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Genesis Chapter
Forty-two
Genesis 42
Chapter Contents
Jacob sends ten sons to buy corn. (1-6) Joseph's
treatment of his brethren. (7-20) Their remorse
Simeon detained. (21-24) The
rest return with corn. (25-28) Jacob refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt. (29-38)
Commentary on Genesis 42:1-6
Jacob saw the corn his neighbours had bought in Egypt
and brought home. It is a spur to exertion to see others supplied. Shall others
get food for their souls
and shall we starve while it is to be had? Having
discovered where help is to be had
we should apply for it without delay
without shrinking from labour
or grudging expense
especially as regards our
never-dying souls. There is provision in Christ; but we must come to him
and
seek it from him.
Commentary on Genesis 42:7-20
Joseph was hard upon his brethren
not from a spirit of
revenge
but to bring them to repentance. Not seeing his brother Benjamin
he
suspected that they had made away with him
and he gave them occasion to speak
of their father and brother. God
in his providence
sometimes seems harsh with
those he loves
and speaks roughly to those for whom yet he has great mercy in
store. Joseph settled at last
that one of them should be left
and the rest go
home and fetch Benjamin. It was a very encouraging word he said to them
"I fear God;" as if he had said
You may be assured I will do you no
wrong; I dare not
for I know there is one higher than I. With those that fear
God
we may expect fair dealing.
Commentary on Genesis 42:21-24
The office of conscience is to bring to mind things long
since said and done. When the guilt of this sin of Joseph's brethren was fresh
they made light of it
and sat down to eat bread; but now
long afterward
their consciences accused them of it. See the good of afflictions; they often
prove the happy means of awakening conscience
and bringing sin to our
remembrance. Also
the evil of guilt as to our brethren. Conscience now
reproached them for it. Whenever we think we have wrong done us
we ought to
remember the wrong we have done to others. Reuben alone remembered with
comfort
that he had done what he could to prevent the mischief. When we share
with others in their sufferings
it will be a comfort if we have the testimony
of our consciences for us
that we did not share in their evil deeds
but in
our places witnessed against them. Joseph retired to weep. Though his reason
directed that he should still carry himself as a stranger
because they were
not as yet humbled enough
yet natural affection could not but work.
Commentary on Genesis 42:25-28
The brethren came for corn
and corn they had: not only
so
but every man had his money given back. Thus Christ
like Joseph
gives out
supplies without money and without price. The poorest are invited to buy. But
guilty consciences are apt to take good providences in a bad sense; to put
wrong meanings even upon things that make for them.
Commentary on Genesis 42:29-38
Here is the report Jacob's sons made to their father. It
troubled the good man. Even the bundles of money Joseph returned
in kindness
to his father
frightened him. He laid the fault upon his sons; knowing them
he feared they had provoked the Egyptians
and wrongfully brought home their
money. Jacob plainly distrusted his sons
remembering that he never saw Joseph
since he had been with them. It is bad with a family
when children behave so
ill that their parents know not how to trust them. Jacob gives up Joseph for
gone
and Simeon and Benjamin as in danger; and concludes
All these things are
against me. It proved otherwise
that all these things were for him
were
working together for his good
and the good of his family. We often think that
to be against us
which is really for us. We are afflicted in body
estate
name
and in our relations; and think all these things are against us
whereas
they are really working for us a weight of glory. Thus does the Lord Jesus
conceal himself and his favour
thus he rebukes and chastens those for whom he
has purposes of love. By sharp corrections and humbling convictions he will
break the stoutness and mar the pride of the heart
and bring to true
repentance. Yet before sinners fully know him
or taste that he is gracious
he
consults their good
and sustains their souls
to wait for him. May we do thus
never yielding to discouragement
determining to seek no other refuge
and
humbling ourselves more and more under his mighty hand. In due time he will
answer our petitions
and do for us more than we can expect.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Genesis》
Genesis 42
Verse 1
[1] Now
when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt
Jacob said unto his sons
Why do
ye look one upon another?
Jacob saw that there was corn — That is
he saw the corn that his neighbours had bought there and
brought home.
Verse 2
[2] And he said
Behold
I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you
down thither
and buy for us from thence; that we may live
and not die.
Get you down thither — Masters of families must not only pray for daily bread for their
families
but must with care and industry provide it.
Verse 7
[7] And
Joseph saw his brethren
and he knew them
but made himself strange unto them
and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them
Whence come ye? And they
said
From the land of Canaan to buy food.
We may well wonder that Joseph
during the
twenty years he had been in Egypt
especially during the last seven years that
he had been in power there
never sent to his father to acquaint him with his
circumstances; nay
'tis strange that he who so oft went throughout all the
land of Egypt
never made a step to Canaan
to visit his aged father. When he
was in the borders of Egypt that lay next to Canaan
perhaps it would not have
been above three or four days journey for him in his chariot. 'Tis a probable
conjecture
that his whole management of himself in this affair was by special
direction from heaven
that the purpose of God
concerning Jacob and his
family
might be accomplished. When Joseph's brethren came
he knew them by
many a good token
but they knew not him
little thinking to find him there.
Verse 9
[9] And
Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them
and said unto them
Ye
are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.
He remembered the dreams
but they had forgot
them. The laying up of God's oracles in our hearts will be of excellent use to
us in all our conduct. Joseph had an eye to his dreams
which he knew to be
divine
in his carriage towards his brethren
and aimed at the accomplishment
of them
and the bringing his brethren to repentance; and both those points
were gained. 1. He shewed himself harsh with them: the very manner of his
speaking
considering the post he was in
was enough to frighten them
for he
spake roughly to them - He charged them with ill designs against the
government
treated them as dangerous persons
ye are spies
protesting by the
life of Pharaoh that they were so. Some make that an oath
others make it no
more but a vehement asseveration; however
it was more than yea
yea
and nay
nay
and therefore came of evil. 2. They hereupon were very submissive; they
spoke to him with all respect; nay
my lord. They modestly deny the charge
we
are no spies; they tell him their business
they came to buy food
they give a
particular account of themselves and their family
Genesis 42:13
and that was it he wanted. 3. He
clapt them all up in prison three days. 4. He concluded with them at last
that
one of them should be left as a hostage
and the rest should go home and fetch
Benjamin. It was a very encouraging word he said
I fear God; q.d. You may
assure yourselves
I will do you no wrong
I dare not
for I know that as high
as I am
there is one higher than I. With those that fear God we have reason to
expect fair dealing: the fear of God will be a check upon those that are in
power
to restrain them from abusing their power to oppression and tyranny:
Verse 21
[21] And they said one to another
We are verily guilty concerning our brother
in that we saw the anguish of his soul
when he besought us
and we would not
hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
We are very guilty concerning our brother — We do not read that they said this during their three days imprisonment;
but now when the matter was come to some issue
and they saw themselves still
embarrassed
they began to relent. Perhaps Joseph's mention of the fear of God
put them upon consideration
and extorted this reflexion.
Verse 24
[24] And
he turned himself about from them
and wept; and returned to them again
and
communed with them
and took from them Simeon
and bound him before their eyes.
He took Simeon — He
chose him for the hostage
probably because he remembered him to have been his
most bitter enemy
or because he observed him now to be least humbled and
concerned. He bound him before their eyes
to affect them all.
Verse 28
[28] And
he said unto his brethren
My money is restored; and
lo
it is even in my
sack: and their heart failed them
and they were afraid
saying one to another
What is this that God hath done unto us?
Their heart failed them
and they were
afraid
saying one to another
What is this that God hath done to us? - They
knew that the Egyptians abhorred a Hebrew
Genesis 43:32
and therefore
since they could
not expect to receive any kindness from them
they concluded that this was done
with a design to pick a quarrel with them
the rather because the man
the lord
of the land
had charged them as spies. Their own conscience were awake
and
their sins set in order before them
and this puts them into confusion. When
the events of providence concerning us are surprising
it is good to enquire
what it is that God has done and is doing with us?
Verse 38
[38] And
he said
My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead
and he is
left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go
then shall ye
bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
My son shall not go down with you — He plainly intimates a distrust of them
remembering that he never saw
Joseph since he had been with them; therefore Benjamin shall not go with you.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on
Genesis》
42 Chapter 42
Verse 1-2
Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt.
The famine in the house of Jacob
I. CONSIDERED IN
ITS REARING UPON THE DIVINE PURPOSES CONCERNING THE CHOSEN PEOPLE.
II. CONSIDERED IN
ITS EFFECT UPON JACOB’S SONS. “Why do ye look one upon another?” This sad
question reavealed--
1. The utmost distress.
2. Great perplexity.
3. Forebodings of conscience. (T. H. Leale.)
The famine; or
good out of evil
I. THE WIDESPREAD
CALAMITY.
II. THE ERRAND TO
EGYPT.
III. THE DOUBTFUL
RECEPTION. Learn:
1. When distresses and trials come
we should be ready to trust that
God means to do good by them in some way
though we may not know how.
2. When difficulties occur
we should still hope on.
3. When disappointments are our lot
we should remember that they
come not without God’s knowledge and permission.
4. Humility and faith will always lead to renewed hope. (W. S.
Smith
B. D.)
Corn in Egypt
We have here a picture of man’s lost estate
he is in a sore
soul-devouring famine. We discover here man’s hope. His hope lies in that
Joseph whom he knows not
who has gone before him and provided all things
necessary
that his “wants may be supplied. And we have here practical advice
which was pre-eminently wise on the part of Jacob to his sons in his case
and
which
being interpreted
is also the wisest advice to you and to me. Seeing that
there is mercy for sinners
and that Jesus our brother has gone before us to
provide for us an all-sufficient redemption
“Why sit we here and look one upon
another?” There is mercy in the breast of God
there is salvation in Christ;
“get you down thither
and buy for us from thence; that we may live
and not
die.”
I. A PITIFUL
PLIGHT. These sons of Jacob were overtaken by a famine. They were cast into a
waste
howling wilderness of famine
with but one oasis
and that oasis they
did not hear of till just at the time to which our text refers
when they
learned to their joy that there was corn in Egypt. Permit me now to illustrate
the condition of the sinner by the position of these sons of Jacob.
1. The sons of Jacob had a very great need of bread. But what is
this compared with the sinner’s needs! His necessities are such that only
Infinity can supply them; he has a demand before which the demands of sixty-six
mouths are as nothing.
2. Mark
again: what these people wanted was an essential thing.
They did not lack clothes
that were a want
but nothing like the lack of
bread; for a man might exist with but scanty covering. Oh that men should cry
for bread--the absolute necessary for the sustenance of the body! But what is
the sinner’s want? Is it not exactly this? he wants that without which the soul
must perish.
3. Yet again: the necessity of the sons of Jacob was a total one.
They had no bread; there was none to be procured. Such is the sinner’s case. It
is not that he has a little grace and lacks more; but he has none at all. Of
himself he has no grace. It is not that he has a little goodness
and needs to
be made better; but he has no goodness at all
no merits
no
righteousness--nothing to bring to God
nothing to offer for his acceptance; he
is penniless
poverty-stricken; everything is gone whereon his soul might feed.
4. But yet worse: with the exception of Egypt
the sons of Jacob
were convinced that there was no food anywhere. In speechless silence they
resigned themselves to the woe which threatened to overwhelm them. Such is the
sinner’s condition
when first he begins to feel a hungering and thirsting
after righteousness
he looks to others. “There is no hope for us; we have all
been condemned
we have all been guilty
we can do nothing to appease the Most
High”; what a wretched world were ours
if we were equally convinced of sin
and equally convinced that there was no hope of mercy! This
then
was the
condition of Jacob’s sons temporally
and it is our condition by nature
spiritually.
II. Now we come
in the second place
to the GOOD NEWS. Jacob had faith
and the ears of faith
are always quiet; faith can hear the tread of mercy
though the footfall be as
light as that of the angel among the flowers. Jacob had the ears of faith. He
had been at prayer
I doubt not
asking God to deliver his family in the time
of famine; and by and by he hears
first of his household
that there is corn
in Egypt. Jacob heard the good news
and communicated it as speedily as
possible to his descendants. Now
we also have heard the good news. Good news
has been sent to us in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. “There is corn in
Egypt.” We need not die. Now
we have better news than even Jacob had; although
the news is similar
understanding it in a spiritual sense.
1. We are told to-day
by sure and certain witnesses
that there is
corn in Egypt
there is mercy in God. Jacob’s messenger might have deceived
him--idle tales are told everywhere
and in days of famine men are very apt
totell a falsehood
thinking that to be true which they wish were so. The
hungry man is apt to hope that there may be corn somewhere; and then he thinks
there is; and then he says there is; and then
what begins with a wish comes to
be a rumour and a report. But this day
my friends
it is no idle talk; no
dream
no rumour of a deceiver. There is mercy with God
there is salvation
with Him that He may be feared.
2. There is another thing in which we have the start of Jacob. Jacob
knew there was corn in Egypt
but did not know who had the keeping of it. If he
had known that
he would have said
“My sons
go down at once to Egypt
do not
be at all afraid
your brother is lord of Egypt
and all the corn belongs to
him.” Nay
more
I can readily imagine that he would have gone himself
forthwith.
Sinner
the mercies of God are under no lock and key except those over which
Christ has the power. The granaries of heaven’s mercy have no steward to keep
them save Christ. He is exalted on high to give repentance and remission of
sins.
3. There is yet another thing which the sons of Jacob knew nothing
of. When they went to Egypt
they went on hap-hazard: If they knew there was
corn
they were not sure they would get it. But when you and I go to Christ
we
are invited guests.
4. But one other remark
and I will have done with this second
point. The sons of Jacob were in one respect better off than you are
apparently
for they had money with which to buy. Jacob was not a poor man in
respect of wealth
although he had now become exceedingly poor from lack of
bread. His sons had money to take with them. Glittering bars of gold they
thought must surely attract the notice of the ruler of Egypt. You have no
money
nothing to bring to Christ
nothing to offer Him. You offered Him
something once
but He rejected all you offered Him as being spurious coins
imitations
counterfeits
and good for nothing. And now utterly stripped
hopeless
penniless
you say you are afraid to go to Christ because you have
nothing of your own. Let me assure you that you are never in so fit a condition
to go to Christ as when you have nowhere else to go to
and have nothing of
your own.
III. Thus I have
noticed the good news as well as the pitiful plight. I come now to the third
part
which is GOOD ADVICE. Jacob says
“Why do ye look one upon another?” And
he said
“Behold I have heard that there is corn in Egypt; get you down
thither
and buy for us from thence; that we may live
and not die.” This is
very practical advice. I wish people would act the same with religion as they do
in temporal affairs. Jacob’s sons did not say: “Well
that is very good news; I
believe it
” and then sit still and die. No
they went straightway to the place
of which the good news told them corn was to be had. So should it be in matters
of religion. We should not be content merely to hear the tidings
but we should
never be satisfied until by Divine grace we have availed ourselves of them
and
have found mercy in Christ. Lastly
let me put this question: “Why do ye look
one upon another?” Why do ye sit still? Fly to Christ
and find mercy. Oh
says
one
“I cannot get what I expect to have.” But what do you expect? I believe
some of our hearers expect to feel an electric shock
or something of that
kind
before they are saved. The gospel says simply
“Believe.” That they will
not understand. They think there is to be something so mysterious about it.
They can’t make out what it is; but they are going to wait for it and then
believe. Well
you will wait till doomsday; for if you do not believe this
simple gospel
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
” God will not work signs and
wonders to please your foolish desires. Your position is this--you are a
sinner
lost
ruined; you cannot help yourself. Scripture says
“Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Your immediate business
your
instantaneous duty is to cast yourself on that simple promise
and believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ
that as He came into the world to save sinners
He has
therefore come to save you. What you have to do with
is that simple
command--“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.” In
conclusion
I make this last remark: Did you notice the argument Joseph used
why the sons should go to Egypt? It was this--“That we may live
and not die.”
Sinner
this is my argument with thee this morning. My dear hearers
the gospel
of Christ is a matter of life and death with you. It is not a matter of little
importance
but of all importance. There is an alternative before you; you will
either be eternally damned
or everlastingly saved. Despise Christ
and neglect
His great salvation
and you will be lost
as sure as you live. Believe in
Christ; put your trust alone in Him
and everlasting life is yours. What
argument can be more potent than this to men that love themselves? (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The famine in Canaan
I. FAMINE.
1. A dire calamity. Perhaps none greater. One which human wisdom
cannot foresee. Affects all classes. Animal life depends on vegetable life
vegetable life on seasons
light
heat
rain
temperature
&c. These under
the control of God. The lawmaker may suspend the operation of natural laws
moderate their influence
or affect their course.
