43
1 And he commanded the steward of his house 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 “Also put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain money.” So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. v. 12; 42:25 3 As soon as the morning dawned, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get 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 with which he indeed practices divination? You have done evil in so doing.'”
Once again I see Jesus Christ, the Passover, and the new covenant, symbolized by the cup that Joseph tells the steward of his house to put in Benjamin’s mouth sack. Not just verses 0ne thru five show the significance of the cup, and how it pertains to the future of the New Covenant, but the following verses speaks loudly of how we are to observe the New Covenant passover in a worthy manner. As I will explain in more detail in the verses to come when appropriate. Joseph here uses his silver cup as a tool in which to test his brothers, and see if they are truly remorseful for what they had done to him. By putting the cup in Benjamin’s sack; Being the only surviving son of Jacob and his wife Rachel (as far as Jacob and his brothers know), Joseph will see if the brothers hearts have changed over the course of time. Hoping that this will bring back to memory what they did to him, and in turn feel guilty for the sins they committed against Joseph, his father and of God Himself. As Jesus said in the New Covenant: take, drink, for this cup is for the remission of sins (Matt. 26: 27,28). Can the brothers ever escape the guilt that lies within each of them for these sins? In Jesus Christ’s shed blood all sins are forgiven for those who believe, and as we will See, Joseph being a type of Jesus, will forgive his brothers for what they had done. And this cup, in these verses, tells of a future time (Divination, if you will), in which all sins will be forgiven, and the blood of Jesus will no longer be on them (The sons of Israel, and the Israeli nation as a whole), and their descendants (Gen 37:26,27; Matt 27:24, 25).
6 So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words. 7 And they said to him, “Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from us that your servants should do such a thing. 8 “Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. 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 And he said, “Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless.” 11 Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. 12 So he searched. He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 42:4, 38; 43:13, 14 13 Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
The brothers, unaware of being set up for a crime they know in their hearts they had not committed, speak with great confidence of their innocence to the Servant of Josephs. So confident they are, that they are willing to go so far as to tell the servant, “if you find the cup in the sack of one of ours, then let that persons whose sack the cup was found in die, and the rest of us will be your lords slave.” The servant replies, that only the one who has the cup will be his lord’s slave and the rest of them can go back to their homeland blameless. The servant searches all the brothers sacks finding nothing, until he comes to the last brother (The youngest of them), Benjamin, and there the cup is found ! this is their worst nightmare ! Their fathers greatest fear of losing his youngest son (the son of Rachel the woman whom he loved most of all), if he were to let him go down to Egypt, has come true. The tearing off of the clothes back then was a show of great sorrow and distress. Judah himself promised his father that he would take care of Benjamin, and if anything should happen to him then he (Jacob), could blame Judah forever (Gen. 43:8, 9), Not just Judah, but Reuben went so far as to tell his father that if anything were to happen to Benjamin, then Jacob could kill Reubens two sons (Gen. 42:37), so all of the brothers don’t hesitate, they saddle up their donkeys and go back to Egypt along with Benjamin. None of them could bear the shame of going back to Canaan without Benjamin. What they did to Joseph twenty years earlier has haunted them since, they even said as much when having to leave Simeon behind after Joseph accuses them of being spies on their first journey to Egypt (Gen. 42:21,22 ). Jacob told his sons that if anything would happen to Benjamin on his trip to Egypt, that they would send him to his grave a very sad old man, by bringing such sad news back to him (Gen. 42:38), The brothers would rather die than have to break their fathers heart.
14 So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there; and they fell before him on the ground. 37:7, 10; 42:6; 43:26, 28 15 And Joseph said to them, “What deed is this you have done” Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?”
Joseph (The type of Jesus), asks the brothers: “Did you not know that a man such as I can practice divination?” I ask of myself to the reader; did not Jesus Christ Himself, on the night of the passover, in a sense give a divination of himself? one in which He uses a “CUP” of wine to symbolize His blood that would be shed for the remission of sins (Matt. 26:27,28; Mark. 14:23,24; Luke. 22:20,21), In luke’s account We are told that Jesus even foretells of the one who is to betray Him is sitting at the table with them. The Webster’s dictionary defines divination as a foretelling of future events, or discovering things secret or obscure, by the aid of superior beings, or by other than human means:
Webster’s definition:
DIVINATION, n. [L., to foretell. See Divine.]
1. The act of divining; a foretelling future events, or discovering things secret or obscure, by the aid of superior beings, or by other than human means. The ancient heathen philosophers divided divination into two kinds, natural and artificial. Natural divination was supposed to be effected by a kind of inspiration or divine afflatus; artificial divination was effected by certain rites, experiments or observations, as by sacrifices, cakes, flour, wine, observation of entrails, flight of birds, lots, verses, omens, position of the stars, &c.
