Genesis 44 :: Handling Our Guilt

Testing testing.

The Joy of Singing With the Church Family and the Garrett Kell Story

One thing that I look forward to so much every Lord's Day is being able to sing with my church family. Amen, I Want to begin this morning by Sharing with y 'all a story by the name of a man named Garrett Kell.

He shares a story and says. When I was 20 years old, I loved my life. It was carefree and full of good times. School parties sports and girlfriends filled my mind most of my days until one day that changed my life forever.

A Girlfriend and I discovered we were pregnant. We hadn't planned to get pregnant, but we were when she broke the news to me. I was a little nervous, but reassured her we'd figure out a way to make it.

My empty assurance was followed by a question that would push me to a place that I had never been before. With fearful eyes, she looked at me and asked are you going to be with me? Are you going to marry me?

I was young. I had hopes and dreams and plans. I had my whole life in front of me. I wasn't ready to be married and to raise a child. But I'm not sure I would have thought about it exactly like that in those days.

I didn't know how to think about serious realities. I only operated in the moment. I She knew that but my words confirmed it so a friend Gave us the $400 we needed to have the procedure as they call it.

I Was there when she took the pill. I was there when we aborted our baby. I was there when we cried. Even though we didn't know why and some days I'm still there. So I just want to I want to pause there and I just want to talk about how in this fallen broken world We all carry this weight of guilt on our conscience because we've all sinned.

Right, we we all have sinned and we all have a guilty conscience. So we all try to deal with that guilt in different ways all of what we've done in the past lingers in our mind. And so this morning I want us to talk about how God's Word instructs us how to handle our guilt.

And so this this brings us to Joseph's brothers. This is the very thing that they are dealing with. Back in Genesis 42 we read about their guilty consciences being awakened. They said to one another in truth We are guilty concerning our brother and 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. So with that being said, please turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter.

44.

Joseph Tests His Brothers a Second Time

Many of y 'all have been with this through this sermon series. But I want to briefly recap show y 'all what the context is when we dive into chapter 44 together. Now a lot of us know the story of Joseph back in Genesis 37.

The brothers became very angry and they were filled with jealousy and hatred over their brother Joseph.

Right.

Remember their father Jacob showed Joseph favor by giving him a coat of many colors and that angered his brothers. In fact, they were so angry. What did they do? They sold him into slavery. A Lot has happened since Genesis chapter 37.

We've talked about how God sovereignly and Providentially has been working in the life of Joseph and we understand that he had a purpose in bringing Joseph into the land of Egypt. And so all through Joseph's ups and his downs.

We know that God was with him. And so at this point in the narrative Joseph is a ruler in Egypt. In fact, he's second-in-command right under Pharaoh himself. And so now there's a severe famine that has struck the land.

But because of Joseph's wisdom Egypt has many much food. They have many Resources right they are thriving and everywhere else has to come to Egypt in order to buy food. And so Joseph's brothers they had to travel from the land of Canaan to Egypt, right?

They were wanting to buy grain. And so when they met Joseph, they didn't recognize him, right? It's been 20 years. They had sold their youngest brother into slavery and they probably thought he was dead by now.

Right and Joseph being 20 years older. He looks like an Egyptian. They had no idea who they were talking to. But Joseph he knew exactly who he was talking to he remembered his brothers. He remembered everything that they had done.

And do you remember they claimed to be honest men? Just wanting to buy some grain. I Can't imagine what was going through Joseph's mind. He's probably thinking y 'all are honest men. Yeah, right. And so what he did was he began to put them through a series of tests.

He wanted to see if these were the same brothers that sold him into slavery and so at the end of chapter 43 Joseph tested his brothers by seating them at the dinner table starting with the eldest all the way down to the youngest.

And verse 34 tells us that Joseph gave Benjamin a portion of food. That was five times greater than any of theirs. Y 'all see that this is a test. He wanted to show the youngest brother favor to see how the other brothers would react.