2. Usually unexpected. In this case there was a warning given
and
preparations made. Men cannot foresee the suspension or deviation of natural
laws. Hopes for the future built on productiveness of the past.
3. Often over-ruled for good. In this case conspicuously so.
Promotes human sympathy (thus the Irish famine
1846-7
besides evoking much
individual benevolence
was responded to by Parliamentary grants of
in the
whole
£10
000
000. Ill. Indian famine
1861). Provokes scientific inquiry into
“supply and demand.” of food. Leads to emigration and breaking up of new
ground.
4. Always possible and near. World at any time only a harvest off
starvation.
5. Generally local (Genesis 8:22). “All countries” (Genesis 41:57)
those adjacent to Egypt.
Kindness of Providence in this. Nations in their turn dependent on each other.
Each “offers something for the general use.”
II. PLENTY.
1. Where? In Egypt. A storehouse of plenty for hungry nations.
Always food in some place
and will be while the earth lasts. He who feeds the
ravens knows what man has need of.
2. Why? Does it seem strange that the promised land should suffer
rather than be the favoured spot?
3. How? By the extraordinary productiveness of seven preceding
years
and the storing of the surplus corn. This effected by the
instrumentality of Joseph. His mind supernaturally illuminated. Favour given
him in the sight of the king of Egypt. Him appointment to office
including the
absolute control of the produce of the land.
III. BUYING FOOD.
1. Want in the house of Jacob.
2. The ten sent out to buy corn in Egypt.
3. They arrive in Egypt
and visit the royal granaries.
4. Joseph recognizes them
and they bow before him
and thus fulfil
the dream.
5. To disarm suspicion
and to discover the temper of their minds
and the history of their family
they are charged with being spies
and cast
into prison.
6. After three days they are liberated
and a hostage required for
their return with the younger brother of whom they have spoken
and of whose
existence Joseph affects to doubt.
7. Mutual recriminations respecting Joseph.
8. Joseph is affected by what he hears.
9. Simeon bound and left in prison
while they betake themselves
away to Canaan. Learn: However great the dearth of the bread that perisheth
there is always sufficient of the “bread of life
” and it is always accessible.
(J. C. Gray.)
Joseph’s ten brethren went
down to buy corn in Egypt
Providence working in
men’s lives
I.
The story of Joseph is a
good example of what is meant by Providence working for the best in the lives
of men. Look at the young foreigner
as he comes to a land not his own; see how
he resists the one great temptation of his age and station; observe how
through means not of his own seeking
through good report and evil
through
much misunderstanding of others
but by consistent integrity and just dealing
on his own part
he overcomes all the difficulties of his position
and is
remembered long afterwards in his adopted land as the benefactor of his
generation and the deliverer of his country.
II. The story of Joseph is
perhaps
of all the stories in the Old
Testament
the one which most carries us back to our childhood
both from the
interest we felt in it as children
and from the true picture of family life
which it presents. It brings before us the way in which the greatest blessings
for this life and the next depend on the keeping up of family love pure and
fresh
as when the preservation and fitting education of the chosen people
depended on that touching generosity and brotherly affection which no distance
of time
no new customs
no long sojourn in a strange land
could extinguish in
the heart of Joseph. Home is on earth the best likeness of heaven; and heaven
is that last and best home in which
when the journey of life is over
Joseph
and his brethren
Jacob and his sons
Rachel and her children
shall meet to
part no more. (Dean Stanley.)
The first journey of
Jacob’s brethren into Egypt
I. THEY SHOW EVIDENT SIGNS OF FEAR. Therefore they go together in a
company
ten strong
that by their numbers they might encourage and support one
another (Genesis 42:3).
II. THEIR WORST FOREBODINGS ARE FULFILLED. They dreaded Egypt
and
events justified their fears.
1. They are received roughly (Genesis 42:7).
2. They are suspected of evil designs (Genesis 42:9).
3. They are threatened with the prospect of imprisonment and death.
III. GREAT PRINCIPLES OF GOD’S MORAL GOVERNMENT ARE :ILLUSTRATED IN
THIS HISTORY.
1. That pride is sure to meet with a fall. In Genesis 42:6 we are told that “Joseph’s brethren came and bowed down
themselves before him with their faces to the earth.” Where were now those
lofty looks
and that contemptuous tone with which they said when Joseph had
told them of his dreams--“Shalt thou then indeed reign over us
or shalt thou
have dominion over us?”
2. That nothing can hinder the counsel of God from taking effect.
3. That the crisis will arrive when the wicked must appear before
the judgment-seat of the pious.
4. That retribution
even in kind
follows sin.
5. That throughout the severity of God’s righteous anger against Sin
there runs a purpose of mercy. (T. H. Leale.)
The first journey of
Joseph’s brethren into Egypt
I. THE FAMINE IN CANAAN.
II. THE OFFICE OF CONSCIENCE (Genesis 42:21). Where sin is voluntary wrong-doing
the language of the human
heart inevitably connects the penalty with the wrong-doing. In every temptation
that comes upon you
think what it will be in the hour of death to be free from
the recollection of it. Refrain
refrain
remember the hereafter.
III. OBSERVE THE SEVERITY IN THE LOVE OF JOSEPH (Genesis 42:7). He did not allow his personal feelings to interfere with what
seemed to him his duty. Joseph’s love to his brethren was a noble love. God’s
love to us is still nobler
and severity accompanies it. It does not shrink
from human suffering
for suffering is necessary for the man’s well being.
IV. Lastly
we remark on THE RETURN HOMEWARDS OF JOSEPH’S BRETHREN.
Jacob expected corn to relieve their necessities; he got the corn
but with it
came sorrow upon sorrow. Bereaved of Joseph
he is now bereaved of Simeon also.
In Jacob’s answers to his sons
in the close of the chapter
we find a depth of
querulousness and despondency. Job was tried with sorrows far more severe
and
yet they only served and contributed to the purifying of his spirit. In order
to understand the cause of Jacob’s despondency we must go far back. Jacob was a
selfish man; his very religion was selfish; he would become religious only on
condition that God would protect and guide him. To that selfish origin may be
traced all the evils of his after life. Throughout it seems to have been his
principle to receive as much as possible
and to give as little as he could. He
who lives in this world for his own personal enjoyment
without God and His
Christ
will by degrees find
like Jacob
that he has no rock to rest his soul
upon
but that he must go down in sorrow to the grave. (F. W. Robertson
M.
A.)
The retributions of Providence
Men troubled by memory of
former sins
not because they doubt mercy of God
but because they doubt
themselves. Jacob’s sons better men than formerly
yet the retribution follows.
I. The vengeance of TIME. The sin of twenty years ago. Time no friend
to the sinner. Time gives the harvest opportunity and room to develop. Years of
Joseph’s imprisonment. Years of torture to brethren.
II. The vengeance of CIRCUMSTANCES. Every link in chain
strong and
connected with next link. “Remarkable series of coincidences
” very. The plots
and counterplots of fiction: of with Scripture.
III. The vengeance of MEMORY. Joseph’s cries wrought into the mental
texture of these men. Hetfy
in “Adam Bede.” The baby’s cry: “ Son
remember.”
Memory
a cup of blessing
or devil’s scourge.
IV. The vengeance of CONSCIENCE. Memory may exaggerate
extenuate
add
subtract
&c. But conscience is a just judge. Hamlet
“The play’s the
thing
” &c. Adonibezak
conscience-stricken wretch.
V. The vengeance of PUBLICITY. Evildoers clever in blocking up
ninety-nine avenues of discovery. The 100th. The shame. The collapse.
Conclusion: Vengeance
not last word in relation to sin. “We know that He was
manifested
” &c. “Better to fall
” &c. “Faithful and just.” “Though
your sins as mountains rise
” &c. (A. P. Watson.)
Verse 8
Joseph knew his brethren
but they knew not him
The betrayers confronted with the betrayed
I.
AN
INSTANCE OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
II. A PREPARATION
FOR GRACE.
III. A
FORESHADOWING OF GRACE. (St. J. A. Frere.)
Known and watched
I. BOTH OPEN AND
SECRET SINNERS ARE KNOWN AND WATCHED BY GOD.
II. BOTH TRUE AND
FALSE PROFESSORS ARE KNOWN AND WATCHED BY THE WORLD. (J. Henry Burn
B. D.)
Verses 11-17
We are true men
True life
I.
THE
MISTAKEN ESTIMATE. “We are true men.” Were they? They spoke for themselves
they spoke for one another; but had they a good report of the truth itself? You
know better than that--they were not true men
anything but true men. How came
it to pass that they formed such a mistaken estimate of themselves? How comes
it to pass that men now-a-days form similarly false estimates of themselves?
1. They dwelt on their superficial goodness
and forgot their deeper
wickedness. “We are no spies.” No; they felt hurt by the very suspicion; they
would have scorned the thing. But there are worse things than going forth to
see the nakedness of the land
worse men than spies. And these very men were
guilty of far greater wickedness (see Genesis 37:2; Genesis 37:4-5; Genesis 37:11; Genesis 37:18; Genesis 37:20). They were guilty of
malice
falsehood
treachery
murder. Their conduct was unmanly
unbrotherly
unfilial. They were not spies
but they were liars
impostors
kidnappers
fratricides
monsters. But they ignored the profound wickedness
and dwelt
fondly upon a goodness which was not very good. Is not this a very common
method with us still? We think how blameless we are in matters on the very
surface of life
and forget how guilty we are in the weightier matters of the
law.
2. They dwelt on their exceptional goodness
and forgot their
prevailing wickedness. “We are no spies.” They were right here
but in how many
respects were they wanting? How many base characteristics they had we have just
seen. But is not this seizing on some creditable trait of character
and
ignoring all the bad traits a constant source of self deception? Says the
prodigal son
listening to some story of covetousness and meanness
“Well
anyhow
nobody can charge me with money-grubbing!” And the man who is a walking
lie
a mass of selfishness
full of egotism and pride
will reply
when some
one is convicted of tippling
“Well
thank heaven
I never was a beast!” People
think sometimes that the Pharisee is only found in the Church among seemingly
good people; but the Pharisee is in the world also
in the most outrageous
stoners
and it is often curious to hear the sanctimonious accent in the hiccup
of the drunkard
and to see the broad phylactery showing through the finery of
the harlot. The apostle says
“If we offend in one point we are guilty of all
”
but we argue as if to keep one point was to be innocent of all. “True men.”
They are true all round
the soundness of their hearts discovering itself in
the harmony and beauty of their whole life. But
alas I we judge ourselves by
some phase of exceptional goodness
and because we are not spies conclude
ourselves saints.
3. They dwelt on their present goodness and forgot their past
wickedness. “We are no spies.” They were right in that matter
right at that time
but what of the past? The moral insensibility and forgetfulness exhibited by
these men is simply surprising. So it is with ourselves. Nothing is more
startling than our moral unconsciousness and forgetfulness. We easily believe
time sponges out all disagreeable records
and presents us with a clean state.
“True men.” We are not true men until we are “purged from our old sins.”
II. THE PAINFUL
EXPOSURE. How wonderfully God can cleave to our very heart
and show us what
spirit we are of
no matter how profoundly we may have been disguised from
ourselves. Many years ago in Brazil a slave found what was supposed to be a
diamond of nearly a pound weight. It was presented to the emperor
constantly
guarded by soldiers
and was supposed to represent millions of money. But an
English mineralogist produced a cutting diamond
and scratched the supposed
mammoth prize. One scratch was enough
if it had been a real gem it would not
have taken a scratch
it was no diamond at all
the millions vanished in a
moment into thin air. So God detects and exposes character. It was thus in the
narrative before us. “And Joseph said unto them the third day
This do
and
live; for I fear God: if ye be true men bring your youngest brother unto me.”
That single scratch spoiled all the string of diamonds. “And they said one to
another
We are verily guilty concerning our brother
in that we saw the
anguish of his soul
and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come
upon us.” The “ true men” were found out
they knew themselves to be frauds. So
God finds us all out one day or the other
one way or other. We notice
sometimes with our friends how they suddenly stand revealed to us in a light
most unexpected; they flash upon us in a character hitherto wholly unsuspected
by us. And so our true self is long concealed from ourself
but at last God by
His Spirit makes us know our true self
and we are filled with astonishment and
distress. By Christ “ the thoughts of many hearts are revealed.” By the Spirit
of Christ “the world is convinced of sin
of righteousness
and of judgment.”
The Pharisee at last becomes a publican
and smiting on his breast
cries
“God
be merciful to me a sinner.” “A true man.” Is not that the very grandest
character you can give a man? How eloquent it is! “A true man.” Is not that the
very grandest epitaph you can write over the dead? Rich man
successful man
great man
gifted man
no
none of these are to be compared with “ a true man.”
We all covet that inscription far more than sculptured urn or animated bust.
And yet many of us are painfully conscious that we are not “true men.” Oh! no
far from it. How full we are of weakness
hypocrisy
confusion
misery. “False
and full of sin I am.” But we may be all made “true men.” Jesus was the true
man
“the Son of Man
” as Luther calls Him
“the Proper Man.” Oh! how brave
noble
majestic
tender
pure
true
was the ideal Man. How grand is man when
he reaches the full conception of his nature! And Christ can make us “true
men
” that is His mission. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Searchings of heart
I. PAINFUL
SUSPENSE.
II. PANGS OF
REMORSE.
III. A PERPLEXING
INCIDENT (Genesis 42:27-28).
IV. A PLAINTIVE
LAMENT (Genesis 42:36; Genesis 42:38). (W. S. Smith
B. D.)
The accusation
Far be it from us to say that Joseph had attained absolute
perfection when he was on earth
although his virtues were far beyond those of
most other men. It will not be easy
or rather it will be impossible
to exempt
him from the charge of dissimulation
when he alleged that his brethren were
spies. His words are not to be considered as an assertion
but they express a
suspicion
which certainly did not enter into his mind. His design was good. He
meant to humble them for their good
but good intentions will not excuse a
departure from truth. He knew that they were not spies come to see the
nakedness of the land
but he wished
without discovering himself to them
to
be informed of the welfare of his father and of his father’s house. It is to be
remembered that Joseph lived before the law was given. The light which
discovers sin and duty shone less brightly in his days than in ours
and
therefore the limits between what is lawful and what is unlawful would not be
so easily discerned. It is likewise to be feared that Joseph’s station as Prime
Minister in the court of Pharaoh led him into connections
and placed him in
circumstances
unfavourable to progress in virtue. He held fast his integrity
and would not let it go amidst great temptations
but human infirmity
discovered itself in some parts of his conduct. (G. Lawson
D. D.)
The answer
It could not be supposed that one man would suffer ten of his sons
to engage at once in a business so full of perils as that of spies
or that so
many brethren should risk the almost total extirpation of their father’s house
at one blow. It requires a very daring spirit for a man to venture his own life
in an office so desperate; but who would venture at once his own life and the
life of almost all that are dear to him along with his own? Clear proof
at
least
is requisite before belief can be given to an accusation so improbable
as this which was laid against Joseph’s brethren
when it was known that they
all belonged to the same house
and that there was only one brother left at
home with a father sinking under the burden of age. “We are true men
we are no
spies. We are what we pretend to be
and have assumed no false character.” The
business of a spy is not in all cases unlawful. It is a business
however
so
full of temptations to falsehood that an honest man will not rashly undertake
it. (G. Lawson
D. D.)
Put to the test unconsciously
The whole treatment of his brothers by Joseph was meant to prove
their characters
and see whether they had or had not repented of their sin
against him
and whether they had or had not changed their disposition and mode
of life. They did not know that he was thus experimenting on them
but the
result satisfied him
and led to his revelation of himself to them. Now it is
often similar with men and their fellows. When Gideon led his army to the
brook
and saw his soldiers drink
they had no idea that he was picking out his
three hundred for his midnight attack on the Midianitish camp. But so it was;
for those who did not care luxuriously to go down on hands and knees to put
their mouths to the stream
but who simply lapped the water up with their hands
as a dog laps up with his tongue
showed thereby that they had the qualities of
rapidity
dash
and hardihood which were specially needed for the service on
which he was bent
and therefore they were selected for it. Even so men have
been watched by others when they were not thinking of anything of the kind
and
the diligence
energy
integrity
and amiability which they have shown has
commended them to those interested for some situation of trust
honour
and
emolument. Young man
your employer is testing yon when you do not know it
therefore see that you are faithful and obliging even in that which is least
that you may approve yourself worthy of something greater. Many incidents might
here be narrated to prove that men have risen from comparative obscurity to
eminence simply because they had been tested
unwittingly to themselves
by
others who were on the outlook for the agents that would most effectually serve
their purpose. When they rose
envious people prated about “luck
” but they who
knew best spoke about character manifested by faithfulness in that which was
least
and saw in their promotion the earthly miniature of the doing of the
last Judge
who shall say to him whom He approves
“Thou hast been faithful
over a few things
I will make thee ruler over many things
enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord.” (W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
Verse 18
For I fear God
The fear of God
1.
