The Test

Joseph's brothers are haunted by their sin and treating them the way they did. I can still see him pleading with us not to throw him in the pit not to deliver them into the hands of the Midianite traders not to sell them into slavery. But we wouldn't listen now what goes around comes around. And here we are in this distress. They are sensing the judgment of God upon their heads ways we can respond in the moment by assuming we can cover it up to tamp down those feelings of guilt justify what we done, we can flee or we can run with confidence to our gracious and merciful God. Welcome to Renewing Your Mind with RC Sproul. I'm doing well. There is much force to learn about repentance and forgiveness about mercy and grace in the dramatic story of Joseph, who called in the last session. After many many years of separation, Joseph saw his brothers once again that he recognize them when they appeared appealing for grain from the coffers of Egypt, but they did not recognize him and we saw that Joseph underwent this process of concealing himself and his true identity from his brothers and accused them of being spies would come to spy out the weakness of the land of Egypt and first said that he was going to keep nine of them in prison and let one of them go back and bring their younger brother as this test to prove that they were not spies and then after three days he showed his graciousness toward them by saying no only keep one back and the rest of you can go ahead back to your home and bring your brother down so that you can prove that you are not spies.

So there we are ready to pick it up in verse 21 and they said to one another. This is chapter 42 of Genesis verse 21 brother said to one another. We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear. Therefore, this distress has come upon us. This is a remarkable incident in this whole drama there suddenly made aware of fresh of the abiding guilt that they have the blood that is on their hands from the betrayal of their brother so many years ago and it's not that they're telling this to the Prime Minister of Egypt. They are talking among themselves in his presence. Assuming since he speaks to them through a translator that he doesn't understand what they're saying. And there couple of things we need to notice here, one is that the guilt and the stricken consciences of these men had not been relieved for over 20 years.

They were still haunted by the blood of their brother was on their hands and by not only the betrayal of their brother, but the dreadful betrayal of their father, to whom they lied about this incident and we remember that they had watched Jacob's grief and anguish when they reported to him that Joseph had been slain by a wild animal, and they had kept this deception from Jacob. All of these years still bothering them and like the pagan the trembles at the rustling of the leaf. The first adversity they meet.

They now are afraid that they are reaping their just rewards the fear that they are experiencing in the presence of this powerful ruler of Egypt they were late to the possible vengeance of God for their sin. Sin is a burden to carry.

For more difficult than even that described in the magnificent Christian classic of Pilgrim's progress back.

I was thinking just yesterday as popular as Pilgrim's progress has been over the centuries is capturing the essence of the whole drama of redemption of the Christian life in allegorical terms.

I thought it would seem to me that there's another story that's even more graphic about redemption from sin and the perils of living in a fallen world and the suffering of afflictions that are visited upon the Christian as was the case in Pilgrim's progress and that shorter volume of Pilgrim's progress would be the story of Joseph because here we really have not an allegory but a historical reality of the progress of the Christian program. In this case the pilgrim is Joseph, but his brothers have burden of guilt that has not been forgiven, but is not been redeemed and it is haunting them to their life's and and we must not assume that when people are unbelievers, impenitent sinners who may acquire a kind of hardness of heart or stiffness of neck that they are left without any conscience.

The conscience is still God's inner voice by which even unbelievers are accused of their sin does not bring them normally with a way to ever without the grace of God to true repentance, but it does bring them to fear to being frightened of the judgment of God, lest he fall in here when they're in this perilous situation before this turn, Prime Minister of Egypt who is accusing them of being spies and threatening now to keep one of them in prison. They begin to talk among themselves and here they are honest, they're not trying to conceal from each other, their participation in the treachery of years ago be fruitless anyway because they all knew that they had been engaged in this conspiracy against Joseph and name. There may be as you say honor among thieves and the thieves are now huddling together and they're saying all were in big trouble here and so they say we are truly guilty concerning our brother there admitting their guilt, which is one of the hardest things for a human being to do as fallen people, even when we are most clear in our own minds about our guilt.