Are they gonna react the same way like they did? 20 years ago and become mad and become full of hatred and envy and jealousy. The last part of Genesis 43 34 says. And they drank and they were merry with him so this shows a Totally different change of behavior.

This is evidence of genuine repentance that has taken place in their lives. But Joseph wanted to be sure now, I think he loved his brothers, but he's going to put them through a series of tests. And so he wanted to test their attitudes to see if there was any any envy left any hatred or jealousy.

So he tests them a second time. And so this brings us to our text this morning. Please look with me at Genesis 44 starting in verse 1. Where we read then he Joseph commanded the steward of his house. Fill them in sacks with food as much as they can carry and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack and put my cup.

The silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain and he did as Joseph told him. Now I said, this is a second test, right and you see that he told his steward we're gonna put This cup and Benjamin's sack right and you can see how he's starting to you know.

Set up this next test verse 3 says as soon as the morning was light the men were sent away with their donkeys. They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to a steward up follow after the men and when you overtake them say to them Why have you were paid evil for good?

Is it not from this that my Lord drinks and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this. So Joseph is telling the steward hey go approach the brothers and accuse them of stealing the Lord's divination cup.

Now I want you to make a mental note about that word divination because we're really going to talk more about that later in verse 15. So verse 6 says when he the steward overtook them he spoke to them these words.

They said to him why does my Lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing. Behold the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks. We brought back to you from the land of Canaan.

How then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house? Think about the argument that they're making they said when we were going back to Canaan with all of our food. We found money in there that we were that we were gonna pay for it, right?

It looks like we stole it, but we brought it back to you. So how in the world could we steal from you? So it sounds like a pretty good argument that they're making. But then they make this really crazy bold claim.

Verse 9 says which of your servants is found with the cup shall die. And we also will be my Lord's servants. Wow, that's really bold. Think about what he's saying. He's like, okay. We're so confident that we don't have this cup that if you find it Then you can kill that guy and then we'll all be your slaves.

Now I can understand you having confidence that you didn't do something, but you might want to choose your words carefully, right? That's I mean, that's what we see going on here in the story. And so remember this is a setup, right?

This is kind of like a sting operation maybe in verse 10. The steward says let it be as you say. He who is found with this cup shall be my servant and the rest of you shall be innocent. So the stewards like hey just chill, right?

I know you said that we can kill one of y 'all but just just take it easy. The one the guilty party will punish him and then the rest of y 'all can go free, right? So verse 11 says then each man quickly lowered the his sack to the ground and each man opened his sack in searching so he searched beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest and The cup was found in Benjamin's sack and they they tore their clothes and every man Loaded his donkey and they returned to the city.

I want you to see how they reacted. They just found this this cup the special cup that belonged to this Egyptian official in Benjamin's sack. They tore their clothes, right? They were expressing major pain and sorrow and this should sound familiar because we read about earlier in Genesis when Reuben returned to the pit.

Joseph wasn't there. Reuben tore his clothes right because he was in anguish over the situation. When the brothers returned to their father Jacob, right. Jacob learned that oh, no, Joseph's not with them.

It looks like he's been shred to pieces by an animal. What did he do? He tore his clothes, too. Jacob tore his clothes and mourned for many days when he thought Joseph was dead. So the fact that the brothers Tore their clothes when they found the cup in Benjamin's sack.

This was giving evidence that the brothers have truly changed they had deep grief and it shows us just how much they cared for their brother Benjamin and their Promise for getting Benjamin back to their father Jacob.

Remember the brothers previously didn't care. They didn't give a rip about their father Jacob, right? They lied to the man. They didn't care about the anguish and sorrow that he would go to. These men these men have changed and so with that in essence here They have passed the second test.

God Uses Testing to Reveal and Strengthen Faith

And so I was thinking about Going through tests or going through trials and the Bible all over the place talks a lot about how God Tests Humanity and so I'm reminded of the words of our Lord that come from John chapter 6.

