Genesis 43 One Dream Down One to Go

Recast Church of Mattawan — Genesis 43: One Dream Down, One to Go

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service. This message is by lead pastor Don Filseck and is a part of the series Beginning with God, Walking Through the Book of Genesis.

If you would like to contact us, please visit us on the web at recastchurch .com. Here's Pastor Don.

You'll find on the back a place to put prayer requests, suggestions, comments, all of that kind of stuff on there, and you can turn those in in the black box that's on the table below the clock back there.

And so if you're, and if it's your first time with us and you fill out one of those connection cards, then please take a free coffee mug off the table back there. Just our way of saying thanks. We know that sometimes coming to a new place for the first time can be a little intimidating, and so we just want to make sure that you feel welcome and know that we're glad that you've gathered together with us this morning.

And then for those of you that call this your church, most of you already know that there is an offering envelope that was provided for you. All offerings go in the black box back there. If you would choose to give, we don't pass an offering plate here.

We really ultimately desire for your offering to be between you and God and not something that you feel that pressure as the plate goes past you. And so if you choose to give, you can use that envelope and put it in back there.

But then if you don't use that envelope, it does help us. I know that usually what happens at the end of the service is that those just end up getting thrown away or they end up on the floor of your car or whatever.

And so if you're not going to use that envelope, there's a place to recycle that over there, and then we can just reuse that again next week. Every single one of those has to have the sticker put on the face of it and all that stuff.

So it's helpful to our office staff if you just are willing to recycle that. And then lastly, remember that any offerings that are given that mention the expansion fund, either in the memo line of the check or on the actual envelope, goes towards our eventual desire to no longer be in the elementary school here meeting in this situation, but to build on the property that we purchased over on East McGillan.

So anything marked expansion fund goes into a specific account that is being escrowed and held off to the side for the purpose of eventually building. And so that is available for you as well. So that's all the announcements this morning.

The Long Road to Genesis 43 and the Faithfulness of God

But we are going to just dive into an introduction to Genesis chapter 43, our text, and we are just walking through the text of the book of Genesis. We're going to be wrapping that up here in a few weeks.

As you can kind of tell, there's 50 chapters. We're on chapter 43, and we've been just marching through this. It's taken us a couple of years with a couple of other series in the middle just to kind of break it up.

But we're gonna, we can kind of see the finish line, and we're making a mad dash for there. But as we walk through the pages of the book of Genesis together, you've probably identified some common themes.

Those of you that call this your church, and you've been here consistently, and you've been seeing this, you've been seeing the theme, a really prominent theme of the plan of God, a God who keeps his promises, the faithfulness of God, all of those types of things.

And now the closer we get to the end of the book, the more we focus in on the life of Joseph. And the more we focus in on the life of Joseph, the more we see things slow down. So there are entire chapters of the book of Genesis that cover like a hundred years, okay?

Now we're slowing down to the life of Joseph, and it's like a chapter can cover a morning. A chapter can cover a couple of weeks. And so the chapter that we're in now is gonna cover just a, just a short time.

But remember that the author of this book was a man born in Egypt. So as we get near the end of the text, we're starting to see the purpose and the function of this book in the time, in the area, era in which it was written.

The entire book was written in that ancient context by a man that was born in Egypt, a man named Moses. Most of you are familiar with his name, and it was written in that ancient context to show the history of God that led his people to Egypt, so that Moses was born in Egypt and is called out to lead them away from Egypt.

And so if you can understand that where we read Genesis and we go, oh, it's got creation. Oh, it's got the fall. Oh, it's got all of this history about Abraham and his descendants. But think about being a person that lived in Moses's era reading this.

What would you have been getting from it? What would you have been gathering from it? We are a called-out people. We are holy to the Lord and called out to be a nation that is set aside for his purposes, and he has a purpose to bless all the nations through us.