We try like Lady Macbeth to wash that stained from our hands. The remove the spot and blemish from our soul and we can do it and so we lie to ourselves, and we we want to conceal from ourselves and everybody else what we really are because the heart is deceitfully wicked among all things in the Bible and to say that the heart is wicked beyond all things. It is deceitfully wicked to such a degree that we deceive even ourselves. We don't want to face up to the reality of our sin and that that reluctance to face the stark nakedness of our actual guilt is not suddenly erased from our souls on our conversion. As we saw the struggle of David, who was a godly man where it took the direct charge of the prophet Nathan to get David to face up to his crime. So, we still remain in this condition by which we find it difficult to admit our sins, but again these men are acknowledging their guilt there acknowledging it not openly, but only among themselves because they are co-conspirators in the cross listen to what they said we are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear. Therefore this distress has come upon us. They're terrified this remember what we did to my brother to remember his anguish.

I can still see him pleading with us not to throw them in the pit not to deliver them into the hands of the Midianite traders not to sell them into slavery. But we wouldn't listen now what goes around comes around. And here we are in this distress. They are sensing the judgment of God upon their heads and Ruben answered them, saying that I not speak to you saying do not sin against the boy and you would not listen. Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us.

Don't think too highly of Ruben for this Ruben is covering his own tracks here reminiscing I told you guys not to do that, but he has been a co-conspirator for over two decades he withheld the truth from his father.

He was as guilty as the rest of them in this crime. But now Ruben is trying to save his own skin, and he's trying to sound self-righteous against his brothers. The rest of the brothers acknowledge their guilt and he said well yeah I guess they were good. I told you not to do that and so the honor among the thieves is beginning to dissipate. Therefore, behold his blood is now required of us, but they did not know Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter, and he turned himself away from them and wept when just a match.

The pain that is welling up inside of Joseph to hear his brothers acknowledge what they had been to him. We see Joseph weeping, weeping uncontrollably having to leave the presence of his brothers so that he can pour out his grief in managed to maintain his composure up to this point until he hears the recapitulation of the event that had cost him so much in his life. I don't know if you are this way, but I find the older I get, the easier it is for me to be moved to tears and were taught particularly as men in grade school and high school that it's an unmanly thing to do to weep and so we to learn how to steel ourselves against the women don't go through that. I remember talking to him on my basketball coaches in high school and he said to me about girls. He said watch out for these girls who play with you with her tears. He said they can turn them on and off like a faucet.

I told at the my wife and she didn't like that one bit. And whenever we would have disagreements and she would start to cry. I would say to her.

There you go, that's not fair. You ladies don't fight fair you start all that crying in the amount our hearts and how are we supposed to have a fair hearing and you guys feel like that that's what is a we have learned not to weep, but we also have tear ducts and we also have strong feelings and we find that older men are not nearly as reluctant as younger men to display their affection with tears, but I think there's a reason for that unnatural reason for that very human reason for that.

And that is this the world in which we live is avail of tears and the longer we live in this world, the more pain we experience in the more there is an accumulation of grief and of pain in life and so the more we associate and identify with the wounds and pains of other people because we've been there and and I don't think the Joseph was a whiner. I don't think the Joseph spent his years in the prison sobbing and crying and weeping all the time. Nevertheless, his pain was building up inside of him day after day after day after day and suddenly when this moment of pathos and poignancy takes place where it's all presented to him in an instant. It's more than he can bear, yes to excuse himself down from their site or he would give away his identity.

Can you imagine the readers burst into tears in front of his brothers there that would be the end of his cleverly designed game plan here so he leaps in a while left, but he left because he heard them speak the words and understood what they were saying. Even while they didn't know what.

Then he returned to them again and talk with them and he took Simeon from them, and bound him before their eyes to verse 25 of chapter 42 continues the narrative. Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain to restore every man's money to his sack and to give them provisions for the journey and thus he did for them so they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there.

My course they don't know that Joseph had commanded that there money that they had paid for the grain be returned to their sacks. This is all part of Joseph's carefully crafted scheme to trap his brothers and to lead them into a full acknowledgment of their sin that we read in verse 27, but is one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money and there it was in the mouth of his sack that are making this journey back to remember it's only about 50 miles from Egypt to where the border was near the borders were Jacob and his sons resided, but still they don't make this trip in one day.

