The twelve brothers have enjoyed a fine meal together at Joseph's house. Thinking Joseph is still just an Egyptian governor and not also their brother, after the meal the men take care of the business of buying grain and get ready to head back to Canaan with food for their families.
"Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: 'Fill the men's sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's silver in the mouth of his sack. Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack, along with the silver for his grain.' And he did as Joseph said." (Genesis 44:1-2) The steward, if he does not know the men are Joseph's brothers, must be wondering by now whether Joseph is going a little bit mad. Both times now Joseph has replaced the men's money, no doubt paying the price of the grain for them so the Egyptian government receives what is owed to it. This time Joseph adds something extra: his own personal silver cup to the sack belonging to Benjamin. Odd as this may seem to the steward, he does as he is told. It's not his place to question his employer.
"As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys." (Genesis 44:3) When the Bible says someone is "sent on their way" it means they were treated hospitably. In modern times it means we're "seeing someone off" as in sending some food home with them after dinner and standing on the front porch waving as they pull out of the driveway. I think the eleven brothers are feeling a huge sense of relief as they depart Egypt. Simeon has been set free to return home with them, plus nothing happened to Benjamin just as they promised their father. On top of all that, the Egyptian governor was a very gracious host to them. They came to Egypt expecting him to give them a hard time but instead he invited them into his home for a lavish lunch fit for a king. It seems as if their visit has been an awesome success. I bet they're imagining the happy look on their father's face when he sees all eleven of them returning. I bet they are discussing exactly how to describe the beautiful home of Joseph and the fine foods they were served there.
But their troubles are far from over. Joseph, upon instruction from the Lord, has done something that will assist these men and their father into full repentance for all the family-related mistakes they've made. I do not think Joseph planted the silver cup on Benjamin to be cruel to anyone. If he wanted to be cruel to someone, he would have chosen one of the brothers who once wanted him dead, not his beloved younger brother who had no part in the ill treatment Joseph received in Canaan. I think every move Joseph makes is dictated by the Lord. Joseph himself may not fully understand everything the Lord is asking him to do, but he's willing to be used by the Lord in His plan for the family.
"They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, 'Go after these men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid good with evil? Isn't this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.'" (Genesis 44:4-5) Did Joseph actually practice divination? The Lord hasn't yet given a law forbidding it, which He will do later on, but still I highly doubt Joseph was ever involved in asking false gods for help. It was common in Egypt to keep a special household cup in which persons could read tea leaves in an attempt to ascertain what "the gods" were telling them they should do. If Joseph ever read any tea leaves, I think he did it when he asked questions of the one true God. Did God ever communicate with anyone in this way? We actually don't know how the Lord gave instructions before any of His laws and commandments were written down. I tend to think He communicated by the Holy Spirit just as He so often communicates to our hearts today, but when the Old Testament says that God told so-and-so to do this or that, it doesn't describe to us how God conveyed His instructions to them.
A divination cup was the most expensive and most revered cup in the household. It was almost as special as a household idol. I have a feeling Joseph didn't own any household idols, not even idols given to him as gifts, for if he possessed something like a gold-plated idol I'd have expected him to put that in Benjamin's sack instead since it would have been a more expensive and more prestigious thing for someone to steal. The steward does as Joseph asks and heads off after the men to accuse them of thievery. "When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. But they said to him, 'Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house? If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord's slaves.'" (Genesis 44:6-9)
The men are outraged and make a very bold statement since they are certain of their innocence. They realize that on their first trip their money somehow ended up back in their sacks. They don't know whether this was a mistake of the Egyptian servants or what exactly happened. But they do know that none of them grabbed a silver cup on their way out of the house. They're so indignant that they speak rashly and say, "If you find that cup on any of us, may the man who has the cup be put to death. Then the rest of us will willingly become slaves."
