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Genesis Chapter
Forty-two
Genesis 42
Chapter Contents
Jacob sends ten sons to buy corn. (1-6) Joseph's
treatment of his brethren. (7-20) Their remorse, Simeon detained. (21-24) The
rest return with corn. (25-28) Jacob refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt. (29-38)
Commentary on Genesis 42:1-6
Jacob saw the corn his neighbours had bought in Egypt,
and brought home. It is a spur to exertion to see others supplied. Shall others
get food for their souls, and shall we starve while it is to be had? Having
discovered where help is to be had, we should apply for it without delay,
without shrinking from labour, or grudging expense, especially as regards our
never-dying souls. There is provision in Christ; but we must come to him, and
seek it from him.
Commentary on Genesis 42:7-20
Joseph was hard upon his brethren, not from a spirit of
revenge, but to bring them to repentance. Not seeing his brother Benjamin, he
suspected that they had made away with him, and he gave them occasion to speak
of their father and brother. God, in his providence, sometimes seems harsh with
those he loves, and speaks roughly to those for whom yet he has great mercy in
store. Joseph settled at last, that one of them should be left, and the rest go
home and fetch Benjamin. It was a very encouraging word he said to them,
"I fear God;" as if he had said, You may be assured I will do you no
wrong; I dare not, for I know there is one higher than I. With those that fear
God, we may expect fair dealing.
Commentary on Genesis 42:21-24
The office of conscience is to bring to mind things long
since said and done. When the guilt of this sin of Joseph's brethren was fresh,
they made light of it, and sat down to eat bread; but now, long afterward,
their consciences accused them of it. See the good of afflictions; they often
prove the happy means of awakening conscience, and bringing sin to our
remembrance. Also, the evil of guilt as to our brethren. Conscience now
reproached them for it. Whenever we think we have wrong done us, we ought to
remember the wrong we have done to others. Reuben alone remembered with
comfort, that he had done what he could to prevent the mischief. When we share
with others in their sufferings, it will be a comfort if we have the testimony
of our consciences for us, that we did not share in their evil deeds, but in
our places witnessed against them. Joseph retired to weep. Though his reason
directed that he should still carry himself as a stranger, because they were
not as yet humbled enough, yet natural affection could not but work.
Commentary on Genesis 42:25-28
The brethren came for corn, and corn they had: not only
so, but every man had his money given back. Thus Christ, like Joseph, gives out
supplies without money and without price. The poorest are invited to buy. But
guilty consciences are apt to take good providences in a bad sense; to put
wrong meanings even upon things that make for them.
Commentary on Genesis 42:29-38
Here is the report Jacob's sons made to their father. It
troubled the good man. Even the bundles of money Joseph returned, in kindness,
to his father, frightened him. He laid the fault upon his sons; knowing them,
he feared they had provoked the Egyptians, and wrongfully brought home their
money. Jacob plainly distrusted his sons, remembering that he never saw Joseph
since he had been with them. It is bad with a family, when children behave so
ill that their parents know not how to trust them. Jacob gives up Joseph for
gone, and Simeon and Benjamin as in danger; and concludes, All these things are
against me. It proved otherwise, that all these things were for him, were
working together for his good, and the good of his family. We often think that
to be against us, which is really for us. We are afflicted in body, estate,
name, and in our relations; and think all these things are against us, whereas
they are really working for us a weight of glory. Thus does the Lord Jesus
conceal himself and his favour, thus he rebukes and chastens those for whom he
has purposes of love. By sharp corrections and humbling convictions he will
break the stoutness and mar the pride of the heart, and bring to true
repentance. Yet before sinners fully know him, or taste that he is gracious, he
consults their good, and sustains their souls, to wait for him. May we do thus,
never yielding to discouragement, determining to seek no other refuge, and
humbling ourselves more and more under his mighty hand. In due time he will
answer our petitions, and do for us more than we can expect.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Genesis》
Genesis 42
Verse 1
[1] Now
when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do
ye look one upon another?
Jacob saw that there was corn — That is, he saw the corn that his neighbours had bought there and
brought home.
Verse 2
[2] And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you
down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.
Get you down thither — Masters of families must not only pray for daily bread for their
families, but must with care and industry provide it.
Verse 7
[7] And
Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them,
and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they
said, From the land of Canaan to buy food.
We may well wonder that Joseph, during the
twenty years he had been in Egypt, especially during the last seven years that
he had been in power there, never sent to his father to acquaint him with his
circumstances; nay, 'tis strange that he who so oft went throughout all the
land of Egypt, never made a step to Canaan, to visit his aged father. When he
was in the borders of Egypt that lay next to Canaan, perhaps it would not have
been above three or four days journey for him in his chariot. 'Tis a probable
conjecture, that his whole management of himself in this affair was by special
direction from heaven, that the purpose of God, concerning Jacob and his
family, might be accomplished. When Joseph's brethren came, he knew them by
many a good token, but they knew not him, little thinking to find him there.
Verse 9
[9] And
Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye
are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
He remembered the dreams, but they had forgot
them. The laying up of God's oracles in our hearts will be of excellent use to
us in all our conduct. Joseph had an eye to his dreams, which he knew to be
divine, in his carriage towards his brethren, and aimed at the accomplishment
of them, and the bringing his brethren to repentance; and both those points
were gained. 1. He shewed himself harsh with them: the very manner of his
speaking, considering the post he was in, was enough to frighten them, for he
spake roughly to them - He charged them with ill designs against the
government, treated them as dangerous persons, ye are spies, protesting by the
life of Pharaoh that they were so. Some make that an oath, others make it no
more but a vehement asseveration; however, it was more than yea, yea, and nay,
nay, and therefore came of evil. 2. They hereupon were very submissive; they
spoke to him with all respect; nay, my lord. They modestly deny the charge, we
are no spies; they tell him their business, they came to buy food, they give a
particular account of themselves and their family, Genesis 42:13, and that was it he wanted. 3. He
clapt them all up in prison three days. 4. He concluded with them at last, that
one of them should be left as a hostage, and the rest should go home and fetch
Benjamin. It was a very encouraging word he said, I fear God; q.d. You may
assure yourselves, I will do you no wrong, I dare not, for I know that as high
as I am, there is one higher than I. With those that fear God we have reason to
expect fair dealing: the fear of God will be a check upon those that are in
power, to restrain them from abusing their power to oppression and tyranny:
Verse 21
[21] And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother,
in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not
hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
We are very guilty concerning our brother — We do not read that they said this during their three days imprisonment;
but now when the matter was come to some issue, and they saw themselves still
embarrassed, they began to relent. Perhaps Joseph's mention of the fear of God,
put them upon consideration, and extorted this reflexion.
Verse 24
[24] And
he turned himself about from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and
communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.
He took Simeon — He
chose him for the hostage, probably because he remembered him to have been his
most bitter enemy, or because he observed him now to be least humbled and
concerned. He bound him before their eyes, to affect them all.
Verse 28
[28] And
he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and, lo, it is even in my
sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another,
What is this that God hath done unto us?
Their heart failed them, and they were
afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done to us? - They
knew that the Egyptians abhorred a Hebrew, Genesis 43:32, and therefore, since they could
not expect to receive any kindness from them, they concluded that this was done
with a design to pick a quarrel with them, the rather because the man, the lord
of the land, had charged them as spies. Their own conscience were awake, and
their sins set in order before them, and this puts them into confusion. When
the events of providence concerning us are surprising, it is good to enquire
what it is that God has done and is doing with us?
Verse 38
[38] 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 ye go, then shall ye
bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
My son shall not go down with you — He plainly intimates a distrust of them, remembering that he never saw
Joseph since he had been with them; therefore Benjamin shall not go with you.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Genesis》
42 Chapter 42
Verse 1-2
Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt.
The famine in the house of Jacob
I. CONSIDERED IN
ITS REARING UPON THE DIVINE PURPOSES CONCERNING THE CHOSEN PEOPLE.
II. CONSIDERED IN
ITS EFFECT UPON JACOB’S SONS. “Why do ye look one upon another?” This sad
question reavealed--
1. The utmost distress.
2. Great perplexity.
3. Forebodings of conscience. (T. H. Leale.)
The famine; or, good out of evil
I. THE WIDESPREAD
CALAMITY.
II. THE ERRAND TO
EGYPT.
III. THE DOUBTFUL
RECEPTION. Learn:
1. When distresses and trials come, we should be ready to trust that
God means to do good by them in some way, though we may not know how.
2. When difficulties occur, we should still hope on.
3. When disappointments are our lot, we should remember that they
come not without God’s knowledge and permission.
4. Humility and faith will always lead to renewed hope. (W. S.
Smith, B. D.)
Corn in Egypt
We have here a picture of man’s lost estate, he is in a sore
soul-devouring famine. We discover here man’s hope. His hope lies in that
Joseph whom he knows not, who has gone before him and provided all things
necessary, that his “wants may be supplied. And we have here practical advice,
which was pre-eminently wise on the part of Jacob to his sons in his case, and
which, being interpreted, is also the wisest advice to you and to me. Seeing that
there is mercy for sinners, and that Jesus our brother has gone before us to
provide for us an all-sufficient redemption, “Why sit we here and look one upon
another?” There is mercy in the breast of God, there is salvation in Christ;
“get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not
die.”
I. A PITIFUL
PLIGHT. These sons of Jacob were overtaken by a famine. They were cast into a
waste, howling wilderness of famine, with but one oasis, and that oasis they
did not hear of till just at the time to which our text refers, when they
learned to their joy that there was corn in Egypt. Permit me now to illustrate
the condition of the sinner by the position of these sons of Jacob.
1. The sons of Jacob had a very great need of bread. But what is
this compared with the sinner’s needs! His necessities are such that only
Infinity can supply them; he has a demand before which the demands of sixty-six
mouths are as nothing.
2. Mark, again: what these people wanted was an essential thing.
They did not lack clothes, that were a want, but nothing like the lack of
bread; for a man might exist with but scanty covering. Oh that men should cry
for bread--the absolute necessary for the sustenance of the body! But what is
the sinner’s want? Is it not exactly this? he wants that without which the soul
must perish.
3. Yet again: the necessity of the sons of Jacob was a total one.
They had no bread; there was none to be procured. Such is the sinner’s case. It
is not that he has a little grace and lacks more; but he has none at all. Of
himself he has no grace. It is not that he has a little goodness, and needs to
be made better; but he has no goodness at all, no merits, no
righteousness--nothing to bring to God, nothing to offer for his acceptance; he
is penniless, poverty-stricken; everything is gone whereon his soul might feed.
4. But yet worse: with the exception of Egypt, the sons of Jacob
were convinced that there was no food anywhere. In speechless silence they
resigned themselves to the woe which threatened to overwhelm them. Such is the
sinner’s condition, when first he begins to feel a hungering and thirsting
after righteousness, he looks to others. “There is no hope for us; we have all
been condemned, we have all been guilty, we can do nothing to appease the Most
High”; what a wretched world were ours, if we were equally convinced of sin,
and equally convinced that there was no hope of mercy! This, then, was the
condition of Jacob’s sons temporally, and it is our condition by nature
spiritually.
II. Now we come,
in the second place, to the GOOD NEWS. Jacob had faith, and the ears of faith
are always quiet; faith can hear the tread of mercy, though the footfall be as
light as that of the angel among the flowers. Jacob had the ears of faith. He
had been at prayer, I doubt not, asking God to deliver his family in the time
of famine; and by and by he hears, first of his household, that there is corn
in Egypt. Jacob heard the good news, and communicated it as speedily as
possible to his descendants. Now, we also have heard the good news. Good news
has been sent to us in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. “There is corn in
Egypt.” We need not die. Now, we have better news than even Jacob had; although
the news is similar, understanding it in a spiritual sense.
1. We are told to-day, by sure and certain witnesses, that there is
corn in Egypt, there is mercy in God. Jacob’s messenger might have deceived
him--idle tales are told everywhere, and in days of famine men are very apt
totell a falsehood, thinking that to be true which they wish were so. The
hungry man is apt to hope that there may be corn somewhere; and then he thinks
there is; and then he says there is; and then, what begins with a wish comes to
be a rumour and a report. But this day, my friends, it is no idle talk; no
dream, no rumour of a deceiver. There is mercy with God, there is salvation
with Him that He may be feared.
2. There is another thing in which we have the start of Jacob. Jacob
knew there was corn in Egypt, but did not know who had the keeping of it. If he
had known that, he would have said, “My sons, go down at once to Egypt, do not
be at all afraid, your brother is lord of Egypt, and all the corn belongs to
him.” Nay, more, I can readily imagine that he would have gone himself, forthwith.
Sinner, the mercies of God are under no lock and key except those over which
Christ has the power. The granaries of heaven’s mercy have no steward to keep
them save Christ. He is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of
sins.
3. There is yet another thing which the sons of Jacob knew nothing
of. When they went to Egypt, they went on hap-hazard: If they knew there was
corn, they were not sure they would get it. But when you and I go to Christ, we
are invited guests.
4. But one other remark, and I will have done with this second
point. The sons of Jacob were in one respect better off than you are
apparently, for they had money with which to buy. Jacob was not a poor man in
respect of wealth, although he had now become exceedingly poor from lack of
bread. His sons had money to take with them. Glittering bars of gold they
thought must surely attract the notice of the ruler of Egypt. You have no
money, nothing to bring to Christ, nothing to offer Him. You offered Him
something once, but He rejected all you offered Him as being spurious coins,
imitations, counterfeits, and good for nothing. And now utterly stripped,
hopeless, penniless, you say you are afraid to go to Christ because you have
nothing of your own. Let me assure you that you are never in so fit a condition
to go to Christ as when you have nowhere else to go to, and have nothing of
your own.
III. Thus I have
noticed the good news as well as the pitiful plight. I come now to the third
part, which is GOOD ADVICE. Jacob says, “Why do ye look one upon another?” And
he said, “Behold I have heard that there is corn in Egypt; get you down
thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.” This is
very practical advice. I wish people would act the same with religion as they do
in temporal affairs. Jacob’s sons did not say: “Well, that is very good news; I
believe it,” and then sit still and die. No, they went straightway to the place
of which the good news told them corn was to be had. So should it be in matters
of religion. We should not be content merely to hear the tidings, but we should
never be satisfied until by Divine grace we have availed ourselves of them, and
have found mercy in Christ. Lastly, let me put this question: “Why do ye look
one upon another?” Why do ye sit still? Fly to Christ, and find mercy. Oh, says
one, “I cannot get what I expect to have.” But what do you expect? I believe
some of our hearers expect to feel an electric shock, or something of that
kind, before they are saved. The gospel says simply, “Believe.” That they will
not understand. They think there is to be something so mysterious about it.
They can’t make out what it is; but they are going to wait for it and then
believe. Well, you will wait till doomsday; for if you do not believe this
simple gospel, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” God will not work signs and
wonders to please your foolish desires. Your position is this--you are a
sinner, lost, ruined; you cannot help yourself. Scripture says, “Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Your immediate business, your
instantaneous duty is to cast yourself on that simple promise, and believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, that as He came into the world to save sinners, He has
therefore come to save you. What you have to do with, is that simple
command--“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” In
conclusion, I make this last remark: Did you notice the argument Joseph used
why the sons should go to Egypt? It was this--“That we may live, and not die.”
Sinner, this is my argument with thee this morning. My dear hearers, the gospel
of Christ is a matter of life and death with you. It is not a matter of little
importance, but of all importance. There is an alternative before you; you will
either be eternally damned, or everlastingly saved. Despise Christ, and neglect
His great salvation, and you will be lost, as sure as you live. Believe in
Christ; put your trust alone in Him, and everlasting life is yours. What
argument can be more potent than this to men that love themselves? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The famine in Canaan
I. FAMINE.
1. A dire calamity. Perhaps none greater. One which human wisdom
cannot foresee. Affects all classes. Animal life depends on vegetable life,
vegetable life on seasons, light, heat, rain, temperature, &c. These under
the control of God. The lawmaker may suspend the operation of natural laws,
moderate their influence, or affect their course.
2. Usually unexpected. In this case there was a warning given, and
preparations made. Men cannot foresee the suspension or deviation of natural
laws. Hopes for the future built on productiveness of the past.
3. Often over-ruled for good. In this case conspicuously so.
Promotes human sympathy (thus the Irish famine, 1846-7, besides evoking much
individual benevolence, was responded to by Parliamentary grants of, in the
whole, £10,000,000. Ill. Indian famine, 1861). Provokes scientific inquiry into
“supply and demand.” of food. Leads to emigration and breaking up of new
ground.