The
first impression which the human mind receives from the conviction of an
over-ruling Power
is that of fear. It is a moral impression. It is made upon
the conscience. A feeling of awe at the thought of an invisible witness
who
judges and will requite.
2. “For I fear God.” The text begins with a word that connects it
with something else; that supposes a reason for the assertion it makes. Why
should we thus “fear” Him? Because He is present to every agreement that is
made
to every promise that is spoken
to every purpose that is secretly
devised
to every action
however silently done. Because He is holy
and “the
righteous Lord hateth iniquity.” Because He is mighty
and who can stand before
His displeasure? Because He requires the duty by which we feel ourselves bound.
Because He appoints every law
and chastises for its infraction. Because
if
through that subduing veneration
that salutary dread
we hold fast our
integrity and depart from evil
we are encouraged by His assurances
we are
encompassed by His defence.
3. There are various ways in which these effects are produced upon
the children of disobedience.
(1) They fear the powers of the visible world
as if they were
ready to betray or smite their delinquencies; as if their sounds might publish
something concerning them
or their “arrows upon the string” had an aim towards
them. The stormy wind or the voice of the waters may have a word to fulfil for
their condemnation. The rustling leaf has a warning. The bare bough points. “A
bird of the air shall carry the matter.” There is a Greek story of a poet who
falling under the daggers of robbers
called upon some cranes who was flying
overhead to avenge his death. While his name and fate were yet upon the public
tongue
in a great assembly of the people--when in the vast theatre of Corinth
open to the sky
the solemn chorus and personation of the Furies were
exhibiting the truth
that “there is no shadow of death where the workers of
iniquity can hide themselves”--a flock of those noisy birds darkened and shook
the air. A cry escapedfrom the assassins
who were present at the spectacle.
Their detection followed
and their just death was added as the terrible
conclusion of the sacred song
and fulfilment of its prophecy. The story may be
true
for doubtless such things have been. And they illustrate one part of the
fact
that the creation
even in its innocent objects and pleasant forms
is
the enemy of those who will not make the Author of it a friend.
4. The several topics hitherto mentioned touch upon what is outside
of us. They have been immediately connected with natural objects
or
distressful incidents
or waning powers. But all these are only circumstances.
The individual consciousness of every one dwells in the midst of them
and
impresses them with a character of its own. Here is the true seat of the
principle. Let each stand in awe of what is within him; of the judgments that
are pronounced beyond mortal hearing
and executed through the habits
the
fancies
the passions
the memories
of the mind itself. Are these habits
depraved--these fancies disordered? Do these passions start away from holy
motives? Do these memories condemn the past
that cannot be restored to be
tried again and live better? The hostilities of nature the utmost rage of the
air and sea
are nothing to this. Pain and misadventure are nothing. The wear
and losses of encroaching years are nothing. (N. L.Frothingham.)
The story of Joseph
Joseph punishes Simeon by imprisonment. It may be that he had
reasons for it which we are not told. But when his brothers have endured the
trial
and he finds that Benjamin is safe
he has nothing left but forgiveness.
They are his brethren still--his own flesh and blood. And he “fears God.” He
dare not do anything but forgive them. He forgives them utterly
and welcomes
them with an agony of happy tears. He will even put out of their minds the very
memory of their baseness. “Now
therefore
be not grieved nor angry with
yourselves that ye sold me hither
” he says; “for God
” &c. Is not that
Divine? Is not that the Spirit of God and of Christ? I say it is. For what is
it but the likeness of Christ
who says for ever
out of heaven to all mankind
“Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye crucified me; for God
my
Father
sent me to save your souls by a great salvation.” My friends
learn
from this story of Joseph
and the prominent place in the Bible which it
occupies--learn
I say
how hateful to God are family quarrels; how pleasant to
God are family unity and peace
and mutual trust
and duty
and helpfulness.
And if you think that I speak too strongly on this point
recollect that I do
no more than St. Paul does
when he sums up the most lofty and mystical of all
his Epistles
the Epistle to the Ephesians
by simple commands to husbands and
wives
parents and children
masters and servants
as if he should say: You
wish to be holy? you wish to be spiritual? Then fulfil these plain family
duties
for they
too are sacred and divine
and he who despises them
despises
the ordinances of God. And if you despise the laws of God
they will surely
avenge themselves on you. If you are bad husbands or bad wives
bad parents or
bad children
bad brothers or sisters
bad masters or servants
you will smart
for it
according to the eternal laws of God
which are at work around you all
day long
making the sinner punish himself whether he likes or not. Examine
yourselves--ask yourselves
each of you
Have I been a good brother? have I
been a good son? have I been a good husband? have I been a good father? have I
been a good servant? If not
all professions of religion will avail me nothing.
If not
let me confess my sins to God
and repent and amend at once
whatever
it may cost me. (C. Kingsley
M. A.)
The fear of God
This fear should daily control every Christian. No influence on
the feelings
or the character
can be more salutary. What greater preservative
from wrong can there be in youth
than the constant presence of a parent
whose
feelings we regard
whose opinions we respect
and whose judgment we reverence.
And if the presence of a parent is so salutary in restraining us from
transgression
how much more so must the impression be
that we act in the view
of the Almighty? And how appropriate to the condition of an immortal being is
the state of mind
which is described in the saying
“I fear God.” “I fear
God.” I know He is here. He is everywhere. I cannot go from His presence
nor
flee from Him. To live
and move
and be in the presence of so great and
adorable a being
cannot but excite emotions of awe. It cannot fail
if rightly
considered
to produce a salutary fear in the heart of every child of Adam. “I
fear God.” He knows all my actions. Not one of them has been concealed from His
view. The sins of my childhood are known to Him. They are written in His book.
The iniquities of my youth are kept in His remembrance. The transgressions of
maturer years are not hidden from His eyes. No palliation nor excuse can cause
Him to take a different view of them from that with which He beholds them. He
understands my thoughts. “There is not a thought in my heart
but He knows it
altogether.” There is no operation of my intellect
which He does not readily
perceive. The subterfuges
which a perverted heart
or a soul full of
prejudice
cast over its own doings
do not conceal it from the Most High. He
knows all my opinions. If interest
or the fear of man
or the pride of
consistency shall influence me to give
as my view of facts or of truths
a
sentiment at variance with what seems to me to be according to truth
He sees it
all. He fully comprehends the hyprocrisy of the transaction
and abhors the
iniquity. He knows my motives. He knows what it is in us that moves us to
retain His Word in our families; what it is that influences us to come to His
house; what it is that incites any of us to profess to be His disciples. He
knows all our feelings. There is no affection in our hearts which is not
entirely open to His view. I fear God; for He is holy. To some
it may seem
strange that the holiness of a being should be a ground of fear. But there is
no other consideration which invests the character of Jehovah with such
fearfulness
as that of His holiness. And this is as true of those who are
holy
as of those whose sinfulness exposes them to His indignation. No other
trait is more prominent in the character of devout men
than the fear of God.
And this reverential regard for Him does not abate
even when the soul becomes
perfect in glory. When John had a view of the heavenly world
he heard them
“sing the song of Moses
the servant of God
and the song of the Lamb
saying
‘Great and marvellous are Thy works
Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy
ways
Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee
O Lord
and glory Thy name
for Thou only art holy!’” “I fear God”; for He has a settled aversion to sin.
This is His nature
and He is immutable--immutable in His attachment to
holiness
and in His opposition to sin. Now
who that knows the holiness of
Jehovah
and His constant abhorrence of sin
will not fear Him? Can a human
being
who is convinced that he has violated the law of God--who understands
that during many years he was constantly engaged in rebellion against Him--who
feels
that even if he has been born of God
he has not been perfect
but is
chargeable every day
in the view of Infinite Holiness
with many
transgressions--can he live without fear? Considering the strength of his
unsubdued propensities to evil
will he not be apprehensive that he may incur
the displeasure of a Holy God? “I fear God;” for He inflicts severe chastisements
even in this life
on such of His people as wander from Him. “I fear God”; by
Him I must be judged. All my deeds
my words
and my feelings
must pass His
scrutiny and receive His sentence. Do you say
if I am a Christian
I ought not
to fear? The Saviour has not thus instructed me. “I will forewarn you
” said He
to His disciples
“whom ye shall fear--fear Him who has power to destroy both
soul and body in hell; yea
I say unto you
fear Him.” In view of such a Judge
who will not fear? Now
if such a fear of God occupy our souls
then it will be
impossible not to speak reverentially respecting Him. Again: If this fear of
God be in us
we shall have a happy influence on others. Our conversation will
evince that there is something in our hearts
which is not known to the world
nor felt by such as are alienated from God. Our lives will tell to all around
us that there is something in the fear of God which is calculated to diffuse a
heavenly savour over all cur feelings and actions. In ways innumerable--in ways
which
it is impossible for us to describe
or others to see--a grace will
distil on those around us like drops of the morning dew; and blessings of
immeasurable value
and eternal duration
will descend upon them. Brethren--let
the fear of God dwell at all times in your’ hearts; for “to that man
” said
Jehovah
“will I look
who is humble
and of a contrite heart
and who
trembleth at My word.” (J. Foot
D. D.)
Verse 19-20
Let one of your brethren be bound
Lessons
1.
To
prove truth among national parties
it is not unequal to give hostages.
2. Hostages being taken it is but equal that parties have liberty to
manifest truth.
3. Nature will not
much less grace
dispatch hungry men without
food.
4. Bread-corn is the break-neck of hunger (Genesis 42:19).
5. Reasonable testimonies of truth may be peremptorily demanded of
suspected persons.
6. Justification and security are to be afforded to men of truth.
7. It is reasonable for men under trials to yield to just terms for
deliverance (Genesis 42:20). (G. Hughes
B. D.)
Verse 21-22
We are verily guilty concerning our brother
Conscience awakens in Joseph’s brethren
I.
Joseph’s
brethren had not been placed in any peculiar circumstances of trial since the
loss of Joseph; consequently their sin had slept. There had been nothing to
call it to light; they had well-nigh forgotten it; its heinousness had become
dim in the distance. But now they were in trouble
and they could not help
seeing the hand of God in that trouble. Their spiritual instinct told them that
their trouble did not spring out of the ground; it had been planted there--it
had a root. Their sin had found them out at last
and their own adversity
brought about that contrition for their offence which its own hatefulness ought
to have been sufficient to produce.
II. We see from
this story that men may commit sins
and may forget them; and yet the sins may
be recorded
and may one day rise up again with a frightful vitality. Men will
soon bury their own sins
if they be left to themselves; but it is like burying
seed
which appears to die and be forgotten
and yet it rises up again
and
perhaps becomes a great tree.
III. The voice of
conscience is a good voice
a wholesome voice--yea
the very voice of God to
our souls
and one to be welcomed by us if we only listen to it at the right
time. The consciousness of guilt is a blessed thing
if only it come at the
right time
and when there is opportunity for bringing forth fruits meet for
repentance. Well for us if our estimate of our condition is the same
at least
in its main features
as that estimate which God has made
and which the last
day will produce! (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
The memory of conscience
I. IT IS SURE TO
AWAKEN
THOUGH IT MAY SLUMBER LONG.
II. IT IS
SOMETIMES AWAKENED BY OUTWARD TROUBLE.
III. IT IS FAITHFUL
AND JUST.
1. In that it brings the past accurately to mind.
2. In that it connects the penalty with the sin.
IV. IT CONVERTS
MORAL DIRECTION AND REMONSTRANCE INTO REPROACH AND UPBRAIDING. Reuben became to
his brethren what conscience becomes to the sinner.
V. IT REMINDS US
OF MORAL PROCESSES NOW AT WORK IN THE WORLD. God’s searching providence is ever
bringing past sins to light. Christ’s Cross reveals the darkness of the world’s
guilt. (T. H. Leale.)
The Nemesis of wrong
I. THE POSSESSION
OF A GUILTY SECRET.
1. This secret bound them henceforward to a life of hypocrisy.
2. This secret filled them with constant anxiety.
3. This secret neutralized all healthful moral influence.
II. THE BLACK
CLOUD OF SUSPICION DARKENED THEIR DAILY LIFE.
1. They were the objects of suspicion. Jacob refused to allow
Benjamin in their company.
2. They were the subjects of suspicion. Living in dread of God and man.
III. THE
EVER-DREADED
BUT INEVITABLE
EXPOSURE OF THEIR GUILT. (J. C.Burnett.)
Joseph’s brethren in trouble -
I. THAT MEN UNDER
THE INFLUENCE OF FEAR CAN CONTEMPLATE ONLY THE WORST TRAITS IN THEIR CHARACTER.
II. THAT TIME DOES
NOT OBLITERATE THE SINFULNESS OF AN EVIL DEED.
III. THAT THE VOICE
OF CONSCIENCE IS UNCHANGEABLE.
IV. THE
RECOGNITION OF THE LAW OF RETRIBUTION. (Homilist.)
The guilt of neglecting the souls of our brethren
I. THE SOURCES
FROM WHENCE THESE CONVICTIONS ARE TO BE DERIVED.
1. The relation of the sufferers. Our brethren.
2. The wretchedness of their state.
3. Our orders to succour them.
4. The possibility of affording them succour.
5. The facilities we have in this cause of compassion.
6. That even the effort we have made in this work furnish evidence
of our guilt.
II. WHAT INFLUENCE
SHOULD THESE CONVICTIONS PRODUCE?
1. The depravity of human nature will be acknowledged.
2. Deep and godly sorrow will be felt.
3. It will lead us to apply to the mercy of God.
4. It will awaken zeal. (J. Summerfield
M. A.)
Transgression unperceived
I. The most
dangerous propensity of sin is its deceivableness; the concealment of its true
nature and danger when committed
the extent and evil of it are seldom
perceived; a veil is thrown over its hideous and destructive qualities; and it
is imagined to be
if not altogether defensible in the sight of God
at least
desirable at the moment
and tolerable. However the conscience may give warning
that all is not perfectly right
the consequences are commonly neither foreseen
nor apprehended. Whether this be in the very nature of sin
as brought by the
spirit of evil into the world; or whether that wicked spirit
with his
numberless agents
is continually exercised in producing this deceit; or whether
it proceed from both these sources
which is probable
the evil and misery are
the same: men are tempted to sin
because they do not perceive its utter
sinfulness; and it seems as if they could do it with impunity
do it and have
nothing to fear.
II. And here
as
we see the dreadful nature of sin
how it blinds the sinner
and makes him
content with his guilt
so do we see the goodness of our heavenly Father
how
graciously
by the ordination of His providence
He leads the transgressor to a
deep sense of his perilous condition; how compassionately He interposes to
deliver him from the fatal snare.
III. The
instruction to be drawn from this subject is highly beneficial and important:
it warns us to consider our own case
to look into our own condition. And let
us be mindful that we do draw
from such considerations and examples
the right
conclusion.
IV. There are two
great considerations in connection with this subject
which I desire to press
upon your attention.
1. The importance of our hearts being always open to God’s merciful
dealings in awakening us
and reclaiming us from evil.
2. That we profit from them without delay. (J. Slade
M. A.)
The Christian responsible for his influence over others
The language of self-reproach
which sharp compunction wrung from
Jacob’s sons
may well be adopted by many among ourselves. Take the most
favourable case you can. Grant that you have done no positive harm to others.
Have you not
too often
forgotten to do them good? Some
with no more natural
abilities
and no better opportunities than their neighbours
render all with
whom they come in contact
wiser
holier
and happier. Others
possessing the
same powers of mind
and surrounded by she same circumstances
stand like a
moral Upas
rendering the very atmosphere about them unwholesome and deadly.
But
alas! how many who ought to improve a privilege so great
are
by
inactivity and gross neglect
preparing for themselves seasons of sorrow in the
future
when they will cry out
in agony of soul
knowing it is then too late
to offer advice or aid to one who has become hopelessly hardened in sin
but
whom
at an earlier period in his career
they possessed influence enough to
save: “We are verily guilty concerning our brother.” The wicked might kindly
have been warned; the ignorant might easily have been taught; the headstrong
might have been moved by expostulation and love; the poor might have been
effectually relieved. Selfishness is the true secret of such unwarrantable
neglect. We are disposed to think too much of our ease. Christians should not
be contented with being in the right road themselves
but they should feel a
lively interest in the welfare of others. Christians are responsible for their
example. They are “the salt of the earth.” They are “the leaven
” which must
leaven the whole lump. Their example in their families
in private intercourse
with friends
and in their regular occupation
should be safe and consistent.