Jesus is about to miraculously feed over 5 ,000 people and this is what Jesus says to Philip. He says where are we to buy bread? So that these people may eat now the text goes on to say that Jesus said this to test Philip.

For he himself knew what he would do and so scripture tells us that as Christians We are going to go through tough times. In fact, this is testing that comes from God and the Christian is able to count it as joy.

When we are a child of God going through a really difficult time We can know that this is going this is meant to teach us something. God is testing our faith to make us stronger to make our hearts rest and the only Savior Jesus Christ, can you see how important testing is in our life?

We may not want it immediately. But we can remind ourselves with God's Word that you know what I can count it as joy because God is working in my life. First Peter 4 12 says beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you.

To test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice. Rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. We will the Bible promises promises us as Christians.

We will experience times of suffering. Right when we go through times of suffering we can closer identify with our Savior because he first suffered right these times of suffering will bring us closer in relation to relationship with Jesus and I'm confident of this that if you were in Christ Then the testing that is in your life.

It is from our Heavenly Father who works all things Together for good and for those that are called according to his purpose. This is what the Bible teaches us when we're going through the fiery trial.

We have to renew our mind with God's Word with his promises. And so that's what we're seeing here in Genesis 44. We see that Joseph's brothers are being tested by the providential hand of God. It's interesting because God is using Joseph as the means to test the brothers.

And I think it's a little bit ironic because we can identify with Joseph when he goes through the ups and downs of life. Right when we read the story of Joseph we identify with him. But it's ironic that we identify with the brothers here.

Right because we have all made awful decisions in our life based on past Sins and they linger around in our minds right they weigh heavy on our conscience. But look how God has worked in the brothers lives.

He's changed their hearts, right? They now love the youngest favored brother, right? They previously hated Joseph. They sold him into slavery. God for the past 20 years has been working on their hearts.

They now love their youngest brother and I think as Christians We should pray that God would continually work in our hearts in this way, right? So we can love others in a greater capacity. We know that God first loved us, right?

And it's because of that love that we've experienced that we can turn around and love our brother or even those who have wronged us. We can love even our enemies so now we're gonna see how Judah begins to interact with Joseph and he gives an Amazing speech showing just how far he is willing to intercede for the youngest brother Benjamin.

Look with me in verse 14. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground and Joseph said to them. What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination and Judah said what shall we say to my lord?

What shall we speak or how can we clear ourselves? Don't miss this. God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's servants both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.

But Joseph said far be it from me that I should do so only the man whose hand the cup was found Shall be my servant, but as for you go up in peace to your father so now the story is starting to focus in on this dialogue between Joseph and Judah and let me just say that Judah is a changed man.

This isn't the same Judah that sold Joseph into slavery. It's the same Judah. But if we're honest, this is a changed man. We're gonna see him talking from a changed heart here in a moment, but look with me back at verse 14.

We read that the brothers they fell before Joseph to the ground. Now if you're familiar if you've been with us through this series from the very beginning We know that God gave Joseph dreams, right? Joseph knew that one day his brothers would fall down to the ground.

That's why Joseph proclaimed in Genesis 40 do not interpretations belong to God. We understand that God gave Joseph dreams. God gave the interpretation of those dreams and we see that the God of Scripture will always keep his word.

God's Word cannot be broken. We see a fulfillment of that there. We can never just skim over these facts because when God tells us that you can have your sins forgiven By trusting alone in the Savior then that's going to happen, right?

This is the God of truth. His word cannot be broken and so we see God's Word being fulfilled right here. So many years ago He said that the that his family would bow down to him and we see that being fulfilled time over and time over in this.

Story.

Divination, Guilt, and the Conscience

So verse 15 Joseph said to them. What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination? So I want to key in on this word for a second divination. This word simply means to foresee like the future.

Okay. Divination is the practice of trying to uncover knowledge by supernatural means and this has been a practice from ancient times. People have tried to use divination to gain knowledge about the future as a way to make a profit to make money.

