Old Sins Brought to Light Genesis 42, Part I

by the Allied forces fled from Germany knowing what would happen to them if they lost the war.

What would happen is that they would face punishment for the crimes they committed against the

Jews during World War II, the event known as the Holocaust. Many of these went into hiding and moved to different locations all over the world.

They lived ordinary lives in order to hide what they did in the past.

In recent years, some 70 years after these crimes have been committed, many of these men have been found out.

Their sins of the past have finally been exposed. Once it was discovered that these men worked at these

Nazi concentration camps in Europe, in most cases, they've been brought to trial back to Germany.

In each case, there was strong evidence that they worked at the camp and they even admitted to this, but it cannot be determined whether or not they were the ones who actually carried out the execution of the

Jewish people. But these men who have been brought to trial are in their 90s. So even if they were convicted of a crime, they may die before the appeals process is finished.

So therefore, they won't serve any time. But even though they would not serve time in prison while on earth, the

Lord knows what they did. No crime or sin will ever go unpunished.

Every wrong will be righted. There is a future judgment and the

Lord will repay. Now one might argue that those complicit in the crimes against the

Jewish people during World War II lived as free people their whole life and they never got what was coming to them.

What we learn from Scripture and what we know from experience is the guilt that one carries with him or her when past and present sins are not dealt with.

In other words, you don't bring them before the Lord in repentance. And so you carry this weight with you.

So what truly is happening is you're not free. That, in one sense, is a punishment in and of itself.

Now this morning, in our sermon series, we are going to see something similar to this play out.

As we are continuing our sermon series through Genesis, we're in chapter 42. And we're going to see

Joseph's brothers have their sin of the past. Their egregious sin of the past be brought to the surface.

And what we're going to see is that they're going to be reminded of what they did. They're going to be reminded of something that has been carried with them.

This guilt that has been carried with them to that day. So I encourage you to turn with me to Genesis 42.

If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 42 and 43.

Now the whole chapter is one sermon. And this chapter, as you can see, is big.

It's 38 verses. So you might be thinking, we're going to be here all day. And it's Father's Day, right?

It's not a Vikings game. We don't go there. Or a Packers game. But we're not going to spend an enormous amount of time on this.

So what I'm going to do is we have a two -point sermon. We're going to do one point today, one point next week.

And the reason I do that is not because we have something better to get to. I want to be clear. We could be here all day.

And it would be worth the time. Because that's how important this is. However, it's hard to swallow an elephant.

You can't swallow an elephant. It is too much. So we want to take a little bite here so we can comprehend what is taking place here.

So this sermon today is titled, Old Sins Brought to Light. Old Sins Brought to Light.

And our big idea, our proposition, is to continue to cover an egregious sin is never worth it.

To continue to cover an egregious sin is never worth it. We're going to see two reasons why. The first reason, this

Sunday, the first reason is your conscience will never stop haunting you.

Your conscience will never stop haunting you. And we'll see this in verses one through 22.

But before we jump into our text, for those of you who weren't here last Sunday, or if you want your memory to be jogged, let me give you a little recap of last week's sermon.

We looked at the end of Genesis 41 where Pharaoh responded to Joseph after he interpreted

Pharaoh's dreams. Two Sundays ago, Joseph told Pharaoh the two dreams he experienced had one meaning.

The interpretation was that there would be seven years of plenty where things would be great and they would have all this food, and then the bottom would fall out.

And there would be seven years of famine where they wouldn't be able to find food.

And as we saw, Pharaoh was amazed at Joseph's ability and believed that these dreams were true based off of the cut bearer's testimony.

The cut bearer, who along with the chief baker, had their dreams interpreted by Pharaoh.

He was blown away because the very dream that Joseph interpreted of his came to pass.

He was restored to his position as Pharaoh told him would happen.

So he knew that Joseph wasn't bluffing. He could vouch for him before the

Pharaoh. So in the dream two weeks ago, we saw that Joseph not only told

Pharaoh the meaning of his dreams, but he also told him that it would be in his best interest to appoint a wise man to oversee the crisis of famine that would come upon Egypt.