Christian principle should be discovered in everything. Is it any wonder that
the ungodly mock? Can we be surprised that unbelievers multiply? Is it
astonishing that such a reckless disregard of ordinary duties
and such a
strange forgetfulness of the importance of setting a good example
should draw
a long train of calamities in the wake of inconsistent Christians
and cause
them
in the hour of sickness and death
to cry out
at the remembrance of a
brother
or husband
or child
or friend
shipwrecked and ruined by their
neglect: “We are verily guilty concerning our brother”? (J. N. Norton
D. D.)
Of the cause of inward trouble
In this chapter we have the description of our fathers
the
patriarchs; their first journey into Egypt for corn
to relieve their famine in
Canaan. Herein is considerable--
1. Their entertainment there: it was harsh
with much trouble
more
danger.
2. The consequence of this their hard and distressful usage and
entreatment; and that is trouble of mind
horror and perplexity of spirit: “And
they said one to another
” &c. The words
then
are the Holy Ghost’s report
of the case of the sons of Jacob
their being spiritually troubled
by way of
conviction
or judgment in their own (which also is the Lord’s) court of
conscience.
Wherein we observe--
1. The actors themselves: being the registers
accusers
witnesses
judge
and tormentors.
2. Process in judging themselves: wherein--
(a) In general: “We are guilty.”
(b) In particular: Of envy
wrong against a brother; whom in
bitterness we saw without pity
and were deaf to his entreaties; obstinate to
the admonition of Reuben
and abiding therein.
3. Execution: wherein--
(a) In general: Many years after the offence was done.
(b) In special: Now that they were outwardly in an afflicted
condition.
Doctrines:
I. Every man hath
a conscience within himself.
II. The guilt of
sin turns a man’s conscience
that is
himself
against himself.
III. Conscience is
apt to be very sensible
when it is awakened
not only of sin
but particular
sins
and the particular circumstances and degrees thereof to the utmost; and
charge all upon a man’s self
not upon God’s decrees or providence
nor upon
the devil or evil company
&c.
IV. Envy
unnatural affection
cruelty
deafness to the entreaties of the distressed
obstinacy against warning and admonition
continuance in sin without repentance
&c.
are very heinous and dangerous.
V. The
accusations and condemnations of conscience are terrible
or cause terror
beyond all expression.
VI. There is a
time when God will call over sins that are past
and charge them upon the
conscience.
VII. Inward trouble
of mind sometimes (yea
usually) comes upon the people of God
when they are
outwardly in some distress. (E. Pledger
M. A.)
The moral impotence of time
Twenty years after the event l Their recollections of that event
was as clear as if it transpired but yesterday. Learn the moral impotence of
time. We say this evil deed was done fifty years ago. Fifty years may have some
relation to the memory of the intellect
but it has no relation to the
tormenting memory of the conscience. There is a moral memory. Conscience has a
wondrously realizing power--taking things we have written in secret ink and
holding them before the fire until every line becomes vivid
almost burning.
Perhaps some of you know not yet the practical meaning of this. We did something
twenty years ago.
We say to ourselves
“Well
seeing that it was twenty years ago it
is not worth making anything to do about it
it is past
and it is a great pity
to go twenty years back raking up things.” So it is in some respects
a great
pity to bother ourselves about things other men did twenty years ago. But what
about our own recollection
our own conscience
our own power of accusation? A
man says
“I forged that name twenty-five years ago
and oh! every piece of
paper I get hold of seems to have the name upon it. I never dip the pen
but
there is something in the pen that reminds me of what I did by candle light
in
almost darkness
when I had locked the door and assured myself nobody was
there. Yet it comes upon me so graphically--my punishment is greater than I can
bear!” Time cannot heal ouriniquities. Forgetfulness is not the cure for sin.
Obliviousness is not the redeemer of the world. How then can I get rid of the
torment and the evils of an accusing memory? The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanseth from all sin. “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man
his thoughts
let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him
and
to our God
for He will abundantly pardon.” That is the kind of answer men
want
when they feel all their yesterdays conspiring to urge an indictment
against them
as sinners before the living God. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The human soul contains within itself all the necessary elements
of retributive penalty
Here is nothing but memory
conscience
and reason; yet what an
exhibition and illustration of the self-retributive power of sin!
1. Memory. “We saw the anguish
” &c.
2. Conscience. “We are verily guilty
” &c.
3. Reason. “Therefore is this distress come upon us.”
Let a soul go into the future state with a memory to recall
a
conscience to accuse
and a reason to justify penalty as deserved; and what
more is necessary to hell? Hence Milton--
“The
mind in its own place
and in itself
Can
make a heaven of hell
a hell of heaven!”
Sin brought home to the conscience
It would be good for us if we could entertain the same views of
sin in the time of temptation
that we are likely to have after it is
committed
or at the time when trouble brings it home to our consciences. When
Joseph cried piteously to his brethren out of the pit
they thought only of the
pleasure of gratifying their envy. They then wilfully overlooked the guilt they
were contracting
and the sorrows they were preparing for their father
and for
them
selves; but when they were in trouble
they remembered their guilt in all
its aggravating circumstances
and they would have given all they had in the
world to recover that degree of innocence to which they might have pretended
before Joseph came into their hands. They were chargeable with many other sins.
Simeon and Levi
in particular
were chargeable with a crime not less heinous
than the murder of Joseph. Yet the affliction which they endured in prison
brought to remembrance in a special manner this sin against their brother. This
was an atrocious iniquity
of which the most of them were equally guilty. We
are naturally averse to suffering of every kind
and yet nothing is more
necessary than suffering when we have sinned. It is necessary for us to know
and feel the bitterness of sin
that we may confess and forsake it. And the
sufferings which our flesh endures
are often necessary and useful to bring our
sins to our remembrance. No doubt Joseph’s brethren had often formerly thought
with regret of the hatefulness of their conduct. If they were not hardened to a
very uncommon degree
their hearts must have smitten them soon after the fact
was committed. The sight of their father’s anguish must have melted their
stubborn spirits. But they needed their afflictions in Egypt likewise to awaken
a new and more affecting sense of their wickedness. Joseph
and God by Joseph
did them a kindness in giving them an experimental knowledge of the bitter
sufferings of an oppressed man
when he pours out tears
but finds no
comforter. (G. Lawson
D. D.)
Therefore is this distress come upon us
Jacob’s sons did not think that the man who had treated them with
such severity knew anything concerning their conduct to their poor brother
but
they knew that there is a God in the heavens
who knoweth and judgeth all the
actions of the children of men. In this knowledge they were trained up by their
father. But although they had been the children of a man who knew not God
this
reflection might have occurred to them in the day of trouble
Adoni-bezek
king
of Jerusalem
had his education amongst the most hardened sinners that ever
lived in the world
and was himself one of the most hard-hearted tyrants that
ever disgraced a throne; yet
when sore trouble came upon him
he acknowledged
that it was the infliction of just punishment from God (Judges 1:1-36.). It is said of the
virtuous Dion
the Syracusan
that when he was compelled to flee from his
country
and knocked at some doors that did not open unto him as they would
have done in former times
he meekly observed to his servant
that perhaps
himself
in the time of his prosperity
had not always opened his door to the
stranger. When we meet from men with treatment which we did not deserve
it may
be of use
for calming our spirits
to consider whether we have not been guilty
of as bad
or even worse conduct
to some of our neighhours. What if God has
commissioned these men who behave ill to us
as His messengers
to execute His
anger for offences against some of their fellow-men? Look forward
ye who have
hitherto lived in ease and prosperity. The day of trouble will come. Plant not
your dying pillow before hand with thorns and briars. If no reverse of
circumstances should come upon you before you till you die
yet you are sure
that you must die; and a death-bed will be the very worst place for such
reflections as awakened conscience may produce. Bitter was the anguish of
Joseph’s brethren
but it would have been ten times more bitter if they had seen
inevitable death before their eyes. They had little prospect of repairing the
injury done to Joseph; but they might yet live to repair in some degree the
wrong they had done to their father
and to seek with tears and supplications
the forgiveness of their sins from God. Look back on your former conduct.
Consider whether you have not done some injuries that may yet be repaired
or
neglected some important duties that may yet be done
before you go to that
place where there is no counsel
nor device
nor work. O death! how terrible
are thy approaches to the man who is conscious that he hath shut his ears
against the cry of the poor
or against the loud calls of the Son of God
urging him to improve the space given him for repentance! (G. Lawson
D. D.)
The time when conscience makes itself heard
Have you ever heard of the great clock of St. Paul’s in London? At
midday
in the roar of business
when carriages
and carts
and waggons
and
omnibuses
go rolling through the streets
how many never hear that great clock
strike
unless they live very near it. But when the work of the day is over
and the roar of business has passed away--when men are gone to sleep
and
silence reigns in London--then at twelve
at one
at two
at three
at four the
sound of that clock may be heard for miles around.
Twelve--One!--Two!--Three!--Four! How that clock is heard by many a sleepless
man! That clock is just like the conscience of the impenitent man. While he has
health and strength
and goes on in the whirl of business
he will not hear
conscience. He drowns and silences its voice by plunging into the world The
time will come when he must retire from the world
and lie down on the sick
bed
and look death in the face. And then the clock of conscience
that solemn
clock
will sound in his heart
and
if he has not repented
will bring
wretchedness and misery to his soul. (Bp. Ryle.)
Indestructibility of conscience
Man’s conscience was once the vicegerent of Deity: what conscience
said within was just the echo of what God said without; and even now
conscience in its ruin has enough of its pristine eloquence and surviving
affinity to God never to be altogether and always silent. The passions try to
make conscience a sort of citizen-king
putting it up and down as they please:
but it will not quietly submit; it resists the authority of the passions; it
insists upon supremacy; it cannot forget its noble lineage and its erst holy
function derived from God. As long as man can gratify his passions
and give an
opiate to conscience
so long will it be partially quiet. But a day comes when
the passions must be laid
and when every beat of the heart
like the curfew
bell
will tell you that the time for extinguishing their fires is come
and
then and there conscience will re-assert its lost supremacy
grasp its broken
sceptre
and
refusing to be put down
it will emit its true and eternal
utterances; and reason of righteousness
and temperance
and judgment; and
prove that man may peradventure live without religion
but die without it he rarely
can. A death-bed is that hour when conscience re-asserts its supremacy
however
stupefied it may have been with the opium of half a century
and reminds its
possessor of all behind and before. In such a case there are two resources:
either the Romish priest
with a stronger opiate
under which man will die
deluded and deceived: or the blood of Jesus
with pardon for the sin
and
therefore peace for the conscience
which is the joyful sound of forgiveness. (J.
Gumming
D. D.)
Voice of an evil conscience
The voice of an evil conscience is not one evil in particular
but
a multitude of evils. It is a barking hell-hound
a monster vomiting fire
a
raging fury
a tormenting devil. It is a nature and quality of a guilty
conscience to flee and be terrified
even when all is well
and when prosperity
abounds
and to change such prosperity into danger and death. (Luther.)
A burdened memory
A dying man
floating about on the wreck of the Central
American
thought he heard his mother’s voice saying
“Johnny
did you take
your sister’s grapes?” Thirty years before his sister was dying of consumption
and he had secretly eaten some choice grapes sent her by a friend. For twenty
years the words had passed from his recollection. What have we really
forgotten.
Verse 22
Do not sin against the child
Do not sin against the child
Thus Reuben reminded his brethren of his admonition concerning
Joseph--thus would I address you with regard to your own children.
Note the words of the text: “Spake I not unto you saying
Do not sin against
the child?” The essence of sin lies in its being committed against God. The
sword of sin cuts both ways
it not only contends against God but against His
creatures too. It is a double evil. Like a bursting shell
it scatters evil on
every side. Every relationship which we sustain involves duty
and
consequently
may be perverted into an occasion for sin. The text calls us to
consider one particular form of sin
namely
sinning against a child
and it is
of that I intend to speak this morning
looking up to the Father of spirits
that He would teach me to speak aright.
I. WHAT IS THIS
WHICH HAS BEEN SAID TO US? “Do not sin against the child.” This warning may be
suitable for every one of us without exception
for those who are not parents
and who are not teachers of the young are nevertheless bound to remember that
they are in a commonwealth of which young people make up a very considerable
part. Little eyes are so quick to observe the actions of those who are grown
up
that adults should be careful what they do. I would say to every man who is
giving full swing to his passions
if nothing else will check you
at any rate
pause awhile when yonder fair-haired girls and lisping children are gazing upon
you. If you care not for angels
stop for the sake of yon blue-eyed boy. Let
not the leprosy of your sin pollute your offspring more than must be. To the
parent the text speaks with a still small voice
to which I trust none of us
will be deaf. “Do not sin against the child”--against your own dear child! Yet
how many parents do so! If
as I now speak
unconverted parents will be
compelled to acknowledge the truthfulness of the accusations I shall lay
against them
I hope they will be led to deep and true repentance. There are
many parents who neglect altogether the religious education of their children.
I remember a woman who was converted at an advanced age
who had been left
years before a widow with many children; she was a most exemplary
moral
and
industrious woman
and earning her living by most laborious work
she yet
managed to bring up all her family
and settle them in a suitable manner; but
after her conversion I think I never saw more bitter tears than those which she
shed when she said
“I took care to feed them and clothe their bodies
but I
never thought of their souls. Alas! for me
I knew no better; but alas! for
them
I left the chief thing undone. The other day I spoke to my eldest son
about the things of God
and he told me religion was all a farce
he did not
regard a word I said; and well
” said she
“might he be an infidel when his
mother never said a word by which he could have been led to be a believer.”
Words were spoken by way of comfort to her
but like Rachel she refused to be
comforted
because she said
and said truly
her great opportunity had been
thrown away. The best time of effort for a mother had been allowed to pass away
unused. Her harvest was passed
and her summer was ended
and her children were
not saved. Parents who teach their children to sing the silly
frivolous
and
perhaps licentious songs
are sacrificing them to Moloch. Shame is it when from
a father’s lips the boy hears the first oath
and learns the alphabet of
blasphemy. There are crowds of parents upon whose head the blood of their
children will certainly descend
because they have launched them on the sea of
life with the rudder set towards the rocks
with a false chart
a deceitful
compass
and every other appliance for securing eternal shipwreck. The text
further bears with equal severity upon the preacher. I feel it chides and
chastens me. Preaching is full often too obscure for children; the words are
too long
the sentences too involved
the matter too mysterious. Sacred
simplicity should be so cultivated by the ambassador of Christ
that lads and
lasses should hear intelligently under a good shepherd
and the least lamb
should be able to find food. But we must push on. I want the Church of God
and
especially this church
to attend carefully to the next few remarks. When
teachers and others are earnest about the conversion of children
and some of
them are converted
they then come into relationship with the Church
and too
often the Lord’s people need the advice
“Do not sin against the child.” How
can a Church so offend? It can do so by not believing in the conversion of
children at all.
II. WHO SAYS THIS
TO US?
1. Nature says it first. The instincts of humanity cry
“Do not sin
against the child. It is but a child; it is little; sin not against it.”
2. Experience adds its voice to nature
“Do not sin against the
child.” Hundreds of parents have been brought with sorrow to the grave through
the natural result of their own failures and trespasses in reference to their
children. They taught the lesson of sin
and the children
having learned it
practised it upon their parents. If you would not stuff your pillow with
thorns
do not sin against the child.
3. Conscience repeats the same advice; that inward monitor ceases
not to remind us of what is due to God and to His peculiar charge
the weak and
feeble. Conscience tells us plainly that we must not sport with
responsibilities so vast.
4. The Church adds her voice to that of conscience. “Do not sin
against the child
” for the children are the Church’s hope. Bring them to
Christ
that He may put His hands upon them and bless them
that they may
become the future teachers and preachers
the pillars and defence of Christ’s
Church below.
5. God Himself
speaking from the excellent glory
this morning
saith to each one of His servants here
“Do not sin against the child
” and I
ask that if no other voice be heard
we may all bow before His glorious
Majesty
and ask for grace to be willing and obedient.
III. Thirdly
having
heard the message
WHAT THEN? Only two things.
1. Does not that exhortation startle some of the unconverted and
unawakened here? I think if I were as you are
sir
if I had lived to be sixty
years of age
and my son had died through drunkenness
or my daughter were at
this time living a godless life
and I were unconverted
it would shoot a pang
through my heart to think that I should have brought such misery upon them
through my neglect of Divine things.