"'Very well, then,' he said, 'let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.'" (Genesis 44:10) He pretends to agree with their offer, but there is a notable difference in what he actually agrees to as compared to what they have said. He replies, "So be it. If any of you has the cup, that man will become my slave. I'm a reasonable guy and I'm not going to kill anyone for thievery. The rest of you can go on home. There's no sense in punishing all eleven of you for one man's sin. I realize that one man could have snatched the cup without the rest of you knowing it, so I'm not going to charge anyone with thievery except the man who has the cup in his possession."
This sounds like a good deal to them because they are sure nothing belonging to the governor will be found in their sacks. They unload their sacks from the backs of the donkeys and willingly open them up for inspection. You can imagine their shock at what happens next. "Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack." (Genesis 44:11-12) The steward knows whose sack the cup is in. He placed it there himself. But he builds the suspense by leaving Benjamin's sack for last. I think the men are standing there during the search, feeling full of righteous indignation because they know they've stolen nothing, and as the steward gets to the last sack they expected to be vindicated of guilt within seconds. Instead there the cup is, its silver shining brightly in the sun.
The men are overcome with horror and grief. They are about to break their promise to their father and break his heart. They swore on their own lives that they'd bring Benjamin home to their father safely and now they've failed without even knowing how they've failed. "At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city." (Genesis 44:13)
Did Joseph know they wouldn't flee and leave Benjamin standing there to take the blame? Yes, he must have. He knows that they'd all give their lives to save Benjamin's life and send Benjamin safely home to Jacob. He can see that they've changed a great deal since the day when they were happy to sell Jacob's original favorite son, Joseph, into slavery. But I think they need to know they've changed. In their hearts they still see themselves as betrayers and liars. They see themselves as great failures who must keep a huge secret from their father for the rest of his life. I don't think they can imagine the Lord using them for anything because in their minds they've forever disqualified themselves from service. It's true that they once were betrayers and liars, but God doesn't want them to spend the rest of their lives stuck in the past. He wants them to see that He's already making them into new and better men.
The Lord meets us where we are; that's true. But He doesn't leave us there. He's willing to come to us where we're lying in the filth and sin of this world to speak to us and save our souls, but after doing that He doesn't leave us lying there in filth and sin. He picks us up, cleans us off, dresses us in the robes of the King's children, and brings us into His family. He doesn't keep reminding us of our past. He doesn't want us to live in the past because that's not who we are anymore. He wants us to accept what He has done for us and to allow Him to keep on making us more and more like Christ.
The ten oldest sons of Jacob need to stop thinking of themselves as they once were. They are going to begin understanding the change that's taken place in their hearts when they find themselves desperately pleading for the freedom of Benjamin. These men who were once so cold-hearted that they threw Joseph into a cistern with the intent of leaving him there to die, and who ignored his pitiful cries from the bottom of the cistern (and even enjoyed their lunch to the tune of his pleas) are going to do everything they can to get their youngest brother released. Judah, the one responsible for selling Joseph as a slave in order to make a profit on his disappearance from the family, will offer himself as a slave in Benjamin's place. He is going to offer to exchange the rest of his life for Benjamin's freedom.
The Lord intends to help this family get everything out into the open, and though His methods may seem mysterious to us, He knows exactly how to go about healing the guilt and dysfunction that plagues the family of Jacob. Joseph himself may not fully understand why the Lord is telling him to do the things he's done, but he's willing to obey Him. The Lord is orchestrating everything so that eventually the awful truth comes out about what the ten older brothers did on a day more than twenty years ago. They won't have to carry the heavy burden of their secret any longer. They will confess their sins against Joseph, repent of them, and be healed of them. Jacob will see how his intense favoritism toward Joseph led Joseph's older brothers to despise him enough to want him dead or sold into slavery. This gives him an opportunity to repent of loving one son more than all the others and of transferring that overwhelming and overprotective love to Benjamin after the disappearance of Joseph. God's ways are not our ways, but they are the right ways, and He knows exactly how to perfectly set up this family's circumstances so they can be healed of their past and look forward to the future.
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