A Plot

A Plot, a Pledge, a Plea, and a Plan

Gen. 44

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book with so many twists and turns to the plot that you really never knew what was going to happen next? As you watch or read, just when you think you have it all figured out, another unexpected twist comes.

Then all of a sudden, it is revealed that everything that is happening will not only have an impact on the immediate future, but it is also all a part of a bigger plan that is set to take place in the distant future. This leaves you learning the end of the immediate story for the immediate future, but at the same time leaves you wondering and waiting to see the real, final end of the story.

I believe that the story of Joseph is such a story. If we had no idea what the outcome was to be, if we were only given a chapter a week, we would constantly be trying to guess what was going to happen next, just to find out that we were wrong. And this week it would be just to find out that the story is indeed all part of a bigger story that unfolded in the distant future, that is unfolding before our eyes today, and is still yet to have its final unfolding at an unknown time in the future.

This morning we come to Gen. 44 and more than anything else this chapter brings to a climax God’s Preparation to put God’s Plan into action.

Two weeks ago we examined just what a truly changed heart looks like. This week we will see just how God can and does use a man whose heart has been truly changed.

This morning by carefully examining Gen. 44 we will once again see Joseph as he is stretched and strengthened by God. We will see him stretched as he tests his brothers for a third and final time. We will see him strengthened by God as he watches his brother Judah give even more evidence of his truly changed heart.

But more than this we will see God’s sovereignty at its finest. As we go through the chapter we are going to see a plot, a pledge, a plea and a plan. And in the end we will see God’s sovereignty at work for both the immediate and distant future.

Finally we will ask ourselves, are we living in the true light of the sovereignty of God, or are we living in the false hope of the sufficiency of man?

If you have your Bibles turn with me to Gen. 44 and let’s begin by looking at a plot which is found in the first 18 verses.

Genesis 44:1-18
1 Then he commanded his house steward, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.
2 “Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph had told him.
3 As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.
4 They had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?
5 ‘Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.’ ”
6 So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.
7 They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.
8 “Behold, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?
9 “With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”
10 So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and the rest of you shall be innocent.”
11 Then they hurried, each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.
12 He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
13 Then they tore their clothes, and when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

This starts with an accusation, an accusation of stealing a silver cup that is used for divination.

To this point everything we have learned about Joseph should lead us to believe that he did NOT actually practice divination or magic. In fact he said this in order to help further maintain the secrecy of his identity in light of the test he was about to give to his brothers. The Hebrew word for what was found in Benjamin’s sac is the word for a drinking cup. If the brothers had simply stolen a cup used for drinking the charges would have carried very little weight. The brothers would have thought – what is so special about the cup? Saying it was a cup used for divination gave substance to the charge as magicians of the day believed that the vessels they used carried much of the power. In addition to this, had Joseph truly been practicing divination, a different word describing a bowl like vessel would have been used since it was a specific bowl like vessel that was used for hydomancy or water divination. Joseph wanted to be sure that there was no way for his brothers to know who he really was, thus the deception.

Joseph’s plot was to bring his brothers back for one last test in order to further reveal their hearts.

Their hearts were changed in regards to jealousy, but were they changed to the point of being willing to do whatever it took to save Benjamin, sparing Jacob further grief?

Had his brothers become less selfish and more sacrificing? Would they deprive their father of his new ‘favorite son’? Joseph wondered, “Will they would betray Benjamin the way they betrayed me?” If they had to choose between their father loosing them or Benjamin, who would they choose?

Following the accusation came the denial.

Note that the one who was found with the cup was to die and the rest were to become slaves. In other words they were all certain that none of the others had stolen the cup.

Following the denial came the search.

Joseph’s servant made it clear – No, whoever is found with the cup will be my slave, the rest of you will be innocent or go free.

It is interesting to note that the word ‘search’ here could literally be translated ‘plot’, thus indicating specific intention for the action that was about to take place. The implication would be that Joseph and his servant plotted to search the sacs from oldest to youngest.

