Genesis 44:34 For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father
Not long ago I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family. We celebrated at my dad and mom-in-law’s house. What I am reminded of when there is a gathering of family is just how complicated and interconnected life is. It is a complex, intricate world. For instance, I have always thought of myself as the son-in-law. I am a son-in-law, but as I looked around the table, I realized there are the spouses of my children and now I am the father-in-law. How did that happen?
Then you think about which family is celebrating. Is it the Rice family? Yes, it is the Rice family, but it is three or four other families, and if you go back generationally, it is a lot of families compressed into that one table of celebration. Life is complicated. Family relationships are a little complicated as to how they connect. Then, if you talk about how well you are doing with all those relationships, that becomes even more complicated. People problems are the most complicated of all. At some point, if you have any self-awareness at all, you come to realize that life is too complex for you to untangle yourself.
When you read the story of Joseph in Genesis 44, you are reminded of the unbelievable and complicated plot of his story. Every time I read it, I see new connections, ironies, twists, references to five chapters back. This is too complicated to be fiction. You’ve read a well laid out novel, but this is down to the micron. The point is that life is very complicated, but with God everything is connected.
You can simplify your life by doing the right thing right now. Maybe you think, “I have so many problems. I have so many people. There is so much of a tangle going on. Life is so complicated.” That is true. However, you simplify our own life by doing the right thing right now. That is what Judah a brother of Joseph did and everything untangled when he did.
Joseph had been sold into slavery and eventually became second-in-command of all Egypt. He had been given wisdom by God that spared Egypt and those who came to Egypt for sustenance during an epic famine. Joseph’s brothers came to him not realizing it was him. They thought he was just a high-ranking Egyptian official. Joseph confronted them with a couple things to see where they were with their dad. They had a lot of complications.
There were at least three issues. First, Joseph’s brothers hated him. They hated him because their dad played favorites. Who could blame them? Jacob was not a good dad and did destructive things. So, Joseph’s brother understandably hated Joseph, but their problem was really with their dad.
They had guilt. You have this revolving sense of conscience as the brothers come to Egypt a couple of times, and the plot gets more and more complicated. The bottom line is that they know they are guilty. They start to state it, “We are guilty. The bad things that are happening to us are happening because of what we did to Joseph many years ago.” They had guilt.
They also had fear. More than anyone they feared “the man,” the second-in-command of all Egypt. The brothers were framed. Joseph caused them to appear guilty of things they had not done. My point is there were many issues here and they were all connected. Life is complicated for us, but with God everything is connected.
There were two people who were the main cornerstones of the problem. One was simply called “the man.” Who are they talking about? This is someone they didn’t know with a weird-sounding Egyptian name for who was in control of the known world’s food supply. They feared him. The second person was Joseph, who was actually the same person.
So, there are many problems and two people. Ironically, Jacob feared the son he mourned. Sometimes two problems equal one answer. In other words, the man they feared was the son they mourned, and when they realized that both were the same, everything untangled. Their problems were connected and their people were connected. What was left was one decision. The brothers could not possibly know where to start doing the right thing unless one just said, “This is the issue right in front of me, I don’t understand much, but I know the right thing to do here and I’m going to do it.
In Genesis 44:32, Judah says to Joseph, although he did not yet know it was Joseph, “For thy servant became surety for the lad [Benjamin] unto my father [Jacob], saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then shall I bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.” He is saying, “I told my dad that we have to bring Benjamin or we won’t get food from Egypt. Now you say Benjamin is guilty and you are going to keep him. Keep me instead of Benjamin. If you keep Benjamin, it will kill my father and I can’t do that.”
What happened? This was not the same attitude as when the brothers sold Joseph. What happened was a change of heart. There were many relationships, people, and elements. Judah couldn’t possibly know all those. What he did know was that he was going to do right, maybe for the first time in his life, with a dad who had not done right by him. When that happened, Joseph couldn’t refrain himself any longer and revealed himself to his brothers. He said, “I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?” In a moment everything changed. I’m not trying to promise that God will solve all your problems if you will just do the right thing with what is in front of you, but that is all you can do. When you do that, you unleash a God who knows everything and can do everything on behalf of someone like you who knows nothing and can’t do anything except for choose to do the right thing.
When they did right by their dad, the Egyptian became a brother and the famine became providential. When Joseph revealed himself, he said, “You sold me, but God sent me before you to preserve life.” Joseph’s brothers didn’t sell him, God sent him. Both are true, but God was overruling. Verse 7 says, “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity…So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord to all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, and tarry not.”
It is interesting that when Jacob heard this, he didn’t believe his sons. Oddly enough, he had believed them when they lied and implied that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast. A plausible lie was easier to believe than the crazy truth. The crazy truth today is that every element of your life, your people and problems, are all connected. You can’t see or know that, but God can. Doing what is right is an act of faith, saying, “God, I have all these problems and people with so many interconnections. I don’t know how to untangle all this, but I know what is right to do today with what is in front of me.” If I will do that, God will do what I cannot. He knows what I do not and has power to do what I cannot. Life is too complex for you, but it is not for God. When these brothers did the right thing by their dad, the Egyptian became a brother and the famine became providential, God’s providing for them.
Whatever your lot in life is, ask God to give you wisdom and clarity to know what you should do, and then do it in God’s grace. You simplify your life by doing the right thing right now.