Tawa Baptist

Second Chances

Scripture: Genesis 44

Video Link: https://youtu.be/fZVV72MlMpM

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • A second chance
  • A substitute
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Many of you will remember, from childhood, the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

couldn’t put Humpty together again.

It’s such a sad nursery rhyme. Why would you say that to a child? For years I have wondered what the point of it is. Humpty Dumpty raises so many questions.  

Is the nursey rhyme a kind of health and safety warning, before health & safety became a thing, teaching kids to be careful how high they climb? Or is it saying that people who are indecisive and sit on the fence (aka the wall) end up worse off than those who pick a side?

Who is Humpty Dumpty anyway and what does he (or she) represent? Did Humpty fall by accident, or was he pushed? And if he was pushed, who pushed him and why? (Robyn says I tend to overthink things. She may be right.)  

Whatever the answers to these important questions, I just wish the consequences for poor old Humpty Dumpty were not so fatal and final.

I wish Humpty Dumpty was given a second chance.

Today we continue our series in the life of Joseph. Joseph’s brothers certainly needed a second chance. They pushed their father Jacob off the wall by selling Joseph into slavery and lying about it. And they cannot undo what they have done.

But through Joseph, God gives them a second chance to make things right and put Jacob together again. From Genesis 44, verse 1, we read…

1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said. 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, “Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.’ ”  6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, “Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?  9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.” 10 “Very well, then,” he said, “let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame.” 11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. 12 Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

A second chance:

When Thomas Edison and his staff were developing the incandescent light bulb, it took hundreds of hours to produce the first one. After finishing the bulb, Edison handed it to a young errand boy and asked him to take it upstairs to the testing room.

As the boy turned and started up the stairs, he stumbled and fell. The bulb shattered on the steps. The boy felt terrible. He knew how much work had gone into it and he felt the disappointment of everyone in the room.

He turned to face the famous inventor. But instead of tearing strips off the boy, Edison reassured him. And then told his staff to start working on another bulb.

When the second bulb was completed several days later, Edison did something unexpected. He walked over to the boy, handed him the bulb and said, “Please take this up to the testing room”.

Thomas Edison knew it was a risk, both to himself and to his staff. But he also knew the boy needed another chance. He needed the opportunity to redeem himself. And the boy did just that, delivering the second bulb without incident.

You may remember, from a few weeks ago, that Joseph needed to test his brothers to determine whether they were trustworthy. Well, so far, they have been passing the tests. When Simeon was held hostage, the brothers returned with Benjamin and Simeon was released. Also, they were honest about the silver found in their sacks.

However, these tests didn’t really prove whether Joseph’s brothers had changed. It was in the brothers’ interests to bring Benjamin to Egypt and return the silver. They would have starved if they hadn’t.

Joseph needed a test that replicated the situation (as close as possible) from 22 years earlier, when his brothers had sold him into slavery.

Benjamin, the youngest son and the only other child born to Rachel, was now Jacob’s favourite. What would the brothers do if they had to choose between saving Benjamin and saving themselves?

There was risk in Joseph’s test, to be sure. Just as there was risk in trusting the errand boy with the light bulb a second time. But, like the errand boy, Joseph’s brothers needed a second chance, a chance to redeem themselves.   

Joseph set Benjamin up to look guilty by instructing his steward to place a special silver cup in the mouth of Benjamin’s sack. Then, when Benjamin was found out, the steward gave the brothers a choice.

They could trade Benjamin for their own freedom. They could go home if they gave Benjamin up as a slave.

This was a similar scenario to the one 22 years earlier when they gave Joseph up to slave traders. Only now the stakes are higher.

When the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack the brothers tore their clothes as a sign of grief. It rips them up on the inside to think that harm might come to him.

To their credit all the brothers stand in solidarity with Benjamin, even though he appears guilty. The brothers’ calloused hearts have softened.  

The brothers would rather go into slavery with Benjamin than return home to Canaan without him. This was a pretty big call. The brothers didn’t know if they would ever see their wives and children again.

A substitute:

So what happens next? From verse 14 of Genesis 44, we read…

14 Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. 15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”  16 “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.” 17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace.” 18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’  20 And we answered, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’  21 “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.’ 22 And we said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.’ 23 But you told your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’  24 When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.  25 “Then our father said, ‘Go back and buy a little more food.’ 26 But we said, ‘We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 “Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’ 30 “So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 31 sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’  33 “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father.”