So as Pharaoh looked over his own people, he knew that no one was qualified because none of his people could interpret the dreams he had.

Remember the magicians and the wise men? They couldn't do anything to help him.

And that's where this young Hebrew named Joseph came in.

Pharaoh knew he was special. And this pagan ruler even pointed out what was special about Joseph.

Pharaoh said in chapter 41 verses 38 and 39, can we find a man like this in whom is the spirit of God?

Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.

So Pharaoh would appoint no one in Egypt in this important role because none of them could fill this position, but rather Joseph, the 30 -year -old

Hebrew man could. And we know why. It's because God was with him.

God gave him the ability to interpret these dreams and God was going to give him the ability to rule

Egypt as the number two man during this time of famine that was going to come upon the land.

And as we saw last week, this would have been tempting for Joseph to be overwhelmed with this enormous weight that came upon him.

I used the illustration last week of when Harry Truman became president of the United States. FDR died and all of a sudden he's thrust into this position as president and they're still fighting the war and this enormous responsibility comes upon him and he tells the reporters, he says, would you pray for me?

I feel like the weight of the world has just fallen upon me. And Joseph would have felt that as well, but he knew that the

Lord was with him. And so he knew that he could do it. And the application was clear for us.

We have weighty responsibilities in our lives. Some of you are parents. Some of you have spouses.

Some of you run your own business. Some of you have other church responsibilities and you feel like the weight of this is just, is above me.

It's above my pay grade. And yet, because the Lord is with you, because he's helping you, you can do it.

As that old quote says, the quote that Barbara and I shared, he doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.

And that's so true in our lives. He'll sustain us through it all. We also saw the

Egyptians cry for help during the famine. And the Lord graciously gave Joseph to sustain them.

He told them what was coming and prepared them for what was coming. And it's incredible to see the

Lord provide for people who weren't even his. These were pagan Egyptians. These weren't, this wasn't the offspring of Abraham.

These were the Egyptians that he was helping. And the point I made last week is, if the Lord even helps unbelievers with their physical needs, with his famine, how much more does he help us as believers with our physical and more importantly, our spiritual needs?

The Lord provides for us in such a way where there is no lack. He sufficiently provides for us everything we need.

And we are able to come into a relationship with God through Christ because Christ's death and resurrection is fully sufficient to pay the penalty for our sins.

That's why we can't do anything to earn our salvation because what he did at the cross is fully sufficient to pay for us.

We bring nothing to the table. All we have to do is sincerely believe. Then as we walk through the life of faith, everything he gives us to help us, all the grace he gives us to help us is always fully sufficient to help us.

And what we saw as we now jump into our text today, what we saw at the end of the text last week is that the famine was not only going to be in Egypt, it was also going to be over the whole world.

Egypt was ready for the famine because the Lord gave them Joseph, but the rest of the places in the world were not ready for what was to come.

And this includes the land of Canaan. And this gives us the background of our text today.

The land of Canaan was not ready for the famine. And so we are gonna see how those ready in Egypt are gonna cross paths with those in Canaan.

So we're gonna see Joseph cross paths with his brothers, the same ones who threw him into the pit and sold him into slavery.

So let's begin by reading verses one through five. When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, why do you look at one another?

And he said, behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.

So 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, but Jacob did not send

Benjamin, Joseph's brother with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.

Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

So the famine was just as bad in the land of Canaan as it was in Egypt. And verse one tells us that Jacob heard the news that grain was for sale in Egypt.

And he essentially tells them, if we don't do something about this, we're gonna die here. We need to do something.

The news spread, there's food supply in Egypt, so we need to send you there.

But Jacob does not want to send all of his sons. We see here, it's noted that Benjamin, he wants to keep back.

And of course, as we read this, we have to ask the question, what is so important about Benjamin? And why in the world does he wanna keep

Benjamin back and he's okay sending off his other sons? This is where we have to understand where we are in Genesis and where we came from.