And that's the main theme that we're seeing in the book. And so we're looking at circumstances that are the culminating point of the book to the original readers when we're talking about Egypt here. And the author has been clear in communicating that it was God who led his people to Egypt.

God, the one who is faithful. God, the one who is sovereign. God, the one who is almighty. And he has been carving out of the sinful lump of humanity a people for his own name. A people that will reflect his glory.

A people that will reflect his grace. A people that will reflect his justice. A people that will reflect his patience. And ultimately, a people that were intended to reflect his love. And Joseph proves to be a very significant tool that God uses to preserve his people in the midst of a famine.

A dark time. A dark time in human history where there is famine and there is death. And I think sometimes we read and we gloss over. Like, you can see all of the little pictures of Noah's Ark, right? And all the little crib things and the nursery things and all that stuff.

But you never see dead people in those. Right? Like in the nursery when you're decorating for your kids. But the fact of the matter is, there is gruesomeness in some of these things where you actually see famine.

And famine, what do you have in your mind when you realize what the earth is going through during the era, during the seven years of devastation and famine? Is it just like, all we follow along is that Egypt has some grain.

But what's going on around the world at the time of the era? What is necessary for God to preserve his people? They need to get to Egypt. Egypt is the place where there is grain. And so this is a significant time and God is using Joseph as a tool to preserve his people.

One night in Joseph's childhood, he had two dreams. Fell asleep, woke up and remembered his dreams. In the first, all of his brothers bowed before him. The image was actually, they were harvesting grain and they bundled it all up and their bundles bowed to his bundles.

So he had this dream where his brothers bowed to him. The second dream, not only did his brothers bow to him, but his parents bowed before him too. But before any of that came to pass, his brothers were having none of that.

How many of you, if you're sibling, how many of you have siblings? Just raise your hand if you have some siblings. How many of you, if your sibling said, you're gonna bow before me someday? You'd be like, and like, and like headlock or something.

I mean, especially you older brothers, like you're having none of that, right? It's like you're gonna teach him where he belongs. And that's what they did to Joseph. That's exactly how they responded.

They put him in a headlock, threw him in a pit and ended up selling him to slavery. Yeah, you think we're gonna bow before you? Yeah, right. We'll teach you a thing or two, young man. And so they sold him off into slavery.

He was falsely accused as a slave. He was imprisoned unjustly. He had a very rough 13 years, a balance in those 13 years. We don't know what the mix was, but part of those 13 years he was a slave, part of those 13 years he was in prison.

It doesn't really matter that much. How many of you kind of look at that lot in life and go slavery or imprisonment? I don't know which, you know, I mean, it doesn't really matter what the makeup is, 13 years of that.

And then one morning, they came and knocked on his jail cell, said, get up and shave and shower. It's time to go. You're going to Pharaoh. He interprets Pharaoh's dreams. And in one morning before lunchtime, he goes from the pit of prison to second-in-command over the most powerful nation on the planet.

Pretty, pretty big rags-to-riches story in the story of Joseph. And part of that dream that he interpreted was that there were gonna be seven years of plenty and they needed to store up grain in Egypt during that seven years of plenty because there were seven years of devastating famine in which the years of plenty were gonna be completely forgotten.

The good times were gonna be no more and people wouldn't even remember that because things would be so devastating during this famine. And as that famine hit the land, ten of Joseph's brothers came before him, hearing, catching wind that there was grain for sale.

They came and they bowed last week, we saw, in his presence. What we saw last week was merely a partial fulfillment of that first dream of Joseph. Only ten of his brothers came and bowed before him. But as we dive into the text this week, that first dream is gonna be taken care of by God.

It's going to be completely fulfilled. All eleven of his brothers will come into his presence, will bow with their face to the ground, not knowing that they are bowing to their brother. So let's open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 43.

You can follow along in your Bible. If you didn't bring a Bible with you, you can use a Bible app, obviously, or if you don't have a paper copy, you could just go ahead and raise your hand. And there's some copies available for you.