There’s a story from Japan about a man called Hamaguchi. Hamaguchi was a highly respected leader of a fishing village.

One day, as Hamaguchi looked out from his house on the top of the hill, he saw the tide receding quickly. The villagers below were running to the beach to look at what was happening.

Hamaguchi realized it was a tsunami. There wasn’t time for him to run down the hill to warn the people of the village, so he set his own crops on fire. When the people saw the smoke, they ran up the hill to help Hamaguchi put out the fire.

They were too late to save Hamaguchi’s crops but, by showing solidarity and coming to his aid, they saved themselves, for the entire village was devastated by the incoming tidal wave. Hamaguchi’s sacrifice brought people together and saved many lives.

Joseph is secretly pleased to see his brothers standing together in solidarity and not abandoning Benjamin. But he doesn’t show this, for the final test is not yet complete.

Joseph says to his brothers, What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”

Some ancients believed they could reveal secrets and predict the future by pouring oil into water and watching the pattern it makes. Kind of like some people today think they can reveal mysteries by looking at tea leaves or reading horoscopes or tarot cards.

The Bible forbids divination. But Joseph doesn’t practice divination in any case. He is just saying this to disguise his true purpose. In a way though, Joseph is using the cup to find out the truth.

Judah takes the lead and responds to Joseph. But it is a different Judah to the one that Joseph once knew. For this Judah, has been through the crucible of conversion. This Judah has lost his wife and two sons. He has humiliated himself with Tamar and been bullied by regret at what he did to Joseph and Jacob 22 years earlier.

This Judah doesn’t try to force his own way and he doesn’t try to deceive Joseph. Instead, he acknowledges God’s justice in their situation saying…

“What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves….”

Judah is making a confession. Even though Benjamin was the one found with the cup, Judah remembers his own sins and stands in solidarity with Ben.   

To which Joseph replies…

“Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you go back to your father in peace.”

Joseph is letting the brothers off the hook. It’s like Joseph is saying,‘Go on – you don’t need to stay. No one would blame you for leaving’.

This is the second time the brothers are tempted to abandon Benjamin. But they won’t budge. They stay loyal to Ben at great risk to themselves.

Judah takes the lead again. Calling himself a servant, Judah intercedes for Benjamin with a speech, the longest speech recorded in Genesis. Much of the speech is a retelling of the plot so far.

What we notice though, in Judah’s speech, is the three things that God requires of people. To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly.

Judah does not beg for leniency from Joseph. He doesn’t ask to avoid punishment. He accepts that justice must be done and offers himself as a slave in Benjamin’s place. As a true leader, Judah takes responsibility.

At the same time, Judah performs mercy for his brother Benjamin. The Hebrew word often translated as mercy is hesed. You may remember that hesed is a life-saving action done for someone you know who cannot otherwise help themselves.

Judah is doing hesed for Benjamin and his father. Judah is preserving Benjamin’s freedom and saving Jacob from further grief.

Thirdly, Judah walks humbly. He approaches Joseph with utmost respect, naming himself in a lower position as Joseph’s servant. Judah is honest, without being rude, and he does not presume upon any entitlement.         

The other thing we notice in Judah’s speech is his affection for his father, Jacob. Fourteen times in these verses, Judah mentions his father.

Judah is motivated by deep compassion for his dad. Judah is willing to sacrifice himself not just for the sake of Benjamin, but also for Jacob.

Judah, the same brother who once convinced the others to sell Joseph into slavery, now offers to become a slave himself, in Benjamin’s place. The transformation in Judah is miraculous. Only God can bring about that sort of change.

By God’s grace (and Joseph’s wisdom) Judah gets a second chance and he makes good on the opportunity for redemption.  

As Bruce Waltke observes, Judah is the first person in Scripture to willingly offer his own life [as a substitute] for another. His [self-giving] love, to save his brother for the sake of his father, prefigures the vicarious atonement of Christ, who by his voluntary sufferings heals the breach between God and human beings.  

Or to put it more simply, Judah points to Jesus by being willing to sacrifice himself to save his family.