And the Old and New Testament strongly condemns this type of witchcraft or sorcery which is called divination because divination tries to interact with the spirit world. So Jeremiah chapter 14 verse 14 says this.

The Lord said to me the prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them nor did I command them to speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision worthless divination and the deceit of their own minds.

So compared to God's truth Divination is false. It is a deceitful and it is worthless. And so I want this to be a warning for the Christians listening to this message. We are not called to practice anything related to divination things like fortune-telling astrology.

Witchcraft.

Using tarot cards Ouija boards or trying to communicate to the dead. The spirit world is real and people think that they can get a medium and try to talk to maybe a dead relative. Guys, I don't know if y 'all have looked into this you may be talking and interacting with the spirit, but it's not a relative.

It's not a deceased family member or anything like that. You're not talking to an holy angel. You're not talking to the Holy Spirit. You are talking to evil demonic spirits when you do this thing as Christians we must seek wisdom that comes from above from God's Word.

We must seek out wise counsel from other Christians that have saturated their lives and learning the Bible and are committed to living it out and obedience. So what does Joseph mean when he says do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?

So the context we understand that Joseph is testing his brothers. And so his brothers would have understood that a man in this particular position of authority. That he would allegedly be able to use a divination cup.

Okay, it's interesting because a divination cup the silver cup. It would have been massive right and then you could have held its its handle like this. And it would have had a massive platform base and this is called a goblet.

Now what's what's crazy is that these men that practice divination. They could hold this goblet cup and they could take some oils and they could kind of sprinkle it in this cup. And they could watch it swirl around and they would look for a sign or a message.

Right. Once again, this would be interacting with the demonic spirit world. And so they know that this second command position was very powerful. Right think about the fear that would have been in their hearts talking to this man.

He's like you have my divination cup, right? They would have been scared this man maybe in the brothers minds. He can not only see the future but maybe he knows what we did from the past. Okay, so they understood that this man practiced this type of sorcery.

But I don't think that Joseph actually practiced divination. He had no reason to Joseph understood that revelation and interpretations belonged to God and him alone. God had enabled Joseph earlier to have prophetic dreams, right and God gave him the interpretation of those dreams.

Joseph knew that the Lord was with him. So Joseph had no need for props, right? God was with him. And so lastly here notice how Joseph Carefully words his sentence. Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination?

Joseph simply was wanting to strike fear into his brother's hearts by planting evidence that would link them to a serious crime right. Joseph was testing them and His testing was beginning to work because listen again to what Judah said he was expressed expressing his guilty conscience.

Verse 16 Judah said what shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. And so we've been using that that word guilt a lot here this morning.

A lot of us are probably familiar guilt simply refers to the punishment for sin or for iniquity. So like if you take something that's not yours, you are guilty of stealing you are guilty of breaking the law and so Judah feels the weight of his sin that he and his brothers committed towards Joseph and They know in their hearts that it's ultimately against God.

That's why he said God has found out the guilt of your servants. And so we learn a very crucial principle here. We learn how sin produces a guilty conscience. And we know that this this happened all the way back in the Garden of Eden right with Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve the moment when they broke God's law from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were guilty and this is another thing. They felt guilty, right? Remember Adam and Eve they heard the Lord walking in the cool of the day and they hid themselves from his presence.

Why were they hiding? It's God, right? They were hiding because they felt guilty. They felt wrong. They now had this new knowledge about good and the evil because Satan had told them you will be like God.

They felt guilty. Ever since that moment when Adam and Eve sinned guilt plagued all of humanity because we have all inherited Adam's sin nature now, this is crucial because the Bible goes on to tell us that we are made in the image of God.

Okay, but we are also Born in Adam's sin nature as well. And so when I say that we are made in the image of God, we have a pre-programmed knowledge about morality. This is called our conscience. Our conscience or the word conscience literally means with knowledge.

So when we are born we are born with this knowledge about major aspects of what's right. And what's wrong that reflects God's law so we are made in his image. We have a God-given conscience, but the thing is we are bent towards doing the wrong thing.