I can’t help but feel that had Joseph been there when his brothers started tearing their clothes, he would have immediately told them who he was. Tearing clothes was one of the deepest expressions of grief of the day. The last time, as far as Joseph knows, of his brothers tearing off any clothes was when they tore his robe off of him in jealousy and anger not caring one bit about the loss of a brother. Now, in quite the contrast, they were tearing off their own clothes in deep sadness over the loss of a brother.

Joseph was then able to see his brothers’ sorrow in person. Let’s start reading in verse 14.

Gen. 44:14-17

14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell to the ground before him.
15 Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed practice divination?”
16 So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found.”
17 But he said, “Far be it from me to do this. The man in whose possession the cup has been found, he shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”

Judah makes a confession. Note that he seems to now be the leader. The text reads – Judah and his brothers. Remember he was the one who stepped forward last week and said to his father – I will see to it that Benjamin returns safely; if he does not, you can hold me completely responsible; and I will be guilty before you forever.

Here, once again, Judah steps forward and shows the willingness to accept both the responsibility and the consequences of sin.

And now, what Joseph has long been waiting for: Judah confesses the sin of selling Joseph as a slave. If you remember in 42:21 they confessed it to one another not realizing that Joseph understood them. Now Judah is confessing it publicly to God. He literally says: How can we be found innocent before God. He confesses the sin before Joseph to God and says we are all your slaves.

Despite this, Joseph reminds Judah that it is only Benjamin who must stay; the rest of you are free to go.

Keep in mind – this was Joseph’s plot, but it was really part of God’s plan.

Let’s continue by looking at a pledge in verses 18-32

Gen. 44:18-32

18 Then Judah approached him, and said, “Oh my lord, may your servant please speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are equal to Pharaoh.
19 “My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’
20 “We said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’
21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.’
22 “But we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
23 “You said to your servants, however, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’
24 “Thus it came about when we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.
25 “Our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’
26 “But we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons;
28 and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn in pieces,” and I have not seen him since.
29 ‘If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’
30 “Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life,
31 when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow.
32 “For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.’

Judah’s pledge begins with a passionate speech recapping to Joseph everything that has happened thus far.

His pledge continues with a faithful promise that Joseph is hearing for the first time. Judah says that he is the surety for Benjamin’s safe return. Surety is a word that can also be translated security or guarantee or pledge. It carries the idea of one person giving something of personal value in an agreement to ensure that an agreed future event in fact happens.

Judah made the proposal in 43:9 and was literally saying to Jacob – If I do not bring Benjamin back to you, I will have sinned before you all of my days. He is now informing Joseph of this fact. What Joseph hears is him saying – I realize the huge mistake I made in that I was the one responsible for you being sold into slavery, however, this time, it will be the opposite. This time I myself am the guarantee for Benjamin’s safe return.

Judah pledge is quite simple – No harm must come to Benjamin. If any harm is to come to him, I will do everything I can to prevent it. I myself am the guarantee, or the pledge, for his safe return.

Keep in mind, this was Judah’s pledge, but it was all part of God’s plan.

Judah bears out his pledge with a plea. Let’s look at it in the last two verses.

Gen. 44:33-34

33 “Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.
34 “For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me—for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?”

Again, it is simple. Judah says let me take Benjamin’s place. I will be a sacrifice for him. Let me become your slave and let Benjamin return to my father. Let me do so, not just for Benjamin, but for my father as well.

Joseph is now seeing just how God can use a heart that is truly changed.

In short, Judah’s plea is let me suffer the consequences for Benjamin’s sin.

This was Judah’s plea, but it was all part of God’s plan.

And in order to understand how God’s sovereignty was at work for both the immediate and distant future, we must first look at God’s plan.

Let’s conclude by looking at God’s plan.

Because we have the account in its entirety, we can read ahead and learn that God’s plan for the immediate future was for Joseph to express his forgiveness to his brothers thus bringing Jacob and his family to Egypt, preserving them from the famine. There in Egypt, God was to make them into a nation, specifically the nation of Israel, and God was to make Judah’s tribe the prominent tribe.

God’s plan for the distant future was much bigger. What I want us to do now is to look into the distant future and see the plot, the pledge, and the plea of God’s bigger plan, His plan for the distant future.

