Study the Word

Guest (Male): Reminding us of God's passionate desire for you, here's Pastor Thom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: God's desire is that every one of us would be with him one day in heaven. That's his desire. And Jesus, when he gave his life on the cross, it was exactly for that point. I cannot bear to see what it would do to my father, one of these, his children, not being with him.

Guest (Male): What would it take for God to get you and me all the way to heaven? In part, it will take the passionate intercession of his dear son. There's a beautiful picture of this in the Bible, and we'll look at it today on Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller of Calvary Chapel Lebanon.

Pastor Thom is making his way through the book of Genesis, and in chapter 44, we'll hear of Judah interceding for his brother, even willing to offer his life in his place. Sounds familiar? But before we get to this touching point in the story, there's a bunch of history that's essential to understand. To provide the backdrop, here's Pastor Thom.

Pastor Thom Keller: Genesis 44. Little bit of background. Jacob had 12 sons. Only two from his favorite wife, Rachel. Second youngest was Joseph, and the very youngest was Benjamin. Joseph, because he was his favorite son, the other sons, the older sons, were always spiteful, vengeful, and decided once and for all to do away with him. They decided to kill him, then they thought, "Let's maybe profit a little from this and not have blood on our hands." So they sold him off into Egypt.

Joseph goes off into Egypt, ends up being sold to Potiphar, who's the chief executioner under the Pharaoh. Potiphar's wife makes advances toward him. He flees from her. She then screams, "Rape!" Potiphar comes in, incensed. He puts Joseph in the dungeon, in his prison, the chief executioner's prison. There for 12 to 13 years he's in prison, pleading his cause any place that he can. In prison, he becomes known as an interpreter of dreams.

Through a part of the story that we covered before, the Pharaoh learns of this. The Pharaoh has a dream. None of his wise men can answer it. Pharaoh hears about Joseph. He brings Joseph out. Joseph interprets the dream. He says, "Dreaming is God's business. No one can interpret dreams but God." And he gave the glory to God. He interpreted the dream. It was that there would be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. And if they did not prepare for the seven years of famine, the entire country, the entire land, would be reduced to abject poverty.

So Joseph said, "I suggest you find the wisest man in the kingdom and put him in charge of this program." And Pharaoh said, "Who could be wiser than the man that interpreted this dream?" He said, "You are now second in command. Only to me. Only I will outrank you." So in one day, Joseph is taken from prison and put into second in command, second only to Pharaoh. The seven years of plenty take place. He wisely stores grain away during that time, and then the seven years of famine begin.

Two years into the famine, his brothers, his 11 brothers really now, because his youngest brother Benjamin was born just about the time he was sold into slavery. So in all probability, Joseph never really met or saw Benjamin. So the 11 brothers that are still at home and his father are again wealthy people, but what is wealth with no food to buy? They're reduced to almost poverty, and they start hearing that there's food back in Egypt. So the father says, "Go back to Egypt and buy grain."

So they go back. In chapter 42, Jacob sends his sons. They come before Joseph. These ten sons come before Joseph, and he immediately identifies them as his brothers. But because of his Egyptian garb and because he spoke in that language now and not in the Hebrew language, they didn't identify him. And he starts putting them to the paces. He starts putting them through tests. He puts Simeon in prison and allows the others to go back.

And he says, "When you go back, bring back your youngest brother Benjamin. If you're telling me the truth." He said, "I believe you're spies, but the way I'll know whether you're telling the truth or not is if you bring this younger brother back the next time you come." They went back and told their father, and the father said, "No way. I lost Joseph, which was his favorite son. I'm not going to lose Benjamin too." He only had two sons of his favorite wife. Whether there should have been a favorite wife or not is a whole other discussion. But he said, "I'm not going to send Benjamin too. I'm not going to do it."

So they ate the grain that they had brought back. That goes away. They're now back in the area of poverty. He sends them back. He finally sends them back. In chapter 43, they come back. They get grain. Benjamin is with them. Joseph looks at Benjamin. This is probably the first time he's seen his full-blood sibling, and he just loses it. He starts crying. He can hardly contain himself. Again, at this point, Benjamin's probably in his low 20s, and Joseph is probably about 40 in that range.