2. Does not this command of this morning press upon every Christian
here
not alone upbraiding us
but as arousing our laggard energies
exciting
us to something more of diligence and effort? Will you not roll away that
reproach which I mentioned just now
which rests upon some of you
because
there are schools without teachers? Parents
will you not pray for your
children
and even to-day seek to hold up Jesus before them? Will we not all
God helping us
say within ourselves
that we will not longer sin against the
child
but in Jesus’ name seek to gather His lambs and feed them for Him? (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Do not hurt the child
I. How MAY WE SIN
AGAINST A CHILD?
1. We may sin against a child first of all by spoiling him. If the
peach trees and plum trees that are nailed to the garden walls by a hundred
little pieces of cloth could but think and speak
they might very likely say to
the gardener so busily at work with the hammer--“Why fasten us up like this
and forbid our beautiful branches from running on the ground or playing in the
breeze. How unkind it is to put so many restraints upon us and leave us so
little liberty; let us just for this season run over the wall
along by the
wall
or away from the wall
or any way we please.” But the gardener
with a
smile
would reply
“It is out of kindness I do it
not from mere caprice. Wait
until the spring has glided into summer
and all thy branches are decked with
snowy bloom. Wait until the summer has mellowed into autumn
and then when thy
boughs are laden with fruit
which they never could have borne but for these
restrictions
then you will see that all has been done for thy good and to make
thy fruit the richer.” So
parents
out of very kindness to the child you must
sometimes say
“No
” and place restrictions on him.
2. There is a second way in which you may sin against a child
the
very reverse of that just mentioned
and it is by harshness.
3. A third way of sinning against a child is by bad example. It is
Gilfillan who remarks that “any fault in a parent
any inconsistency
any
disproportion between profession and practice
or precept and practice
falls
upon the child’s eye with the force and precision of sunbeams on a
daguerreotype plate.” On what other ground can you account for the awful
proficiency in sin which you find in many a little one?
4. There is a fourth way of sinning against a child which I do not
for a moment suppose is followed by any present. It is by selling a child for
gain. Would that my Master might enable me to express in language strong enough
the indignant thoughts that burn within my breast concerning this miserable
traffic in children’s souls. Joseph is not the only child that has been sold
for a few pieces of silver. Do you ask me what I mean and to what I refer? I
answer to the thoughtless wicked practice of setting the child to any kind of
work
and placing him amidst any kind of companionship so as to have the
benefit of the few pence he may earn. Better starve without it than live by it
for it is nothing less than blood money.
5. Our next point is one that will
I doubt not
include many
present. You may sin against the child by neglecting the means for its
salvation.
II. THERE ARE MANY
REASONS WHY WE SHOULD NOT SIN AGAINST THE CHILD.
1. Sin not against him
because he is a child. If you must sin
against some one
sin against one of your own size and strength
but it is a
dastardly thing and Cowardly to sin against a child. The little thing’s
innocence ought to be its safeguard
and its very weakness should prove its
protection.
2. Sin not against the child
because by so doing you may blast his
whole life. You may with your foot so alter the course of that tiny little
mountain rivulet that
instead of flowing gently down and widening as it goes
until it glides through the smiling valley
refreshing thirsty man and beast
it leaps from rock to rock
from crag to crag
falling at last with hideous
roar clown some black precipice. Oh
the fatal result of turning its course so
near the spring.
3. Do not sin
moreover
against the child
because children are
Christ’s favourites. He ever showed a peculiar sympathy with and care over
children. (A. G. Brown.)
His blood is required
The heinousness of sin
From this
as well as from many other passages of Scripture
may
be learnt the unpardonable nature of sin
and that even penitence itself cannot
always protect us from the evils which vice naturally brings in its train. And
this we see to be continually the case in the world around us. We often
perceive that the consequences of one false step
one single error
can never
be altogether averted
by any repentance or amendment on the part of the
sinner. Suspicion and distrust still cling to him through life
haunting him at
every step
and blasting all his prospects. This is the natural course of
things; and what is the natural course of things but the will of God
making
use of human instruments to manifest to the world His utter abhorrence of even
the very appearance of evil. Let us not
then
deceive ourselves in supposing
that because God has opened to us a hope of forgiveness
through the death of
His Son
sin has thereby lost any of its blackness in His sight. Still less let
us imitate the conduct of those who do evil that good may come
and who
profanely imagine that God can be glorified by their iniquities. It is true that
“there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth
more than over ninety
and nine just persons which need no repentance”--but the joy arises from the
unexpectedness and difficulty of his repentance
and not from his greater
acceptableness in the sight of a holy God. Let it then be our earnest labour
from our earliest youth to our latest old age
to keep ourselves as much as
possible undefiled in the way
and we shall still feel enough of our original
frailty within us
to convince us that we are
after all
but unprofitable
servants. Let the magnitude of the price which has been paid for our offences
be a proof to us of the heinous nature of sin
and not an occasion of
negligence. And let us learn
from the example before us
that guilt
though it
may be retrieved
by repentance
from eternal punishment in the next world
will hardly ever escape from its evil consequences in this--that though the
wound may be healed
yet the scar will still remain--and that though we may
sin
like Reuben
from weakness rather than from vice
yet from us
like
Reuben
will some bitter atonement for our transgression be hereafter required.
(D. Charles.)
Blood-guiltiness
Although it was not certain that Joseph was dead
yet Reuben had
too good reason to charge his brethren with blood-guiltiness. They were guilty
of a bloody crime even in the eyes of men. No thanks were due to them for the
care that Divine Providence took of him
any more than we owe thanks to the
murderers of our Lord
because God brought Him again from the dead. We are
accountable for those mischiefs that are the probable consequences of our
wilful sins
as much as for the real consequences of them
if we had the same
reason to dread them. When we repent of such sins
our grief on the whole will
not be so painful as it would have been if God had not prevented the fatal
effects which we had reason to dread; but the sin is the same
and the grief
with which we ought to lament the sin is the same
only it is to be mingled
with thankfulness and joy in that mercy which hath counteracted the natural
effects of our misconduct. Two pair of combatants go forth to fight a duel. One
kills his antagonist. Another fires his pistol with a view to kill his
neighbour; but Divine Providence mercifully prevents the shedding of blood. He
is no less a murderer in the eye of God than the other
and has the same reason
to deplore his bloody purposes. But the other has an additional reason or
bitter grief
because God hath suffered him to execute his bloody purpose
and
to send into the other world a fellow-creature
who died in an act of
wickedness like his own. You will all say
that whatever crimes are chargeable
upon you
the guilt of blood is not in your skirts. Joseph’s brethren might
probably have said the same thing. They do not say
We are guilty of our
brother’s blood
but
We are guilty of turning a deaf ear to his mournful
cries. Reuben
however
does not hesitate to charge them in direct terms with
the guilt of blood; and we do not find that they had the courage to contradict
him. They could not but see that their cruelty to Joseph had brought on
or
might have brought on
his death. Isaiah tells the people of his own time
that
their hands were full of blood (Isaiah 1:15). It is not to be supposed
that the generality of the people were chargeable with that kind of murder
which would have exposed them to an ignominous death by the laws of their
country. But in the eyes of the great Judge
they were stained with blood in
such a manner
that when they made many prayers with hands stretched out to His
throne of mercy
He turned away His eyes from beholding them and His ears from
hearing their supplication (Isaiah 1:15). (G. Lawson D. D.)
Verse 24
He turned himself about from them and wept
Joseph’s feelings on seeing his brethren
After the lapse of twenty years
Joseph on seeing his brethren
wept.
Why
he might have been vengeful! It is easy for us glibly to read the words
“Joseph turned himself about and wept.” But consider what the words might have
been! We oftentimes see results
not processes. We do not see how men have had
to bind themselves down
crucify themselves--hands
feet
head
and side--and
undergo death in the presence of God
before they could look society in the
face with anything like benignity and gentleness and forgiveness. What the
words might have been! Joseph
when he saw his brethren
might have said
“Now
I have you! Once you put me in a pit--I shall shake you over hell; once you
sold me--I will imprison you and torture you day and night; you smote me with
whips--I shall scourge you with scorpions! It shall be easier to go through a
circle of fire than to escape my just and indignant vengeance to-day!”
He might have said
“I shall operate upon the law
‘A tooth for a tooth and an
eye for an eye.’” That is the law of nature; that is elementary morality. It is
not vengeance
it is not resentment; it is alphabetic justice--justice at its
lowest point--incipient righteousness. It is not two eyes for an eye
two teeth
for a tooth; but an eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth
a blow for a blow
a
pit for a pit
selling for selling
and so on. A great many men are perfectly
content with elementary morality and alphabetic justice. People don’t educate
themselves from this kind of righteousness into Christian nobility of
disposition. It is not a question of education; it is a question of
sanctification. Few men can rise beyond mere justice. Many men find in mere
justice all the moral satisfaction which their shallow natures require; they
cannot see that mercy is the very highest point in justice
and that when a man
stoops to forgive be becomes a prince and a king and a crowned ruler in the
house and kingdom of God. It requires all that God can do to teach men this:
That there is something higher than the law of retaliation
that forgiveness is
better than resentment
and that to release men is oftentimes-if done from
moral consideration and not from moral neglect--the highest form of Christian
justice. But revenge is sweet! I am afraid that some of us like just a little
revenge; not that we would ourselves personally and directly inflict it
but if
our enemies could
somehow or another
be tripped up
and tumble half way at
least into a pit
we should not feel that compunction and sorrow and distress
of soul which
sentimentally
appears to be so very fine and beautiful. Nothing
but God the Holy Ghost can train a man to this greatness of answering the
memory of injury with tears
and accepting processes in which men only appear
to have a part
as if God
after all
had been over-ruling and directing the
whole scheme.. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The secret sorrows of men
“And Joseph turned himself about from them and wept.” Afterwards
he left their presence and went into his chamber and wept. Think of the secret
sorrows of men! The tears did not flow in the presence of the ten men. The
tears were shed in secret. We do not know one another altogether
because there
is a private life. There are secret experiences. Some of us are two men. Joseph
was two men. He spake roughly unto his brethren. He put it on
he assumed
roughness for the occasion. But if you had seen him when he had got away into
his secret chamber
no woman ever shed hotter
bitterer tears than streamed
from that man’s eyes. We do not know one another altogether. We come to false
conclusions about each other’s character and disposition. Many a time we say
about men
“They are very harsh
rough
abrupt”; not knowing that they have
other days when their very souls are dissolved within them; that they can
suffer more in one hour than shallower natures could endure in an eternity. Let
us be hopeful about the very worst of men. Some men cannot cry in public. Some
men are unfortunately afflicted with coarse
harsh voices
which get for them a
reputation for austerity
unkindliness
ungeniality. Other men are gifted with
fairness and openness of countenance
gentleness and tunefulness of voice. When
they curse and swear it seems as though they were half praying
or just about
to enter into some religious exercise. When they speak
when they smile
they get
a reputation for being very amiable men
yet they do not know what amiability
is. They have no secret life. They weep for reputation; they make their tears
an investment for a paltry renown. We do not want all our history to be known.
We are content for men to read a little of what they see on the outside
and
they profoundly mistake that oftentimes. But the secret history
the inner room
of life
what we are and what we do when we are alone
no man can ever
tell--the dearest
truest
tenderest friend can never understand. Do not let us
treat Joseph’s tears lightly. Under this feeling there are great moral
principles and moral impulses. The man might have been stern
vengeful
resentful. Instead of that he is tender as a forgiving sister. When he looks he
yearns
when he listens to their voices all the gladness and none of the
bitterness of his old home comes back again on his soul. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Joseph’s emotion
The hearing of the bitter reflections made by his brethren
upon
their barbarous treatment of himself
brought rivers of waters from Joseph’s
eyes. Many passions
many unpleasant and many pleasant remembrances
struggled
together in his mind. He tenderly sympathized with the distress of his
brethren. He was grieved when he found it necessary to inflict such grief upon
men so dear to him
after all they had done to ruin his comfort. He wept at the
remembrance of that anguish which he had felt in the day of his calamity
and
of the unavailing applications to his hard-hearted brethren
extorted by strong
necessity and bitter anguish. He called to mind his afflictions and his misery
the wormwood and the gall; but he remembered also how the Lord had sent from
above
and taken and drawn him out of many waters
and set him in a large
place
and established his goings. Although Joseph was now exalted to glory and
power
he was not in the place where all tears are wiped from every eye. We
must in this world weep often
even for ourselves; we must often weep for our
friends; but “they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” He that “goeth forth
and weepeth
bearing precious seed
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing
bringing his sheaves with him.” Joseph wished not that his brethren should see
his tears. When he found he could not refrain
he turned himself from them and
wept. Tears shed in secret are the truest indication of the heart. Jeremiah
wept in secret places for the calamities coming upon his people
when the
Lord’s flock was to be carried away captive. (G. Lawson
D. D.)
Took from them Simeon
and
bound him:--
Harsh steps sometimes necessary
The circumstances of the case required such a behaviour from
Joseph as ought not to be made a precedent
unless similar circumstances
or
different circumstances of a very uncommon kind
render it advisable. It was
not sufficient to satisfy Joseph that he heard his brethren sorely regret their
conduct towards himself. In the judgment of charity
he hoped their repentance
was sincere; but farther proofs of their sincerity were requisite
before he
could place that confidence which he wished to do
in any professions they
might have made. Parents are not to be blamed when they forgive their offending
but penitent children
although they watch over them with anxious jealousy
lest they should not “bring forth fruits meet for repentance.” The surgeon is
not to be blamed although he give great pain to his patient
by incisions
deeper than appear to ordinary beholders to be necessary. Joseph had too good
reason to know the stubborn spirit of some of his brethren
and in particular
of Simeon; and who knows but he had particular directions from God about the
proper means for taming it? During the two or three days of his brethren’s
imprisonment
he had time to acknowledge the Lord in this important affair
and
the Lord directed his steps. You must not be rash in passing judgment on men’s
conduct. “A tree
” says our Lord
“is known by its fruit.” And yet there are
cases in which the fruit is to be judged of from the tree. If a good man does
actions that are certainly bad
that charity which rejoiceth not in iniquity
but rejoiceth in the truth
will not hinder you from assigning them that
character which they deserve. But if actions are dubious
charity
which
believeth all things
hopeth all things
forbids you to pronounce them bad till
better evidence appear. “He bound Simeon before their eyes.” This circumstance
of Simeon’s imprisonment puts us in mind of Nebuchadnezzar’s cruelty to
Zedekiah
king of Judah
whose sons he slew before their father’s eyes
and
then caused his eyes to be put out
that he might never behold another object.
His intention was to double the calamities of the loss of sight
and of the
murder of his children. But those actions may be not only different
but
opposite in their nature
which present the same appearance when viewed with a
careless eye. An enemy wounds that he may destroy
“but faithful are the wounds
of a friend.” All Joseph’s brethren now with him
except Reuben
needed severe
rebukes; and no reproofs of the tongue were so likely to subdue their haughty
spirit
as the sight of the distress of their brother and companion in
iniquity. But it is probable that Joseph’s chief design in presenting this
melancholy spectacle to their eyes was
that they might be excited to return
more speedily with their younger brother
whom Joseph was impatient to see. The
eye affects the heart. Envy hindered them from regarding the distress of Joseph
in the pit; but it was to be hoped that they would compassionate the sufferings
of that brother who had never offended them by his dreams
nor received from
his father a coat of divers colours. We cannot pretend either to the power or
to the wisdom of Joseph. We do not enjoy such intercourse with Heaven by
immediate revelation as he frequently enjoyed; and therefore
it would be
presumptuous in us to pretend to take such methods as he employed
to
humble the spirits of those who have offended us. We have never met with usage
that can be compared to the treatment which he had received from his brethren.
We must not
however
hope to pass through life without trials to our patience
and meekness. “Who is a wise man
and endued with knowledge among us? let him
show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.” (G.
Lawson
D. D.)
Verses 25-28
My money is restored; and lo
it is even in my sack: and their
hearts failed them
The miseries of an awakened conscience
I.
THEY
PURSUE THE SINNER EVERYWHERE.
II. THEY DRIVE THE
SINNER TO PUT THE WORST CONSTRUCTION UPON EVERY EVENT.
III. THEY ARE
INTENDED TO LEAD THE SINNER TO REPENTANCE. (T. H.Leale.)
The money returned
I. THE RETURN.
Affairs in Egypt strangely settled
they set out on their return. They have
been treated with a perplexing mixture of kindness and harshness. They have
provision for their journey; but they remember the prison
and the hostage they
have left behind. What shall they say to their father? Once they returned
without Joseph. He scarcely recovered from that blow. Now they are without
Simeon
and must demand Benjamin. How great their perplexity! They thought of
Joseph when in the presence of the lord of Egypt; do they think of him now? By
the very road they were travelling they saw him borne away years before. They
were enveloped in mystery. The old man at home among his hungry household
and
their own children awaiting their return. Simeon’s children
too
to meet; and
no father brought back to them.