4. Always possible and near. World at any time only a harvest off
starvation.
5. Generally local (Genesis 8:22). “All countries” (Genesis 41:57), those adjacent to Egypt.
Kindness of Providence in this. Nations in their turn dependent on each other.
Each “offers something for the general use.”
II. PLENTY.
1. Where? In Egypt. A storehouse of plenty for hungry nations.
Always food in some place, and will be while the earth lasts. He who feeds the
ravens knows what man has need of.
2. Why? Does it seem strange that the promised land should suffer,
rather than be the favoured spot?
3. How? By the extraordinary productiveness of seven preceding
years, and the storing of the surplus corn. This effected by the
instrumentality of Joseph. His mind supernaturally illuminated. Favour given
him in the sight of the king of Egypt. Him appointment to office, including the
absolute control of the produce of the land.
III. BUYING FOOD.
1. Want in the house of Jacob.
2. The ten sent out to buy corn in Egypt.
3. They arrive in Egypt, and visit the royal granaries.
4. Joseph recognizes them, and they bow before him, and thus fulfil
the dream.
5. To disarm suspicion, and to discover the temper of their minds,
and the history of their family, they are charged with being spies, and cast
into prison.
6. After three days they are liberated, and a hostage required for
their return with the younger brother of whom they have spoken, and of whose
existence Joseph affects to doubt.
7. Mutual recriminations respecting Joseph.
8. Joseph is affected by what he hears.
9. Simeon bound and left in prison, while they betake themselves
away to Canaan. Learn: However great the dearth of the bread that perisheth,
there is always sufficient of the “bread of life,” and it is always accessible.
(J. C. Gray.)
Joseph’s ten brethren went
down to buy corn in Egypt
Providence working in
men’s lives
I.
The story of Joseph is a
good example of what is meant by Providence working for the best in the lives
of men. Look at the young foreigner, as he comes to a land not his own; see how
he resists the one great temptation of his age and station; observe how,
through means not of his own seeking, through good report and evil, through
much misunderstanding of others, but by consistent integrity and just dealing
on his own part, he overcomes all the difficulties of his position, and is
remembered long afterwards in his adopted land as the benefactor of his
generation and the deliverer of his country.
II. The story of Joseph is, perhaps, of all the stories in the Old
Testament, the one which most carries us back to our childhood, both from the
interest we felt in it as children, and from the true picture of family life
which it presents. It brings before us the way in which the greatest blessings
for this life and the next depend on the keeping up of family love pure and
fresh, as when the preservation and fitting education of the chosen people
depended on that touching generosity and brotherly affection which no distance
of time, no new customs, no long sojourn in a strange land, could extinguish in
the heart of Joseph. Home is on earth the best likeness of heaven; and heaven
is that last and best home in which, when the journey of life is over, Joseph
and his brethren, Jacob and his sons, Rachel and her children, shall meet to
part no more. (Dean Stanley.)
The first journey of
Jacob’s brethren into Egypt
I. THEY SHOW EVIDENT SIGNS OF FEAR. Therefore they go together in a
company, ten strong, that by their numbers they might encourage and support one
another (Genesis 42:3).
II. THEIR WORST FOREBODINGS ARE FULFILLED. They dreaded Egypt, and
events justified their fears.
1. They are received roughly (Genesis 42:7).
2. They are suspected of evil designs (Genesis 42:9).
3. They are threatened with the prospect of imprisonment and death.
III. GREAT PRINCIPLES OF GOD’S MORAL GOVERNMENT ARE :ILLUSTRATED IN
THIS HISTORY.
1. That pride is sure to meet with a fall. In Genesis 42:6 we are told that “Joseph’s brethren came and bowed down
themselves before him with their faces to the earth.” Where were now those
lofty looks, and that contemptuous tone with which they said when Joseph had
told them of his dreams--“Shalt thou then indeed reign over us, or shalt thou
have dominion over us?”
2. That nothing can hinder the counsel of God from taking effect.
3. That the crisis will arrive when the wicked must appear before
the judgment-seat of the pious.
4. That retribution, even in kind, follows sin.
5. That throughout the severity of God’s righteous anger against Sin
there runs a purpose of mercy. (T. H. Leale.)
The first journey of
Joseph’s brethren into Egypt
I. THE FAMINE IN CANAAN.
II. THE OFFICE OF CONSCIENCE (Genesis 42:21). Where sin is voluntary wrong-doing, the language of the human
heart inevitably connects the penalty with the wrong-doing. In every temptation
that comes upon you, think what it will be in the hour of death to be free from
the recollection of it. Refrain, refrain, remember the hereafter.
III. OBSERVE THE SEVERITY IN THE LOVE OF JOSEPH (Genesis 42:7). He did not allow his personal feelings to interfere with what
seemed to him his duty. Joseph’s love to his brethren was a noble love. God’s
love to us is still nobler, and severity accompanies it. It does not shrink
from human suffering, for suffering is necessary for the man’s well being.
IV. Lastly, we remark on THE RETURN HOMEWARDS OF JOSEPH’S BRETHREN.
Jacob expected corn to relieve their necessities; he got the corn, but with it
came sorrow upon sorrow. Bereaved of Joseph, he is now bereaved of Simeon also.
In Jacob’s answers to his sons, in the close of the chapter, we find a depth of
querulousness and despondency. Job was tried with sorrows far more severe, and
yet they only served and contributed to the purifying of his spirit. In order
to understand the cause of Jacob’s despondency we must go far back. Jacob was a
selfish man; his very religion was selfish; he would become religious only on
condition that God would protect and guide him. To that selfish origin may be
traced all the evils of his after life. Throughout it seems to have been his
principle to receive as much as possible, and to give as little as he could. He
who lives in this world for his own personal enjoyment, without God and His
Christ, will by degrees find, like Jacob, that he has no rock to rest his soul
upon, but that he must go down in sorrow to the grave. (F. W. Robertson, M.
A.)
The retributions of Providence
Men troubled by memory of
former sins, not because they doubt mercy of God, but because they doubt
themselves. Jacob’s sons better men than formerly, yet the retribution follows.
I. The vengeance of TIME. The sin of twenty years ago. Time no friend
to the sinner. Time gives the harvest opportunity and room to develop. Years of
Joseph’s imprisonment. Years of torture to brethren.
II. The vengeance of CIRCUMSTANCES. Every link in chain, strong and
connected with next link. “Remarkable series of coincidences,” very. The plots
and counterplots of fiction: of with Scripture.
III. The vengeance of MEMORY. Joseph’s cries wrought into the mental
texture of these men. Hetfy, in “Adam Bede.” The baby’s cry: “ Son, remember.”
Memory, a cup of blessing, or devil’s scourge.
IV. The vengeance of CONSCIENCE. Memory may exaggerate, extenuate,
add, subtract, &c. But conscience is a just judge. Hamlet, “The play’s the
thing,” &c. Adonibezak, conscience-stricken wretch.
V. The vengeance of PUBLICITY. Evildoers clever in blocking up
ninety-nine avenues of discovery. The 100th. The shame. The collapse.
Conclusion: Vengeance, not last word in relation to sin. “We know that He was
manifested,” &c. “Better to fall,” &c. “Faithful and just.” “Though
your sins as mountains rise,” &c. (A. P. Watson.)
Verse 8
Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him
The betrayers confronted with the betrayed
I.
AN
INSTANCE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
II. A PREPARATION
FOR GRACE.
III. A
FORESHADOWING OF GRACE. (St. J. A. Frere.)
Known and watched
I. BOTH OPEN AND
SECRET SINNERS ARE KNOWN AND WATCHED BY GOD.
II. BOTH TRUE AND
FALSE PROFESSORS ARE KNOWN AND WATCHED BY THE WORLD. (J. Henry Burn, B. D.)
Verses 11-17
We are true men
True life
I.
THE
MISTAKEN ESTIMATE. “We are true men.” Were they? They spoke for themselves,
they spoke for one another; but had they a good report of the truth itself? You
know better than that--they were not true men, anything but true men. How came
it to pass that they formed such a mistaken estimate of themselves? How comes
it to pass that men now-a-days form similarly false estimates of themselves?
1. They dwelt on their superficial goodness, and forgot their deeper
wickedness. “We are no spies.” No; they felt hurt by the very suspicion; they
would have scorned the thing. But there are worse things than going forth to
see the nakedness of the land, worse men than spies. And these very men were
guilty of far greater wickedness (see Genesis 37:2; Genesis 37:4-5; Genesis 37:11; Genesis 37:18; Genesis 37:20). They were guilty of
malice, falsehood, treachery, murder. Their conduct was unmanly, unbrotherly,
unfilial. They were not spies, but they were liars, impostors, kidnappers,
fratricides, monsters. But they ignored the profound wickedness, and dwelt
fondly upon a goodness which was not very good. Is not this a very common
method with us still? We think how blameless we are in matters on the very
surface of life, and forget how guilty we are in the weightier matters of the
law.
2. They dwelt on their exceptional goodness, and forgot their
prevailing wickedness. “We are no spies.” They were right here, but in how many
respects were they wanting? How many base characteristics they had we have just
seen. But is not this seizing on some creditable trait of character, and
ignoring all the bad traits a constant source of self deception? Says the
prodigal son, listening to some story of covetousness and meanness, “Well,
anyhow, nobody can charge me with money-grubbing!” And the man who is a walking
lie, a mass of selfishness, full of egotism and pride, will reply, when some
one is convicted of tippling, “Well, thank heaven, I never was a beast!” People
think sometimes that the Pharisee is only found in the Church among seemingly
good people; but the Pharisee is in the world also, in the most outrageous
stoners, and it is often curious to hear the sanctimonious accent in the hiccup
of the drunkard, and to see the broad phylactery showing through the finery of
the harlot. The apostle says, “If we offend in one point we are guilty of all,”
but we argue as if to keep one point was to be innocent of all. “True men.”
They are true all round, the soundness of their hearts discovering itself in
the harmony and beauty of their whole life. But, alas I we judge ourselves by
some phase of exceptional goodness, and because we are not spies conclude
ourselves saints.
3. They dwelt on their present goodness and forgot their past
wickedness. “We are no spies.” They were right in that matter, right at that time,
but what of the past? The moral insensibility and forgetfulness exhibited by
these men is simply surprising. So it is with ourselves. Nothing is more
startling than our moral unconsciousness and forgetfulness. We easily believe
time sponges out all disagreeable records, and presents us with a clean state.
“True men.” We are not true men until we are “purged from our old sins.”
II. THE PAINFUL
EXPOSURE. How wonderfully God can cleave to our very heart, and show us what
spirit we are of, no matter how profoundly we may have been disguised from
ourselves. Many years ago in Brazil a slave found what was supposed to be a
diamond of nearly a pound weight. It was presented to the emperor, constantly
guarded by soldiers, and was supposed to represent millions of money. But an
English mineralogist produced a cutting diamond, and scratched the supposed
mammoth prize. One scratch was enough, if it had been a real gem it would not
have taken a scratch, it was no diamond at all, the millions vanished in a
moment into thin air. So God detects and exposes character. It was thus in the
narrative before us. “And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and
live; for I fear God: if ye be true men bring your youngest brother unto me.”
That single scratch spoiled all the string of diamonds. “And they said one to
another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the
anguish of his soul, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come
upon us.” The “ true men” were found out, they knew themselves to be frauds. So
God finds us all out one day or the other, one way or other. We notice
sometimes with our friends how they suddenly stand revealed to us in a light
most unexpected; they flash upon us in a character hitherto wholly unsuspected
by us. And so our true self is long concealed from ourself, but at last God by
His Spirit makes us know our true self, and we are filled with astonishment and
distress. By Christ “ the thoughts of many hearts are revealed.” By the Spirit
of Christ “the world is convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.”
The Pharisee at last becomes a publican, and smiting on his breast, cries, “God
be merciful to me a sinner.” “A true man.” Is not that the very grandest
character you can give a man? How eloquent it is! “A true man.” Is not that the
very grandest epitaph you can write over the dead? Rich man, successful man,
great man, gifted man, no, none of these are to be compared with “ a true man.”
We all covet that inscription far more than sculptured urn or animated bust.
And yet many of us are painfully conscious that we are not “true men.” Oh! no,
far from it. How full we are of weakness, hypocrisy, confusion, misery. “False
and full of sin I am.” But we may be all made “true men.” Jesus was the true
man, “the Son of Man,” as Luther calls Him, “the Proper Man.” Oh! how brave,
noble, majestic, tender, pure, true, was the ideal Man. How grand is man when
he reaches the full conception of his nature! And Christ can make us “true
men,” that is His mission. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Searchings of heart
I. PAINFUL
SUSPENSE.
II. PANGS OF
REMORSE.
III. A PERPLEXING
INCIDENT (Genesis 42:27-28).
IV. A PLAINTIVE
LAMENT (Genesis 42:36; Genesis 42:38). (W. S. Smith, B. D.)
The accusation
Far be it from us to say that Joseph had attained absolute
perfection when he was on earth, although his virtues were far beyond those of
most other men. It will not be easy, or rather it will be impossible, to exempt
him from the charge of dissimulation, when he alleged that his brethren were
spies. His words are not to be considered as an assertion, but they express a
suspicion, which certainly did not enter into his mind. His design was good. He
meant to humble them for their good, but good intentions will not excuse a
departure from truth. He knew that they were not spies come to see the
nakedness of the land, but he wished, without discovering himself to them, to
be informed of the welfare of his father and of his father’s house. It is to be
remembered that Joseph lived before the law was given. The light which
discovers sin and duty shone less brightly in his days than in ours, and
therefore the limits between what is lawful and what is unlawful would not be
so easily discerned. It is likewise to be feared that Joseph’s station as Prime
Minister in the court of Pharaoh led him into connections, and placed him in
circumstances, unfavourable to progress in virtue. He held fast his integrity,
and would not let it go amidst great temptations, but human infirmity
discovered itself in some parts of his conduct. (G. Lawson, D. D.)
The answer
It could not be supposed that one man would suffer ten of his sons
to engage at once in a business so full of perils as that of spies, or that so
many brethren should risk the almost total extirpation of their father’s house
at one blow. It requires a very daring spirit for a man to venture his own life
in an office so desperate; but who would venture at once his own life and the
life of almost all that are dear to him along with his own? Clear proof, at
least, is requisite before belief can be given to an accusation so improbable
as this which was laid against Joseph’s brethren, when it was known that they
all belonged to the same house, and that there was only one brother left at
home with a father sinking under the burden of age. “We are true men, we are no
spies. We are what we pretend to be, and have assumed no false character.” The
business of a spy is not in all cases unlawful. It is a business, however, so
full of temptations to falsehood that an honest man will not rashly undertake
it. (G. Lawson, D. D.)
Put to the test unconsciously
The whole treatment of his brothers by Joseph was meant to prove
their characters, and see whether they had or had not repented of their sin
against him, and whether they had or had not changed their disposition and mode
of life. They did not know that he was thus experimenting on them, but the
result satisfied him, and led to his revelation of himself to them. Now it is
often similar with men and their fellows. When Gideon led his army to the
brook, and saw his soldiers drink, they had no idea that he was picking out his
three hundred for his midnight attack on the Midianitish camp. But so it was;
for those who did not care luxuriously to go down on hands and knees to put
their mouths to the stream, but who simply lapped the water up with their hands
as a dog laps up with his tongue, showed thereby that they had the qualities of
rapidity, dash, and hardihood which were specially needed for the service on
which he was bent, and therefore they were selected for it. Even so men have
been watched by others when they were not thinking of anything of the kind, and
the diligence, energy, integrity, and amiability which they have shown has
commended them to those interested for some situation of trust, honour, and
emolument. Young man, your employer is testing yon when you do not know it,
therefore see that you are faithful and obliging even in that which is least,
that you may approve yourself worthy of something greater. Many incidents might
here be narrated to prove that men have risen from comparative obscurity to
eminence simply because they had been tested, unwittingly to themselves, by
others who were on the outlook for the agents that would most effectually serve
their purpose. When they rose, envious people prated about “luck,” but they who
knew best spoke about character manifested by faithfulness in that which was
least, and saw in their promotion the earthly miniature of the doing of the
last Judge, who shall say to him whom He approves, “Thou hast been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord.” (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Verse 18
For I fear God
The fear of God
1.