And then they have a banquet. Joseph sits at one table, the Egyptians at another table, the 11 brothers at another table. He feeds them. Again, they came there starving. He feeds them. The food is just this feast of food, the best of Egypt had to offer. And he gives Benjamin five times as much food as the other brothers.

He lines them up in perfect order, by the way. All 11 by age. And the odds of that are 39 million to one that somebody could put 11 in the right order. 39 million. They were kind of surprised by that. Put them in the right order. They feast. He brings out five times as much food for Benjamin. Why do you think he did that? Why do you think he brought out five times as much food for Benjamin? You think they didn't notice that? You don't think the other ten brothers didn't notice that Benjamin got five times as much food?

Can you imagine that? They're all brought out plates of food, and they're eating. Benjamin gets another one. And they're eating. Benjamin gets another one. They're eating, another one, another one. And Joseph is watching all of this. It's a test. Is this going to start going, "Oh, Benjamin gets it again. Benjamin gets everything he wants. Remember, he got the car? We never got a car. He got a go-cart when he was a little boy. We never got a go-cart." Joseph's watching all of this to see what happens.

And then he sends them off. So now we're in Genesis 44. The banquet's over. They're about to leave. When his brothers were ready to leave, Joseph gave these instructions to the man in charge of his household. This is apart from the brothers. They're not hearing this. "Fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they can carry and put each man's money back into his sack. Then put my personal cup at the top of the youngest brother's sack." Which is who? Benjamin. "Put my personal silver cup at the top of the youngest brother's sack along with his grain money." So the household manager did as he was told. Does this sound familiar?

He did the same thing the last time, right? Except the cup. They came back before for grain. When they took the grain, he put the money in the top of the grain. They're on their way home, they find out about the money, and they said, "Oh no, we're dead." And he does the same thing this time. If you think about it, everything's going well. They had this great feast. It seems like the problem between them and this second to Pharaoh is settled. He invited them in for a banquet in his home. They're full of grain. Their stomachs are full. Simeon is out of prison, who he had put in prison until they came back the second time. Keep that in mind. All that time they were back with Jacob, Simeon is in prison. But now he's left out. They were terrified that Benjamin was going to be kept by him. That's what Jacob was afraid of. That didn't happen. They're all on their way back. Full stomachs, full sacks, everyone's along. Great news for their dad. And then it happens.

Guest (Male): The brothers were up at dawn and set out on their journey with their loaded donkeys.

Pastor Thom Keller: But when they were barely out of the city, Joseph said to his household manager, "Chase after them and stop them. Ask them, 'Why have you repaid an act of kindness with such evil? What do you mean by stealing my master's personal silver drinking cup, which he uses to predict the future? What a wicked thing you have done.'" Don't you think that after the last time, one of the ten that went through this before would have opened the top of his sack just to check? It's a little surprising that they would have done this again. They must have really been feeling good. It's just a little surprising not one checked.

Why is Joseph doing this? Whose sack has the silver cup in the top? Benjamin. Why do you think he did this? Is he going to try to persecute Benjamin? Does he hate Benjamin and he's trying to get him? No. If there's any brother he has no beef against, it's Benjamin. So why does he put it at the top of Benjamin's sack? That's right, to see what his brothers will do. It's a test. Some kind of test to see what his brothers are going to do.

That's made even clearer in this Joseph's servant's response. One piece before we get to that. Does Joseph really use his cup for divination? Divination is looking in a cup. They would use that, the Egyptians would do that. They'd put liquid in a cup, look into it, and try to tell the future from looking in this cup. There are two pieces of this. First of all, this was before law, before there was any law against divination. But an even better answer is Joseph never said he used it for that purpose. His servant said he used it for that purpose. He may have assumed he did. It may have been that people in that position typically would have used that particular cup for divination. It never says that Joseph never said that he did.

So the man goes after them. So the man caught up with them and spoke with them in the way he had been instructed. "What are you talking about?" the brothers respond. Can you hear this? They're happy, this guy stops them, he charges them, "What are you doing? What are you doing taking this cup?" They get off their donkeys. I was picturing this. If they would have tried to run for it. Can you picture that? A bunch of donkeys in a getaway scene? An Egyptian chariot running after it? Not much of a chase scene really. Big sacks of grain bouncing around on the back.