If you just raise your hand so you have one, there's a couple guys in the back looking for that. And if you don't own a copy of the Bible, you can take one of those paper back Bibles with you. We want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God.

Particularly, to be able to follow along, is I'm gonna read a pretty lengthy section of Scripture here, Genesis chapter 43. The very words of God to us this morning recast. Now the famine was severe in the land, and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go again, buy us a little food.

But Judas said to him, the man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if you will not send him, we will not go down.

For the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. Israel said, why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? They replied, the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, is your father still alive?

Do you have another brother? What we told him was an answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down? And Judas said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you, and also our little ones.

I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.

Then their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.

Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise. Go again to the man. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin.

As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

When Joseph saw Benjamin was Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, bring the men into the house and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon. The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph's house, and the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house.

And they said, it is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys. So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, oh my lord, we came down the first time to buy food.

And when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight, so we have brought it with us again. And we have brought other money down with us to buy food.

We do not know who put the money in our sacks. He replied, peace to you. Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money. Then he brought Simeon out to them.

And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water and they washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.

When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed to the ground, or bowed down to him to the ground. And he inquired about their welfare and said, is your father well?

The old man of whom you spoke, is he still alive? They said, your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive. And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me?

God be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother. And he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out.

And controlling himself, he said, serve the food. They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs.

And they drank and were merry with him. Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, we come to this place gathered together, and this place is no is no different than the car ride on the way here, our own homes, and there's nothing mystical or magical about this place, that you are more present here than you are in other places along with us.

That when we go for a morning exercise, or when we're on our way to work, or when we're throughout our day, Monday through Friday, you are present there with us as you are present here. But Father, there is something awesome and glorious about gathering together with your people.

There's something awesome and glorious about us recognizing that we are not alone. We are not islands. We are not called to this life of isolation, but you have called us into community with one another.

And Father, I pray that that would be reality, that we would be a community gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, with the power of your spirit present here with us. Father, if you do not convict, what hope is there for us?

If you do not counsel us, what hope is there for us? If you do not give us encouragement, what hope is there for us? And so Father, I pray that you would be present here with us in the power of your spirit through the singing of songs and through the the discussion of your text.

Father, that you would be present to convict. You would be present to correct. And Father, you would be present to encourage us in our hearts today in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thanks a lot to the band for leading us in worship.

That's appropriate. That's okay. Glory to God in that. I encourage you to get comfortable as we dive into this text that we've already read together, Genesis chapter 43. It's good for you to have your Bibles open.

I assume that you probably kind of lost your place a little bit there. So if you can open your Bibles back up and just follow along as we go through this text. We usually go kind of verse by verse and thought by thought as we walk through and hear from God's Word what he has for us this morning.

The Famine, Jacob's Dilemma, and Judah's Pledge

Just to set the stage just a little bit, I know I did in my introduction, but a little bit of the immediate context. Remember that God had revealed to Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, that a massive famine was on the way.

And the famine would be worldwide. It would be global in its scope. And just as promised, we find out in verse 1 that the famine was severe throughout the land. The verse is pretty clear about that. And particularly the land of Canaan where Jacob and his sons live.

And remember that ten of Jacob's sons had taken off for Egypt last week to buy grain. Only nine of them returned. Okay. So how many of you, if all of your kids left on a journey and all of them but one returned, you'd go good percentage there.

Great. We got 90 back. Awesome. Okay, probably not so much. Like that would be a tragedy for all of us, right? So that would be that would be difficult. But nine returned. One was kept back in prison by Joseph.

Now it's important to understand at this point in the game. They don't know that it's Joseph that has held Simeon in prison. They don't know who they interact with. They think it's just some guy in Egypt.

But only nine of them returned. And at the end of last week, we saw that Jacob basically counted Simeon as a loss. And they demonstrated absolutely no intention of going back for Simeon. As a matter of fact, at that time Reuben, the oldest brother, said, when are we gonna get back there?