The
first impression which the human mind receives from the conviction of an
over-ruling Power, is that of fear. It is a moral impression. It is made upon
the conscience. A feeling of awe at the thought of an invisible witness, who
judges and will requite.
2. “For I fear God.” The text begins with a word that connects it
with something else; that supposes a reason for the assertion it makes. Why
should we thus “fear” Him? Because He is present to every agreement that is
made, to every promise that is spoken, to every purpose that is secretly
devised, to every action, however silently done. Because He is holy, and “the
righteous Lord hateth iniquity.” Because He is mighty, and who can stand before
His displeasure? Because He requires the duty by which we feel ourselves bound.
Because He appoints every law, and chastises for its infraction. Because, if
through that subduing veneration, that salutary dread, we hold fast our
integrity and depart from evil, we are encouraged by His assurances, we are
encompassed by His defence.
3. There are various ways in which these effects are produced upon
the children of disobedience.
(1) They fear the powers of the visible world, as if they were
ready to betray or smite their delinquencies; as if their sounds might publish
something concerning them, or their “arrows upon the string” had an aim towards
them. The stormy wind or the voice of the waters may have a word to fulfil for
their condemnation. The rustling leaf has a warning. The bare bough points. “A
bird of the air shall carry the matter.” There is a Greek story of a poet who,
falling under the daggers of robbers, called upon some cranes who was flying
overhead to avenge his death. While his name and fate were yet upon the public
tongue, in a great assembly of the people--when in the vast theatre of Corinth,
open to the sky, the solemn chorus and personation of the Furies were
exhibiting the truth, that “there is no shadow of death where the workers of
iniquity can hide themselves”--a flock of those noisy birds darkened and shook
the air. A cry escapedfrom the assassins, who were present at the spectacle.
Their detection followed, and their just death was added as the terrible
conclusion of the sacred song, and fulfilment of its prophecy. The story may be
true, for doubtless such things have been. And they illustrate one part of the
fact, that the creation, even in its innocent objects and pleasant forms, is
the enemy of those who will not make the Author of it a friend.
4. The several topics hitherto mentioned touch upon what is outside
of us. They have been immediately connected with natural objects, or
distressful incidents, or waning powers. But all these are only circumstances.
The individual consciousness of every one dwells in the midst of them, and
impresses them with a character of its own. Here is the true seat of the
principle. Let each stand in awe of what is within him; of the judgments that
are pronounced beyond mortal hearing, and executed through the habits, the
fancies, the passions, the memories, of the mind itself. Are these habits
depraved--these fancies disordered? Do these passions start away from holy
motives? Do these memories condemn the past, that cannot be restored to be
tried again and live better? The hostilities of nature the utmost rage of the
air and sea, are nothing to this. Pain and misadventure are nothing. The wear
and losses of encroaching years are nothing. (N. L.Frothingham.)
The story of Joseph
Joseph punishes Simeon by imprisonment. It may be that he had
reasons for it which we are not told. But when his brothers have endured the
trial, and he finds that Benjamin is safe, he has nothing left but forgiveness.
They are his brethren still--his own flesh and blood. And he “fears God.” He
dare not do anything but forgive them. He forgives them utterly, and welcomes
them with an agony of happy tears. He will even put out of their minds the very
memory of their baseness. “Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with
yourselves that ye sold me hither,” he says; “for God,” &c. Is not that
Divine? Is not that the Spirit of God and of Christ? I say it is. For what is
it but the likeness of Christ, who says for ever, out of heaven to all mankind,
“Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye crucified me; for God, my
Father, sent me to save your souls by a great salvation.” My friends, learn
from this story of Joseph, and the prominent place in the Bible which it
occupies--learn, I say, how hateful to God are family quarrels; how pleasant to
God are family unity and peace, and mutual trust, and duty, and helpfulness.
And if you think that I speak too strongly on this point, recollect that I do
no more than St. Paul does, when he sums up the most lofty and mystical of all
his Epistles, the Epistle to the Ephesians, by simple commands to husbands and
wives, parents and children, masters and servants, as if he should say: You
wish to be holy? you wish to be spiritual? Then fulfil these plain family
duties, for they, too are sacred and divine, and he who despises them, despises
the ordinances of God. And if you despise the laws of God, they will surely
avenge themselves on you. If you are bad husbands or bad wives, bad parents or
bad children, bad brothers or sisters, bad masters or servants, you will smart
for it, according to the eternal laws of God, which are at work around you all
day long, making the sinner punish himself whether he likes or not. Examine
yourselves--ask yourselves, each of you, Have I been a good brother? have I
been a good son? have I been a good husband? have I been a good father? have I
been a good servant? If not, all professions of religion will avail me nothing.
If not, let me confess my sins to God, and repent and amend at once, whatever
it may cost me. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
The fear of God
This fear should daily control every Christian. No influence on
the feelings, or the character, can be more salutary. What greater preservative
from wrong can there be in youth, than the constant presence of a parent, whose
feelings we regard, whose opinions we respect, and whose judgment we reverence.
And if the presence of a parent is so salutary in restraining us from
transgression, how much more so must the impression be, that we act in the view
of the Almighty? And how appropriate to the condition of an immortal being is
the state of mind, which is described in the saying, “I fear God.” “I fear
God.” I know He is here. He is everywhere. I cannot go from His presence, nor
flee from Him. To live, and move, and be in the presence of so great and
adorable a being, cannot but excite emotions of awe. It cannot fail, if rightly
considered, to produce a salutary fear in the heart of every child of Adam. “I
fear God.” He knows all my actions. Not one of them has been concealed from His
view. The sins of my childhood are known to Him. They are written in His book.
The iniquities of my youth are kept in His remembrance. The transgressions of
maturer years are not hidden from His eyes. No palliation nor excuse can cause
Him to take a different view of them from that with which He beholds them. He
understands my thoughts. “There is not a thought in my heart, but He knows it
altogether.” There is no operation of my intellect, which He does not readily
perceive. The subterfuges, which a perverted heart, or a soul full of
prejudice, cast over its own doings, do not conceal it from the Most High. He
knows all my opinions. If interest, or the fear of man, or the pride of
consistency shall influence me to give, as my view of facts or of truths, a
sentiment at variance with what seems to me to be according to truth, He sees it
all. He fully comprehends the hyprocrisy of the transaction, and abhors the
iniquity. He knows my motives. He knows what it is in us that moves us to
retain His Word in our families; what it is that influences us to come to His
house; what it is that incites any of us to profess to be His disciples. He
knows all our feelings. There is no affection in our hearts which is not
entirely open to His view. I fear God; for He is holy. To some, it may seem
strange that the holiness of a being should be a ground of fear. But there is
no other consideration which invests the character of Jehovah with such
fearfulness, as that of His holiness. And this is as true of those who are
holy, as of those whose sinfulness exposes them to His indignation. No other
trait is more prominent in the character of devout men, than the fear of God.
And this reverential regard for Him does not abate, even when the soul becomes
perfect in glory. When John had a view of the heavenly world, he heard them
“sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
‘Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy
ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glory Thy name,
for Thou only art holy!’” “I fear God”; for He has a settled aversion to sin.
This is His nature, and He is immutable--immutable in His attachment to
holiness, and in His opposition to sin. Now, who that knows the holiness of
Jehovah, and His constant abhorrence of sin, will not fear Him? Can a human
being, who is convinced that he has violated the law of God--who understands
that during many years he was constantly engaged in rebellion against Him--who
feels, that even if he has been born of God, he has not been perfect, but is
chargeable every day, in the view of Infinite Holiness, with many
transgressions--can he live without fear? Considering the strength of his
unsubdued propensities to evil, will he not be apprehensive that he may incur
the displeasure of a Holy God? “I fear God;” for He inflicts severe chastisements,
even in this life, on such of His people as wander from Him. “I fear God”; by
Him I must be judged. All my deeds, my words, and my feelings, must pass His
scrutiny and receive His sentence. Do you say, if I am a Christian, I ought not
to fear? The Saviour has not thus instructed me. “I will forewarn you,” said He
to His disciples, “whom ye shall fear--fear Him who has power to destroy both
soul and body in hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him.” In view of such a Judge,
who will not fear? Now, if such a fear of God occupy our souls, then it will be
impossible not to speak reverentially respecting Him. Again: If this fear of
God be in us, we shall have a happy influence on others. Our conversation will
evince that there is something in our hearts, which is not known to the world,
nor felt by such as are alienated from God. Our lives will tell to all around
us that there is something in the fear of God which is calculated to diffuse a
heavenly savour over all cur feelings and actions. In ways innumerable--in ways
which, it is impossible for us to describe, or others to see--a grace will
distil on those around us like drops of the morning dew; and blessings of
immeasurable value, and eternal duration, will descend upon them. Brethren--let
the fear of God dwell at all times in your’ hearts; for “to that man,” said
Jehovah, “will I look, who is humble, and of a contrite heart, and who
trembleth at My word.” (J. Foot, D. D.)
Verse 19-20
Let one of your brethren be bound
Lessons
1.
To
prove truth among national parties, it is not unequal to give hostages.
2. Hostages being taken it is but equal that parties have liberty to
manifest truth.
3. Nature will not, much less grace, dispatch hungry men without
food.
4. Bread-corn is the break-neck of hunger (Genesis 42:19).
5. Reasonable testimonies of truth may be peremptorily demanded of
suspected persons.
6. Justification and security are to be afforded to men of truth.
7. It is reasonable for men under trials to yield to just terms for
deliverance (Genesis 42:20). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Verse 21-22
We are verily guilty concerning our brother
Conscience awakens in Joseph’s brethren
I.
Joseph’s
brethren had not been placed in any peculiar circumstances of trial since the
loss of Joseph; consequently their sin had slept. There had been nothing to
call it to light; they had well-nigh forgotten it; its heinousness had become
dim in the distance. But now they were in trouble, and they could not help
seeing the hand of God in that trouble. Their spiritual instinct told them that
their trouble did not spring out of the ground; it had been planted there--it
had a root. Their sin had found them out at last, and their own adversity
brought about that contrition for their offence which its own hatefulness ought
to have been sufficient to produce.
II. We see from
this story that men may commit sins, and may forget them; and yet the sins may
be recorded, and may one day rise up again with a frightful vitality. Men will
soon bury their own sins, if they be left to themselves; but it is like burying
seed, which appears to die and be forgotten, and yet it rises up again, and
perhaps becomes a great tree.
III. The voice of
conscience is a good voice, a wholesome voice--yea, the very voice of God to
our souls, and one to be welcomed by us if we only listen to it at the right
time. The consciousness of guilt is a blessed thing, if only it come at the
right time, and when there is opportunity for bringing forth fruits meet for
repentance. Well for us if our estimate of our condition is the same, at least
in its main features, as that estimate which God has made, and which the last
day will produce! (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
The memory of conscience
I. IT IS SURE TO
AWAKEN, THOUGH IT MAY SLUMBER LONG.
II. IT IS
SOMETIMES AWAKENED BY OUTWARD TROUBLE.
III. IT IS FAITHFUL
AND JUST.
1. In that it brings the past accurately to mind.
2. In that it connects the penalty with the sin.
IV. IT CONVERTS
MORAL DIRECTION AND REMONSTRANCE INTO REPROACH AND UPBRAIDING. Reuben became to
his brethren what conscience becomes to the sinner.
V. IT REMINDS US
OF MORAL PROCESSES NOW AT WORK IN THE WORLD. God’s searching providence is ever
bringing past sins to light. Christ’s Cross reveals the darkness of the world’s
guilt. (T. H. Leale.)
The Nemesis of wrong
I. THE POSSESSION
OF A GUILTY SECRET.
1. This secret bound them henceforward to a life of hypocrisy.
2. This secret filled them with constant anxiety.
3. This secret neutralized all healthful moral influence.
II. THE BLACK
CLOUD OF SUSPICION DARKENED THEIR DAILY LIFE.
1. They were the objects of suspicion. Jacob refused to allow
Benjamin in their company.
2. They were the subjects of suspicion. Living in dread of God and man.
III. THE
EVER-DREADED, BUT INEVITABLE, EXPOSURE OF THEIR GUILT. (J. C.Burnett.)
Joseph’s brethren in trouble -
I. THAT MEN UNDER
THE INFLUENCE OF FEAR CAN CONTEMPLATE ONLY THE WORST TRAITS IN THEIR CHARACTER.
II. THAT TIME DOES
NOT OBLITERATE THE SINFULNESS OF AN EVIL DEED.
III. THAT THE VOICE
OF CONSCIENCE IS UNCHANGEABLE.
IV. THE
RECOGNITION OF THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION. (Homilist.)
The guilt of neglecting the souls of our brethren
I. THE SOURCES
FROM WHENCE THESE CONVICTIONS ARE TO BE DERIVED.
1. The relation of the sufferers. Our brethren.
2. The wretchedness of their state.
3. Our orders to succour them.
4. The possibility of affording them succour.
5. The facilities we have in this cause of compassion.
6. That even the effort we have made in this work furnish evidence
of our guilt.
II. WHAT INFLUENCE
SHOULD THESE CONVICTIONS PRODUCE?
1. The depravity of human nature will be acknowledged.
2. Deep and godly sorrow will be felt.
3. It will lead us to apply to the mercy of God.
4. It will awaken zeal. (J. Summerfield, M. A.)
Transgression unperceived
I. The most
dangerous propensity of sin is its deceivableness; the concealment of its true
nature and danger when committed, the extent and evil of it are seldom
perceived; a veil is thrown over its hideous and destructive qualities; and it
is imagined to be, if not altogether defensible in the sight of God, at least
desirable at the moment, and tolerable. However the conscience may give warning
that all is not perfectly right, the consequences are commonly neither foreseen
nor apprehended. Whether this be in the very nature of sin, as brought by the
spirit of evil into the world; or whether that wicked spirit, with his
numberless agents, is continually exercised in producing this deceit; or whether
it proceed from both these sources, which is probable, the evil and misery are
the same: men are tempted to sin, because they do not perceive its utter
sinfulness; and it seems as if they could do it with impunity, do it and have
nothing to fear.
II. And here, as
we see the dreadful nature of sin, how it blinds the sinner, and makes him
content with his guilt, so do we see the goodness of our heavenly Father, how
graciously, by the ordination of His providence, He leads the transgressor to a
deep sense of his perilous condition; how compassionately He interposes to
deliver him from the fatal snare.
III. The
instruction to be drawn from this subject is highly beneficial and important:
it warns us to consider our own case, to look into our own condition. And let
us be mindful that we do draw, from such considerations and examples, the right
conclusion.
IV. There are two
great considerations in connection with this subject, which I desire to press
upon your attention.
1. The importance of our hearts being always open to God’s merciful
dealings in awakening us, and reclaiming us from evil.
2. That we profit from them without delay. (J. Slade, M. A.)
The Christian responsible for his influence over others
The language of self-reproach, which sharp compunction wrung from
Jacob’s sons, may well be adopted by many among ourselves. Take the most
favourable case you can. Grant that you have done no positive harm to others.
Have you not, too often, forgotten to do them good? Some, with no more natural
abilities, and no better opportunities than their neighbours, render all with
whom they come in contact, wiser, holier, and happier. Others, possessing the
same powers of mind, and surrounded by she same circumstances, stand like a
moral Upas, rendering the very atmosphere about them unwholesome and deadly.
But, alas! how many who ought to improve a privilege so great, are, by
inactivity and gross neglect, preparing for themselves seasons of sorrow in the
future, when they will cry out, in agony of soul, knowing it is then too late
to offer advice or aid to one who has become hopelessly hardened in sin, but
whom, at an earlier period in his career, they possessed influence enough to
save: “We are verily guilty concerning our brother.” The wicked might kindly
have been warned; the ignorant might easily have been taught; the headstrong
might have been moved by expostulation and love; the poor might have been
effectually relieved. Selfishness is the true secret of such unwarrantable
neglect. We are disposed to think too much of our ease. Christians should not
be contented with being in the right road themselves, but they should feel a
lively interest in the welfare of others. Christians are responsible for their
example. They are “the salt of the earth.” They are “the leaven,” which must
leaven the whole lump. Their example in their families, in private intercourse
with friends, and in their regular occupation, should be safe and consistent.
