Genesis 42:25-38
The Brothers Return to Canaan
25 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. Thus he did for them. 26 So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. 27 But as 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. 28 So he said to his brothers, “My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!” Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”
29 Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying: 30 “The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.’ 33 Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, 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 households, and be gone. 34 And bring your youngest brother to me; so 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.’”
35 Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly each man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.”
37 Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”
38 But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.”
On the return journey home to Canaan by Joseph’s brothers minus Reuben, one of them opened one of their grain sacks of food they were given to feed his steed. There he found that their money given for the food had been put back in with the grain in the sacks as they all discovered in each of their bags of grain later when arriving home. Their first thought was that they would be accused of being thieves on top of their espionage accusations. Instead of trying to understand they immediately cried out in despair to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?” They had been so focused on their own sin and guilt for their brother sold into slavery and now had to tell their dying father that he had to send his last link to his beloved Rachel back as proof the rest were not spies he that he did exist in order to prove to Pharaoh that they were indeed honest and truthful men. If they brought Benjamin back they would be able to get their other brother back and be able to trade for food to survive the famine. Jacob was distraught when he saw the implications of the money implicating his sons as thieves and the loss of Simeon already on top of the heartbreaking loss of Joseph. Reuben (who argued initially for the life of Joseph to his brothers) tried to convince his father to let them go back to show Benjamin, but Jacob could not stand the sorrowful loss of another and refused. He lamented the supposed death of one of Rachel’s two sons and would not lose his last tie to his beloved by risking the other youngest son. This shows the snowball effect of sin as the brother’s jealousy almost led to murder if not for the intervention of Reuben who once more offered his own two sons as collateral if things went further south in Egypt. The consequences of sin led them to face starvation if they did not return and possible imprisonment if they did, not to mention the effect on their father for his past and looming future loss if the others went back to prove their innocence in the midst of their true guilt. They had to return to deface their sin’s consequences just as we all must do (Romans 6:23, Hebrews 9:27-28). In Christ our sin against Him has been forgiven and covered by the lifeblood of Jesus spilled on the tree of sin’s curse (Galatians 3:13) for our lives and the opportunities to find ongoing forgiveness (1 John 1:9) in that reconciliation with Him and one another. We must face the consequences of our actions but not suffer eternal suffering (1 Corinthians 3:12-13, 14-15) anymore as His ransomed children out of the bondage of sin represented by the enslavement of God’s people for four hundred years in Egypt. There is continuing mercy in Christ for us just as God showed compassion on Jacob and his sons in dealing with their sins and suffering. We discover these truths as we return to face the consequences of sin and forgiveness in Him.
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