II. THE DISCOVERY.
Thus perplexed
and anxiously anticipating the result
they arrive at one of
the inns
or khans
at which the caravans stopped to rest. An ass needs
provender. A sack is opened. The money is discovered. Consternation. What can
it all mean? Did they reflect on the money for which they had once sold a
brother? Probably Joseph’s purchasers once lodged with their newly bought slave
in that very inn
and talked of the sum they had given
as these men were now
talking of the money they had found. This money boded no good. An unheard-of thing
that a seller should return the money. Joseph very likely returned the money to
ensure their return; lest they might need food and not have money to buy it. A
new thing to tell their father.
III. THE FAMILY
CONSTERNATION. They arrive at home. The first greetings over
inquiries are
made. Where is Simeon? They relate the history of their adventures and Simeon’s
detention. While they relate this strange history they open their sacks. A new
discovery. All the money returned! Fear seizes the whole family. It is a new
thing in the story of trade. May have been regarded by them as a pretext for
the Egyptians coming and carrying them all away into captivity. Jacob
especially filled with dread. He has now lost two sons
and sees in the
returned money a new occasion of alarm. “All these things are against me.” But
they were all for him
because a son was in it all. “All things shall work
together for the good of them who love God
” because another Son--Jesus
Christ--is concerned in our welfare. Learn:
I. Past sins cast
their shadow on the present
and overcast the future.
II. The wicked
fleeth when no man pursueth.
III. Conscience
converts things strange into things ominous.
IV. Our ignorance
of Divine plans causes us to charge God foolishly.
V. No money needed
to procure the bread of life. “In my hand no price I bring.” Jesus Christ is an
“unspeakable GIFT.” (J. C. Gray.)
A sorrowful company
“They said one to another
What is this that God hath done unto
us?” They all spoke the same language of despondency. None of them
as far as
we find
administered any comfort to his companions. It is an unhappy thing
when
in a company of men
not one is found who can speak a word in season
for
advice or consolation to his companions in trouble. It is reported
that in a
time of persecution
some faithful ministers met together to deliberate about
their duty. All of them for a time were silent
or if anything was said
it
tended only to increase the general dejection. At last they all recovered their
spirits
at hearing one of their number say
“We are all immortal till our work
is done.” These few words gave effect to a truth
which they already knew
that
their days were numbered by a Divine decree
and that it was not in the power
of all the men on earth to cut them off from the land of the living a moment
before the time appointed by the wisdom and love of that God whom they served.
(G. Lawson
D. D.)
The money found in the sack
1. See how sin pursues the sinner. Like an enemy that he cannot
shake off
ready at any moment to accuse and torment. And it will do more
against him hereafter
unless taken away.
2. Observe the fear of these men. They were bold
hard men; yet see
how their heart fails them. Whom do they fear? The stern Egyptian ruler? No.
Their own thoughts
their own secret
their own sin. Nothing makes men so
fearful as an evil conscience.
3. But their thoughts turned not to their sin alone
but to God.
They saw His hand in what befell them. This
as far as it went
was a wholesome
thought. What they said was quite true; it was God that was dealing with them.
It was well that they should feel it. (F. Bourdillon.)
Verses 29-35
They came unto Jacob
Lessons
1.
Providence
carrieth guilty souls in
through
and out of temporal dangers at His will.
2. Gracious fathers are gratified sometimes from God by safe return
of sinful children.
3. Reason will instruct men to declare all events of Providence
furthering
or hindering in the way (Genesis 42:29).
4. In relation of providential events truth must be declared; yet no
need of telling all.
5. In relating providences
evil men are willing to hide sins which
caused them.
6. It concerns suspected
and accused persons to declare what is
required for their purgation. Upon this these sons of Jacob make this narration
of themselves and others (Genesis 42:30-34). (G. Hughes
B. D.)
Lessons
1. Providence ordereth to creatures strange things at home
as well
as abroad.
2. God ordereth good in events to men
which they are apt to think
bad.
3. Mistakes of Providence may make men fear where no cause is (Genesis 42:35). (G. Hughes
B. D.)
Money causing fear
Gold and silver are bright metals. They dazzle the eye of the
greater part of mankind. Achan saw a gold wedge
and
in defiance of an awful
curse
took it to his tent. Yet when Jacob and his sons saw heaps of money in
the mouths of their sacks
they were terrified as if they had seen a serpent.
For what reason were they afraid at a sight so generally desired? They thought
that this money was a snare laid for their lives. And have not many rich men
still greater reason to tremble when they look at their gold and silver? All
money unjustly got
or unrighteously or unmercifully kept
is a snare to the
possessor
and will rise up to witness against him in the day of accounts. Such
riches are corrupted and cankered
and the rust of them shall be a witness
against the owners
and eat their flesh as it were fire. But Jacob and his sons
had no good reason to be afraid when they saw the money. It came not from an
artful knave
but from a kind son and brother
who was tenderly solicitous
about his father and brethren
that they should not come to poverty. Our fears
often proceed from our ignorance and mistake. We are afraid of those evils that
will never come
and stand in no fear of those that will come. Happy are they
who can commit all their affairs to Him who knows everything that shall befall
us. Jacob’s sons were afraid at the inn
when they were told of money in one of
their sacks. But the fears which they had endeavoured to forget were awakened
anew at the opening of all their sacks. Every little circumstance heightens the
distress of minds already dejected; and therefore
in dangerous circumstances
it is necessary to our peace and happiness to have our minds fortified with the
consolations of God. “The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth
but the righteous
is bold as a lion.” (G. Lawson
D. D.)
Verse 36
All these things are against me
The conflict of life
So spoke the patriarch Jacob when Joseph had been made away with
Simeon was detained in Egypt
Benjamin threatened
and his remaining sons were
suspected by him and distrusted; when at his door was a grievous famine
enemies or strangers round about
evil in prospect
and in the past a number of
sad remembrances.
Thus did Almighty God remind His people that the world was not their rest.
I. In Jacob is
prefigured the Christian. What he said in dejection of mind
the Christian must
say
not in dejection
not in complaint or impatience
but calmly
as if
confessing a doctrine--“‘All these things are against me
’ but it is my
portion; they are against me
that I may fight with and overcome them.” If
there were no enemy
there could be no conflict; were there no trouble
there
could be no faith; were there no trial
there could be no love; were there no
fear
there could be no hope.
II. To passages
like these it is natural to object
that they do not belong to the present
time
that so far from Christians being in trouble because they are Christians
it is those who are not Christians who are under persecution. The answer is
that affliction
hardship and distress are the Christian’s portion
both
promised and bestowed
though at first sight they seem not to be. If Christians
are in prosperity
not in adversity
it is because
by disobedience
they have
forfeited the promise and privilege of affliction.
III. Take up thy
portion then
Christian soul
and weigh it well
and learn to love it. (J.
H. Newman
D. D.)
The increasing troubles of Jacob’s old age
I. THE CAUSES
WHICH LED TO THEM.
1. The strange perplexity into which his sons had been brought.
2. The opening again of an old wound (Genesis 42:32).
3. The loss of all earthly hope.
II. THE WEAKNESSES
IN JACOB’S CHARACTER WHICH THEY REVEL.
1. Querulousness and despondency.
2. Want of strong faith in God. (T. H. Leale.)
Mistaking God’s providences
There is nothing more characteristic or more striking in the
nature of man than the alternations often very rapid--to which he is subject of
seasons of self-confidence and gloom.
I. A NATURAL
EXCLAMATION.
1. Human nature in similar circumstances is continually making it. I
might go further
and say that human nature
even after it has been
strengthened and elevated by Christianity
is still continually prone to pass
this judgment upon the providence of God. When lately the edifice of fortune
which perhaps long years of energy and honesty had piled
was in an instant
stricken as by a bolt from heaven
and fell crumbling around you
leaving you
all unsheltered in a cold
unpitying world
could you see a proof of infinite
tenderness
a sign of happiness
in the smoking ruins at your feet?
2. Human nature cannot by itself do otherwise than give this answer.
There is
and can be found
no comfort
no strengthening
for man in mere
nature
and man himself has an instinctive consciousness of this. The highest
effort of philosophy
strictly so called
was simply to harden man--to cure his
wounded sensibilities by first destroying them. Christianity alone can lay open
to man’s tearful gaze the vision of two worlds
and
pouring its sustaining
enlightening influences into his soul
enable him to apprehend the truth that
“the sufferings
” &c. (Romans 8:18).
II. AIDS TO FAITH
FURNISHED BY REASON AND EXPERIENCE. Are there not considerations furnished to
us from these sources which should lead us to regard all God’s dealings with
us
even those which seem to us the heaviest and darkest
as not really against
us
but for us?
1. We should be led to this conclusion by the consideration of God’s
character. “God is love
” and “I
the Lord
change not.”
2. We should be led to this conclusion by the consideration of our
own present ignorance in all things. What can we see of the outgoings of the
All-wise and the All-good other than the veriest hem of His garment? We see a
few isolated facts
but the hidden connections
the far reaching purposes
the
eternal consequences of the mighty plan are entirely covered up from our eyes.
You have sometimes seen from a hill-side
a valley over the undulating floor of
which there has been laid out a heavy mantle of mist. The spires of the
churches rise above it. Here and there you seem to catch the glistening of a
roof or of a vane. Here and there a higher house
or some little eminence
or
some tree-tops islanded in vapour
are beheld. But the lower and connecting
objects--the linking line of the roads
the plan and foundation of the
whole--are completely hidden from our gaze. And this is just the view which is
permitted to us of the providence of God. We see a few isolated facts
and that
is all. How absurd then
in reason
to attempt to determine the character of
the Divine dealings with us upon such a view! How unjust are we when we do so
to our God!
3. We should be led to a patient submission to God’s will
and a
belief that even His severest visitations are the effects and evidences of His
love
from a consideration of the present moral effects of trial and suffering
manifested to us by experience.
Concluding lessons:
1. Contentment. This a day of great hopes
desires
endeavours
and
disappointments.
2. Trust in God (Job 13:15). (W. Rudder
D. D.)
A faithless lament
I. ATHEISTIC. He
makes no mention of God. For the moment he has forgotten how the Lord had led
him at first to Laban’s house
and had given him prosperity during his
twenty-one years’ sojourn in Padan-aram; how He had cared for him when he left
his father-in-law; how He had mollified for him the anger of Esau; how He had
blessed him at Penuel after the night-long wrestling; and how He had protected
him at the time when the violence of some of his sons might have drawn upon him
the vengeance of the Shechemites. Now God was in this new trial as much and as
really as He was in these old ones
and if Jacob had remembered that
he would
not have spoken as he did. We shall see
indeed
that after a while
when his
sons were bidding him farewell on their departure for Egypt for ore food
he
came back to his old trustfulness
and offered for them this prayer: “God
Almighty give you mercy before the man
that he may send away your other
brother
and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children
I am bereaved.” But at
the first
when the full shadow of his trouble passed over him
God was to him
for the moment
eclipsed
and that only made his trial heavier.
II. UNTRUE. All
these things were not against him. They were really working together for his
good. They were onward steps in that process by which he was to recover his
long-lost won
and was to have conferred upon him those years of happiness
that
as we read the history
seem to us to be like the Sabbath of his early
life
which
after the labour and sorrow of the week
he was enabled to spend
in rest
in thankfulness
and in joy. How he would blame himself for these
hasty words in those latter days
when he went to see Joseph in his palace
and
took his grandsons between his knees; and I can imagine him saying to the God
of his fathers
after all the riddle of his life had been unfolded to him
“Now
I know the thoughts of Thy heart towards me
and I bless Thee that they were
thoughts of peace
and not of evil
to give me this delightful end.”
1. Now
from this analysis of Jacob’s experience
we may learn
in
the first place
that God is in all the events of our lives. Many of us are
ready enough to admit that He is in the prosperous things
but when trouble
comes upon us we attribute that solely to others
and “n that way we lose the
comfort which otherwise me might have enjoyed under its endurance. The mercies
of a lifetime are often ignored by us under the bitterness of a single trial;
and God
who has been our friend for years
is forgotten altogether
while we
passionately condemn some others as the authors of our affliction. But we shall
never find consolation that way. The first thing we ought to say regarding
every trial is
“It is the Lord.” If
instead of turning on his sons
Jacob had
only turned to his God
he would have been sustained; and we may be sure of
this
that trouble never yet overwhelmed a man so long as he could see God in
it.
2. Then
again
from our analysis of Jacob’s case
we ought to learn
to pass no sentence of condemnation on God’s work until it is completed. “Judge
nothing before the time.” We must not argue
from the pain of a part of the
process
that there is evil intended to us in the result of the whole. The
surgeon has a stern aspect
and apparently an unfeeling hand
when he cuts into
the diseased organ or amputates the broken limb
but he is working towards
healing all the time. And so it is with God and the discipline of His children.
Wait until He finish His work before you condemn it.
3. Finally
if these two things be true
that God is in our trials
and that the outcome of them all under His supervision will be good
we may
surely stay ourselves in trouble by earnest prayer. “Is any among you
afflicted
let him pray.” We have to deal with no blind
remorseless law. The
Lord Jesus has taught us to say
“Our Father
” and when we enter fully into the
meaning of these words
and recognize clearly that His providence is universal
we shall have no difficulty in saying “Thy will be done”; for the Father’s will
is always love to His own children. That will sustain us while we are on earth.
(W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
The smiling face behind the frowning providence
I. WE HAVE
UNQUALIFIED ASSURANCE THAT GOD IS THE FRIEND OF HIS PEOPLE AND THAT HE IS
DIRECTING AND CONTROLLING ALL THINGS FOR THEIR HIGHEST GOOD. Why
then
should
we ever fall into despair?
II. WE HAVE THE
EVIDENCE OF GOD’S LOVE TO US IN THE DEATH OF HIS SON ON OUR BEHALF. We may
therefore
rest satisfied that He will not harm us by any of the events of His
providence. There are not TWO GODS
one of providence
and one of grace.
III. WE HAVE THE
TESTIMONY OF MANY OF GOD’S PEOPLE TO THE FACT THAT THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE
APPARENTLY HARDEST IN THEIR LOTS
WERE AFTER ALL MOST BLESSED TO THEM. It is
easy to see how that was the case in the history of Jacob which has been before
us. But it is equally conspicuous in the history of Abraham. But it has been
the same with all God’s saints. The head-waters which have fed the main
tributaries to their character
have been away up in some lonely tam of trial
among the mountains
where their souls were sore pressed by the affliction that
came upon them.
IV. YOU MAY FIND
FROM YOUR OWN PAST EXPERIENCE THAT YOUR TRIALS WILL END IN YOUR SPIRITUAL
PROFIT. You are different from any disciples of Jesus whom I have ever known
if you be not ready to say that the greatest starts your spiritual growth has
taken have been occasioned by trial. In the early spring-time
after the seed
has been put into the ground
and has begun to sprout out of the earth
there
come those cloudy
close
damp
steamy days
which we all know so well and
dislike so much. The sun is rarely visible; the heat is more oppressive and
relaxing than in the dog-days; and everybody is uncomfortable. We would rather
have a pelting rain for a few hours and be done with it
or we would infinitely
prefer the cloudless sky and blazing sun of midsummer. Yes
but then these are
the “fine growing days” which the farmer loves
when things seem to be shooting
up from the earth with such rapidity that you almost think you can see them
moving. So
the “fine growing days” of the soul are not its most agreeable
ones. They are the close
damp
depressing ones
in which
as with Paul and his
fellow-passengers in the storm
no sun appears by day
and no star visible by
night. Or
to illustrate it yet in another way: There is a shuddering dread
comes over one as he sees the lightning leap from the cloud
and light up the
midnight gloom with its glare; but if the flash reveal to us that we are
standing on the edge of a precipice over which we are in danger of falling
we
will welcome it in spite of our alarm
and thank God for the providence that
sent it just then. Now
it is so sometimes that trial has come to us
and we
have forgotten the forked fury of the flaming thunderbolt in our gratitude for
the warning which it gave so timely. Who has not known of such times in his
history? and with such experiences behind us
how can we permit ourselves to
say of any circumstances
however untoward they may seem
“All these things are
against us”? Take to yourselves the support which these considerations are
fitted to supply. If I have spoken truly
then--
1. No matter what your trials may be
you may be at peace. You are
in God’s hands. Where could you be better? Where would you be rather?
2. You may see new reason for patience. “Judge nothing before the
time.” Let God finish His work
and when you can look back upon the beginning
from the end
you will not need anyone to vindicate His ways to you.