He spoke the way he was instructed. "What are you talking about?" the brothers responded. "What kind of people do you think we are, that you would accuse us of such a terrible thing? Didn't we bring back the money we found in our sacks? Why, we would never steal silver or gold from your master's house. If you find his cup in one of us, let him die, and all the rest of us will be your master's slaves forever." Strong response.

You know what this does show though is that they had a healthy respect for one another. That they had come through the years to trust the integrity of one another, because there really wasn't even a possibility in their minds that any of these brothers would have taken it. They spoke that strongly. So strongly that they declared that the thief would be killed. Who's the thief? Benjamin. They just consigned him to death, and themselves to slavery forever. Here's a lesson here. Be very slow to make a foolish or rash or expensive commitment based on something you think to be true but isn't or may not be.

When I was first starting out in the business, I would make some decisions that my dad would say aren't good decisions. And I'd say, "Pop," that's what I call my dad, I called him Pop, I said, "Pop, if this doesn't work out, I'll pay for it." And I thought I always thought he'd say, "Oh Thom, that's okay. No, I don't think..." But you know what he always said? He said, "Okay." Then I gulped. And he did. He let me and he made me, because I said I would. I learned a good lesson. Be slow to make a promise based on a commitment you're sure is true but how many of you have made statements you were sure were true and turned out not to be? Yeah. How many of you did that with your partner, your husband or wife? Never. All right. There's an honest man and his wife is laughing.

Well, they go on. "Fair enough," these boys make this strong commitment. "Fair enough," the man replies, "except that only the one who stole it will be a slave. The rest of you may go free." Now remember, picture the scene. They're probably off their donkeys, jumping up and down. This servant is there, dressed in his regalia. They come out making this commitment, and he says the one that stole it will die and the rest of us will be slaves. The servant says, "Not necessary. The rest of you can go free, only the one who took it."

And they go, "We'll show you," and they go and they start opening the bags. They quickly took their sacks from the backs of the donkeys, they can't wait to show him, and they opened them. Joseph's servant began searching the oldest brother's sack, going down the line to the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack. At this, they tore their clothing in despair, loaded their donkeys again, and returned to the city. Joseph was still home when Judah and his brothers arrived, and they fell to the ground before him.

Now, the brothers went back. What could they have done instead of going back? What were their choices? They could have let Benjamin go back by himself. This was the test right here. This is where the rubber would meet the road. Joseph is in his house waiting because he knows they're either going to be 11 coming back or one. What if Benjamin would have gone back by himself? What do you think would have happened? Now, we don't know. Can I tell you what I think? I think there would have been ten brothers sold into slavery in the Babylon. That's what I think. I can imagine that Joseph would have taken the ten brothers and said, "You said you'd be slaves. Okay, you're slaves. Just like you sold me off into Egypt, I'm going to sell you off into the Babylon." You can say, "Well, I don't think he was that hard-hearted." Maybe not. As I've read this this time through, I think Joseph did a lot of processing of his own heart through this whole all these events. I don't think he had a fixed plan as he went along.

When you look at his outbursts of emotion, it implies to me, it indicates to me, that he's kind of working this out as he goes. And maybe he would have set them free, I don't know. But it certainly was a test. They all go back. Judah is now becomes a spokesman. Verse 15, "What were you trying to do?" Joseph demanded. "Didn't you know that a man such as I would know who stole it?" As I picture this, I was trying to think, "Do you think he yelled this or was this just a soft tone?"

Have you ever noticed state policemen don't yell? I wouldn't know this, someone told me this. But if you ever get pulled over by a state policeman, do they yell? No. What do they do? They come up, lean on the car and say, "Now sir, you were going a little fast." And why can they do that? Huh? Why can they do that? It's because of this thing they got on right here and this thing they got on right here. They don't need to yell, right? Oh no. Joseph had about 12 guys in that room with four-foot-long swords. He didn't have to yell. He didn't have to yell. So I picture him saying, "What were you trying to do? Didn't you know a man such as I would know who stole it?"

Judah said, "Oh my lord, what can we say to you? How can we plead? How can we prove our innocence? God is punishing us for our sins." Isn't that fascinating? More than 20 years later, probably about 22 years later, they're still living with the guilt and seeing this consequence as a consequence of their selling their brother. And again, most of you know this, but again, they don't know that this is Joseph. They still don't know it's their brother Joseph. "God is punishing for our sins, my lord. We have all returned to be your slaves, we and our brother who had your cup in his sack."

