Thursday: Defeat Is Victory

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In yesterday’s study, we concluded with the idea that before forgiveness and cleansing can occur, Jesus must first reveal to us the depth of our sin and the reality of our impending judgment. When a person is exposed to this divine logic for the first time, it sounds wrong. It sounds as if a person who has undergone the experience of the brothers must now be broken psychologically and must be as useless to God and others as a brainwashed prisoner. But God’s ways are not our ways, and actually the opposite is the case. It was precisely at this point, when their own self-confidence and self-righteousness were broken—not a moment before—that Joseph’s brothers first became useful. 

Notice what happened. First, their relationship to God was transformed. Before this they had been running from Him while covering up their sin. When He had made His presence felt through the return of their money on their first trip to Egypt, they acknowledged that He was at work: “What is this that God has done to us?” (Gen. 42:28). But it was in the form of a question. They still had not openly confessed their sin. In this later story they recognize God’s hand again. Only now it is not “what has God done to us?” It is rather: “God has uncovered our sin. God has won the victory.” 

Second, there is a change in the brothers’ relationships to others. This is the central thing emphasized, and it is the purpose for which Joseph had constructed his entire strategy. Here the scene of the selling of Joseph into slavery was set up again. The brothers were in a position of relative control and power. Benjamin, the favored of his father, was in jeopardy. What would the brothers do in a situation in which Benjamin’s guilt seemed to be established by the discovery of the cup in his sack? The steward had said, “Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame” (v. 10). Would the brothers save their own worthless skins at their youngest brother’s expense? Would they step aside and see Benjamin go off into slavery, so long as they could go free? What kind of a story would they make up to explain to their aged father why his beloved son Benjamin had not come back to Canaan with them? Would they pretend that a wild animal had devoured him?