Connecting Scriptures:  Genesis 37:5-9, Genesis 9:5, Psalm 103:10, Romans 8:1-6

This is a chapter about how people deal with grief.  Loss and deep hurts are hard to pass over.  Even after 20 years, sins committed against brother and father are fresh in the dialogue and actions of Israel and his sons.  It is as if the famine is just a drop in the bucket of issues.  Did each son consider every hardship a consequence of what they had done to Joseph?  Did it pass in conversation as they walked toward the place that had enveloped their brother?  

I want to connect more of this chapters details with the next chapter, but for now, I am led to examine the road blocks that are put up in the lives of those who bury sin. 

    On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so. Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”—verses 18-22.

As much as they may have tried to move on and forget the past, God has brought them face to face with Joseph (even though they do not recognize him) and starring directly at the real issue under the surface.  They are not honest men, no matter how truthful their claims of not being spies really is.  At their core, in the heart, they are guilty of the highest offense as old as Cain and Able.  They murdered Joseph in their minds and now comes a recompense.  The sin has dug itself back out of the grave and its ugly truth cannot be avoided.  

Back home, with the prospect of maybe being taken as thieves when finding bags full of grain and money, we get a clear picture of Jacob’s head space.  Notice how it only refers to him by his old name here.  I think it is telling of his regression and broken state for these many years.  He is utterly hopeless as he grasps onto Benjamin, unwilling to let his fate be as that of Joseph and Simeon (who he already wrote off as lost and dead).  Reuben, desperate to make amends for so many sins, puts forward his own sons as collateral so that they can make something good come out of all this bad.  Jacob won’t relent, still keeping back favorites and declaring Benjamin as the “only one left”.  Of course he meant of his favorite wife, his last piece of Rachel.  His last connection to Joseph.  How much had he been held captive and stagnant in these losses?  When grief goes sideways, it keeps us in a holding pattern.  It seems Jacob has been in “Sheol” for a while now.  

Questions for Reflection:

1.  What kind of sins or hurts have you carried around that have shaped how you view your current situation?

2.  Do you view the bad things that have transpired in your life as God’s punishment toward you?  If this is a struggle for you, there may be some misunderstanding about God’s character that needs to be refined.  If you are in Christ, know that Jesus’ work on the cross took all the wrath you deserved.  There is no condemnation (or punishment) for those who are in Christ.  I am praying for your understanding of freedom in Christ today!