Christian principle should be discovered in everything. Is it any wonder that
the ungodly mock? Can we be surprised that unbelievers multiply? Is it
astonishing that such a reckless disregard of ordinary duties, and such a
strange forgetfulness of the importance of setting a good example, should draw
a long train of calamities in the wake of inconsistent Christians, and cause
them, in the hour of sickness and death, to cry out, at the remembrance of a
brother, or husband, or child, or friend, shipwrecked and ruined by their
neglect: “We are verily guilty concerning our brother”? (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Of the cause of inward trouble
In this chapter we have the description of our fathers, the
patriarchs; their first journey into Egypt for corn, to relieve their famine in
Canaan. Herein is considerable--
1. Their entertainment there: it was harsh, with much trouble, more
danger.
2. The consequence of this their hard and distressful usage and
entreatment; and that is trouble of mind, horror and perplexity of spirit: “And
they said one to another,” &c. The words, then, are the Holy Ghost’s report
of the case of the sons of Jacob, their being spiritually troubled, by way of
conviction, or judgment in their own (which also is the Lord’s) court of
conscience.
Wherein we observe--
1. The actors themselves: being the registers, accusers, witnesses,
judge, and tormentors.
2. Process in judging themselves: wherein--
(a) In general: “We are guilty.”
(b) In particular: Of envy, wrong against a brother; whom in
bitterness we saw without pity, and were deaf to his entreaties; obstinate to
the admonition of Reuben, and abiding therein.
3. Execution: wherein--
(a) In general: Many years after the offence was done.
(b) In special: Now that they were outwardly in an afflicted
condition.
Doctrines:
I. Every man hath
a conscience within himself.
II. The guilt of
sin turns a man’s conscience, that is, himself, against himself.
III. Conscience is
apt to be very sensible, when it is awakened, not only of sin, but particular
sins, and the particular circumstances and degrees thereof to the utmost; and
charge all upon a man’s self, not upon God’s decrees or providence, nor upon
the devil or evil company, &c.
IV. Envy,
unnatural affection, cruelty, deafness to the entreaties of the distressed,
obstinacy against warning and admonition, continuance in sin without repentance,
&c., are very heinous and dangerous.
V. The
accusations and condemnations of conscience are terrible, or cause terror
beyond all expression.
VI. There is a
time when God will call over sins that are past, and charge them upon the
conscience.
VII. Inward trouble
of mind sometimes (yea, usually) comes upon the people of God, when they are
outwardly in some distress. (E. Pledger, M. A.)
The moral impotence of time
Twenty years after the event l Their recollections of that event
was as clear as if it transpired but yesterday. Learn the moral impotence of
time. We say this evil deed was done fifty years ago. Fifty years may have some
relation to the memory of the intellect, but it has no relation to the
tormenting memory of the conscience. There is a moral memory. Conscience has a
wondrously realizing power--taking things we have written in secret ink and
holding them before the fire until every line becomes vivid, almost burning.
Perhaps some of you know not yet the practical meaning of this. We did something
twenty years ago.
We say to ourselves, “Well, seeing that it was twenty years ago it
is not worth making anything to do about it, it is past, and it is a great pity
to go twenty years back raking up things.” So it is in some respects, a great
pity to bother ourselves about things other men did twenty years ago. But what
about our own recollection, our own conscience, our own power of accusation? A
man says, “I forged that name twenty-five years ago, and oh! every piece of
paper I get hold of seems to have the name upon it. I never dip the pen, but
there is something in the pen that reminds me of what I did by candle light, in
almost darkness, when I had locked the door and assured myself nobody was
there. Yet it comes upon me so graphically--my punishment is greater than I can
bear!” Time cannot heal ouriniquities. Forgetfulness is not the cure for sin.
Obliviousness is not the redeemer of the world. How then can I get rid of the
torment and the evils of an accusing memory? The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all sin. “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man
his thoughts, let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and
to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” That is the kind of answer men
want, when they feel all their yesterdays conspiring to urge an indictment
against them, as sinners before the living God. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The human soul contains within itself all the necessary elements
of retributive penalty
Here is nothing but memory, conscience, and reason; yet what an
exhibition and illustration of the self-retributive power of sin!
1. Memory. “We saw the anguish,” &c.
2. Conscience. “We are verily guilty,” &c.
3. Reason. “Therefore is this distress come upon us.”
Let a soul go into the future state with a memory to recall, a
conscience to accuse, and a reason to justify penalty as deserved; and what
more is necessary to hell? Hence Milton--
“The
mind in its own place, and in itself,
Can
make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven!”
Sin brought home to the conscience
It would be good for us if we could entertain the same views of
sin in the time of temptation, that we are likely to have after it is
committed, or at the time when trouble brings it home to our consciences. When
Joseph cried piteously to his brethren out of the pit, they thought only of the
pleasure of gratifying their envy. They then wilfully overlooked the guilt they
were contracting, and the sorrows they were preparing for their father, and for
them, selves; but when they were in trouble, they remembered their guilt in all
its aggravating circumstances, and they would have given all they had in the
world to recover that degree of innocence to which they might have pretended
before Joseph came into their hands. They were chargeable with many other sins.
Simeon and Levi, in particular, were chargeable with a crime not less heinous
than the murder of Joseph. Yet the affliction which they endured in prison
brought to remembrance in a special manner this sin against their brother. This
was an atrocious iniquity, of which the most of them were equally guilty. We
are naturally averse to suffering of every kind, and yet nothing is more
necessary than suffering when we have sinned. It is necessary for us to know
and feel the bitterness of sin, that we may confess and forsake it. And the
sufferings which our flesh endures, are often necessary and useful to bring our
sins to our remembrance. No doubt Joseph’s brethren had often formerly thought
with regret of the hatefulness of their conduct. If they were not hardened to a
very uncommon degree, their hearts must have smitten them soon after the fact
was committed. The sight of their father’s anguish must have melted their
stubborn spirits. But they needed their afflictions in Egypt likewise to awaken
a new and more affecting sense of their wickedness. Joseph, and God by Joseph,
did them a kindness in giving them an experimental knowledge of the bitter
sufferings of an oppressed man, when he pours out tears, but finds no
comforter. (G. Lawson, D. D.)
Therefore is this distress come upon us
Jacob’s sons did not think that the man who had treated them with
such severity knew anything concerning their conduct to their poor brother, but
they knew that there is a God in the heavens, who knoweth and judgeth all the
actions of the children of men. In this knowledge they were trained up by their
father. But although they had been the children of a man who knew not God, this
reflection might have occurred to them in the day of trouble, Adoni-bezek, king
of Jerusalem, had his education amongst the most hardened sinners that ever
lived in the world, and was himself one of the most hard-hearted tyrants that
ever disgraced a throne; yet, when sore trouble came upon him, he acknowledged
that it was the infliction of just punishment from God (Judges 1:1-36.). It is said of the
virtuous Dion, the Syracusan, that when he was compelled to flee from his
country, and knocked at some doors that did not open unto him as they would
have done in former times, he meekly observed to his servant, that perhaps
himself, in the time of his prosperity, had not always opened his door to the
stranger. When we meet from men with treatment which we did not deserve, it may
be of use, for calming our spirits, to consider whether we have not been guilty
of as bad, or even worse conduct, to some of our neighhours. What if God has
commissioned these men who behave ill to us, as His messengers, to execute His
anger for offences against some of their fellow-men? Look forward, ye who have
hitherto lived in ease and prosperity. The day of trouble will come. Plant not
your dying pillow before hand with thorns and briars. If no reverse of
circumstances should come upon you before you till you die, yet you are sure
that you must die; and a death-bed will be the very worst place for such
reflections as awakened conscience may produce. Bitter was the anguish of
Joseph’s brethren, but it would have been ten times more bitter if they had seen
inevitable death before their eyes. They had little prospect of repairing the
injury done to Joseph; but they might yet live to repair in some degree the
wrong they had done to their father, and to seek with tears and supplications
the forgiveness of their sins from God. Look back on your former conduct.
Consider whether you have not done some injuries that may yet be repaired, or
neglected some important duties that may yet be done, before you go to that
place where there is no counsel, nor device, nor work. O death! how terrible
are thy approaches to the man who is conscious that he hath shut his ears
against the cry of the poor, or against the loud calls of the Son of God,
urging him to improve the space given him for repentance! (G. Lawson, D. D.)
The time when conscience makes itself heard
Have you ever heard of the great clock of St. Paul’s in London? At
midday, in the roar of business, when carriages, and carts, and waggons, and
omnibuses, go rolling through the streets, how many never hear that great clock
strike, unless they live very near it. But when the work of the day is over,
and the roar of business has passed away--when men are gone to sleep, and
silence reigns in London--then at twelve, at one, at two, at three, at four the
sound of that clock may be heard for miles around.
Twelve--One!--Two!--Three!--Four! How that clock is heard by many a sleepless
man! That clock is just like the conscience of the impenitent man. While he has
health and strength, and goes on in the whirl of business, he will not hear
conscience. He drowns and silences its voice by plunging into the world The
time will come when he must retire from the world, and lie down on the sick
bed, and look death in the face. And then the clock of conscience, that solemn
clock, will sound in his heart, and, if he has not repented, will bring
wretchedness and misery to his soul. (Bp. Ryle.)
Indestructibility of conscience
Man’s conscience was once the vicegerent of Deity: what conscience
said within was just the echo of what God said without; and even now,
conscience in its ruin has enough of its pristine eloquence and surviving
affinity to God never to be altogether and always silent. The passions try to
make conscience a sort of citizen-king, putting it up and down as they please:
but it will not quietly submit; it resists the authority of the passions; it
insists upon supremacy; it cannot forget its noble lineage and its erst holy
function derived from God. As long as man can gratify his passions, and give an
opiate to conscience, so long will it be partially quiet. But a day comes when
the passions must be laid, and when every beat of the heart, like the curfew
bell, will tell you that the time for extinguishing their fires is come, and
then and there conscience will re-assert its lost supremacy, grasp its broken
sceptre, and, refusing to be put down, it will emit its true and eternal
utterances; and reason of righteousness, and temperance, and judgment; and
prove that man may peradventure live without religion, but die without it he rarely
can. A death-bed is that hour when conscience re-asserts its supremacy, however
stupefied it may have been with the opium of half a century, and reminds its
possessor of all behind and before. In such a case there are two resources:
either the Romish priest, with a stronger opiate, under which man will die
deluded and deceived: or the blood of Jesus, with pardon for the sin, and
therefore peace for the conscience, which is the joyful sound of forgiveness. (J.
Gumming, D. D.)
Voice of an evil conscience
The voice of an evil conscience is not one evil in particular, but
a multitude of evils. It is a barking hell-hound, a monster vomiting fire, a
raging fury, a tormenting devil. It is a nature and quality of a guilty
conscience to flee and be terrified, even when all is well, and when prosperity
abounds, and to change such prosperity into danger and death. (Luther.)
A burdened memory
A dying man, floating about on the wreck of the Central
American, thought he heard his mother’s voice saying, “Johnny, did you take
your sister’s grapes?” Thirty years before his sister was dying of consumption,
and he had secretly eaten some choice grapes sent her by a friend. For twenty
years the words had passed from his recollection. What have we really
forgotten.
Verse 22
Do not sin against the child
Do not sin against the child
Thus Reuben reminded his brethren of his admonition concerning
Joseph--thus would I address you with regard to your own children.
Note the words of the text: “Spake I not unto you saying, Do not sin against
the child?” The essence of sin lies in its being committed against God. The
sword of sin cuts both ways, it not only contends against God but against His
creatures too. It is a double evil. Like a bursting shell, it scatters evil on
every side. Every relationship which we sustain involves duty, and
consequently, may be perverted into an occasion for sin. The text calls us to
consider one particular form of sin, namely, sinning against a child, and it is
of that I intend to speak this morning, looking up to the Father of spirits
that He would teach me to speak aright.
I. WHAT IS THIS
WHICH HAS BEEN SAID TO US? “Do not sin against the child.” This warning may be
suitable for every one of us without exception, for those who are not parents,
and who are not teachers of the young are nevertheless bound to remember that
they are in a commonwealth of which young people make up a very considerable
part. Little eyes are so quick to observe the actions of those who are grown
up, that adults should be careful what they do. I would say to every man who is
giving full swing to his passions, if nothing else will check you, at any rate
pause awhile when yonder fair-haired girls and lisping children are gazing upon
you. If you care not for angels, stop for the sake of yon blue-eyed boy. Let
not the leprosy of your sin pollute your offspring more than must be. To the
parent the text speaks with a still small voice, to which I trust none of us
will be deaf. “Do not sin against the child”--against your own dear child! Yet
how many parents do so! If, as I now speak, unconverted parents will be
compelled to acknowledge the truthfulness of the accusations I shall lay
against them, I hope they will be led to deep and true repentance. There are
many parents who neglect altogether the religious education of their children.
I remember a woman who was converted at an advanced age, who had been left
years before a widow with many children; she was a most exemplary, moral, and
industrious woman, and earning her living by most laborious work, she yet
managed to bring up all her family, and settle them in a suitable manner; but
after her conversion I think I never saw more bitter tears than those which she
shed when she said, “I took care to feed them and clothe their bodies, but I
never thought of their souls. Alas! for me, I knew no better; but alas! for
them, I left the chief thing undone. The other day I spoke to my eldest son
about the things of God, and he told me religion was all a farce, he did not
regard a word I said; and well,” said she, “might he be an infidel when his
mother never said a word by which he could have been led to be a believer.”
Words were spoken by way of comfort to her, but like Rachel she refused to be
comforted, because she said, and said truly, her great opportunity had been
thrown away. The best time of effort for a mother had been allowed to pass away
unused. Her harvest was passed, and her summer was ended, and her children were
not saved. Parents who teach their children to sing the silly, frivolous, and
perhaps licentious songs, are sacrificing them to Moloch. Shame is it when from
a father’s lips the boy hears the first oath, and learns the alphabet of
blasphemy. There are crowds of parents upon whose head the blood of their
children will certainly descend, because they have launched them on the sea of
life with the rudder set towards the rocks, with a false chart, a deceitful
compass, and every other appliance for securing eternal shipwreck. The text
further bears with equal severity upon the preacher. I feel it chides and
chastens me. Preaching is full often too obscure for children; the words are
too long, the sentences too involved, the matter too mysterious. Sacred
simplicity should be so cultivated by the ambassador of Christ, that lads and
lasses should hear intelligently under a good shepherd, and the least lamb
should be able to find food. But we must push on. I want the Church of God, and
especially this church, to attend carefully to the next few remarks. When
teachers and others are earnest about the conversion of children, and some of
them are converted, they then come into relationship with the Church, and too
often the Lord’s people need the advice, “Do not sin against the child.” How
can a Church so offend? It can do so by not believing in the conversion of
children at all.
II. WHO SAYS THIS
TO US?
1. Nature says it first. The instincts of humanity cry, “Do not sin
against the child. It is but a child; it is little; sin not against it.”
2. Experience adds its voice to nature, “Do not sin against the
child.” Hundreds of parents have been brought with sorrow to the grave through
the natural result of their own failures and trespasses in reference to their
children. They taught the lesson of sin, and the children, having learned it,
practised it upon their parents. If you would not stuff your pillow with
thorns, do not sin against the child.
3. Conscience repeats the same advice; that inward monitor ceases
not to remind us of what is due to God and to His peculiar charge, the weak and
feeble. Conscience tells us plainly that we must not sport with
responsibilities so vast.
4. The Church adds her voice to that of conscience. “Do not sin
against the child,” for the children are the Church’s hope. Bring them to
Christ, that He may put His hands upon them and bless them, that they may
become the future teachers and preachers, the pillars and defence of Christ’s
Church below.
5. God Himself, speaking from the excellent glory, this morning,
saith to each one of His servants here, “Do not sin against the child,” and I
ask that if no other voice be heard, we may all bow before His glorious
Majesty, and ask for grace to be willing and obedient.
III. Thirdly, having
heard the message, WHAT THEN? Only two things.
1. Does not that exhortation startle some of the unconverted and
unawakened here? I think if I were as you are, sir, if I had lived to be sixty
years of age, and my son had died through drunkenness, or my daughter were at
this time living a godless life, and I were unconverted, it would shoot a pang
through my heart to think that I should have brought such misery upon them
through my neglect of Divine things.
2. Does not this command of this morning press upon every Christian
here, not alone upbraiding us, but as arousing our laggard energies, exciting
us to something more of diligence and effort? Will you not roll away that
reproach which I mentioned just now, which rests upon some of you, because
there are schools without teachers? Parents, will you not pray for your
children, and even to-day seek to hold up Jesus before them? Will we not all,
God helping us, say within ourselves, that we will not longer sin against the
child, but in Jesus’ name seek to gather His lambs and feed them for Him? (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Do not hurt the child
I. How MAY WE SIN
AGAINST A CHILD?