They have to camp along the way or go to an in or whatever and when they stop their journey for the night and they're taking the good of the packs from off the back of the beast. One of the brothers checks his bag and finds the money in it and so he said to his brothers. My money has been restored and there it is, in my sack in their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another. What is this that the Prime Minister has done to us now. Nowadays, what is this that God has done to us when they saw the significance of the Prime Minister thinks were spines and now he's put us to the test to see if were men who were trustworthy men of integrity and here we had halfway home and we look in there and one of the bags is the money that we were supposed to have left in Egypt to pay for this grain. Now when they discover that money missing there in a week totally convinced that we are spies will never see Simeon again and what are we gonna tell Jake so their hearts bail.

We talk about Braveheart. We talk about losing heart. These men had been pretty bold, even in their sin, but now their boldness banishes the Finnair and their hearts failed them as their terrified about the repercussions of this incident so we read in verse 29. They want to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that it happened to them saying this man who is Lord of the land spoke roughly to us and took us for spies of the country. We said to him, we are honest men were not spies. We are 12 brothers sons of our fathers. One is no more and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan. Then the man the Lord of the country said to this. By this I will know that you are honest men leave one of your brothers here with me. Take food for the famine of your household and be gone, and bring your youngest brother to me so that I shall know that you are not spies but that you are honest men, I will grant your brother to you and you may trade in the land now again they're putting this occurrence in the best of all possible lights to Jacob.

Can you imagine was going on in Jake's mind this is the second time I've sent you guys out to get something and you came back without one of your brothers were Simeon and they're trying to calm them down and there's there putting the whole thing the best of all possible lights and they don't say initially about finding the money in their sacks, they say all we want in the Lord down there. He spoke some rough words to us and he thought we were spies, but we can get the grain if we just meet the terms of his requirements in relation of your life. So don't worry, they haven't been fully open about how terrified they are to ever go back because of money they were willing to admit to themselves that they have sued, but they continued to tell half-truths to their father. The story of Joseph and his brothers has so many layers of conflict and turmoil and that we can learn lessons from each of them. RC taught this series on the life of Joseph in 20 messages and we like to send all of them to you with your gift of Eddie about to later ministries.

It's actually part of a larger collection that includes the parables of Jesus knowing Scripture. Ecclesiastes Galatians and knowing Christ a total of eight series in a set that we called the RC Sproul teaching collection. You can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343. You can also find us online at Renewing Your Mind.work more than 50 years ago RC was ordained to the ministry. He was known for proclaiming teaching and defending the holiness of God in all its fullness, deepening our understanding of God's holy character RC went home to be with the Lord nearly 3 years ago, but we have continued to pursue his vision. Later ministries produces teaching material to help Christians grow in their understanding of God and elf that work is going around the world through new translations. Thanks for being part of the sin and today would you give a donation of any amount we will say thank you by sending you a teaching series in the RC Sproul teaching collection or web address again is Renewing Your Mind.Oregon.

Our phone number 800-435-4343.

Today we learned about the 20 year gap between the set of Joseph's brothers and their repentance and RC encourages us to think about that in his final thought is said in Scripture of those who are impenitent that those who are unbelievers that there is no fear of God in their eyes. Now there's a little difficulty in that phrase because on the one hand, it refers to the fear of reverence and worship and honor, which is characteristic of the pagan.

There is no reverence for God in their eyes but fear is not exhausted by the term reverence. There is the fearfulness of fear, the fear of divine judgment. The fear of punishment and there is that fear to some degree in the hearts of all men to be sure we do everything in our power to eradicate it to disclaim it to hide it, but we cannot escape it.

Really, we would be so much better off if that fear were far more intense because we would be much more inclined to flee to God for forgiveness and I believe that's why it's so important for us to read the law of God to preach the law of God to hear the law of God, because we will never really embrace the gospel until we have been first terrified by the imposing judgment of God's holiness.

We need to hear that today constantly so that we will flee to Christ and seek the covering of his righteousness, that we may put our consciences in his hand that we will find the remission of our sins and gain the peace of God that so many people go their whole lives without ever experiencing.

Learn more about Joe's's plan for his brothers next week.

They go back to Egypt, full of fear and trembling, get the surprise of their lives. We hope you'll join us next Saturday for Renewing Your Mind