If you can remember, Jacob had two wives, Rachel and Leah. Which wife was his favorite?

You remember? Rachel was his favorite wife. And he had two sons through Rachel.

The first was Joseph. And of course, Jacob thinks that Joseph is dead because his brothers told him that he died, that a fierce animal came upon him.

And so when he brought the coat, when they brought the coat to him, it was shredded up and he said, this is what happened to our brother

Joseph. So now he thinks, okay, I only have one son from Rachel and that is

Benjamin. And the last time I sent out Joseph with my other 10 sons, look what happened to him.

So if I send Benjamin out there, I'm worried that he won't return home as well, just like Joseph did not come back home.

So we can see why he feels this way. Now, we've seen the

Lord weave the details of Joseph's life together from the beginning. And now we see that again.

We see the providence of God everywhere in the narrative on Joseph. The Lord sends

Joseph to Egypt to be a savior, not only for Egypt, but for the surrounding areas as well.

The Lord would not keep Joseph away from his family forever, but he made a way for Joseph to cross paths with his family again.

And he would first meet his brothers. Now this famine in Canaan forces them to cross paths with Joseph and his wicked brothers.

And what we're gonna see from this is that both of them, both parties, Joseph and his family back in Canaan are gonna be blessed because of this reunion.

And the Lord is weaving this together. And we'll see that in the big picture in future weeks.

Now let's see what takes place during their first meeting. So his brothers come from Canaan and here they're gonna meet, verses six through 11.

Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land.

And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.

Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them.

"'Where do you come from?' he said. "'They said, from the land of Canaan to buy food.'

And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.

And he said to them, "'You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land.'

They said to him, "'No, my Lord. Your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man.

We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.'"

Let's stop right there. What we read here is that Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.

And you may wonder, you think you would recognize your sibling. Now, it's been 20 years since they had seen each other.

I don't know, maybe Joseph had facial hair. We don't know. But remember, when he was sold into slavery,

Joseph was 17 years old, and he's probably about 37 years old here. His brothers were older than him.

And you know how it is. You usually are better able to recognize someone when you just know them as an adult than when someone's just a kid and then becomes an adult.

And so that might be what is taking place here. Now, even though Joseph recognized them, he decided to conceal his identity.

He saw this as an opportunity to test them. Verse seven says that he spoke rough with them.

And as Joseph was speaking, verse nine says that Joseph remembered the dream that he had 20 years earlier.

So this memory comes back to him. In chapter 37, verses five through 11,

Joseph had two dreams that his brothers would bow down before him in the future. Remember those dreams?

And as you might imagine, his brothers didn't take too well to these dreams that they were gonna bow to him in the future.

But here we are, 20 years later, and what are his brothers doing? They're bowing down before him.

And we've seen this throughout Genesis. The Lord predicts something that's going to come to pass, and then it comes to pass precisely how he said it would.

And Joseph takes this opportunity to accuse his brothers of something he knows that they did not do.

That is, he accuses them of being spies. He knows they're not spies. And of course, he has a design behind this.

He accuses them of being foreign spies who are there with ulterior motives to investigate the weak points of the defense system in Egypt.

That's what's meant by the phrase, the nakedness of the land. He says, you're looking at the chinks in the armor of this land, so that wherever you're from in Canaan, you're gonna gather your troops together, you're gonna come down here, you're gonna invade us, and you're gonna pillage our land.

This is what Joseph is accusing them of. Now, we know that Joseph's brothers had been great liars in the past as they lied to their father

Jacob about what they did to Joseph, and they're holding onto this lie to this day as they stand before him.

But here, they're not lying. They're telling the truth. So even liars can tell the truth sometimes.

So why does Joseph do this? He's doing this to test them. This is a theme in this chapter and beyond, and I'll explain what is meant by that in a little bit.

Now, Joseph knows there's no spies. They're not spies, of course, but he pretends not to believe them.

Let's see how Joseph responds in verses 12 through 17. He said to them, no, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.

And they said, we, your servants, are 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan.