Remember now, these men, except for Benjamin who's in his 20s, these men are all between 40 and 60 years old. If you picture these brothers being in their 20s, wrong picture. They're 40 to 60. They have wives, children, probably grandchildren. Jacob and his sons are very wealthy. So when these men say we're going to put ourselves as slaves, these are men of import, they're men with possessions, they're men who have status back at home. They're saying we'll be slaves.

"No," Joseph said, verse 17, "only the man who stole the cup will be my slave. The rest of you may go home to your father." Joseph presses this test one more time. Will they leave Benjamin or will they stay? Then Judah speaks for his brothers. Verse 18, then Judah stepped forward and said. Now remember, Jesus is of the lineage of who? Judah. That's right. So it's interesting, I don't want to press this too far, but I've thought about this. Wouldn't it be interesting if we go back and look at the lineage of Christ and just look at what little DNA strip God was looking for out of every one of those descendants to put in his son Jesus? The human side of that. Because Judah certainly had a piece of the DNA that he would have wanted in his son.

Then Judah stepped forward and said, "My lord, let me say this one word to you. Be patient with me for a moment, for I know that you could have me killed in an instant as though you were Pharaoh himself. You asked us, my lord, if we had a father or a brother. We said yes, we have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, his youngest son. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him very much." Again, all the brothers are standing there.

"And you said to us, 'Bring him here so that I can see him.' But we said to you, 'My lord, the boy cannot leave his father or his father would die.' But you told us, 'You may not see me again unless your youngest brother is with you.' So we returned to our father and told him what you said. And when he said, 'Go back again and buy us a little food,' we replied, 'We can't,' talking to their father, 'we can't unless our youngest brother goes with us. We won't be allowed to see the man in charge of the grain unless our youngest brother is with us.' Then my father said to us, 'You know that my wife had two sons, and that one of them went away and never returned, doubtless torn to pieces by some wild animal.'"

Interesting he uses the word "doubtless" here. Isn't that interesting? He could have said, "He went away and never returned, torn to pieces by some wild animal." But he adds a little word in there that would almost imply, "I'm not sure he was torn to pieces by wild animals. I don't know." "I have never seen him since. If you take away his brother from me too, and any harm comes to him, you would bring my gray head down to the grave in deep sorrow. And now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our father's life is bound up in this boy's life. When he sees that the boy's not with us, our father will die. We will be responsible for bringing his gray head down to the grave in sorrow. My lord, I made a pledge to my father that I would care for this boy. I told him if I don't bring him back to you, I will bear the blame forever. Please, my lord."

See what a photograph of Jesus that is? You know that's exactly the position that Jesus has in every one of us. Jesus' statement is, "How can I return to my father if you are not with me? I cannot bear to see what this would do to him." God's desire is that every one of us would be with him one day in heaven. That's his desire. And Jesus, when he gave his life on the cross, it was exactly for that point. "I cannot bear to see what it would do to my father, one of these, his children, not being with him."

F.B. Meyer, a commentator, said this: "In all of literature, there is nothing more pathetic than this appeal." Pathetic meaning an impassioned plea. Leupold, a commentary, said, "This is one of the manliest, most straightforward speeches ever delivered by man." Barnhouse called it the most moving address in the Word of God. This address made by Judah. Judah offers his life in exchange for Benjamin's.

Guest (Male): Moving account from scripture. Pastor Thom Keller concludes with picturing Jesus' great love for his father and us too. And this is Study the Word. Pastor Thom Keller is leading us through Genesis at the present time. You can hear this message again as well as what you may have missed in the series online at CCLEB.com. You can also call and request a CD copy at 717-507-7862. That's 717-507-7862.

Perhaps you've been listening a while and have grown as a result of this radio ministry. You can voice your support through a financial gift to Study the Word and help many others across the nation study the Word as well. Our ministry mailing address is Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 17046. And we'd love to have you visit us at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. See when and where we meet as you visit CCLEB.com. And download our free church app. Search Calvary Chapel Lebanon in the Google Play Store. Calvary Chapel Lebanon is pleased to present Study the Word with Pastor Thom Keller on this station and many others like it. Come back next time when we'll resume our series in Genesis.