But here's the thing. We know when we do something wrong. We know it. We feel guilty as a result of it. So I want to take a moment to look at Romans chapter 2 verses 14 and 15. Where we read for when Gentiles for when Gentiles do not have the law God's written word.

By nature they do what the law requires. They are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the written law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Now listen carefully to this while their conscience also bears witness their conflicting thoughts accuse or even Excuse them excuse their behavior.

So when we sin our God-given conscience kicks in and produces a guilt when we do something that we know is wrong. This is our conscience. Accusing us of our behavior and the idea is we don't need to suppress it when we start to feel guilty.

We need to analyze what's going on. We need to realize that this is our conscience kicking in we must allow a guilty conscience to drive us to God the God that we know exists and Plead with him to be merciful and to look to his son Jesus the only means by which we can be forgiven.

But notice how some people react right our conscience will accuse us. But some people's conscience excuse their behavior. Why? This comes from a person who repeatedly ignores and suppresses their God-given conscience and eventually they become desensitized to its warnings.

These people have suppressed the truth to such a degree that the Bible says they have seared their conscience with a hot iron and That's why so many people skewed consciences. Excuse their behavior behavior and they no longer feel guilty.

This is why feeling guilty and feelings aren't always the best indicator, right? Because the Bible says we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. We all have guilt whether you feel like it or not.

But the Bible tells us the answer why we feel guilty. Many of us feel guilty. It's because we do sin and we know it. It's so important that we recognize our guilt before God. We must allow that guilt to break our spirit to cause us heartache and you may say Jim I don't want to feel like that.

I don't like the the idea of feeling bad. I want to feel happy, right?

We.

Need to recognize that guilt. Because when you feel that that godly sorrow in your life that guilty recognition of sin that will produce Repentance in your life that will this is God working and changing you and molding you.

2nd Corinthians 7 10 tells us this for the sorrow that is according to the will of God Produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation but the sorrow of the world produces death. A Guilty conscience of sin before God leads a a brokenness over us over our sin.

It causes us to begin to hate our sin and this is so crucial. This is the work of the Holy Spirit Convicting our heart of sin and of righteousness and of the judgment to come. This is the Holy Spirit working in a person's life showing them their need for a Savior.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit giving repentance and faith in the life of the elect and It's because we are always dependent on the grace of God. Amen. However, many Unbelievers try and deal with their guilt without humbly approaching God in his mercy.

In fact, they're not really sorry before God at all there they have a sorrow of the world that is nothing more than wounded pride of getting caught and This kind of sorrow leads only to guilt to shame despair depression self-pity and hopelessness and People have died from this kind of worldly sorrow and many of us know this morning that if you die in this state You will experience a eternal death.

So I'm wanting us to see these two categories that we're working with here. We have a godly sorrow that produces true genuine repentance and then you have a worldly sorrow that produces death. And so going back to our text this morning in Genesis 44 we're going to see how Judah begins to speak from a changed heart that Displays a newfound love for his father and a newfound love for his youngest favored brother.

Judah’s Plea for Benjamin and the Shape of True Repentance

I Want you to see just how far he's willing to intercede on behalf of his brother Benjamin. I want you to listen to the emotion in these words. I want you to sense the pleading. Because I think this is one of the most powerful words of intercession in all of Scripture.

Look with me at verse 18. When Judah went up to him he said oh My lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears and let not your anger burn against your servant for you. Are like Pharaoh himself?

My lord asked his servant saying have you a father or a brother. And we said to my lord We have a father an old man and a young brother the child of his old age. His brother is dead and he alone is left of his mother's children and his father loves him.

Then you said to your servants bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him. We said to my lord the boy cannot leave his father for if he should leave his father his father would die. Then you said to your servants unless your youngest brother comes down with you.

You shall not see my face again. When we went back to your servant my father. We told him the words of my lord and when our father said go again buy us a little food. We said we cannot go down if our youngest brother goes with us.