3. You may surely stay yourselves by earnest prayer. (W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
Lessons
I. A PRINCIPLE OR
AFFECTION
WHICH IS IN ITSELF GOOD
WHEN ALLOWED TO OPERATE EITHER EXCESSIVELY
OR PARTIALLY
MAY GIVE RISE TO SENTIMENTS AND FEELINGS
AS WELL AS TO WORDS AND
ACTIONS
SUCH AS CANNOT BE JUSTIFIED. THE PRINCIPLE TO WHICH I NOW REFER
AS
YOU WILL AT ONCE CONJECTURE
IS THAT OF PARENTAL AFFECTION. But in the instance
before us
amiable as was the principle in itself
it led the aged patriarch to
the feeling and the utterance of what could not be vindicated. For example--
1. His affection for Joseph and Benjamin made him unreasonable to
his other sons.
2. Under the predominant influence of his parental solicitudes
Jacob forgot for the time the hand of his God. “Me have YE bereaved of my
children: Joseph is not
and Simeon is not
and ye will take Benjamin away. All
these things are against me.” Things may often be set in a more striking light
by means of contrast. And Jacob not only overlooked the hand of God; he
manifested criminal distrust of the faithfulness and goodness of the God of the
covenant; distrust of that word which he had never yet known to fail
and of
that ever-watchful care to which heretofore he had been so deeply indebted:
“All these things are against me.” Many a time had the Lord appeared to Jacob.
Many an assurance had He given him of His love and care.
II. THAT THERE IS
GREAT DANGER
ON THE PART OF CREATURES
IN FORMING HASTY CONCLUSIONS RESPECTING
ANY PARTS OF THE DIVINE ADMINISTRATION. How ignorant and short-sighted was the
good old saint! He saw not--and who does?--“what a day was to bring forth.” The
mission of Benjamin was to be the release of Simeon. Benjamin was to be made
happy in the meeting of his own maternal brother. And Jacob himself was to get
tidings of his long-lost boy
that would be the renewing of the youth of his
aged spirit. (R. Wardlaw
D. D.)
All these things--a sermon with three texts
The patriarch must needs use the expression
“ALL THESE THINGS.”
He had gone through the catalogue: there were but three items at the most
and
yet nothing narrower than “All these things are against me” will suit him. “All
these things
” indeed! And what a little “all” compared with the benefits of
God! What an insignificant “all” compared with the sufferings of our covenant
Head! What a trifling “all” compared with the amazing weight of glory which
shall soon be revealed in us!
I. Our first text
is THE EXCLAMATION OF UNBELIEF: “All these things are against me.”
1. In Jacob’s case it was a very plausible verdict. Yet plausible as
was the old man’s mournful conclusion
it was not correct; and hence let us
learn to forbear rash judgment
and never in any case conclude against the
faithfulness of the Lord.
2. Jacob’s exclamation was most evidently exaggerated--exaggerated
in the term he used
“All these things
” for there were but three evils at the
most; exaggerated
too
in most of the statements. You would suppose
from the
patriarch’s language
that beyond all doubt
Simeon had fallen a victim in
Egypt
and that Benjamin was demanded with a view to his instant execution; but
where was evidence to support this assertion? We frequently talk of our sorrows
in language larger than the truth would warrant. We write ourselves down as
peers in the realms of misery
whereas we do but bear the common burdens of
ordinary men.
3. The exclamation of Jacob was also as bitter as it was
exaggerated. It led him to make a speech which (however accidentally true)
with his information as to his sons
was ungenerous
and even worse. He said
“Me ye have bereaved of my children.” Now
if he really believed that Joseph
was torn of beasts
as he appears to have done
he had no right to assail the
brethren with a charge of murder; for it was little else. In the case of
Simeon
the brethren were perfectly innocent; they had nothing whatever to do
with Simeon’s being bound
it was wrong to accuse them so harshly. In the
taking away of Benjamin
though there may have been a jealousy against him as
aforetime against Joseph
yet most certainly the brethren were not to blame.
4. Observe that this speech was rather carnal than spiritual. You
see more of human affections than of grace-wrought faith; more of the
calculator than the believer; more of Jacob than of Israel. Jacob is more the
man and less the man of God than we might have expected him to have been. See
how he dwells upon his bereavements 1 Notice
in the case before us
the
patriarch’s unbelieving observation was quite unwarranted by his past history.
Could Jacob think of Bethel
and yet say
“All these things are against me”?
Could he forget Penuel
and the place where he wrestled and prevailed at the
brook Jabbok?
5. Still keeping to Jacob’s exclamation
let me observe that it was
altogether erroneous. Not a syllable that he spoke was absolutely true. “Joseph
is not.” And yet
poor Jacob
Joseph is. Thou thinkest the beasts have devoured
him
but he is ruler over all the land of Egypt
and thou shalt kiss his cheeks
ere long. “Simeon is not”; wrong again
good father
for Simeon is alive
though for his good
to cool his hot and headlong spirit
Joseph has laid him
by the heels a little. And as to Benjamin
whom thou sayest they wish to take
away
he is to go and see his brother Joseph
who longs to embrace him
and
will return him to thee in peace. Not one of all these things is against thee.
Our best days have been those which we thought our worst. Probably we are never
so much in prosperity as when plunged in adversity. No summer days contribute
so much to the healthy growth of our souls as those sharp wintry nights which
are so trying to us. We fear that we are being destroyed
and our inner life is
at that moment being most effectually preserved.
6. Being wrong in judgment
the good old man was led to unwise
acting and speaking
for he said
“My son shall not go down with you.” The
unbelieving generally do stupid things. We conclude that God is against us
and
then we act in such a way as to bring troubles upon ourselves which otherwise
would not have come.
7. And notice
once more
that good old Jacob lived to find in
actual experience that he had been wrong from beginning to end. We do not all
live to see what fools we have been
but Jacob did.
II. Turn now to
the thirty-eighth chapter of Isaiah
and the sixteenth verse
where you have
THE PHILOSOPHY OF EXPERIENCE: “O Lord
by these things men live
and in all
these things is the life of my spirit.” Unbelief saith
“All these things are
against me”; enlightened experience saith
“In all these things is the life of
my spirit.” The passage is taken from the prayer of Hezekiah after he was
raised from his sick bed.
1. Our spirits
under God
live by passing through the sorrows of
the present; for first
let me remind you
that by these trials and afflictions
we live
because they are medicinal. There are spiritual diseases which would
corrupt our spirit if not checked
kept down
and destroyed as to their
reigning power by the daily cross which the Lord lays upon our shoulders. Just
as the fever must be held in check by the bitter draught of quinine
so must
the bitter cup of affliction rebuke our rising pride and worldliness.
2. Afflictions
again
are stimulative. We are all apt to grow
slothful. There is an old story in the Greek annals
of a soldier under
Antigonus who had a disease about him
an extremely painful one
likely to
bring him soon to the grave. Always first in the ranks was this soldier
and in
the hottest part of the fray; he was always to be seen leading the van
the
bravest of the brave
because his pain prompted him to fight that he might
forget it; and he feared not death because he knew that in any case he had not
long to live. Antigonus
who greatly admired the valour of his soldier
finding
out that he suffered from a disease
had him cured by one of the most eminent
physicians of the day
but alas! from that moment the warrior was absent from
the front of the battle. He now sought his ease
for
as he remarked to his
companions
he had something worth living for--health
home
family
and other
comforts
and he would not risk his life now as aforetime. So when our troubles
are many
we are made courageous in serving our God
we feel that we have
nothing to live for in this world
and we are driven by hope of the world to
come
to exhibit zeal
self-denial
and industry; but how often is it otherwise
in better times? for then the joys and pleasures of this world make it hard for
us to remember the world to come
and we sink into inglorious ease.
3. Our troubles are a great educational process. We are at school
now
and are not yet fully instructed.
4. So
too
trials and tribulations are the life of our spirit
because they are preparative for that higher life in which the spirit shall
truly live. This is the place for washing our robes--yonder is the place for
wearing them; this is the place for tuning our hearts
and discord is
inevitable to that work; but yonder is the abode of unbroken harmony.
III. I close with
my third text
and I think you may almost guess it
it tells of THE TRIUMPH OF
FAITH. Turn now to the eighth chapter of Romans
and the thirty-seventh verse:
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”
“All these things are against us.” Very well
we could not conquer them if they
were not against us; but they are the life of our spirit--and as Samson found
honey in the lion
so we
though these things roar upon us
shall find food
within them. Trials threaten our death
but they promote our life. I want you
to be sure to notice the uniform expression
“All these things are against me.”
“In all these things is the life of my spirit
” and now
“In all these things
we are more than conquerors.” The list is just as comprehensive in the best
text as in the worst. Nay
poor Jacob’s “All these things” only referred to
three; but look at Paul’s list: tribulation
distress
persecution
famine
nakedness
peril
sword--the list is longer
darker
blacker
fiercer
sterner
but still we triumph--“In all these things we are more than conquerors.”
Observe then
that the believing Christian enjoys present triumph over all his
troubles. What does Paul mean by saying that believers are “more than
conquerors”? Is it not this
that with the conqueror there is a time when his
triumph is in jeopardy? But it is never so with the believer; he grasps the
victory at once by an act of faith. No “ifs
” “buts
” “per-adventures
” for
him. He is conqueror at once
for God is on his side. But see how this last
text of mine opens up the great source of comfort. “We are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us.” Did you notice
Jacob said nothing about Him that
loved us? No
he could not have been unbelieving if he had thought of Him; and
the life of our spirit in trouble very much lies in remembering Him that loved
us. It is through Him we conquer because He has conquered. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A mistaken conclusion
I. GOD’S DEALINGS
WITH HIS PEOPLE
EVEN WHEN HE IS WORKING THEIR DELIVERANCE
AND DESIGNING THEIR
GOOD
ARE OFTEN DARK AND INTRICATE
SEEMING TO MAKE MORE AGAINST THEM THAN FOR
THEM. Thus it was with Jacob now. God designed the preservation of him and his
family in Egypt
by Joseph’s advancement there; but how unlikely was the method
He took in order to it?
II. WHENCE IT IS
THAT A CHILD OF GOD MAY BE READY TO CONCLUDE THAT TO BE AGAINST HIM WHICH IS
REALLY FOR HIM.
1. This proceeds from their weakness of faith
as to God’s wisdom
and power
faithfulness and love.
2. A saint is apt to say of what befalls him
all these things are
against me
as looking to Providence
and judging by it abstracted from His
promise.
3. A child of God may say of what befalls him
all these things are
against me
judging by sense.
4. What a saint thus speaks
‘tie as looking down to the present
world
and his interest in it.
5. Saints may say of God’s dealings
they are against them
as
speaking through rashness
and viewing only a part of his work
and not staying
to the end.
6. Saints
under the trials they meet with
may be tempted to say
all these things are against us
as not duly attending to the method of God’s
dealing with His people
and their own and others’ experience of the happy
purposes He has served by it.
III. How MAY IT BE
CONCLUDED
THAT WHAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD APPREHEND TO BE AGAINST THEM
SHALL IN
THE ISSUE MAKE REALLY FOR THEE?
1. From God’s relation to them. He is their God in covenant
their
tender Father
and so in a peculiar manner concerned about them.
2. From His love to them.
3. From His express promises (Isaiah 43:1-2).
IV. WHY GOD
CHOOSES TO CARRY ON HIS PEOPLE’S GOOD BY WAYS
TO APPEARANCE
THE MOST DARK AND
THREATENING.
1. For His own glory (John 11:4) In God’s delivering us when we
are at the end of our thoughts and hopes
and when ready to give up all for
lost
then He appears in His glory
a God powerful
wise
merciful
and
faithful indeed.
2. This God does
for the trial and discovery of His people.
Application:
1. Take heed of judging God’s purposes of grace by the external
dispensations which make way to bring them into effect.
2. Beg that faith may not fail when all things of sense seem dark
and dismal.
3. Beware of entertaining narrow thoughts of God in the deepest
distress. Believe Him always the same
whatever changes you meet with.
4. Listen not to what flesh
and sense
or Satan would suggest
derogatory to the power and faithfulness of God.
5. Be assured that all God’s providences are accomplishing His
promises
though you see not how this will be brought about.
6. Whilst you are so apt to say on earth
that all these things are
against me
with the greater earnestness press on towards heaven. And in the
light of that world
you will be fully satisfied how all things in the issue
were for you
and that all your tears did but prepare you
with the greater
relish to enter into that presence of God
where there is fulness of joy
and
where there are pleasures for evermore. (D. Wilcox.)
Jacob’s complaint
1. That men may be brought by
very different ways to think that all things are against them. Jacob was
brought to despond by the simple pressure of adverse circumstances. It was the
loss of his children that made him utter the words of my text. Joseph and
Simeon were gone. Benjamin was apparently to go next. It was indeed too much
for a father’s heart. But I wish you to observe
that it had in it nothing of
the bitterness of sin. I do not say that Jacob’s adversity might not be
connected with the faults of his early life. Most probably the judgment of God it
was. But I mean that his sorrows were not of a kind to bring his sins to
remembrance. I think if the sons of Jacob had said
“all these things are
against us
” they would have had much more reason for uttering these words than
had their father. Depend upon it
it is when our faults have brought us into
trouble--when our punishment is the legitimate child of our sins--it is then
that we have most reason for believing and for saying
that “the hand of the
Lord is against us.” And yet I would have you observe
that even in the ease of
Joseph’s brethren
who were now in his power
and locked by his command in
prison
it was not true that all things were against them. Little as they might
deserve it
God’s hand was over them for good. Thus they were on the eve of
prosperity; for
however strange it may seem
still it was certainly true
that
the sin of these men against their brother was not only the means of their own
prosperity
but was likewise a link in the grand chain of God’s providential
dealings with the whole race of mankind.
2. Every one knows how frequently he is wrong in his forebodings of
evil--how circumstances of evil which he feared would prove fatal to
hishappiness have turned out entirely different from that which he feared--how
often has it been the jaundice of his own eyes
and no defect of the light of
heaven
which has made all around him wear a melancholy tint. And
therefore
upon mere general grounds
we strongly condemn those who are always faint
hearted
and those who magnify disasters and difficulties in fancying that all
things are against them.
3. But I have showed you that there is a divinely appointed way of
viewing the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed
so that
by the
help of this
we may foresee that they are really for us
when they seem to be
against us. Yes
there is such a divinely appointed mode
and if I can only
help some of you to look on your condition here upon earth
in that way which
God has revealed and has made palpable through His most blessed Son
I shall
feel sure that I have not spoken to you in vain. Do you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ the Son of God? Then
if you do
you will find it impossible to
prove that in any condition of life all things can be against you. You will
feel an assurance which nothing on earth or hell can shake
that God Himself is
for you. Let me take two or three cases by way of example. In the first place
let us take a case of poverty. I suppose that there is nothing so likely to
make a man say to himself that all things are against him
as being poor. Jesus
Christ was a poor man too. You cannot be so poor as He. What honest man is
there without a home? But again
there is a much worse enemy to be found in
this world than poverty
and in sight of this enemy
I do not wonder that a
person who remembers our Lord’s words concerning the narrow road of life
and
the broad road of destruction
should sometimes be dismayed. I allude to the
fact
that every condition of life
and every period of life
is full of
temptation to go astray from the ways of God and of heaven. Christ
by whose
name we are called
and whose soldiers we are
condescended to be tempted
himself. But again
a man may be brought to the conclusion that all things are
against him by the same kind of painful experience as that which made Jacob
utter the words of the text. It was the hand of God taking away what was
dearest to the heart that made Jacob groan with a sense of the deepest misery.
I do not think we need inquire whether Jacob was or was not excusable for uttering
this lamentation. God was the judge of this. But we may well remark
that
myriads of persons since then have been afflicted in the same manner
and many
have given way to the same lament. He who believes on Jesus Christ must never
say
under the weight of any affliction
“all these things are against me
”
because
under the weight of those sorrows which were put upon Christ
He never
uttered such words. Once more
let me allude to that moment in every human life
which brings a man into immediate contact with the unseen world. Let me speak
of death
that one only event which is certain to every one present. It is well
for us
while we are in health
and have the use of our faculties
to consider
what impression will be made on us when we feel our strength decaying
and are
assured either by age or sickness
that our work will soon be done. It is a
terrible thing for a man
then
to feel that all is against him; and
no doubt
this feeling does often give rise to very happy results; but
I believe
that
this is not the usual result. Certainly
according to my own experience
it is
far from being so. I think that
in general
they who have not found out how
much there is against them during their life
and how much has to be done in
order to cut through the obstacles which stand between their souls and God--I
think that they do not find this out in death. They who have lived carelessly
generally die carelessly too. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
The methods of Divine Providence
He thought everything was against him. But we know that he was
wrong. All was for him
both temporally and spiritually. Jacob’s exclamation
was caused by ignorance.