1. We may sin against a child first of all by spoiling him. If the
peach trees and plum trees that are nailed to the garden walls by a hundred
little pieces of cloth could but think and speak, they might very likely say to
the gardener so busily at work with the hammer--“Why fasten us up like this,
and forbid our beautiful branches from running on the ground or playing in the
breeze. How unkind it is to put so many restraints upon us and leave us so
little liberty; let us just for this season run over the wall, along by the
wall, or away from the wall, or any way we please.” But the gardener, with a
smile, would reply, “It is out of kindness I do it, not from mere caprice. Wait
until the spring has glided into summer, and all thy branches are decked with
snowy bloom. Wait until the summer has mellowed into autumn, and then when thy
boughs are laden with fruit, which they never could have borne but for these
restrictions, then you will see that all has been done for thy good and to make
thy fruit the richer.” So, parents, out of very kindness to the child you must
sometimes say, “No,” and place restrictions on him.
2. There is a second way in which you may sin against a child, the
very reverse of that just mentioned, and it is by harshness.
3. A third way of sinning against a child is by bad example. It is
Gilfillan who remarks that “any fault in a parent, any inconsistency, any
disproportion between profession and practice, or precept and practice, falls
upon the child’s eye with the force and precision of sunbeams on a
daguerreotype plate.” On what other ground can you account for the awful
proficiency in sin which you find in many a little one?
4. There is a fourth way of sinning against a child which I do not
for a moment suppose is followed by any present. It is by selling a child for
gain. Would that my Master might enable me to express in language strong enough
the indignant thoughts that burn within my breast concerning this miserable
traffic in children’s souls. Joseph is not the only child that has been sold
for a few pieces of silver. Do you ask me what I mean and to what I refer? I
answer to the thoughtless wicked practice of setting the child to any kind of
work, and placing him amidst any kind of companionship so as to have the
benefit of the few pence he may earn. Better starve without it than live by it,
for it is nothing less than blood money.
5. Our next point is one that will, I doubt not, include many
present. You may sin against the child by neglecting the means for its
salvation.
II. THERE ARE MANY
REASONS WHY WE SHOULD NOT SIN AGAINST THE CHILD.
1. Sin not against him, because he is a child. If you must sin
against some one, sin against one of your own size and strength, but it is a
dastardly thing and Cowardly to sin against a child. The little thing’s
innocence ought to be its safeguard, and its very weakness should prove its
protection.
2. Sin not against the child, because by so doing you may blast his
whole life. You may with your foot so alter the course of that tiny little
mountain rivulet that, instead of flowing gently down and widening as it goes
until it glides through the smiling valley, refreshing thirsty man and beast,
it leaps from rock to rock, from crag to crag, falling at last with hideous
roar clown some black precipice. Oh, the fatal result of turning its course so
near the spring.
3. Do not sin, moreover, against the child, because children are
Christ’s favourites. He ever showed a peculiar sympathy with and care over
children. (A. G. Brown.)
His blood is required
The heinousness of sin
From this, as well as from many other passages of Scripture, may
be learnt the unpardonable nature of sin, and that even penitence itself cannot
always protect us from the evils which vice naturally brings in its train. And
this we see to be continually the case in the world around us. We often
perceive that the consequences of one false step, one single error, can never
be altogether averted, by any repentance or amendment on the part of the
sinner. Suspicion and distrust still cling to him through life, haunting him at
every step, and blasting all his prospects. This is the natural course of
things; and what is the natural course of things but the will of God, making
use of human instruments to manifest to the world His utter abhorrence of even
the very appearance of evil. Let us not, then, deceive ourselves in supposing
that because God has opened to us a hope of forgiveness, through the death of
His Son, sin has thereby lost any of its blackness in His sight. Still less let
us imitate the conduct of those who do evil that good may come, and who
profanely imagine that God can be glorified by their iniquities. It is true that
“there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety
and nine just persons which need no repentance”--but the joy arises from the
unexpectedness and difficulty of his repentance, and not from his greater
acceptableness in the sight of a holy God. Let it then be our earnest labour,
from our earliest youth to our latest old age, to keep ourselves as much as
possible undefiled in the way, and we shall still feel enough of our original
frailty within us, to convince us that we are, after all, but unprofitable
servants. Let the magnitude of the price which has been paid for our offences
be a proof to us of the heinous nature of sin, and not an occasion of
negligence. And let us learn, from the example before us, that guilt, though it
may be retrieved, by repentance, from eternal punishment in the next world,
will hardly ever escape from its evil consequences in this--that though the
wound may be healed, yet the scar will still remain--and that though we may
sin, like Reuben, from weakness rather than from vice, yet from us, like
Reuben, will some bitter atonement for our transgression be hereafter required.
(D. Charles.)
Blood-guiltiness
Although it was not certain that Joseph was dead, yet Reuben had
too good reason to charge his brethren with blood-guiltiness. They were guilty
of a bloody crime even in the eyes of men. No thanks were due to them for the
care that Divine Providence took of him, any more than we owe thanks to the
murderers of our Lord, because God brought Him again from the dead. We are
accountable for those mischiefs that are the probable consequences of our
wilful sins, as much as for the real consequences of them, if we had the same
reason to dread them. When we repent of such sins, our grief on the whole will
not be so painful as it would have been if God had not prevented the fatal
effects which we had reason to dread; but the sin is the same, and the grief
with which we ought to lament the sin is the same, only it is to be mingled
with thankfulness and joy in that mercy which hath counteracted the natural
effects of our misconduct. Two pair of combatants go forth to fight a duel. One
kills his antagonist. Another fires his pistol with a view to kill his
neighbour; but Divine Providence mercifully prevents the shedding of blood. He
is no less a murderer in the eye of God than the other, and has the same reason
to deplore his bloody purposes. But the other has an additional reason or
bitter grief, because God hath suffered him to execute his bloody purpose, and
to send into the other world a fellow-creature, who died in an act of
wickedness like his own. You will all say, that whatever crimes are chargeable
upon you, the guilt of blood is not in your skirts. Joseph’s brethren might
probably have said the same thing. They do not say, We are guilty of our
brother’s blood, but, We are guilty of turning a deaf ear to his mournful
cries. Reuben, however, does not hesitate to charge them in direct terms with
the guilt of blood; and we do not find that they had the courage to contradict
him. They could not but see that their cruelty to Joseph had brought on, or
might have brought on, his death. Isaiah tells the people of his own time, that
their hands were full of blood (Isaiah 1:15). It is not to be supposed
that the generality of the people were chargeable with that kind of murder
which would have exposed them to an ignominous death by the laws of their
country. But in the eyes of the great Judge, they were stained with blood in
such a manner, that when they made many prayers with hands stretched out to His
throne of mercy, He turned away His eyes from beholding them and His ears from
hearing their supplication (Isaiah 1:15). (G. Lawson D. D.)
Verse 24
He turned himself about from them and wept
Joseph’s feelings on seeing his brethren
After the lapse of twenty years, Joseph on seeing his brethren
wept.
Why, he might have been vengeful! It is easy for us glibly to read the words,
“Joseph turned himself about and wept.” But consider what the words might have
been! We oftentimes see results, not processes. We do not see how men have had
to bind themselves down, crucify themselves--hands, feet, head, and side--and
undergo death in the presence of God, before they could look society in the
face with anything like benignity and gentleness and forgiveness. What the
words might have been! Joseph, when he saw his brethren, might have said, “Now
I have you! Once you put me in a pit--I shall shake you over hell; once you
sold me--I will imprison you and torture you day and night; you smote me with
whips--I shall scourge you with scorpions! It shall be easier to go through a
circle of fire than to escape my just and indignant vengeance to-day!”
He might have said, “I shall operate upon the law, ‘A tooth for a tooth and an
eye for an eye.’” That is the law of nature; that is elementary morality. It is
not vengeance, it is not resentment; it is alphabetic justice--justice at its
lowest point--incipient righteousness. It is not two eyes for an eye, two teeth
for a tooth; but an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a blow for a blow, a
pit for a pit, selling for selling, and so on. A great many men are perfectly
content with elementary morality and alphabetic justice. People don’t educate
themselves from this kind of righteousness into Christian nobility of
disposition. It is not a question of education; it is a question of
sanctification. Few men can rise beyond mere justice. Many men find in mere
justice all the moral satisfaction which their shallow natures require; they
cannot see that mercy is the very highest point in justice, and that when a man
stoops to forgive be becomes a prince and a king and a crowned ruler in the
house and kingdom of God. It requires all that God can do to teach men this:
That there is something higher than the law of retaliation, that forgiveness is
better than resentment, and that to release men is oftentimes-if done from
moral consideration and not from moral neglect--the highest form of Christian
justice. But revenge is sweet! I am afraid that some of us like just a little
revenge; not that we would ourselves personally and directly inflict it, but if
our enemies could, somehow or another, be tripped up, and tumble half way at
least into a pit, we should not feel that compunction and sorrow and distress
of soul which, sentimentally, appears to be so very fine and beautiful. Nothing
but God the Holy Ghost can train a man to this greatness of answering the
memory of injury with tears, and accepting processes in which men only appear
to have a part, as if God, after all, had been over-ruling and directing the
whole scheme.. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The secret sorrows of men
“And Joseph turned himself about from them and wept.” Afterwards
he left their presence and went into his chamber and wept. Think of the secret
sorrows of men! The tears did not flow in the presence of the ten men. The
tears were shed in secret. We do not know one another altogether, because there
is a private life. There are secret experiences. Some of us are two men. Joseph
was two men. He spake roughly unto his brethren. He put it on, he assumed
roughness for the occasion. But if you had seen him when he had got away into
his secret chamber, no woman ever shed hotter, bitterer tears than streamed
from that man’s eyes. We do not know one another altogether. We come to false
conclusions about each other’s character and disposition. Many a time we say
about men, “They are very harsh, rough, abrupt”; not knowing that they have
other days when their very souls are dissolved within them; that they can
suffer more in one hour than shallower natures could endure in an eternity. Let
us be hopeful about the very worst of men. Some men cannot cry in public. Some
men are unfortunately afflicted with coarse, harsh voices, which get for them a
reputation for austerity, unkindliness, ungeniality. Other men are gifted with
fairness and openness of countenance, gentleness and tunefulness of voice. When
they curse and swear it seems as though they were half praying, or just about
to enter into some religious exercise. When they speak, when they smile, they get
a reputation for being very amiable men, yet they do not know what amiability
is. They have no secret life. They weep for reputation; they make their tears
an investment for a paltry renown. We do not want all our history to be known.
We are content for men to read a little of what they see on the outside, and
they profoundly mistake that oftentimes. But the secret history, the inner room
of life, what we are and what we do when we are alone, no man can ever
tell--the dearest, truest, tenderest friend can never understand. Do not let us
treat Joseph’s tears lightly. Under this feeling there are great moral
principles and moral impulses. The man might have been stern, vengeful,
resentful. Instead of that he is tender as a forgiving sister. When he looks he
yearns, when he listens to their voices all the gladness and none of the
bitterness of his old home comes back again on his soul. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Joseph’s emotion
The hearing of the bitter reflections made by his brethren, upon
their barbarous treatment of himself, brought rivers of waters from Joseph’s
eyes. Many passions, many unpleasant and many pleasant remembrances, struggled
together in his mind. He tenderly sympathized with the distress of his
brethren. He was grieved when he found it necessary to inflict such grief upon
men so dear to him, after all they had done to ruin his comfort. He wept at the
remembrance of that anguish which he had felt in the day of his calamity, and
of the unavailing applications to his hard-hearted brethren, extorted by strong
necessity and bitter anguish. He called to mind his afflictions and his misery,
the wormwood and the gall; but he remembered also how the Lord had sent from
above, and taken and drawn him out of many waters, and set him in a large
place, and established his goings. Although Joseph was now exalted to glory and
power, he was not in the place where all tears are wiped from every eye. We
must in this world weep often, even for ourselves; we must often weep for our
friends; but “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” He that “goeth forth
and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.” Joseph wished not that his brethren should see
his tears. When he found he could not refrain, he turned himself from them and
wept. Tears shed in secret are the truest indication of the heart. Jeremiah
wept in secret places for the calamities coming upon his people, when the
Lord’s flock was to be carried away captive. (G. Lawson, D. D.)
Took from them Simeon, and
bound him:--
Harsh steps sometimes necessary
The circumstances of the case required such a behaviour from
Joseph as ought not to be made a precedent, unless similar circumstances, or
different circumstances of a very uncommon kind, render it advisable. It was
not sufficient to satisfy Joseph that he heard his brethren sorely regret their
conduct towards himself. In the judgment of charity, he hoped their repentance
was sincere; but farther proofs of their sincerity were requisite, before he
could place that confidence which he wished to do, in any professions they
might have made. Parents are not to be blamed when they forgive their offending
but penitent children, although they watch over them with anxious jealousy,
lest they should not “bring forth fruits meet for repentance.” The surgeon is
not to be blamed although he give great pain to his patient, by incisions
deeper than appear to ordinary beholders to be necessary. Joseph had too good
reason to know the stubborn spirit of some of his brethren, and in particular
of Simeon; and who knows but he had particular directions from God about the
proper means for taming it? During the two or three days of his brethren’s
imprisonment, he had time to acknowledge the Lord in this important affair, and
the Lord directed his steps. You must not be rash in passing judgment on men’s
conduct. “A tree,” says our Lord, “is known by its fruit.” And yet there are
cases in which the fruit is to be judged of from the tree. If a good man does
actions that are certainly bad, that charity which rejoiceth not in iniquity
but rejoiceth in the truth, will not hinder you from assigning them that
character which they deserve. But if actions are dubious, charity, which
believeth all things, hopeth all things, forbids you to pronounce them bad till
better evidence appear. “He bound Simeon before their eyes.” This circumstance
of Simeon’s imprisonment puts us in mind of Nebuchadnezzar’s cruelty to
Zedekiah, king of Judah, whose sons he slew before their father’s eyes, and
then caused his eyes to be put out, that he might never behold another object.
His intention was to double the calamities of the loss of sight, and of the
murder of his children. But those actions may be not only different, but
opposite in their nature, which present the same appearance when viewed with a
careless eye. An enemy wounds that he may destroy, “but faithful are the wounds
of a friend.” All Joseph’s brethren now with him, except Reuben, needed severe
rebukes; and no reproofs of the tongue were so likely to subdue their haughty
spirit, as the sight of the distress of their brother and companion in
iniquity. But it is probable that Joseph’s chief design in presenting this
melancholy spectacle to their eyes was, that they might be excited to return
more speedily with their younger brother, whom Joseph was impatient to see. The
eye affects the heart. Envy hindered them from regarding the distress of Joseph
in the pit; but it was to be hoped that they would compassionate the sufferings
of that brother who had never offended them by his dreams, nor received from
his father a coat of divers colours. We cannot pretend either to the power or
to the wisdom of Joseph. We do not enjoy such intercourse with Heaven by
immediate revelation as he frequently enjoyed; and therefore, it would be
presumptuous in us to pretend to take such methods as he employed, to
humble the spirits of those who have offended us. We have never met with usage
that can be compared to the treatment which he had received from his brethren.
We must not, however, hope to pass through life without trials to our patience
and meekness. “Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among us? let him
show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” (G.
Lawson, D. D.)
Verses 25-28
My money is restored; and lo, it is even in my sack: and their
hearts failed them
The miseries of an awakened conscience
I.
THEY
PURSUE THE SINNER EVERYWHERE.
II. THEY DRIVE THE
SINNER TO PUT THE WORST CONSTRUCTION UPON EVERY EVENT.
III. THEY ARE
INTENDED TO LEAD THE SINNER TO REPENTANCE. (T. H.Leale.)
The money returned
I. THE RETURN.
Affairs in Egypt strangely settled, they set out on their return. They have
been treated with a perplexing mixture of kindness and harshness. They have
provision for their journey; but they remember the prison, and the hostage they
have left behind. What shall they say to their father? Once they returned
without Joseph. He scarcely recovered from that blow. Now they are without
Simeon, and must demand Benjamin. How great their perplexity! They thought of
Joseph when in the presence of the lord of Egypt; do they think of him now? By
the very road they were travelling they saw him borne away years before. They
were enveloped in mystery. The old man at home among his hungry household, and
their own children awaiting their return. Simeon’s children, too, to meet; and
no father brought back to them.
