. Unlike in the case of Joseph where Judah looked for personal gain over brotherly protection, Judah promises to place brotherly protection over any personal gain.
Our circumstances will be overwhelming at times. We are finite beings with limited foresight. It is easy and understandable to become paralyzed in our fear at times. This is why we are called to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters in Christ to remind us and point us toward the Lord. As our eyes become fixed on the Lord, our perspective shifts to match His perspective. His promises remind our heart that our circumstances are temporary, but He is eternal.
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
God Meets Us in Our Fear
God Meets Us in Our Fear
So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare a meal; they are to eat with me at noon.”
The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph’s house. Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”
So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. “We beg your pardon, our lord,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.”
“It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.
The steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys. They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there.
When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. He asked them how they were, and then he said, “How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?”
They replied, “Your servant our father is still alive and well.” And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him.
As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.
After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, “Serve the food.”
They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.
As the brothers were finally able to convince their father Jacob to allow them to take Benjamin to Egypt so that they might once again be able to trade, the brothers are caught up in the same pattern of overthinking and creating “what if” scenarios in their minds that cause them great fear and anxiety. Every command given by Joseph in regards to his brothers is met with fear and uncertainty by his brothers. They become convinced that every command is sealing their fate in response to the returned silver. Even after they receive assurance from the steward (23) that the returned silver was not part of an elaborate trap but a blessing from God above, the brothers remain fearful.
Often in our lives, we miss out on the Lord’s blessings all around us because we become so fixated on our fears. When our intentional engagement with the Lord diminishes, our tendency to give ourselves over to patterns of paralysis and control in order to avoid fear and pain rule our lives. Intentional engagement with God is necessary to continually shift our eyes upward and fix our gaze on Christ.