Genesis 42:27-38

As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying, “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country. We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’ The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”

It happened as they emptied their sacks, that behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”

Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.”

He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

I can easily imagine the deep fear that must have fallen on them when they discovered that their money was returned. I call these types of occurrences “anti-miracles,” because they are bad circumstances that happen in such an irregular manner that you know that it must have been a miracle. The only problem is that it is miraculously bad. I believe that they correctly understood that this was happening to them because of God. They were guilty men and they knew it. The funny thing for us is that we can see that God was doing something good even though they could only see the crisis.

This crisis was especially serious for Jacob. Of all of the problems that Jacob had lived through in his life, this was probably the most difficult. He had to run from his brother, be oppressed by his uncle, lose his wives and one of his children. Finally, he ran out of food and had to beg in Egypt. Then this happens. He loses another son to a governor who thinks his sons are spies and is ultimately forced to consider sending youngest son too. The interesting thing to me is that Jacob still appeared to be holding on to his favorites. Perhaps, God was using this to work on Jacob’s character as well.

I took special notice of Reuben’s comment here. It’s interesting that he offered the death of his sons rather than his own life. It would have been easier to believe had he offered himself. As sinful human beings, it is easy for us to profess things. The truth comes when we are required to act. Joseph had created a crisis that was forcing his family to come to grips
with what they really believed.