II. THE DISCOVERY.
Thus perplexed, and anxiously anticipating the result, they arrive at one of
the inns, or khans, at which the caravans stopped to rest. An ass needs
provender. A sack is opened. The money is discovered. Consternation. What can
it all mean? Did they reflect on the money for which they had once sold a
brother? Probably Joseph’s purchasers once lodged with their newly bought slave
in that very inn, and talked of the sum they had given, as these men were now
talking of the money they had found. This money boded no good. An unheard-of thing,
that a seller should return the money. Joseph very likely returned the money to
ensure their return; lest they might need food and not have money to buy it. A
new thing to tell their father.
III. THE FAMILY
CONSTERNATION. They arrive at home. The first greetings over, inquiries are
made. Where is Simeon? They relate the history of their adventures and Simeon’s
detention. While they relate this strange history they open their sacks. A new
discovery. All the money returned! Fear seizes the whole family. It is a new
thing in the story of trade. May have been regarded by them as a pretext for
the Egyptians coming and carrying them all away into captivity. Jacob
especially filled with dread. He has now lost two sons, and sees in the
returned money a new occasion of alarm. “All these things are against me.” But
they were all for him, because a son was in it all. “All things shall work
together for the good of them who love God,” because another Son--Jesus
Christ--is concerned in our welfare. Learn:
I. Past sins cast
their shadow on the present, and overcast the future.
II. The wicked
fleeth when no man pursueth.
III. Conscience
converts things strange into things ominous.
IV. Our ignorance
of Divine plans causes us to charge God foolishly.
V. No money needed
to procure the bread of life. “In my hand no price I bring.” Jesus Christ is an
“unspeakable GIFT.” (J. C. Gray.)
A sorrowful company
“They said one to another, What is this that God hath done unto
us?” They all spoke the same language of despondency. None of them, as far as
we find, administered any comfort to his companions. It is an unhappy thing,
when, in a company of men, not one is found who can speak a word in season, for
advice or consolation to his companions in trouble. It is reported, that in a
time of persecution, some faithful ministers met together to deliberate about
their duty. All of them for a time were silent, or if anything was said, it
tended only to increase the general dejection. At last they all recovered their
spirits, at hearing one of their number say, “We are all immortal till our work
is done.” These few words gave effect to a truth, which they already knew, that
their days were numbered by a Divine decree, and that it was not in the power
of all the men on earth to cut them off from the land of the living a moment
before the time appointed by the wisdom and love of that God whom they served.
(G. Lawson, D. D.)
The money found in the sack
1. See how sin pursues the sinner. Like an enemy that he cannot
shake off, ready at any moment to accuse and torment. And it will do more
against him hereafter, unless taken away.
2. Observe the fear of these men. They were bold, hard men; yet see
how their heart fails them. Whom do they fear? The stern Egyptian ruler? No.
Their own thoughts, their own secret, their own sin. Nothing makes men so
fearful as an evil conscience.
3. But their thoughts turned not to their sin alone, but to God.
They saw His hand in what befell them. This, as far as it went, was a wholesome
thought. What they said was quite true; it was God that was dealing with them.
It was well that they should feel it. (F. Bourdillon.)
Verses 29-35
They came unto Jacob
Lessons
1.
Providence
carrieth guilty souls in, through, and out of temporal dangers at His will.
2. Gracious fathers are gratified sometimes from God by safe return
of sinful children.
3. Reason will instruct men to declare all events of Providence
furthering, or hindering in the way (Genesis 42:29).
4. In relation of providential events truth must be declared; yet no
need of telling all.
5. In relating providences, evil men are willing to hide sins which
caused them.
6. It concerns suspected, and accused persons to declare what is
required for their purgation. Upon this these sons of Jacob make this narration
of themselves and others (Genesis 42:30-34). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Lessons
1. Providence ordereth to creatures strange things at home, as well
as abroad.
2. God ordereth good in events to men, which they are apt to think
bad.
3. Mistakes of Providence may make men fear where no cause is (Genesis 42:35). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Money causing fear
Gold and silver are bright metals. They dazzle the eye of the
greater part of mankind. Achan saw a gold wedge, and, in defiance of an awful
curse, took it to his tent. Yet when Jacob and his sons saw heaps of money in
the mouths of their sacks, they were terrified as if they had seen a serpent.
For what reason were they afraid at a sight so generally desired? They thought
that this money was a snare laid for their lives. And have not many rich men
still greater reason to tremble when they look at their gold and silver? All
money unjustly got, or unrighteously or unmercifully kept, is a snare to the
possessor, and will rise up to witness against him in the day of accounts. Such
riches are corrupted and cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness
against the owners, and eat their flesh as it were fire. But Jacob and his sons
had no good reason to be afraid when they saw the money. It came not from an
artful knave, but from a kind son and brother, who was tenderly solicitous
about his father and brethren, that they should not come to poverty. Our fears
often proceed from our ignorance and mistake. We are afraid of those evils that
will never come, and stand in no fear of those that will come. Happy are they
who can commit all their affairs to Him who knows everything that shall befall
us. Jacob’s sons were afraid at the inn, when they were told of money in one of
their sacks. But the fears which they had endeavoured to forget were awakened
anew at the opening of all their sacks. Every little circumstance heightens the
distress of minds already dejected; and therefore, in dangerous circumstances,
it is necessary to our peace and happiness to have our minds fortified with the
consolations of God. “The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth, but the righteous
is bold as a lion.” (G. Lawson, D. D.)
Verse 36
All these things are against me
The conflict of life
So spoke the patriarch Jacob when Joseph had been made away with,
Simeon was detained in Egypt, Benjamin threatened, and his remaining sons were
suspected by him and distrusted; when at his door was a grievous famine,
enemies or strangers round about, evil in prospect, and in the past a number of
sad remembrances.
Thus did Almighty God remind His people that the world was not their rest.
I. In Jacob is
prefigured the Christian. What he said in dejection of mind, the Christian must
say, not in dejection, not in complaint or impatience, but calmly, as if
confessing a doctrine--“‘All these things are against me,’ but it is my
portion; they are against me, that I may fight with and overcome them.” If
there were no enemy, there could be no conflict; were there no trouble, there
could be no faith; were there no trial, there could be no love; were there no
fear, there could be no hope.
II. To passages
like these it is natural to object, that they do not belong to the present
time, that so far from Christians being in trouble because they are Christians,
it is those who are not Christians who are under persecution. The answer is
that affliction, hardship and distress are the Christian’s portion, both
promised and bestowed, though at first sight they seem not to be. If Christians
are in prosperity, not in adversity, it is because, by disobedience, they have
forfeited the promise and privilege of affliction.
III. Take up thy
portion then, Christian soul, and weigh it well, and learn to love it. (J.
H. Newman, D. D.)
The increasing troubles of Jacob’s old age
I. THE CAUSES
WHICH LED TO THEM.
1. The strange perplexity into which his sons had been brought.
2. The opening again of an old wound (Genesis 42:32).
3. The loss of all earthly hope.
II. THE WEAKNESSES
IN JACOB’S CHARACTER WHICH THEY REVEL.
1. Querulousness and despondency.
2. Want of strong faith in God. (T. H. Leale.)
Mistaking God’s providences
There is nothing more characteristic or more striking in the
nature of man than the alternations often very rapid--to which he is subject of
seasons of self-confidence and gloom.
I. A NATURAL
EXCLAMATION.
1. Human nature in similar circumstances is continually making it. I
might go further, and say that human nature, even after it has been
strengthened and elevated by Christianity, is still continually prone to pass
this judgment upon the providence of God. When lately the edifice of fortune,
which perhaps long years of energy and honesty had piled, was in an instant
stricken as by a bolt from heaven, and fell crumbling around you, leaving you
all unsheltered in a cold, unpitying world, could you see a proof of infinite
tenderness, a sign of happiness, in the smoking ruins at your feet?
2. Human nature cannot by itself do otherwise than give this answer.
There is, and can be found, no comfort, no strengthening, for man in mere
nature, and man himself has an instinctive consciousness of this. The highest
effort of philosophy, strictly so called, was simply to harden man--to cure his
wounded sensibilities by first destroying them. Christianity alone can lay open
to man’s tearful gaze the vision of two worlds, and, pouring its sustaining,
enlightening influences into his soul, enable him to apprehend the truth that
“the sufferings,” &c. (Romans 8:18).
II. AIDS TO FAITH
FURNISHED BY REASON AND EXPERIENCE. Are there not considerations furnished to
us from these sources which should lead us to regard all God’s dealings with
us, even those which seem to us the heaviest and darkest, as not really against
us, but for us?
1. We should be led to this conclusion by the consideration of God’s
character. “God is love,” and “I, the Lord, change not.”
2. We should be led to this conclusion by the consideration of our
own present ignorance in all things. What can we see of the outgoings of the
All-wise and the All-good other than the veriest hem of His garment? We see a
few isolated facts, but the hidden connections, the far reaching purposes, the
eternal consequences of the mighty plan are entirely covered up from our eyes.
You have sometimes seen from a hill-side, a valley over the undulating floor of
which there has been laid out a heavy mantle of mist. The spires of the
churches rise above it. Here and there you seem to catch the glistening of a
roof or of a vane. Here and there a higher house, or some little eminence, or
some tree-tops islanded in vapour, are beheld. But the lower and connecting
objects--the linking line of the roads, the plan and foundation of the
whole--are completely hidden from our gaze. And this is just the view which is
permitted to us of the providence of God. We see a few isolated facts, and that
is all. How absurd then, in reason, to attempt to determine the character of
the Divine dealings with us upon such a view! How unjust are we when we do so
to our God!
3. We should be led to a patient submission to God’s will, and a
belief that even His severest visitations are the effects and evidences of His
love, from a consideration of the present moral effects of trial and suffering
manifested to us by experience.
Concluding lessons:
1. Contentment. This a day of great hopes, desires, endeavours, and
disappointments.
2. Trust in God (Job 13:15). (W. Rudder, D. D.)
A faithless lament
I. ATHEISTIC. He
makes no mention of God. For the moment he has forgotten how the Lord had led
him at first to Laban’s house, and had given him prosperity during his
twenty-one years’ sojourn in Padan-aram; how He had cared for him when he left
his father-in-law; how He had mollified for him the anger of Esau; how He had
blessed him at Penuel after the night-long wrestling; and how He had protected
him at the time when the violence of some of his sons might have drawn upon him
the vengeance of the Shechemites. Now God was in this new trial as much and as
really as He was in these old ones, and if Jacob had remembered that, he would
not have spoken as he did. We shall see, indeed, that after a while, when his
sons were bidding him farewell on their departure for Egypt for ore food, he
came back to his old trustfulness, and offered for them this prayer: “God
Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other
brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” But at
the first, when the full shadow of his trouble passed over him, God was to him,
for the moment, eclipsed, and that only made his trial heavier.
II. UNTRUE. All
these things were not against him. They were really working together for his
good. They were onward steps in that process by which he was to recover his
long-lost won, and was to have conferred upon him those years of happiness
that, as we read the history, seem to us to be like the Sabbath of his early
life, which, after the labour and sorrow of the week, he was enabled to spend
in rest, in thankfulness, and in joy. How he would blame himself for these
hasty words in those latter days, when he went to see Joseph in his palace, and
took his grandsons between his knees; and I can imagine him saying to the God
of his fathers, after all the riddle of his life had been unfolded to him, “Now
I know the thoughts of Thy heart towards me, and I bless Thee that they were
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give me this delightful end.”
1. Now, from this analysis of Jacob’s experience, we may learn, in
the first place, that God is in all the events of our lives. Many of us are
ready enough to admit that He is in the prosperous things, but when trouble
comes upon us we attribute that solely to others, and “n that way we lose the
comfort which otherwise me might have enjoyed under its endurance. The mercies
of a lifetime are often ignored by us under the bitterness of a single trial;
and God, who has been our friend for years, is forgotten altogether, while we
passionately condemn some others as the authors of our affliction. But we shall
never find consolation that way. The first thing we ought to say regarding
every trial is, “It is the Lord.” If, instead of turning on his sons, Jacob had
only turned to his God, he would have been sustained; and we may be sure of
this, that trouble never yet overwhelmed a man so long as he could see God in
it.
2. Then, again, from our analysis of Jacob’s case, we ought to learn
to pass no sentence of condemnation on God’s work until it is completed. “Judge
nothing before the time.” We must not argue, from the pain of a part of the
process, that there is evil intended to us in the result of the whole. The
surgeon has a stern aspect, and apparently an unfeeling hand, when he cuts into
the diseased organ or amputates the broken limb, but he is working towards
healing all the time. And so it is with God and the discipline of His children.
Wait until He finish His work before you condemn it.
3. Finally, if these two things be true, that God is in our trials,
and that the outcome of them all under His supervision will be good, we may
surely stay ourselves in trouble by earnest prayer. “Is any among you
afflicted, let him pray.” We have to deal with no blind, remorseless law. The
Lord Jesus has taught us to say, “Our Father,” and when we enter fully into the
meaning of these words, and recognize clearly that His providence is universal,
we shall have no difficulty in saying “Thy will be done”; for the Father’s will
is always love to His own children. That will sustain us while we are on earth.
(W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The smiling face behind the frowning providence
I. WE HAVE
UNQUALIFIED ASSURANCE THAT GOD IS THE FRIEND OF HIS PEOPLE AND THAT HE IS
DIRECTING AND CONTROLLING ALL THINGS FOR THEIR HIGHEST GOOD. Why, then, should
we ever fall into despair?
II. WE HAVE THE
EVIDENCE OF GOD’S LOVE TO US IN THE DEATH OF HIS SON ON OUR BEHALF. We may,
therefore, rest satisfied that He will not harm us by any of the events of His
providence. There are not TWO GODS, one of providence, and one of grace.
III. WE HAVE THE
TESTIMONY OF MANY OF GOD’S PEOPLE TO THE FACT THAT THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE
APPARENTLY HARDEST IN THEIR LOTS, WERE AFTER ALL MOST BLESSED TO THEM. It is
easy to see how that was the case in the history of Jacob which has been before
us. But it is equally conspicuous in the history of Abraham. But it has been
the same with all God’s saints. The head-waters which have fed the main
tributaries to their character, have been away up in some lonely tam of trial
among the mountains, where their souls were sore pressed by the affliction that
came upon them.
IV. YOU MAY FIND
FROM YOUR OWN PAST EXPERIENCE THAT YOUR TRIALS WILL END IN YOUR SPIRITUAL
PROFIT. You are different from any disciples of Jesus whom I have ever known,
if you be not ready to say that the greatest starts your spiritual growth has
taken have been occasioned by trial. In the early spring-time, after the seed
has been put into the ground, and has begun to sprout out of the earth, there
come those cloudy, close, damp, steamy days, which we all know so well and
dislike so much. The sun is rarely visible; the heat is more oppressive and
relaxing than in the dog-days; and everybody is uncomfortable. We would rather
have a pelting rain for a few hours and be done with it, or we would infinitely
prefer the cloudless sky and blazing sun of midsummer. Yes, but then these are
the “fine growing days” which the farmer loves, when things seem to be shooting
up from the earth with such rapidity that you almost think you can see them
moving. So, the “fine growing days” of the soul are not its most agreeable
ones. They are the close, damp, depressing ones, in which, as with Paul and his
fellow-passengers in the storm, no sun appears by day, and no star visible by
night. Or, to illustrate it yet in another way: There is a shuddering dread
comes over one as he sees the lightning leap from the cloud, and light up the
midnight gloom with its glare; but if the flash reveal to us that we are
standing on the edge of a precipice over which we are in danger of falling, we
will welcome it in spite of our alarm, and thank God for the providence that
sent it just then. Now, it is so sometimes that trial has come to us, and we
have forgotten the forked fury of the flaming thunderbolt in our gratitude for
the warning which it gave so timely. Who has not known of such times in his
history? and with such experiences behind us, how can we permit ourselves to
say of any circumstances, however untoward they may seem, “All these things are
against us”? Take to yourselves the support which these considerations are
fitted to supply. If I have spoken truly, then--
1. No matter what your trials may be, you may be at peace. You are
in God’s hands. Where could you be better? Where would you be rather?
2. You may see new reason for patience. “Judge nothing before the
time.” Let God finish His work, and when you can look back upon the beginning
from the end, you will not need anyone to vindicate His ways to you.