When are we gonna go back and take care of this? And they demonstrate no intention of returning for him. He says you can't you can't take Benjamin, the youngest, and that's the that's the main thing that the man in Egypt said you need to come back with your youngest brother to prove that you are who you say you are.

And Jacob did not give them permission to take Benjamin back to retrieve Simeon. But now in our text, they come to the end of their grain. Now they come to the end of the food supply. Okay, remember that they had gone there to buy grain.

They came back with with loads and loads of grain, but it's all expended. We don't know how much time has transpired. Remember that whatever, however long this is, the text doesn't tell us. Where is Simeon?

In prison in Egypt. Okay, he's back there living a life of confinement while they're out here eating this grain. But now the nature of a famine, just to understand, because we don't relate to famine very often.

We're like, okay, they ran out of my favorite cereal in the grocery aisle. We can just go to another store and buy it, right? Or we could get on amazon .com and buy it for goodness sake. So what is a famine?

Like what does that really mean? I think it's important for us to understand that the nature of a famine is that it becomes progressively more severe unless the climate shifts dramatically in the midst.

Once a famine cycle begins, it gets worse and worse. Think about it this way. There are two types of grain. There is grain that is used for seed and there is grain that is used for food. And there comes a tipping point when the grain that is used for food is out outpacing the grain that is being used to sow as seed and you begin getting less and less grain for food.

Are you getting what I'm saying in this? And so you end up sowing seeds, planting them. There's no water. There's no rain. The rivers are drying up. Everything's going bad or the crop is destroyed. And now you've not just, not only has that not produced, but you've wasted that seed that you could have made bread out of.

Are you getting what I'm saying in that? And so it becomes a cycle that ends up coming to a tipping point where it is tragic and it is very hard to out, to get out from underneath that cycle. And that happens throughout the world today, by the way.

In agriculture, in agrarian cultures where they are dependent on the ground, specifically, you're growing your own food. How many of you know that that could get pretty dicey if there's not much water?

And so that still happens, particularly in parts of Africa and around the world. Canaan, apparently, by this point in the text, is past that tipping point. There is no grain to be found anymore. It's been eaten or it's been wasted trying to sow it and it hasn't produced anything.

So Jacob calls his sons together and he politely asked them to run down to Egypt for a little something-something to eat. Okay, could you just head down and get me a little something? That's kind of what he says.

And there's a little bit of a humorous notion in this, in the midst of famine. He's like, could you just run down and get a little, just something, because we need some food here. But from verses 2 through 10, there's an extended discussion between Judah, one of his sons, and his father Jacob about going back to Egypt.

He wants to shake his dad into reality for a second. Hey, you're acting like nothing has happened. You're acting like you don't know the circumstances. But to this point in the story, remember, the family doesn't know that Joseph is alive.

They don't know that that's who they were interacting with. All they know is that there was this Egyptian man down in Egypt. He was the one who was responsible for selling grain. He interviews everybody who comes in, and he took them for spies.

He demanded that they prove that they were who they said they were by going back and getting their youngest brother, Benjamin. And obviously he didn't know, he acted like he didn't know his name. He played a game with them.

He toyed with them a little bit, and in the end, sent them away with their grain, with the money that they had already paid for the grain in the mouth of their sacks. They didn't know that it was there, and they sent them back on a mission to come back with their youngest brother to prove that they weren't spies, because they told him they had a younger brother.

Now, if you want to prove to me you're not spies, and that you're truthful men, come back with your younger brother. It's interesting that Judah is the one who negotiates with his father. This is significant in the broader scope of Scripture, and that we, those of you who have been around the church for a while, you probably have some notion that Jesus comes.

He is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He comes through the lineage, the promise of God comes through the lineage of Judah. Now, many of us probably, if you just have some fuzzy notions of Sunday school classes, and you maybe attended a church when you're a child, you might just kind of think, I thought it was Joseph, right?