Joseph doesn’t say for certainty that he does practice divination, he only asks the question to his brothers. However, I see this verse as another example of Joseph as a type of Jesus, (the one who on many occasions foretells of events to come, during His time and in the future, thru divine acts of both artificial, and natural divination).
16 Then Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord’s slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup was found.” 17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
Judah (The one from whom the seed comes from, in that all nations will be blessed), Is the one who speaks to Joseph (The type of Jesus), on behalf of all the brothers, Confessing to Joseph that God has found out their iniquity. No one can hide their sins from God, for he is all knowing, all seeing, omnipresent. One day we will all stand before our Father and give an account for our sins. As Judah rightfully says: “What shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? I put it to the reader that we have no excuse for our sins, and we shouldn’t even attempt to explain them away, we should just humble ourselves on that day, and confess them to God. For The Lord God is a very loving merciful God, full of grace, He is true and faithful to His word to forgive us, and we must have faith in Him, that if we confess, and repent of our sins He will blot them out and remember them no more Exo. 32:32,33; Ps. 51:1-9;). Judah tells Joseph that all the brothers (the ones who wronged Joseph years ago), will be his slave, along with the one who stole the cup (Benjamin). Joseph, being a type of Jesus says to Judah, “Far be it from me that I should do so” so as to say: the man in whose hand the cup was found (the one who sinned against me), shall be my slave. And he points the other brothers who sinned against God to their father. Just as Jesus always points us to the Father, as if to say Joseph wants his brothers to confess to their father (Jacob), for their sins against him, God, and Joseph.
18 Then Judah came near to him and said: “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh.
In Egypt the Pharaoh was considered a god. Judah is saying to the Pharaoh that you Joseph are god like, just as the Pharaoh of Egypt.
19 “My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’ 20 “And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 37:3; 42:4 21 “Then you said to your servants, “Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 42:15, 20 22 “And we said to my lord, “The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23 “But you said to your servants, “Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’ 43:, 5 24 “So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord. 25 “And our father said, “Go back and buy us a little food.’ 43:2 26 “But we said, “We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 “Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; 35:16-18 28 ‘and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since. 37:31-35 29 ‘But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’ 42:38 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 “it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. 32 “For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever. 43:9 33 “Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as 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, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?”
Judah promised his father that if anything were to happen to Benjamin that he would be surety for him. Judah exclaims to his father, you can blame me and me only, forever; if We do not bring him back to you safe and sound (Gen. 43: 8, 9 ) Judah speaks on behalf of Benjamin, making intercession for him, ready to carry the responsibility of Benjamin on his shoulders alone. This has to have a profound impact on the lives of both Joseph and Benjamin. As we will see in the next chapter this cuts right to the heart of Joseph. To see his older brother stand up for Benjamin in this way shows Joseph that Judah’s heart is in the right place. It was Judah who first suggested to the other brothers to sell Joseph to the traders instead of killing him, so that they could profit from the sale and not be guilty of killing him (Gen. 37: 26, 27 ), Now Judah is once again the intercessor for one of his brothers. Hearing his brother speak on behalf of Benjamin may have Joseph reflecting , looking back to when he was sold into slavery. Joseph may have heard the conversation way back then as Judah convinced his brothers to sell him off, and if this is the case then Joseph now sees Judah’s heart with a little more clarity, and understanding of why he did what he did some twenty odd years ago (For the other brothers wanted to kill him), This has to cut right to the heart of Joseph as these words are spoken to him. One could imagine the countenance of Judah as he is speaking, his head bowed to the ground, broken, crackling words coming out of his mouth as he pours out his emotions to Joseph, pleading with all his heart for Joseph not to make him go back to his father and face him without Benjamin. What about Benjamin? He is but an ear shod away as he hears his brother pleading for his life, willingly ready to take his place for a sin that he knows he did not commit. Benjamin knows he didn’t steal the cup and is undoubtedly confused how it got in the mouth of his sack. As far as Judah is concerned, he thinks Benjamin is guilty, and Benjamin knows this, yet He sees his brother (Who is innocent of this sin), ready to take this sin upon his shoulder, just as the descendant of his seed (Jesus Christ), took the sins of the world upon his shoulders, who sits at the right hand of God to this day, making intercession to the Father on our behalf (Matt. 1:20,21; Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:28; 10:12; 1 Jn. 2:2). This forms a bond between Judah and Benjamin for their life, and their descendants: Upon entering into the promised land after four hundred years of captivity, The land inherited of the descendants of Benjamin, is in the heart of Judah’s land inheritance. Even after the breakup of the twelve tribes of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin stays forever bonded together with the tribe of Judah. In my opinion it is because of Judah’s actions here why these two tribes are so closely knitted together.