3. You may surely stay yourselves by earnest prayer. (W. M. Taylor,
D. D.)
Lessons
I. A PRINCIPLE OR
AFFECTION, WHICH IS IN ITSELF GOOD, WHEN ALLOWED TO OPERATE EITHER EXCESSIVELY
OR PARTIALLY, MAY GIVE RISE TO SENTIMENTS AND FEELINGS, AS WELL AS TO WORDS AND
ACTIONS, SUCH AS CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED. THE PRINCIPLE TO WHICH I NOW REFER, AS
YOU WILL AT ONCE CONJECTURE, IS THAT OF PARENTAL AFFECTION. But in the instance
before us, amiable as was the principle in itself, it led the aged patriarch to
the feeling and the utterance of what could not be vindicated. For example--
1. His affection for Joseph and Benjamin made him unreasonable to
his other sons.
2. Under the predominant influence of his parental solicitudes,
Jacob forgot for the time the hand of his God. “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.” Things may often be set in a more striking light
by means of contrast. And Jacob not only overlooked the hand of God; he
manifested criminal distrust of the faithfulness and goodness of the God of the
covenant; distrust of that word which he had never yet known to fail, and of
that ever-watchful care to which heretofore he had been so deeply indebted:
“All these things are against me.” Many a time had the Lord appeared to Jacob.
Many an assurance had He given him of His love and care.
II. THAT THERE IS
GREAT DANGER, ON THE PART OF CREATURES, IN FORMING HASTY CONCLUSIONS RESPECTING
ANY PARTS OF THE DIVINE ADMINISTRATION. How ignorant and short-sighted was the
good old saint! He saw not--and who does?--“what a day was to bring forth.” The
mission of Benjamin was to be the release of Simeon. Benjamin was to be made
happy in the meeting of his own maternal brother. And Jacob himself was to get
tidings of his long-lost boy, that would be the renewing of the youth of his
aged spirit. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
All these things--a sermon with three texts
The patriarch must needs use the expression, “ALL THESE THINGS.”
He had gone through the catalogue: there were but three items at the most, and
yet nothing narrower than “All these things are against me” will suit him. “All
these things,” indeed! And what a little “all” compared with the benefits of
God! What an insignificant “all” compared with the sufferings of our covenant
Head! What a trifling “all” compared with the amazing weight of glory which
shall soon be revealed in us!
I. Our first text
is THE EXCLAMATION OF UNBELIEF: “All these things are against me.”
1. In Jacob’s case it was a very plausible verdict. Yet plausible as
was the old man’s mournful conclusion, it was not correct; and hence let us
learn to forbear rash judgment, and never in any case conclude against the
faithfulness of the Lord.
2. Jacob’s exclamation was most evidently exaggerated--exaggerated
in the term he used, “All these things,” for there were but three evils at the
most; exaggerated, too, in most of the statements. You would suppose, from the
patriarch’s language, that beyond all doubt, Simeon had fallen a victim in
Egypt, and that Benjamin was demanded with a view to his instant execution; but
where was evidence to support this assertion? We frequently talk of our sorrows
in language larger than the truth would warrant. We write ourselves down as
peers in the realms of misery, whereas we do but bear the common burdens of
ordinary men.
3. The exclamation of Jacob was also as bitter as it was
exaggerated. It led him to make a speech which (however accidentally true),
with his information as to his sons, was ungenerous, and even worse. He said,
“Me ye have bereaved of my children.” Now, if he really believed that Joseph
was torn of beasts, as he appears to have done, he had no right to assail the
brethren with a charge of murder; for it was little else. In the case of
Simeon, the brethren were perfectly innocent; they had nothing whatever to do
with Simeon’s being bound, it was wrong to accuse them so harshly. In the
taking away of Benjamin, though there may have been a jealousy against him as
aforetime against Joseph, yet most certainly the brethren were not to blame.
4. Observe that this speech was rather carnal than spiritual. You
see more of human affections than of grace-wrought faith; more of the
calculator than the believer; more of Jacob than of Israel. Jacob is more the
man and less the man of God than we might have expected him to have been. See
how he dwells upon his bereavements 1 Notice, in the case before us, the
patriarch’s unbelieving observation was quite unwarranted by his past history.
Could Jacob think of Bethel, and yet say, “All these things are against me”?
Could he forget Penuel, and the place where he wrestled and prevailed at the
brook Jabbok?
5. Still keeping to Jacob’s exclamation, let me observe that it was
altogether erroneous. Not a syllable that he spoke was absolutely true. “Joseph
is not.” And yet, poor Jacob, Joseph is. Thou thinkest the beasts have devoured
him, but he is ruler over all the land of Egypt, and thou shalt kiss his cheeks
ere long. “Simeon is not”; wrong again, good father, for Simeon is alive,
though for his good, to cool his hot and headlong spirit, Joseph has laid him
by the heels a little. And as to Benjamin, whom thou sayest they wish to take
away, he is to go and see his brother Joseph, who longs to embrace him, and
will return him to thee in peace. Not one of all these things is against thee.
Our best days have been those which we thought our worst. Probably we are never
so much in prosperity as when plunged in adversity. No summer days contribute
so much to the healthy growth of our souls as those sharp wintry nights which
are so trying to us. We fear that we are being destroyed, and our inner life is
at that moment being most effectually preserved.
6. Being wrong in judgment, the good old man was led to unwise
acting and speaking, for he said, “My son shall not go down with you.” The
unbelieving generally do stupid things. We conclude that God is against us, and
then we act in such a way as to bring troubles upon ourselves which otherwise
would not have come.
7. And notice, once more, that good old Jacob lived to find in
actual experience that he had been wrong from beginning to end. We do not all
live to see what fools we have been, but Jacob did.
II. Turn now to
the thirty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, and the sixteenth verse, where you have
THE PHILOSOPHY OF EXPERIENCE: “O Lord, by these things men live, and in all
these things is the life of my spirit.” Unbelief saith, “All these things are
against me”; enlightened experience saith, “In all these things is the life of
my spirit.” The passage is taken from the prayer of Hezekiah after he was
raised from his sick bed.
1. Our spirits, under God, live by passing through the sorrows of
the present; for first, let me remind you, that by these trials and afflictions
we live, because they are medicinal. There are spiritual diseases which would
corrupt our spirit if not checked, kept down, and destroyed as to their
reigning power by the daily cross which the Lord lays upon our shoulders. Just
as the fever must be held in check by the bitter draught of quinine, so must
the bitter cup of affliction rebuke our rising pride and worldliness.
2. Afflictions, again, are stimulative. We are all apt to grow
slothful. There is an old story in the Greek annals, of a soldier under
Antigonus who had a disease about him, an extremely painful one, likely to
bring him soon to the grave. Always first in the ranks was this soldier, and in
the hottest part of the fray; he was always to be seen leading the van, the
bravest of the brave, because his pain prompted him to fight that he might
forget it; and he feared not death because he knew that in any case he had not
long to live. Antigonus, who greatly admired the valour of his soldier, finding
out that he suffered from a disease, had him cured by one of the most eminent
physicians of the day, but alas! from that moment the warrior was absent from
the front of the battle. He now sought his ease, for, as he remarked to his
companions, he had something worth living for--health, home, family, and other
comforts, and he would not risk his life now as aforetime. So when our troubles
are many, we are made courageous in serving our God, we feel that we have
nothing to live for in this world, and we are driven by hope of the world to
come, to exhibit zeal, self-denial, and industry; but how often is it otherwise
in better times? for then the joys and pleasures of this world make it hard for
us to remember the world to come, and we sink into inglorious ease.
3. Our troubles are a great educational process. We are at school
now, and are not yet fully instructed.
4. So, too, trials and tribulations are the life of our spirit,
because they are preparative for that higher life in which the spirit shall
truly live. This is the place for washing our robes--yonder is the place for
wearing them; this is the place for tuning our hearts, and discord is
inevitable to that work; but yonder is the abode of unbroken harmony.
III. I close with
my third text, and I think you may almost guess it, it tells of THE TRIUMPH OF
FAITH. Turn now to the eighth chapter of Romans, and the thirty-seventh verse:
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”
“All these things are against us.” Very well, we could not conquer them if they
were not against us; but they are the life of our spirit--and as Samson found
honey in the lion, so we, though these things roar upon us, shall find food
within them. Trials threaten our death, but they promote our life. I want you
to be sure to notice the uniform expression, “All these things are against me.”
“In all these things is the life of my spirit,” and now, “In all these things
we are more than conquerors.” The list is just as comprehensive in the best
text as in the worst. Nay, poor Jacob’s “All these things” only referred to
three; but look at Paul’s list: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine,
nakedness, peril, sword--the list is longer, darker, blacker, fiercer, sterner,
but still we triumph--“In all these things we are more than conquerors.”
Observe then, that the believing Christian enjoys present triumph over all his
troubles. What does Paul mean by saying that believers are “more than
conquerors”? Is it not this, that with the conqueror there is a time when his
triumph is in jeopardy? But it is never so with the believer; he grasps the
victory at once by an act of faith. No “ifs,” “buts,” “per-adventures,” for
him. He is conqueror at once, for God is on his side. But see how this last
text of mine opens up the great source of comfort. “We are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us.” Did you notice, Jacob said nothing about Him that
loved us? No, he could not have been unbelieving if he had thought of Him; and
the life of our spirit in trouble very much lies in remembering Him that loved
us. It is through Him we conquer because He has conquered. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A mistaken conclusion
I. GOD’S DEALINGS
WITH HIS PEOPLE, EVEN WHEN HE IS WORKING THEIR DELIVERANCE, AND DESIGNING THEIR
GOOD, ARE OFTEN DARK AND INTRICATE, SEEMING TO MAKE MORE AGAINST THEM THAN FOR
THEM. Thus it was with Jacob now. God designed the preservation of him and his
family in Egypt, by Joseph’s advancement there; but how unlikely was the method
He took in order to it?
II. WHENCE IT IS
THAT A CHILD OF GOD MAY BE READY TO CONCLUDE THAT TO BE AGAINST HIM WHICH IS
REALLY FOR HIM.
1. This proceeds from their weakness of faith, as to God’s wisdom
and power, faithfulness and love.
2. A saint is apt to say of what befalls him, all these things are
against me, as looking to Providence, and judging by it abstracted from His
promise.
3. A child of God may say of what befalls him, all these things are
against me, judging by sense.
4. What a saint thus speaks, ‘tie as looking down to the present
world, and his interest in it.
5. Saints may say of God’s dealings, they are against them, as
speaking through rashness, and viewing only a part of his work, and not staying
to the end.
6. Saints, under the trials they meet with, may be tempted to say,
all these things are against us, as not duly attending to the method of God’s
dealing with His people, and their own and others’ experience of the happy
purposes He has served by it.
III. How MAY IT BE
CONCLUDED, THAT WHAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD APPREHEND TO BE AGAINST THEM, SHALL IN
THE ISSUE MAKE REALLY FOR THEE?
1. From God’s relation to them. He is their God in covenant, their
tender Father, and so in a peculiar manner concerned about them.
2. From His love to them.
3. From His express promises (Isaiah 43:1-2).
IV. WHY GOD
CHOOSES TO CARRY ON HIS PEOPLE’S GOOD BY WAYS, TO APPEARANCE, THE MOST DARK AND
THREATENING.
1. For His own glory (John 11:4) In God’s delivering us when we
are at the end of our thoughts and hopes, and when ready to give up all for
lost, then He appears in His glory, a God powerful, wise, merciful, and
faithful indeed.
2. This God does, for the trial and discovery of His people.
Application:
1. Take heed of judging God’s purposes of grace by the external
dispensations which make way to bring them into effect.
2. Beg that faith may not fail when all things of sense seem dark
and dismal.
3. Beware of entertaining narrow thoughts of God in the deepest
distress. Believe Him always the same, whatever changes you meet with.
4. Listen not to what flesh, and sense, or Satan would suggest,
derogatory to the power and faithfulness of God.
5. Be assured that all God’s providences are accomplishing His
promises, though you see not how this will be brought about.
6. Whilst you are so apt to say on earth, that all these things are
against me, with the greater earnestness press on towards heaven. And in the
light of that world, you will be fully satisfied how all things in the issue
were for you, and that all your tears did but prepare you, with the greater
relish to enter into that presence of God, where there is fulness of joy, and
where there are pleasures for evermore. (D. Wilcox.)
Jacob’s complaint
1. That men may be brought by
very different ways to think that all things are against them. Jacob was
brought to despond by the simple pressure of adverse circumstances. It was the
loss of his children that made him utter the words of my text. Joseph and
Simeon were gone. Benjamin was apparently to go next. It was indeed too much
for a father’s heart. But I wish you to observe, that it had in it nothing of
the bitterness of sin. I do not say that Jacob’s adversity might not be
connected with the faults of his early life. Most probably the judgment of God it
was. But I mean that his sorrows were not of a kind to bring his sins to
remembrance. I think if the sons of Jacob had said, “all these things are
against us,” they would have had much more reason for uttering these words than
had their father. Depend upon it, it is when our faults have brought us into
trouble--when our punishment is the legitimate child of our sins--it is then
that we have most reason for believing and for saying, that “the hand of the
Lord is against us.” And yet I would have you observe, that even in the ease of
Joseph’s brethren, who were now in his power, and locked by his command in
prison, it was not true that all things were against them. Little as they might
deserve it, God’s hand was over them for good. Thus they were on the eve of
prosperity; for, however strange it may seem, still it was certainly true, that
the sin of these men against their brother was not only the means of their own
prosperity, but was likewise a link in the grand chain of God’s providential
dealings with the whole race of mankind.
2. Every one knows how frequently he is wrong in his forebodings of
evil--how circumstances of evil which he feared would prove fatal to
hishappiness have turned out entirely different from that which he feared--how
often has it been the jaundice of his own eyes, and no defect of the light of
heaven, which has made all around him wear a melancholy tint. And, therefore,
upon mere general grounds, we strongly condemn those who are always faint
hearted, and those who magnify disasters and difficulties in fancying that all
things are against them.
3. But I have showed you that there is a divinely appointed way of
viewing the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed, so that, by the
help of this, we may foresee that they are really for us, when they seem to be
against us. Yes, there is such a divinely appointed mode, and if I can only
help some of you to look on your condition here upon earth, in that way which
God has revealed and has made palpable through His most blessed Son, I shall
feel sure that I have not spoken to you in vain. Do you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ the Son of God? Then, if you do, you will find it impossible to
prove that in any condition of life all things can be against you. You will
feel an assurance which nothing on earth or hell can shake, that God Himself is
for you. Let me take two or three cases by way of example. In the first place,
let us take a case of poverty. I suppose that there is nothing so likely to
make a man say to himself that all things are against him, as being poor. Jesus
Christ was a poor man too. You cannot be so poor as He. What honest man is
there without a home? But again, there is a much worse enemy to be found in
this world than poverty, and in sight of this enemy, I do not wonder that a
person who remembers our Lord’s words concerning the narrow road of life, and
the broad road of destruction, should sometimes be dismayed. I allude to the
fact, that every condition of life, and every period of life, is full of
temptation to go astray from the ways of God and of heaven. Christ, by whose
name we are called, and whose soldiers we are, condescended to be tempted
himself. But again, a man may be brought to the conclusion that all things are
against him by the same kind of painful experience as that which made Jacob
utter the words of the text. It was the hand of God taking away what was
dearest to the heart that made Jacob groan with a sense of the deepest misery.
I do not think we need inquire whether Jacob was or was not excusable for uttering
this lamentation. God was the judge of this. But we may well remark, that
myriads of persons since then have been afflicted in the same manner, and many
have given way to the same lament. He who believes on Jesus Christ must never
say, under the weight of any affliction, “all these things are against me,”
because, under the weight of those sorrows which were put upon Christ, He never
uttered such words. Once more, let me allude to that moment in every human life
which brings a man into immediate contact with the unseen world. Let me speak
of death, that one only event which is certain to every one present. It is well
for us, while we are in health, and have the use of our faculties, to consider
what impression will be made on us when we feel our strength decaying, and are
assured either by age or sickness, that our work will soon be done. It is a
terrible thing for a man, then, to feel that all is against him; and, no doubt,
this feeling does often give rise to very happy results; but, I believe, that
this is not the usual result. Certainly, according to my own experience, it is
far from being so. I think that, in general, they who have not found out how
much there is against them during their life, and how much has to be done in
order to cut through the obstacles which stand between their souls and God--I
think that they do not find this out in death. They who have lived carelessly,
generally die carelessly too. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
The methods of Divine Providence
He thought everything was against him. But we know that he was
wrong. All was for him, both temporally and spiritually. Jacob’s exclamation
was caused by ignorance.