Because how many of you know Joseph is a pretty prominent figure? He's probably the most prominent figure in, of the sons in the book of Genesis, and so it'd be natural logical, but that needs to be corrected.

It's actually Judah that's the one. So what's going on here? Why is he the one? He's not the, he's not the oldest, and so why is he the one that is negotiating with his father? Well, Reuben has fallen out of grace with his father, and that's been clear through the book of Genesis.

He's done some really bad things earlier in the text that we don't need to review, but he did some horrible things to his father, and so because of that, Reuben is not in his father's good graces. Levi and Simeon both actually slaughtered a whole village and defamed his father's name, and so they are out of their father's good graces, and not only that, but where is Simeon again?

He's locked up in Egypt, so he can't negotiate with his father for his own release. So that makes Judah the oldest child in the family, fourth born, who is in the good graces of his father. So I picture the brother sitting around saying, you talk to him.

No, you talk to him. No, you talk, and it falls to Judah. He's, well, he likes you at least a little bit. Why don't you talk with him? So that's the way I picture that kind of going down, but Judah is the one who is, has his father's favor still at this time.

At the end of the text last week, Jacob absolutely refused to allow his youngest and most favorite son to risk the trip to Egypt. We talked a lot about favoritism, and how there is an issue of favoritism in this family, and it, and it spread all throughout the family of God that there's this, this issue, and he's truly fearful that something bad is going to happen to the only son he has left from his favorite wife, favorite wife, Rachel.

Remember that she had two sons, Joseph, who he considers dead, he believes was torn up by wild animals, and then Benjamin, his youngest son, who his favorite wife died in childbirth, giving birth to, and so all he has in his mind is Benjamin, and he said as much at the end of the text last week, I don't even have any other sons.

It's just all about Benjamin. To his own kids, to, to the other nine sons that return, he's like, it's as if I have no other kids if you take Benjamin from me. That's the kind of favoritism, and the kind of ugly messes that happen in families, and some of you have been the recipients of some of that ugliness, some of you have been the givers of some of that ugliness, and you need to seek repentance, and you need to seek forgiveness, and you need to offer forgiveness, and all of those kinds of things, and that's really kind of for another message.

That's not the main point of this text, but in verse 6, we find the petty cry of a man who feels like he's caught between a rock and a hard place. You ever felt like you were caught in a no-win situation?

I know I have at times. I felt like I was kind of caught in the middle, and like, well, if I send Benjamin, maybe he's gonna die. If I, if I keep Benjamin here, maybe he's gonna die, because we're in the middle of famine.

We're not gonna have anything to eat. The only hope is that I send my sons to go to Egypt, but my goodness, it's likely that this guy was angry at them. Maybe he's gonna kill him. Maybe he's gonna keep him for slaves.

Maybe I will never see Benjamin again. Do you see, can you imagine in a father's heart, those of you that are men, those of you that are fathers, can you imagine, like, this decision that he has to make?

Send your only son away, where you think he might actually never come back. I mean, people are doing that all the time, right? Just in regard to war, and sending people away in the military, and things like that.

And yet, that's exactly, he's between a rock and a hard place. And so, what does a person say? What kind of petty cries come out of a heart that is caught between a rock and a hard place? He says, I love what Jacob says here.

He says, why did you even tell the man you had a younger brother? Why did you even say that you had a younger brother? You put me in this situation. He says that to his sons. To question past events, I would suggest he was not always helpful when trying to solve a current problem.

Have you ever done that? Why did they even do this? Why do they even do it this way? Why is there even this rule? Why is there a traffic light there? I'm late for my appointment. Why did they put a traffic light there?

Oh my goodness. There doesn't need to be a traffic light there. I should have the right-of-way anyways. There's a lot of first world problems that I think if we're honest, we kind of have this like petty notion.