Except, Jesus did something far greater than Judah. Jesus actually went through with the sacrifice, even unto death on a cross. And the Lord did it to save not just his family and friends but also his enemies, those who hated him.

Conclusion:

Have you ever done something you regret? I’m not talking about getting a bad haircut or ordering the wrong thing off the menu. I’m talking about serious regret. Regret that haunts you for decades.

Have you ever pushed Humpty Dumpty off the wall and not been able to put him back together again? Have you ever wished you could have a second chance and do things right this time?

Jesus came to show us the way of forgiveness, to release us from our regret and self-hatred.

Have you ever felt like Humpty Dumpty after his fall? Your life, your family, the things that really matter to you, all in pieces, perhaps through no fault of your own.

Jesus came to put our Humpty Dumpty lives and this Humpty Dumpty world back together again. Jesus came to make all things new.

May the Spirit of Jesus give us eyes to see the second chances God provides and the faith to put things right. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What thoughts and feelings does the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme put you in touch with?
  3. Why did Joseph frame Benjamin by putting a silver cup in his sack?
  4. What stands out for you in reading Judah’s speech of intercession for Benjamin?  
  5. Have you ever done something you seriously regretted? What happened? Did you experience God’s redemption in this situation? If so, how?
  6. In what ways does Judah remind us of Jesus?
  7. How might we recognise when God is giving us a second chance?   
Tawa Baptist

Longing

Scripture: Genesis 43:15-34

Video Link: https://youtu.be/d_b3nIfRQfM

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The brothers’ longing
  • Joseph’s longing
  • Conclusion – our longing

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

There is a lovely line on the opening page of Kenneth Grahame’s book, The Wind in the Willows, which reads…

“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house, with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.”

I like the way Kenneth Grahame puts that. Springtime does carry a spirit of divine discontent and longing. Discontent with the winter and longing for the summer.  

Divine discontent is a kind of holy dissatisfaction with the way things are. We experience divine discontent when we are not living according to the deepest longing of our soul.

In The Wind in the Willows, Mole has been doing his spring cleaning and can’t stand it any longer. He must go above ground and roll in the grass and warm sunshine. Spring answers his longing for winter to end and summer to begin.

Today we continue our sermon series in the life of Joseph focusing on Genesis chapter 43, verses 15 to 34. In this passage we see the deep longing of Joseph and his brothers rising to the surface. From verse 15 of Genesis 43 we read…

15 So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. 16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare dinner; they are to eat with me at noon.” 17 The man did as Joseph told him and took the men to Joseph’s house. 18 Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.” 19 So they went up to Joseph’s steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. 20 “Please, sir,” they said, “we came down here the first time to buy food. 21 But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver—the exact weight—in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. 22 We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don’t know who put our silver in our sacks.” 23 “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. 24 The steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys. 25 They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there. 26 When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground. 27 He asked them how they were, and then he said, “How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?”  28 They replied, “Your servant our father is still alive and well.” And they bowed low to pay him honor.  29 As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother’s son, he asked, “Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” 30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there. 31 After he had washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said, “Serve the food.” 32 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. 33 The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment. 34 When portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as anyone else’s. So they feasted and drank freely with him.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

The brothers’ longing:

David Augsburger, the late Anabaptist theologian, once wrote…

“Ontologically, chocolate raises profoundly disturbing questions: Does not chocolate offer natural revelation of the goodness of the Creator just as chilies disclose a divine sense of humour? Is the human born with an innate longing for chocolate? Does the notion of chocolate preclude the concept of freewill?”  

As a chocolate lover this quote makes me smile. It’s not often you find a theologian with a sense of humour. David is basically saying that chocolate is hard proof that God exists and God is good.

The reality is, we human beings have many desires and longings which often seem to compete for our attention. Some of those desires we might judge as wrong or evil and others as virtuous or good.

For example, we might judge eating chocolate as bad. I don’t think that, but some people carry a great deal of misplaced guilt about chocolate. Whether you deem chocolate to be good or evil, you have to ask yourself, what deeper longing is my desire for chocolate pointing to?

The very fact that many people love chocolate shows that human beings have a deep longing for God. For if we long for the goodness of chocolate, it logically follows our longing can only be satisfied through a right relationship with the one who made us to enjoy chocolate.

Or, to put it another way, it doesn’t matter how much chocolate you eat, your longing will never be fully satisfied except through an encounter with the living God.