I. I notice THAT
GOD WORKS THROUGH SECONDARY INSTRUMENTS. The fore-determined purpose was to
provide for Jacob and for his race; and we know that this purpose was
accomplished. Jacob spent his declining years in peace and plenty beneath the
shadow of his son’s greatness. So also was the race secure from the incessant
wars and dangers of Canaan. In the land of Goshen they grew into a nation
till
through the agency of the Egyptian king
God sent them forth upon their
destiny a great and conquering people. Bat think
how many links in the chain
of events there were to bring about this result
how many secondary causes were
at work l The silent order of nature
the bad passions of man the apparent
accidents of travel
the vain visions of the night
all concurred--but why? Was
it some happy accident alone that blended them all together? Do great results
spring out of blind causes? or do the accidents of a world of chance accomplish
the promises of a God of truth? Surely not? They all concurred because God was
in them all
through them all
over them all.
II. I notice THE
COMPLEXITY AND REACH OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT
EXTENDING SO FAR AND INVOLVING
SO MUCH AS TO BE WHOLLY BEYOND OUR POWER TO UNDERSTAND IT. Surely none but God
can measure God. If He be not beyond our reach and understanding
He cannot be
God. We know only that which is before our eyes
and can not measure Him or His
doings.
III. But
lastly
LET US LEARN TO HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FULFILMENT OF ALL
HIS GRACIOUS PURPOSES TOWARDS US. If the blinded eye of the flesh indeed there
may seem darkness and trouble on every side of us
our wishes thwarted
our hopes
destroyed
our loved ones taken away--every comfort wrecked
till the heart
cries out
I have nothing left to live for--yet when that time of bitterness
comes to us
let us not forget the promise
“All things work together for good
to them that love God” the exact meaning is “all things are working together
for good
” at this very moment
when the anguish is in thine heart
and the
complaint is yet quivering upon thy lips. (E. Garbett
M. A.)
Man’s ignorance of God’s providence
The plan of our lives is hidden from us
it is only worked out
step by step
and we who see a part only and out he whole of which it is the
part
grow frightened and perplexed; we are like those who are led along
blind-folded by others
and fear to plant our steps firmly on the ground before
us; we are as travellers in a strange land who have received directions to take
a road which seems unlikely to lead to our destination. God leads His own by a
way that they know not
and we
ignorant as we are of the ways of His
providence
too often take alarm
and refuse to place implicit trust in our
Heavenly Guide; faith refuses to pierce the veil of sense
and we are ready to
sit down by the wayside in despair at the very moment when the towers of the
heavenly city are ready to burst upon our view. Now
why does God thus deal
with us?
1. It is for the trial of our faith.
2. And do not the secret ways of God’s providence illustrate
brightly His Divine power? He works indeed by means
but His independence of
them is shown by the unexpected way in which He orders and employs them.
3. And
lastly
do we not gather the oft-required lesson of
increased confidence in Him
who is our God and our all? (S. W. Skeffington
M. A.)
Take a comprehensive view of God’s dealings with us
A child might say to a geographer
“You talk about the earth being
round I Look on this great crag; look on that deep dell; look on yonder great
mountain
and the valley at its feet
and yet you talk about the earth being
round.” The geographer would have an instant answer for the child; his view is
comprehensive; he does not look at the surface of the world in mere detail; he
does not deal with inches
and feet
and yards; he sees a larger world than the
child has had time to grasp. He explains what he means by the expression
“The
earth is a globe
” and justifies his strange statement. And so it is with God’s
wonderful dealings towards us: there are great rocks and barren deserts
deep
dank
dark pits
and defiles
and glens
and dells
rugged places that we
cannot smooth over at all
and yet when He comes to say to us at the end of the
journey
“Now look back; there is the way I have brought you
” we shall be
enabled to say
“Thou hast gone before us
and made our way straight.” (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Magnifying our troubles
Being once surrounded by a dense mist on the Styhead Pass in the
Lake District
we felt ourselves to be transported into a world of mystery
where everything was swollen to a size and appearance more vast
more terrible
than is usual on this sober planet. A little mountain tarn
scarcely larger
than a farmer’s horse-pond
expanded into a great lake
whose distant shores
were leagues beyond the reach of our poor optics; and as we descended into the
valley of Wastwater
the rocks rose on one side like the battlements of heaven
and the descent on the other hand looked like the dreadful lips of a yawning
abyss; and yet when one looked back again in the morning’s clear light there
was nothing very dangerous in the pathway
or terrible in the rocks. The road
was a safe though sharp descent
devoid of terrors to ordinary
mountain-climbers. In the distance through the fog the shepherd “stalks
gigantic
” and his sheep are full-grown lions. Into such blunders do we fall in
our life-pilgrimage: a little trouble in the distance is
through our
mistiness
magnified into a crushing adversity. We see a lion in the way
although it is written that no ravenous beast shall go up thereon. A puny foe
is swollen into a Goliath
and the river of death widens into a shoreless sea. Come
heavenly wind
and blow the mist away: and then the foe will be despised
and
the bright shores on the other side of the river will stand out clear in the
light of faith. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Jacob’s wrong view of life
An old man
who does not know what he is talking about! What does
the oldest and best man amongst us know about life? Jacob is writing a list of
his grievances and misfortunes and distresses
and God’s angels are looking
down upon him and saying
That the whole statement
though one of what men call
facts
is all a mistake from beginning to end. Think of man writing his life
and of God’s writing the same life in a parallel column! Now old Israel is
perfectly correct
so far as the story is known to himself. Jacob their father
said
“Me have ye bereaved of my children.” That is right. “Joseph is not.”
That is perfectly true
so far as Jacob is concerned
so far as his information
extends. “And Simeon is not.” That also is literally correct
so far as the
absence of Simeon may be regarded. “And ye will take Benjamin away.” Precisely
so
that is the very thing they have in view. “All these things are against
me.” It is exactly the same with us to-day. Men don’t know what they say when
they use words. They don’t know the full meaning of their own expressions. They
will always snatch at first appearances and pronounce judgment upon incomplete
processes. Every day I afflict myself with just the same rod. I know what a
fool I am for doing so
and yet I shall do it again to-morrow. There comes into
a man’s heart a kind of grim comfort when he has scourged himself well; when he
knows all the while that ten thousand errors are accusing him of a repetition
of his folly. There are men who don’t know their own family circumstances
yet
they have undertaken to pronounce judgment upon the infinite I Some men are
very familiar with the infinite
and have a wonderful notion of their power of
managing God’s concerns. We seem at home when we go from home. Here is an old
man saying
“Joseph is not
Simeon is not
Benjamin is to be taken away. All
these things are against me.” Yet we who have been in a similar position
though the circumstances have been varied
have undertaken to pronounce
judgment upon God’s way in the world
God’s government
God’s purposes. Why don’t
we learn from our ignorance? Why don’t we read the book of our own folly
and
learn that we know nothing
being children of yesterday? We cannot rise to that
great refinement of learning
it would appear. Every day we repeat our follies.
It is but a man here and there who has a claim to a reputation for religious
wisdom. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Me have ye bereaved of my children
The words before us are the expressions of that peevishness and
dejection which are ready to find place in the heart even of a good man in a
day of darkness. “Me have ye bereaved of my children: all these things are
against me” We ought
however
to remember
that words expressive of the
passionate working of the mind
ought always to be understood with a limitation
of their import. When Jacob says that he was bereaved of his children
the
meaning is
that he was bereaved of two or three of them. When he speaks of his
sons then present
as if they had bereaved him of his children
he does not
mean that they had murdered them
or sold them into a strange land. He means
that by their unwise conduct they had some agency in bringing the calamity upon
them. If they had not rambled about with their flocks from one place to
another
Joseph might not have met those wild beasts that tore him in pieces.
If they had not
by some imprudent conduct
excited suspicion in the mind of
the hard-hearted governor of Egypt
Simeon would not have been kept in prison.
If they had not spoken to the governor about their younger brother
he might
still have been left with himself when they returned to buy more corn. Jacob
however
spoke more truth than he knew in these words
“Me have ye bereaved of
my children.” They had sold Joseph into Egypt
and Simeon’s imprisonment was
the consequence of that criminal conduct. But as we have no reason to think
that Jacob suspected them to be guilty
his words are to be considered as an
angry reflection
which the distress of his mind drew from his lips rather than
his heart. When your minds are disturbed be watchful over your tongue. Beware
of ill-natured reflections on your children
your servants
or any that are
under your power. But
on the other side
let not children or servants be
surprised or angry when unjust reflections are uttered or glanced at them by
their parents or masters
when grief rather than reason has the direction of
their tongues. We must all bear something from our fellow-mortals
and we all
make some of our neighbours bear something from us that might be spared. (G.
Lawson
D. D.)
Joseph is not
and Simeon is not
More is said than meant
and more was meant than what was true
in
these words. The patriarch knew that Simeon was not dead
so far as this
information reached
but he was almost given over as a dead man by his father.
Yet he had not any strong reason to do it. Perhaps the money came by some
oversight into the mouth of the sacks. Probably that hard man
who was Lord of
Egypt
did not intend to put Simeon to death; or if he did
his heart might yet
be softened by the God of Jacob. We make our burdens heavier than they ought to
be
by adding to them the weight of our own gloomy apprehensions; or we
represent them heavier than we feel them to be
by words that convey more
meaning than they ought. Surely the troubles laid upon us are heavy enough to
be borne. Why should we court unhappiness
and yet complain of it? (G.
Lawson
D. D.)
Joseph is not
and Simeon is not
A certain good woman
in a time of persecution
heard that one of
her sons was killed in the field by the enemy. “Which of my sons?” said she.
“The eldest
” said the informer. “God be thanked
” replied she
“he was the
fittest to die. My other children will have some more time for preparation
and
needed it more than their brother.” Yet Jacob was more grieved for the loss of
Joseph
than for the loss of Simeon
although Joseph was sanctified in his
early years; and Simeon
for anything we can learn
and yet given little
evidence of piety. But it must be remembered that Jacob was only afraid that
Simeon might die. Joseph was
in his apprehension
already dead. I believe that
a good man
were it referred to his choice which of his children he must lose
would refer it to his Maker; but it would be his deliberate wish
that
if God
pleased
He would remove to the other world that member of his family who was
fittest for it
though much the dearest to himself. (G. Lawson
D. D.)
And ye will take Benjamin away
True; they would take him away to Egypt
but not out of the world.
To go a long journey was a very different thing from dying. He might be exposed
to danger from the artifices of the unfeeling lord of Egypt. But will such a
good man as Jacob make himself and his house miserable because a favourite son
may be lost
when he was not exposed to greater danger than his brethren? Even
those who are eminent fearers of God
are too often deprived of a great part of
that happiness which they might enjoy
by the infirmity of their faith. (G.
Lawson
D. D.)
The days of bereavement
1. The great object of religious discipline in this world is to
prepare for the perfect happiness of a future existence. This is a fact too
much lost sight of. Many
and especially young and inexperienced Christians
expect that the commencement of a religious life is to be a deliverance from
those cares and sorrows
by the pressure of which they were perhaps first drawn
to seek the Lord. Rut the great object of religion is to fit a guilty
polluted
lost creature
for the presence of God in a world of eternal
happiness. But as the gift of inspired religion is rather a means of preparing
the soul for the future life
than a provision of comfort for this
we remark--
2. Religion does not prevent the occurrence of those afflictions
which are the common lot of mankind.
3. That if religion
or a real and religious connection with God
increases our afflictions
it sanctifies them. Though deeper afflictions do
come upon the child of God
they are not the capricious severities of a hard
master.
Depression
In a fit of dejection Dean Hook once wrote: “My life has been a
failure. I have done many things tolerably; but nothing well. As a parish
priest
as a preacher
and now as a writer
I am quite aware that I have
failed
and the more so because my friends contradict the assertion.” (One
Thousand New Illustrations.)
Providence in heathen politics
In the early history of Burmese missions
a young Burman of
superior rank became a convert. His sister was a maid of honour to the queen
and being greatly distressed at his change of religion
and thinking if she
could separate him from the missionary he would soon forget the foreign ideas
she obtained for him an appointment
which he was obliged to accept
as
governor of a distant province. He had not been long at his new post
when some
Karens were brought before him accused of worshipping a strange God. “What
God?” he asked. “They call Him the eternal God
” was the reply. A few questions
satisfied the young governor that he had fellow-Christians before him. To the
great surprise of the accusers he ordered the prisoners to be dismissed. (Fifteen
Hundred Illustrations.)
A token of God’s favour in adverse providences
Mr. Newton had a very happy talent of administering reproof.
Hearing that a person
in whose welfare he was greatly interested
had met with
peculiar success in business
and was deeply immersed in worldly engagements
the first time he called on him
which was usually once a month
he took him by
the hand
and drawing him on one side into the counting-house
told him his
apprehensions of his spiritual welfare. His friend
without making any reply
called down his partner in life
who came with her eyes suffused with tears
and unable to speak. Inquiring the cause he was told she had just been sent for
to one of her children that was out at nurse
and supposed to be in dying
circumstances. Clasping her hands immediately in his
Mr. Newton cried
“God be
thanked
He has not forsaken you! I do not wish your babe to suffer
but I am
happy to find He gives you this token of His favour.” (Moral and Religious
Anecdotes.)
Verse 37
Slay my two sons
An unlawful mode of speaking
I will give you leave to take away my life
unless I do this or
that.
Such modes of speaking as this do not become the mouths of the disciples of our
Redeemer. How do we know what we shall be able to do a day or an hour hence? We
ought to say
If we live
and the Lord will
we shall do this or that; “for a
man’s heart deviseth his way
but the Lord directeth his steps.” When men use this
language their words are not to be understood in their literal sense. They are
only strong assertions
tinctured with a profane levity of mind. Death ought
not to be made a by-word. It will be found a serious thing to die when death
comes
if it is not habitually esteemed a serious matter by us
whilst we are
living in prosperity and health. “By the life of Pharaoh
ye are spies
” said
Joseph to his brethren. Reuben engages
by the life of his two sons
that he
will bring Benjamin in safety to his father
if his father would trust the
young man to his care. Surely Reuben might have learned o avoid such strong
asseverations about things of this sort. It was his wish to bring Joseph home
to his father
and yet he could not persuade his brethren to comply with his
intentions. It was his desire to bring Simeon safe to his father
and yet he
was compelled to leave him in Egypt. He had reason to hope that his brethren
would not treat Benjamin as they had treated Joseph. He had reason to hope that
the lord of Egypt would keep his promise. But was he so sure of both these
things
and of meeting with no bad accident in the course of his journeyings
that he could warrantably pledge the life of his two sons for Benjamin’s happy
return? He knew that Jacob would not take him at his word. But what if God
should
by some untoward event
make him sensible that he had spoken amiss? (G.
Lawson
D. D.)
Verse 38
Bring down my gray hairs with sorrow
Graceless children
Some graceless children despise their fathers and their mothers
when they are old
and when their grey hairs claim reverence or compassion.
If we must bow before the man of hoary hairs
although he is a stranger
what
reverence do we owe to our own parents
when the respect due to age is added to
the claims of parental relation! Those children that load the grey heads of
their parents with crushing sorrows
are worse than common murderers. Yet
let
not parents
by their own frowardness
kill themselves with grief
and load
their children with the blame due to themselves. The aged ought to remember
that their infirmities may dispose them to make their burdens heavier than God
or men have made them. And when we torment ourselves we are too ready to
transfer our own folly to the account of others. (G. Lawson
D. D.)
A faithless exclamation
Why should Jacob die with grief
if Benjamin should be lost? Is
Benjamin his God
his life
his exceeding joy? “The Lord liveth
and blessed be
the Rock of Israel.” He is the Rock of ages. God had made desolate all Job’s
company
and his hope had He removed like a tree; but Job knew that his
Redeemer lived. “All flesh is grass
and all the goodliness thereof is as the
flower of the field; but the Word of the Lord shall stand for ever.” And whilst
the Word stands
those whose trust is placed on it are safe. They may
through
the prevalence of unbelief
and of earthly affections
speak unadvisedly with
their lips; hut the Lord will make them sensible of their folly
and enable
them to commit their affairs into His hand
and to east all their cares upon
Him who cares for all His people. We shall soon hear Jacob saying
“If I am
bereaved of my children
I am bereaved”; and on his death-bed he says
“I have
waited for Thy salvation
O Lord!” (G. Lawson
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》