Why did they only make the charging cord that long? Right? Why is it only that long? Why didn't they, why didn't they ship with one a couple feet longer? You can think of all kinds of petty things in life that lead us to this kind of questioning what's happened in the past to try to bring us some kind of feeling good about the present or something.

These questions, these why questions filter into the deeper problems of life, don't they? And Jacob models the human tendency to look past, look to the past and blame what happened rather than seek to solve the problem in the present.

We naturally cast blame. You can watch news footage of a catastrophe and someone is going to be blamed. It doesn't matter if it's a natural occurring event like a hurricane. Somebody's going to get the blame.

It's your fault for your warning system not working. Or it's a fault of someone in the nuclear power plant that it actually melted down or it's the problem. It's somebody's fault, right? It's always something that's, that we like to cast blame and in essence, Jacob is here in the text blaming his sons.

Why have you brought this trouble on me? But in verse 7, Judah gives us a new information we didn't have last week. So he answers his father. His father says, why did you even tell him that I have a younger son?

But Joseph had pressed them for more information and they were not as quick to volunteer as I suggested last week. He definitely asked them for further questions because later in the next chapter, it's going to come out again that he pressed them for answers.

He was curious. He wanted to know how things were back at home, even though he didn't let on that he was their brother, Joseph. He's asking questions about their father. He's asking questions about their, do you have any other brothers?

You know, what's the situation? And so in the situation in which they were in where they're being accused of being spies, how many of you know that you might want to just honestly answer the questions that are posed to you if you get pulled out a line on the way back into the United States?

You might just want to answer honestly the questions that are asked of you, right? And so that's what they did in this context. They just answered honestly. But Judah shows a, shows some growth here in this text and he stands in the gap for his family.

All of them will die if they do not get grain, if they do not get food. And so he pledges himself and all of his wealth towards the protection of his younger brother, Benjamin. This is a huge step for Judah.

We've seen Judah do some horrible things in the text, but he is taking it on himself and on his shoulders to stand in the gap for his family and work to save them. He is willing to, he says in the text, I'm willing to bear the blame forever if you trust Benjamin to me and I lose him and don't bring him back.

He's such a precious little guy. I'll take care of him. Unlike Reuben, Reuben, Reuben can be a bit of a doofus at times. Last week, he was willing to put up the life of two of his sons as a pledge to keep Benjamin safe.

Judah lays himself on the line. Do you hear the difference? One says, oh, you can take two of my sons if I don't bring Benjamin back alive. And the other says, you can take me. I'll be the one who's responsible.

Do you hear the difference there? And then, Judah, speaking to his father, makes a bit of a snarky comment, a little bit of a snarky retort. If we weren't standing around talking about this, we could have been to Egypt and back twice.

Come on, dad. Let's get busy. Let's get this going. Just give me Benjamin. We'll take care of this. And Jacob caves in to Judah's request. And sends them off with a present. Sends them off to take a present to this guy.

Obviously, you're not in his good graces. He doesn't like you very much. Take him a present. Take him honey, gum, myrrh, pistachios, and almonds. Now, some of you are thinking like me. Honey? Pistachios?

Almonds? Famine? Like, do they have anything to eat? Why are they going for grain if they need, if they have all this other stuff to eat? But it does say take a little, and I would suggest to you that it would take an unreasonable amount of pistachios and honey to sustain a family.

A whole lot of pistachios. A whole lot of honey. They have some, but it's not enough to sustain their family. They are not going to survive this famine on pistachios and honey. So he also sends them away with double the money to return the money that they should have paid for the grain from the previous trip.

And last of all in the text, reluctantly, Jacob gives them his most prized thing in the world. The thing he loves most he hands over to his sons. What is that thing? His son, Benjamin. He hands to them the one that he loves.

And he sends them off with a blessing in verse 14. We've never, we've never seen him send them off with a blessing before, but now his precious, dear, favorite son is with them. And now he's gonna bless them as they depart.