Then we can go down for we cannot see the man's face unless your youngest brother is with us. Then your servant my father said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me and I said surely he has been torn to pieces.

And I have never seen him since if you take this one also from me and harm happens to him. You will bring down my gray hairs and evil to shield now. Therefore as soon as I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us then as His life is bound up in the boy's life as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us He will die and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with shield or with sorrow to shield.

Don't miss this part. Judah's saying for your servant Himself became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father saying if I do not bring him back to you. Then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.

Now therefore Please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.

Wow.

Amazing. This is not the same Judah that sold Joseph previously. This is a changed man. Judah was the one that came up with the idea to sell Joseph into slavery and make a profit. But think about 20 years has taken place and he has guilt that guilt was weighing on his conscience for so long God was using that and Now he steps forward on Benjamin's behalf and like I've been saying this is a changed man.

So since this is a changed man, I think we can learn a lot of lessons from this passionate speech. I want to look at just a few lessons that we can highlight and take away from what Judah said number one.

There is a time to be silent and then there's a time to speak to step up and take leadership and to be bold. Look at verse 18. Judah went up to Joseph and said oh my lord. Please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's ears and let not your anger burn against your servant.

And listen to this wisdom. He said for you are like Pharaoh himself. Judah was giving honor and respect to somebody that has authority over him. And I think we can we can learn from that. He was even appealing to the fact that he is like Pharaoh himself as Christians.

We are called to use discernment. We are called to respect those in authority above us. The book of Proverbs gives us so many practical things to be able to implement into our lives. We read the heart of the righteous.

Studies or ponders how to give an answer and a soft answer turns away wrath. But a harsh word stirs up anger and so I don't know who this is directly speaking to this morning. But maybe there's somebody in your life that you need to step up and give a word of encouragement to.

Maybe there's somebody in your life a brother or sister that is in sin and you need to step up and you need to lovingly Rebuke them and instruct them in the way of God's Word and tell them to turn from that sin.

That takes a step of boldness, right? I Do know this for certain that as Christians we are called to boldly step up and proclaim God's gospel of grace to a sinful and dark world. Number two we learn what it means to deny yourself.

What is amazing to me after reading this passage is we we see a changed man in Judah. He now is willing to sacrifice his own life. Remember Judah had no regard previously for his father and for his youngest brother and now his only concern is for His father and his youngest brother.

Judah had the idea to sell Joseph and to make a profit and here he is ready to give up his own marriage his home privileges and freedom. Also, Benjamin could be set free. We even know this from last week pastor Stephen mentioned the fact that Judah said to his father Let the blame fall on me this this change of heart began much much before This event was taking place.

Judah was willing to sell the favored son into slavery now He is willing to become a slave for the favored son Benjamin. And I think this willingness to deny yourself is truly a mark of spiritual maturity.

And this is also a fundamental part of the gospel message. Jesus said if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Denying yourself not only begins with receiving salvation.

But it continues in our sanctification by presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. We are called to daily die to self pick up our cross and be obedient and following after Jesus.

So number three we see a wonderful picture of the Savior. Now verse 20 tells us that Judah thinks that Joseph is dead and Judah knows that he is the one worthy of death. But Judah does not know that Joseph is standing there in front of him alive and he doesn't realize that Joseph is his only Savior in this situation, right?

And this is no doubt a picture of Jesus Christ and the work that he does. Guys we all approach God with this major guilt weighing on our conscience. It's because we have sinned so much. That's why we're even willing to listen to the gospel message but so many people have a Misunderstanding of who Jesus is and who God is.

They think God is just lurking around every corner wanting to cause harm on us. This sounds like Judah. He thought that Joseph wanted to cause him harm. He didn't even realize it was Joseph, right? But Joseph loved him, right?

Joseph was his Savior and this the the parallel is so striking because Jesus is alive. He is the only Savior and he loves us. We must humbly see our guilt acknowledge our sin and upon that basis we can turn to Jesus in saving faith.