First let’s remember that from the beginning we established that –

1. A careful examination of the life of Joseph can only lead one to conclude that God is indeed sovereign and faithful.

2. This is because the account of Joseph, in reality, is an account about God.

3. Through Joseph we can learn many life lessons, however, make no mistake, Joseph is simply a supporting character, a supporting character that God stretches and strengthens, in order to reveal His sovereignty and his faithfulness, all the while giving Joseph opportunities to grow in godliness.

While we have indeed seen Joseph grow in godliness, we have seen God’s sovereignty and faithfulness even more.

God used a little jealousy to go a long way to teach Joseph how to persevere in the pit. God used Joseph’s perseverance in the pit to reward him with godly character. God used the godly character to show compassion to Joseph’s family. God used the compassion to change Joseph’s brothers’ hearts. God is using the changed hearts to put His plan into action.

Is His plan simply to give us, in Joseph, a model of godliness to follow?

I would say a thousand times no. Yes we can learn and apply many things from the life of Joseph pertaining to godly living, and we should, but if it is simply godly living, then we miss the real point.

What is the real point?

Chapter 44 brings to a climax God’s Preparation for God to begin to put His bigger plan into action.

What is God’s Bigger Plan?

Let’s allow the Word of God to speak for itself.

In regards to a plot, or a search –

Luke 2:29-35 – Simeon’s words when dedicating Jesus as a baby in the temple –

29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 A Light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
33 And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.
34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—
35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

God’s bigger plan has a plot (a search) – to search the hearts of mankind in order to reveal the sinfulness of man.

In regards to a pledge –

Micah 5:2 tells us that the Lord had to come from the tribe of Judah.

Heb. 7:14, 22 –

14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah.

22 Jesus has become the guarantee, or pledge, of a better covenant

1 Cor. 15:3 – 3 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures

God’s bigger plan has a pledge – Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, is going to die in our place. He is going to suffer the consequences for our sin.

In regards to a plea –

Luke 22:41-42 –

41 He knelt down and began to pray,
42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

God’s bigger plan has a plea – Jesus said – as it is necessary; let Me go to the cross.

What is God’s bigger plan?

It is to usher in the First Coming of Christ.

Joseph’s plot – to reveal the hearts of his brothers; God’s plot – to reveal the hearts of mankind.

Judah’s pledge – I will be Benjamin’s pledge; I will suffer in his place; God’s pledge – Jesus will be mankind’s pledge; Jesus will suffer in mankind’s place.

Judah’s plea – Let me remain in my brother’s place; God’s plea (in the person of Christ) – Let Me die in man’s place.

God is using all of the events in Joseph’s life to bring about God’s redemptive work through Christ.

God’s sovereignty, viewed from God’s plot, God’s pledge and God’s plea reveals God’s plan of salvation for mankind in the person of Jesus Christ.

This is God’s sovereignty at its finest.

God’s sovereignty is His divine explanation of history.

More than anything else, what I have seen in this study is that God’s sovereignty is His divine explanation of history.

It is His divine explanation of all the events of the world.

It is His divine explanation of all the events of my life.

The entirety of the Old Testament points mankind to Christ, to His death and resurrection.

The entirety of the New Testament points to this, as well as to His Second Coming.

We as Believers must focus on the eternal, the divine.

We will miss the divine if we are always looking for a human outcome, for our comfort, for our good.

We must take our eyes off of our comfort, our good and focus on God and His glory.

When we focus on God and His glory; we live in the true light of God’s sovereignty.

In the true light of God’s sovereignty, we should see ourselves as those who God is using to usher in the Second Coming of Christ.

His Second Coming draws closer and closer when as we as Believer’s share who Christ really is. The Word of God makes this very clear.

Matthew 24:14 makes this very clear. It states – “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world – literally all the inhabited earth – as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

We should pray – God use me to be a witness for you. Let me tell of your First Coming; let me tell of your Second Coming, to those who do not believe, that they may believe.

We should pray – God, use me to spread Your word to the nations; use me to usher in Your Second Coming.

Very sadly and very unfortunately too many Christians today have turned God into a great big psychologist in the sky. He is the great one and only self-help guru that exists to help us with our problems.