And behold, the youngest is this day with our father and one is no more. But Joseph said to them, it is as I said to you, you are spies.

By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

Send one of you and let him bring your brother while you remain confined that your words may be tested whether there is truth in you.

Or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And he put them all together in custody for three days.

Let's stop right there. So Joseph accuses them of lying and sticks with his original story that they are spies.

In verse 15, he gives them a test to see whether they are telling the truth.

The test is to bring their youngest brother to him. In chapter 43, verse seven, and we'll see this in a couple of weeks, we learn some background about this conversation that he's having with them right here.

In that verse, when these brothers returned to their father, what they told him about this conversation right here is the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred.

This maybe should have been a red flag for them. Okay, something's going on here. Usually the most powerful people in countries don't ask you specific questions about your family, but that's what's happening right here.

And this is how Joseph knew that his younger brother, Benjamin, was back in the land of Canaan.

Joseph wants to see his younger brother. We have to remember that Benjamin is the only brother who's not guilty in sending him to Egypt.

He is the innocent party in this. And so as we might imagine,

Joseph has affection toward this brother. And the first proposal that Joseph makes to his brothers in verse 16 is that one brother would go and bring

Benjamin to Egypt, while the others would stay under confinement. Then verse 17 tells us that he put them in custody for three days to show his authority over them.

So three days pass, and what we are going to see is Joseph changes his proposal.

He lightens his proposal a little bit here, but he still plans to test them.

So let's look at verses 18 through 20. On the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you will live for I fear

God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households.

And bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die. And they did so.

So Joseph changes the proposal from holding nine brothers and sending one to holding one brother and sending all nine back to their father's house in Canaan.

We're about to see why Joseph is testing them. Certainly Joseph has ulterior motives in this test.

He wanted to learn about his father and about how his brother Benjamin were doing back home, but he also desired more to take place here.

And this is what I want you to see. Very important here. This is what I want you to see in this text. He desires to produce a spiritual transformation in his brothers.

And we'll see this in verses 21 and 22. But before we get to that, it's important to look at the meaning of the word test in this passage that he uses in verses 15 and 16.

The meaning of the Hebrew root for test that we saw in those verses has the meaning of removing impurities from someone.

So if you're refined by fire, scripture talks about that. You're tested by going through something.

And the result is, the result of the test is, is that it brings change. It brings moral change to someone.

So in other words, Joseph not only wants to send them back to Canaan to confirm that their words concerning his father and his brother are true, but he also wants to prick their conscience.

And we know this to be the case because of what the next two verses say. So let's look at these two verses. This is very important.

Then they said to one another, In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen.

That is why this distress has come upon us. And Reuben answered them, did

I not tell you not to sin against the boy, but you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.

So what we read in these verses is their past guilt is coming upon them.

They reason that since we treated our brother so poorly by throwing him in the pit and by faking his death and by selling him into slavery, this is why this has come upon us.

In other words, this accusation that this powerful person who they have no idea is the very one they committed these crimes against, this accusation that they're spies, they're thinking this is coming upon us.

This is judgment upon us because of what we did to our brother in the past.

And Joseph is trying to test them here. He sees this as an opportunity, an opportunity he never thought he would get, but it comes before him and he sees this as an opportunity to prick their conscience, to bring about repentance in his brothers.

And this is brought to the surface. This guilt is brought to the surface as he tests them.

As we look at our lives, we too can think of past sins that we have committed.

I know standing here that every one of you is a sinner. I don't have to do a test to figure out, okay, are you a sinner?

I know you're a sinner because you're a human. And Romans 3 .23 says, "'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.'"

If you go down to the Synchron Library, I've shared this before, but I'll say it again. It says on the wall there that, oh boy,

I'm blanking here. We have something all in common. Humanity has, we have each other in common.

And that's not the exact quote, but my point is that, well, that's true. Our humanity is what we have in common.

But so much more than that, we're all sinners. We all have that in common too. And if you wrote that in a public place, how do you think that would go over?