I. I notice THAT
GOD WORKS THROUGH SECONDARY INSTRUMENTS. The fore-determined purpose was to
provide for Jacob and for his race; and we know that this purpose was
accomplished. Jacob spent his declining years in peace and plenty beneath the
shadow of his son’s greatness. So also was the race secure from the incessant
wars and dangers of Canaan. In the land of Goshen they grew into a nation,
till, through the agency of the Egyptian king, God sent them forth upon their
destiny a great and conquering people. Bat think, how many links in the chain
of events there were to bring about this result, how many secondary causes were
at work l The silent order of nature, the bad passions of man the apparent
accidents of travel, the vain visions of the night, all concurred--but why? Was
it some happy accident alone that blended them all together? Do great results
spring out of blind causes? or do the accidents of a world of chance accomplish
the promises of a God of truth? Surely not? They all concurred because God was
in them all, through them all, over them all.
II. I notice THE
COMPLEXITY AND REACH OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT, EXTENDING SO FAR AND INVOLVING
SO MUCH AS TO BE WHOLLY BEYOND OUR POWER TO UNDERSTAND IT. Surely none but God
can measure God. If He be not beyond our reach and understanding, He cannot be
God. We know only that which is before our eyes, and can not measure Him or His
doings.
III. But, lastly,
LET US LEARN TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FULFILMENT OF ALL
HIS GRACIOUS PURPOSES TOWARDS US. If the blinded eye of the flesh indeed there
may seem darkness and trouble on every side of us, our wishes thwarted, our hopes
destroyed, our loved ones taken away--every comfort wrecked, till the heart
cries out, I have nothing left to live for--yet when that time of bitterness
comes to us, let us not forget the promise, “All things work together for good
to them that love God” the exact meaning is “all things are working together
for good,” at this very moment, when the anguish is in thine heart, and the
complaint is yet quivering upon thy lips. (E. Garbett, M. A.)
Man’s ignorance of God’s providence
The plan of our lives is hidden from us, it is only worked out
step by step, and we who see a part only and out he whole of which it is the
part, grow frightened and perplexed; we are like those who are led along
blind-folded by others, and fear to plant our steps firmly on the ground before
us; we are as travellers in a strange land who have received directions to take
a road which seems unlikely to lead to our destination. God leads His own by a
way that they know not, and we, ignorant as we are of the ways of His
providence, too often take alarm, and refuse to place implicit trust in our
Heavenly Guide; faith refuses to pierce the veil of sense, and we are ready to
sit down by the wayside in despair at the very moment when the towers of the
heavenly city are ready to burst upon our view. Now, why does God thus deal
with us?
1. It is for the trial of our faith.
2. And do not the secret ways of God’s providence illustrate
brightly His Divine power? He works indeed by means, but His independence of
them is shown by the unexpected way in which He orders and employs them.
3. And, lastly, do we not gather the oft-required lesson of
increased confidence in Him, who is our God and our all? (S. W. Skeffington,
M. A.)
Take a comprehensive view of God’s dealings with us
A child might say to a geographer, “You talk about the earth being
round I Look on this great crag; look on that deep dell; look on yonder great
mountain, and the valley at its feet, and yet you talk about the earth being
round.” The geographer would have an instant answer for the child; his view is
comprehensive; he does not look at the surface of the world in mere detail; he
does not deal with inches, and feet, and yards; he sees a larger world than the
child has had time to grasp. He explains what he means by the expression, “The
earth is a globe,” and justifies his strange statement. And so it is with God’s
wonderful dealings towards us: there are great rocks and barren deserts, deep,
dank, dark pits, and defiles, and glens, and dells, rugged places that we
cannot smooth over at all, and yet when He comes to say to us at the end of the
journey, “Now look back; there is the way I have brought you,” we shall be
enabled to say, “Thou hast gone before us, and made our way straight.” (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Magnifying our troubles
Being once surrounded by a dense mist on the Styhead Pass in the
Lake District, we felt ourselves to be transported into a world of mystery,
where everything was swollen to a size and appearance more vast, more terrible
than is usual on this sober planet. A little mountain tarn, scarcely larger
than a farmer’s horse-pond, expanded into a great lake, whose distant shores
were leagues beyond the reach of our poor optics; and as we descended into the
valley of Wastwater, the rocks rose on one side like the battlements of heaven,
and the descent on the other hand looked like the dreadful lips of a yawning
abyss; and yet when one looked back again in the morning’s clear light there
was nothing very dangerous in the pathway, or terrible in the rocks. The road
was a safe though sharp descent, devoid of terrors to ordinary
mountain-climbers. In the distance through the fog the shepherd “stalks
gigantic,” and his sheep are full-grown lions. Into such blunders do we fall in
our life-pilgrimage: a little trouble in the distance is, through our
mistiness, magnified into a crushing adversity. We see a lion in the way,
although it is written that no ravenous beast shall go up thereon. A puny foe
is swollen into a Goliath, and the river of death widens into a shoreless sea. Come,
heavenly wind, and blow the mist away: and then the foe will be despised, and
the bright shores on the other side of the river will stand out clear in the
light of faith. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Jacob’s wrong view of life
An old man, who does not know what he is talking about! What does
the oldest and best man amongst us know about life? Jacob is writing a list of
his grievances and misfortunes and distresses, and God’s angels are looking
down upon him and saying, That the whole statement, though one of what men call
facts, is all a mistake from beginning to end. Think of man writing his life,
and of God’s writing the same life in a parallel column! Now old Israel is
perfectly correct, so far as the story is known to himself. Jacob their father
said, “Me have ye bereaved of my children.” That is right. “Joseph is not.”
That is perfectly true, so far as Jacob is concerned, so far as his information
extends. “And Simeon is not.” That also is literally correct, so far as the
absence of Simeon may be regarded. “And ye will take Benjamin away.” Precisely
so, that is the very thing they have in view. “All these things are against
me.” It is exactly the same with us to-day. Men don’t know what they say when
they use words. They don’t know the full meaning of their own expressions. They
will always snatch at first appearances and pronounce judgment upon incomplete
processes. Every day I afflict myself with just the same rod. I know what a
fool I am for doing so, and yet I shall do it again to-morrow. There comes into
a man’s heart a kind of grim comfort when he has scourged himself well; when he
knows all the while that ten thousand errors are accusing him of a repetition
of his folly. There are men who don’t know their own family circumstances, yet
they have undertaken to pronounce judgment upon the infinite I Some men are
very familiar with the infinite, and have a wonderful notion of their power of
managing God’s concerns. We seem at home when we go from home. Here is an old
man saying, “Joseph is not, Simeon is not, Benjamin is to be taken away. All
these things are against me.” Yet we who have been in a similar position,
though the circumstances have been varied, have undertaken to pronounce
judgment upon God’s way in the world, God’s government, God’s purposes. Why don’t
we learn from our ignorance? Why don’t we read the book of our own folly, and
learn that we know nothing, being children of yesterday? We cannot rise to that
great refinement of learning, it would appear. Every day we repeat our follies.
It is but a man here and there who has a claim to a reputation for religious
wisdom. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Me have ye bereaved of my children
The words before us are the expressions of that peevishness and
dejection which are ready to find place in the heart even of a good man in a
day of darkness. “Me have ye bereaved of my children: all these things are
against me” We ought, however, to remember, that words expressive of the
passionate working of the mind, ought always to be understood with a limitation
of their import. When Jacob says that he was bereaved of his children, the
meaning is, that he was bereaved of two or three of them. When he speaks of his
sons then present, as if they had bereaved him of his children, he does not
mean that they had murdered them, or sold them into a strange land. He means,
that by their unwise conduct they had some agency in bringing the calamity upon
them. If they had not rambled about with their flocks from one place to
another, Joseph might not have met those wild beasts that tore him in pieces.
If they had not, by some imprudent conduct, excited suspicion in the mind of
the hard-hearted governor of Egypt, Simeon would not have been kept in prison.
If they had not spoken to the governor about their younger brother, he might
still have been left with himself when they returned to buy more corn. Jacob,
however, spoke more truth than he knew in these words, “Me have ye bereaved of
my children.” They had sold Joseph into Egypt, and Simeon’s imprisonment was
the consequence of that criminal conduct. But as we have no reason to think
that Jacob suspected them to be guilty, his words are to be considered as an
angry reflection, which the distress of his mind drew from his lips rather than
his heart. When your minds are disturbed be watchful over your tongue. Beware
of ill-natured reflections on your children, your servants, or any that are
under your power. But, on the other side, let not children or servants be
surprised or angry when unjust reflections are uttered or glanced at them by
their parents or masters, when grief rather than reason has the direction of
their tongues. We must all bear something from our fellow-mortals, and we all
make some of our neighbours bear something from us that might be spared. (G.
Lawson, D. D.)
Joseph is not, and Simeon is not
More is said than meant, and more was meant than what was true, in
these words. The patriarch knew that Simeon was not dead, so far as this
information reached, but he was almost given over as a dead man by his father.
Yet he had not any strong reason to do it. Perhaps the money came by some
oversight into the mouth of the sacks. Probably that hard man, who was Lord of
Egypt, did not intend to put Simeon to death; or if he did, his heart might yet
be softened by the God of Jacob. We make our burdens heavier than they ought to
be, by adding to them the weight of our own gloomy apprehensions; or we
represent them heavier than we feel them to be, by words that convey more
meaning than they ought. Surely the troubles laid upon us are heavy enough to
be borne. Why should we court unhappiness, and yet complain of it? (G.
Lawson, D. D.)
Joseph is not, and Simeon is not
A certain good woman, in a time of persecution, heard that one of
her sons was killed in the field by the enemy. “Which of my sons?” said she.
“The eldest,” said the informer. “God be thanked,” replied she, “he was the
fittest to die. My other children will have some more time for preparation, and
needed it more than their brother.” Yet Jacob was more grieved for the loss of
Joseph, than for the loss of Simeon, although Joseph was sanctified in his
early years; and Simeon, for anything we can learn, and yet given little
evidence of piety. But it must be remembered that Jacob was only afraid that
Simeon might die. Joseph was, in his apprehension, already dead. I believe that
a good man, were it referred to his choice which of his children he must lose,
would refer it to his Maker; but it would be his deliberate wish, that, if God
pleased, He would remove to the other world that member of his family who was
fittest for it, though much the dearest to himself. (G. Lawson, D. D.)
And ye will take Benjamin away
True; they would take him away to Egypt, but not out of the world.
To go a long journey was a very different thing from dying. He might be exposed
to danger from the artifices of the unfeeling lord of Egypt. But will such a
good man as Jacob make himself and his house miserable because a favourite son
may be lost, when he was not exposed to greater danger than his brethren? Even
those who are eminent fearers of God, are too often deprived of a great part of
that happiness which they might enjoy, by the infirmity of their faith. (G.
Lawson, D. D.)
The days of bereavement
1. The great object of religious discipline in this world is to
prepare for the perfect happiness of a future existence. This is a fact too
much lost sight of. Many, and especially young and inexperienced Christians,
expect that the commencement of a religious life is to be a deliverance from
those cares and sorrows, by the pressure of which they were perhaps first drawn
to seek the Lord. Rut the great object of religion is to fit a guilty,
polluted, lost creature, for the presence of God in a world of eternal
happiness. But as the gift of inspired religion is rather a means of preparing
the soul for the future life, than a provision of comfort for this, we remark--
2. Religion does not prevent the occurrence of those afflictions
which are the common lot of mankind.
3. That if religion, or a real and religious connection with God,
increases our afflictions, it sanctifies them. Though deeper afflictions do
come upon the child of God, they are not the capricious severities of a hard
master.
Depression
In a fit of dejection Dean Hook once wrote: “My life has been a
failure. I have done many things tolerably; but nothing well. As a parish
priest, as a preacher, and now as a writer, I am quite aware that I have
failed, and the more so because my friends contradict the assertion.” (One
Thousand New Illustrations.)
Providence in heathen politics
In the early history of Burmese missions, a young Burman of
superior rank became a convert. His sister was a maid of honour to the queen,
and being greatly distressed at his change of religion, and thinking if she
could separate him from the missionary he would soon forget the foreign ideas,
she obtained for him an appointment, which he was obliged to accept, as
governor of a distant province. He had not been long at his new post, when some
Karens were brought before him accused of worshipping a strange God. “What
God?” he asked. “They call Him the eternal God,” was the reply. A few questions
satisfied the young governor that he had fellow-Christians before him. To the
great surprise of the accusers he ordered the prisoners to be dismissed. (Fifteen
Hundred Illustrations.)
A token of God’s favour in adverse providences
Mr. Newton had a very happy talent of administering reproof.
Hearing that a person, in whose welfare he was greatly interested, had met with
peculiar success in business, and was deeply immersed in worldly engagements,
the first time he called on him, which was usually once a month, he took him by
the hand, and drawing him on one side into the counting-house, told him his
apprehensions of his spiritual welfare. His friend, without making any reply,
called down his partner in life, who came with her eyes suffused with tears,
and unable to speak. Inquiring the cause he was told she had just been sent for
to one of her children that was out at nurse, and supposed to be in dying
circumstances. Clasping her hands immediately in his, Mr. Newton cried, “God be
thanked, He has not forsaken you! I do not wish your babe to suffer, but I am
happy to find He gives you this token of His favour.” (Moral and Religious
Anecdotes.)
Verse 37
Slay my two sons
An unlawful mode of speaking
I will give you leave to take away my life, unless I do this or
that.
Such modes of speaking as this do not become the mouths of the disciples of our
Redeemer. How do we know what we shall be able to do a day or an hour hence? We
ought to say, If we live, and the Lord will, we shall do this or that; “for a
man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.” When men use this
language their words are not to be understood in their literal sense. They are
only strong assertions, tinctured with a profane levity of mind. Death ought
not to be made a by-word. It will be found a serious thing to die when death
comes, if it is not habitually esteemed a serious matter by us, whilst we are
living in prosperity and health. “By the life of Pharaoh, ye are spies,” said
Joseph to his brethren. Reuben engages, by the life of his two sons, that he
will bring Benjamin in safety to his father, if his father would trust the
young man to his care. Surely Reuben might have learned o avoid such strong
asseverations about things of this sort. It was his wish to bring Joseph home
to his father, and yet he could not persuade his brethren to comply with his
intentions. It was his desire to bring Simeon safe to his father, and yet he
was compelled to leave him in Egypt. He had reason to hope that his brethren
would not treat Benjamin as they had treated Joseph. He had reason to hope that
the lord of Egypt would keep his promise. But was he so sure of both these
things, and of meeting with no bad accident in the course of his journeyings,
that he could warrantably pledge the life of his two sons for Benjamin’s happy
return? He knew that Jacob would not take him at his word. But what if God
should, by some untoward event, make him sensible that he had spoken amiss? (G.
Lawson, D. D.)
Verse 38
Bring down my gray hairs with sorrow
Graceless children
Some graceless children despise their fathers and their mothers
when they are old, and when their grey hairs claim reverence or compassion.
If we must bow before the man of hoary hairs, although he is a stranger, what
reverence do we owe to our own parents, when the respect due to age is added to
the claims of parental relation! Those children that load the grey heads of
their parents with crushing sorrows, are worse than common murderers. Yet, let
not parents, by their own frowardness, kill themselves with grief, and load
their children with the blame due to themselves. The aged ought to remember
that their infirmities may dispose them to make their burdens heavier than God
or men have made them. And when we torment ourselves we are too ready to
transfer our own folly to the account of others. (G. Lawson, D. D.)
A faithless exclamation
Why should Jacob die with grief, if Benjamin should be lost? Is
Benjamin his God, his life, his exceeding joy? “The Lord liveth, and blessed be
the Rock of Israel.” He is the Rock of ages. God had made desolate all Job’s
company, and his hope had He removed like a tree; but Job knew that his
Redeemer lived. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the
flower of the field; but the Word of the Lord shall stand for ever.” And whilst
the Word stands, those whose trust is placed on it are safe. They may, through
the prevalence of unbelief, and of earthly affections, speak unadvisedly with
their lips; hut the Lord will make them sensible of their folly, and enable
them to commit their affairs into His hand, and to east all their cares upon
Him who cares for all His people. We shall soon hear Jacob saying, “If I am
bereaved of my children, I am bereaved”; and on his death-bed he says, “I have
waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!” (G. Lawson, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》