Back, in Genesis 37, you may recall how Joseph’s brothers plotted to get rid of Joseph. They hated Joseph because he was Jacob’s favourite.

The brothers’ desire to kill Joseph was not good in itself but we have to ask ourselves, why did they want to do that? What deeper longing was driving their desire to destroy Joseph? 

Maybe it was the desire to be loved. Maybe, on some level, they thought if we get rid of Joseph, then our Dad will have more love for us. But that is not how love works. Love multiplies with giving. Love does not grow by taking. When the brothers sold Joseph into slavery, they only reduced their father’s capacity for love.

Perhaps the greatest impediment to love is fear. And Joseph’s brothers know all about fear. They have lived with it for over twenty years. In Genesis 43 verse 18 we read…

Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, “We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.”

It’s amazing how fear can distort our thinking. Fear tends to disconnect us from our deepest longings. It makes our thinking smaller somehow, so that all we can imagine is our own harm.   

Why would someone as rich and powerful as the Prime Minister of Egypt be interested in their scrawny donkeys? Surely the ruler of the land has bigger fish to fry.

Moved by a longing for peace of mind, the brothers front up to the steward of Joseph’s house and tell him the truth. We did not steal the silver last time we were here. Somehow it ended up back in our sacks. We don’t know how. Here it is. And the Joseph’s servant says in reply… 

“It’s all right, don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.”

The steward’s opening phrase, “It’s all right”, is just one word in the original Hebrew. Shalom. Shalom means peace, wholeness and well-being in all aspects of your life, especially your relationships.

The brothers are afraid. They long for peace and the steward answers that longing saying, God has given you treasure in your sacks.

One of the deepest longings of the human soul, is the longing to know that God is with us and for us, that he loves us. Joseph’s brothers did not believe that God was with them. They thought God was against them because of what they did to Joseph. They thought God was out to get them. They had been looking over their shoulder in fear for decades.

The brothers have become so alienated by their guilt that they don’t really believe the God of their father Jacob, is also their God. But their wrongdoing does not stop God from being God. The God of their father is still their God.

It’s the same with us. Our moral failure does not stop God being God. Our straying off track and getting lost, in a spiritual sense, does not prevent God from pursuing us with his love. Nor does it derail God’s purpose.

When the steward says, God has given you treasure in your sacks, he is not just talking about silver. The silver is a metaphor for something far more valuable than mere money.

It’s like the steward is saying, God has put treasure in the sack of your soul. The treasure is in you and in your relationships. And the treasure is God’s grace.   

Joseph was Jacob’s favourite. Perhaps that made the other brothers feel less valuable, less loveable, in some way. But they are not less to God. The brothers have divine treasure in them as well, even if Jacob, their earthly father, does not see it or acknowledge it.  

The message to the brothers and to us is clear. No matter how worthless you might feel (because of what you have done or what has been done to you), you are intrinsically valuable because God has made you that way.

Like the apostle Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians…

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

It is not your looks or your charm or your achievements or your reputation or your bank balance or anything you do that make you rich. You are rich because you are loved by God. The treasure is in you.

Okay, so Joseph’s brothers had some deep longings. Longings for peace and love. Longings that could only really be satisfied by God. What about Joseph himself, what did he long for?  

Joseph’s longing:

John Ortberg (another Christian author) says this about longing…

“The human longings that are deep inside of us never go away. They exist across cultures; they exist throughout life. When people were first made, our deepest longing was to know and be known. And after the Fall, when we all got weird, it’s still our deepest longing – but it’s now also our deepest fear.”

What John Ortberg is talking about here is intimacy. To know another human being deeply and to be known and accepted by them in turn, is the definition of intimacy. Into me see.

Each of us has a deep longing for intimacy. The desire for physical intimacy points to a deeper longing for emotional intimacy. Intimacy of soul, mind and spirit. A genuine sharing of oneself with another.

Sadly, fear gets in the way of developing intimacy. We get hurt in this life and our hurt makes it harder to risk making ourselves vulnerable. If fear is left unchecked it shuts us down and closes us off from knowing others and revealing our true selves. What if others don’t like who I am.