Probably not very well, but it's true. What we all have in common is we are sinners in need of a

Savior. Now, when we look at the sins committed by Joseph's brothers here, admittedly what they did is really at another level.

Probably none of us have sold our siblings into slavery, even though you may have felt like doing it at one time or another growing up.

However, we have sinned in many ways in the past and all sins are bad because they're all against the

Holy God. And when you commit a sin in the past, your conscience will haunt you unless, and this is the important word here, unless you bring it to the

Lord in repentance. And that's the beauty of this. When you come to the

Lord in repentance, the sins of your past or the sins of your present will not haunt you anymore.

You will be free. When I was in college, my business professor gave us online quizzes and he told us specifically that we could not use the book.

And during the early part of my college years, I was willing to take shortcuts to help myself.

And so I used the book when the professor told us not to and I was dishonest about this in order to get a better grade.

And I don't take joy in sharing this with you. And I'm telling you, young children, you're in high school, middle school, college, don't do what

I did. It was not long after that that I started to seek the Lord in my life and I was convicted of certain sins, this being one of them.

And I knew I needed to change. And by God's grace, I felt sorrow for this and I turned from this and this was behind me,

I felt free. And what I learned is that when you take shortcuts in order to help yourself, you don't really help yourself at all.

Not only do you sin against God, which is the worst part of it, but you also carry guilt with you.

And that's no way to live. All of us know what it's like to carry, to a certain extent, to carry guilt with us.

To bring this sin before the Lord and the ones you have done even in the past or present, it frees you.

To come to Him in repentance, it frees you. Now years later, I got the opportunity to send an email to this professor and confess my sin to him.

And the neat part of the story is that he responded to me. He was very gracious and he forgave me.

And what I can tell you from experience, and you know this from experience too, is that a clear conscience is worth a million dollars.

And I can speak to that in my own life. And this is an encouragement for our lives not to do the wrong thing and regret it later on, but to do the right thing the first time so that we don't have to carry the guilt with us.

And we know that inevitably we will sin. We won't be perfect until either

Christ returns or we meet Him at our death and enter His presence. However, we should aim to sin less in the future.

And when we do sin, to be those who are quick to repentance. Because what we see with Joseph's brothers here is they did everything wrong.

Not only did they do this horrible act against their brother, but they carried this guilt with them for 20 years.

And finally, it's being brought to a head and they're having to deal with it. And it wasn't of their own initiative.

Someone else had to bring it up to them. May it not be for us. So, this is the first reason why that to continue to cover an egregious sin is never worth it.

The first reason why is your conscience will never stop haunting you. And you don't wanna carry that with you.

So, that's the first reason that we're gonna stop here today. Now, next

Sunday, we're gonna see the second point. And I'll just give you the heading right now.

And you can see it in your bulletin. Next Sunday, the second reason why to cover an egregious sin is never worth it is that God will deal with your sin either now or later.

So, this gives you a little preview of what we're gonna see in the last 16 verses of our chapter.

So, with that, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father in Heaven, I thank

You that You are a gracious God. And Lord, I'm a pastor, and yet,

I view myself as the chief of sinners. I've done things with dishonesty that some people in this room probably have never even gone to that level.

And I feel the weight of my sin, and yet, Lord, I know that my sins were nailed to the cross.

And I don't have to pay the punishment for that. And what a wonderful reality that is.

Thank You for Jesus Christ. And I know, Lord, that others can share a similar story as mine. And they may have things in their life that they've never brought before You.

And they need to do that today. Some may be here who don't have a relationship with You, and so therefore, they carry all of their guilt with them.

What a burden to carry. And I pray, Lord, that they would unload that guilt today and trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, for their salvation, so that they would be freed from the bondage to sin and the death that it leads to, and be brought to freedom and to life,

I pray. And for any believers, Lord, for all the believers in this room, that we would be people,

Lord, who would be quick to repent when we do sin. And that, indeed, Lord, we would sin less so that we wouldn't have to repent as much.

And that we would be those, Lord, who would not want to carry guilt with us, but that we would always be eager to pursue the path of righteousness.