Genesis 42:1-4

Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die.” Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob didn’t send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers; for he said, “Lest perhaps harm happen to him.”

Lies have a way of staying around long after they have been told. It had been many years since Joseph’s brothers had hidden the truth about what they had done to Joseph, but the lie they told continued to affect their lives. In this case, their father, Jacob, had become fearful of losing another son to the wild animals and decided to keep the youngest one, Benjamin, close by. Lies are never a good idea. Not only is it a violation of God’s law, the maintenance of a lie could eventually kill you. It isn’t long before the lie proves more costly than simply telling the truth.

I see some situational comedy in this account. Jacob sees that his sons had decided to sit around in the house and stare at each other all day. Evidently, the famine had brought the ranching business to a standstill. A loose translation might be: “stop staring at each other and get busy. They have some food in Egypt, go buy some or else we will all going to die.”

Now, I don’t believe for a moment that they were going to die. We know that this kind of thing had happened before to Abraham and He didn’t die. Interestingly enough, it was Egypt
that God used to help Abraham too. We will find this to be a fascinating theme as we travel through the Bible’s history. Even though Egypt wanted to oppress and abuse at times, God was still able to use them to help His people at critical times.

There is a lesson in what Jacob told his sons. It isn’t wise to sit around and stare at each other when things seem to fall apart. It’s better to trust in God and do what we can. That doesn’t mean that we know exactly how it will work out, but if there is any kind of good work that can be done in order to save our families, we should do that and trust that God knows what He is doing.

Proverbs 14:23 :

In all hard work there is profit,
but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.