God does help us with our problems. God does want us to cry out to Him. But if it is simply for that, we miss the point. God is not the great self-help guru in the sky. He is the sovereign Almighty King of the Nations.

We can see Him in the person of Jesus Christ. God is far more than our self-help guru. He is the King and the Ruler of all humanity. He is the King and the Ruler of all history. He is the Designer of the events of your life. He is the Designer of the all the events of all mankind. He is the Designer and the Ruler of all the events of history. He designed them to bring redemption to mankind through His Son Jesus Christ. He designed them to point man to Jesus; first to His First Coming and now to His Second Coming.

I will never forget when all of this became so real to me. It was while standing in the middle of a bookstore that this exact same message I am preaching to you, one which was preached to me and doubted by me, became so true to me.

I was given this assignment in one of my seminary classes – go to the Christian bookstores and by topic, give a report of what you find. So I started going to Christian bookstores and one after another, after another, there they were – how to have better finances; how to have better self-esteem; how to be a better parent; how to have a better marriage; how to; how to; how to. I want to be careful here. I am not making light of these. God wants us to know how to do these things. But if that is all there is to it, then we have missed the point. Over and over again from bookstore to bookstore that is all I saw. I went into one bookstore and, I will never forget, that was where it hit me the most. The bookshelves were about 2 meters high and three meters wide. The sign above the section in the store read – “Today’s Best Sellers”. There was one book out of about sixty or seventy that talked about God. All of the rest were self-help books. I stood there and I looked and I could not believe it. Remember, I doubted what my professor had told me. But now I was seeing it to be true. Over time, I began to observe all around and more importantly I began to observe my own life. In doing so, God convicted me that it’s true – modern Christianity has become the opposite of what it was during the time Jesus was on the earth. It used to be about Jesus. It used to be about proclaiming Him to the nations above everything else. Now it has become about me and all about me. There is nothing wrong with “how to” books, as long as the other part is there and the other part is given priority. Our priority is proclaiming Him to the nations. When it is all about me and how to, how to, how to; how to be more comfortable here until I am ultimately comfortable there, then I have missed the point.

When I look at Gen. 44, I see for the first time, God giving the idea of one person taking the place of another person in order to pay for the second person’s sin, and I think of Jesus Christ.

When I look at Gen. 44 and I see God sovereignly bring Judah to the forefront, I think of Jesus being called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, I think of God saying that Jesus will come forward from the tribe of Judah and I see God’s sovereign hand arranging history, pointing to Jesus Christ and His First Coming.

When I look at Gen. 44 and I see Judah make a plea before Joseph, thinking that Joseph is going to punish him, and then instead receiving grace and mercy, I see the sinner standing before Jesus Christ, confessing his sin, thinking he is going to be punished, knowing he deserves it, and then receiving grace and mercy from the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I look at Gen 44, I do not see a small family of people having their problems solved by God, rather I see God in His sovereignty at its absolute finest arranging the events of mankind to point them to the First Coming of Christ; pointing to the cross of Jesus Christ; pointing to the resurrection of Christ; pointing to His church and ultimately pointing to His Second Coming.

When I look at Gen. 44, I see the distant future and I see God saying Jesus is going to come – not once but twice and when He comes the second time, it is going to be a glorious time that ushers in eternity.

So when I see Gen. 44, I see a little bit of an immediate future, but more than anything I see the distant future; and not just Joseph’s distant future, but our distant future as well. I see God’s sovereignty arranging the events of mankind so that I may know Him. It is not to know Him so that I can have a beautiful wonderful life. It is to know Him so that I may proclaim the glories of His Name; so that I can be used to tell the nations – Jesus is Lord; Jesus is Savior; believe in Him and have eternal life with Him; believe in Him and bring glory to God.

When I see Gen. 44, I see the glory of God expressed through the person of Jesus Christ.

I see God arranging history to use me to share that glory and to share Christ with others.

God used Joseph to usher in Christ’s First Coming.

Like Joseph, we should look at all of the events of our lives, submit them to God’s sovereignty, for His glory, and say – God use me to usher in the Second Coming of Your Son, Jesus.

May He use us, through our focus on the eternal, through our faithful witness of Him, to usher in His Second Coming!