The longing for intimacy runs deep in all of us but some are more in touch with their longing than others. Certainly, Joseph longed for intimacy. He wanted to know his brothers and he wanted them to know him. The question was, could he trust them or not.

We see something of Joseph’s desire for intimacy in the way he asks after his brothers and father in verse 27…

27 He asked them how they were [shalom], and then he said, “How is [shalom] your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?”

Twice more the Hebrew word shalom pops up, this time on the lips of Joseph. In asking after his brothers and father, Joseph is actually inquiring after their shalom, their wellbeing, their peace.

This is more than a simple, ‘How’s it going’. Joseph genuinely wants to know his family is okay. He cares about them. He loves them.

Notice also how verse 27 is framed. In verses 26 and 28, all eleven brothers bow down to honour Joseph. They don’t know it’s Joseph at this point but we, the readers, can see that Joseph’s dream all those years before (of his brothers bowing to him) is being fulfilled.

The interesting thing here is that Joseph does not care about his brothers’ bowing and scrapping. He cares about them and their shalom, their wellbeing. What Joseph really wants (and always wanted probably) is a lifegiving connection with his brothers. Joseph longs for intimacy.

Being Jacob’s favourite had isolated Joseph. It alienated him from his brothers. They hated him for it. Joseph longs for warmth, belonging, acceptance and understanding from his brothers. Most of all though, Joseph longs for his brother Benjamin.

When Joseph sees Benjamin, his only full-blooded brother, he gives Ben a blessing saying, God be gracious to you, my son.  In the Hebrew culture of the time this was no small thing. This blessing carried real weight. It had gravity. But it is also full of affection.

Rather tellingly, in verse 30, we read how Joseph was deeply moved at the sight of his brother Benjamin. Joseph is moved to tears in fact and must run out of the room to compose himself.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you been ambushed by tears in the same way? Quietly going about your day only to be triggered by a familiar sight or smell that somehow puts you in touch with a deeper longing.  

Our spiritual life (to use Ignatian language) is characterized by times of desolation, times of consolation and times of normality.

In times of desolation, we feel like God is absent and our lives seem empty but also heavy at the same time. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Joseph certainly had his times of desolation.

But then come the times of consolation, when we feel God’s presence so close and tender. In those moments of intimacy with God, something shifts inside us and we may be moved to tears. It is difficult to know whether the tears are releasing pain or joy or both.

We only know we don’t want the consolation to end. But we cannot control it. Consolation is visited on us by God’s grace. All we can do is make space for it. Treasure it for the gift that it is. And remember it, especially in the times when feelings of desolation return.    

Joseph’s tears bear a close resemblance to the tears of consolation. He is so in touch with his deep longing for intimacy that he can feel God’s presence and it undoes him in the best way possible.     

Genesis 43 finishes with the brothers feasting and drinking freely with Joseph and each other. Even though Joseph has shown favouritism to Benjamin, by giving him five times as much food as anyone else, there is no hint of envy or resentment.

This is a picture of shalom, the kind of peace which makes room for intimacy. The kind of easy companionship they had all been longing for.

Conclusion:

A few days ago, I felt like eating some vanilla wine biscuits. It happens every once and a while. It wasn’t so much that I was physically hungry. I had chocolate biscuits in the cupboard, but strangely I didn’t feel like chocolate biscuits that day.

I put it down to missing my grandparents. You see, when I was kid, my nana and pop would give me vanilla wines, alongside home baking, whenever I went to visit. My hankering for vanilla wines was really a longing for them in a way. 

What do you long for?

Most of the time we are too busy, too pressured or too focused on a screen to be in touch with our inner longings. If that’s you, then perhaps a better question to ask might be, what’s your vanilla wine?

What simple, ordinary thing do you hunger for? What movie do you keep watching again and again? What place do you daydream about when life feels soulless and draining? What memory do you keep on repeat? What comfort food do you find sanctuary in?

Those seemingly superficial desires may be pointing to a deeper longing within you. Be gentle with your longing. Don’t judge or condemn it.    

When I think about it, my longing for my grandparents is really a holy discontent with death. Deep down we each have a yearning for resurrection. We want the springtime of abundant life to prevail over the winter of loss. We long for the summer of God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

God understands that about us. God knows our longing, which is why he sent Jesus. In and through Christ, our deepest human longings are fulfilled. What do you long for?

The heart of prayer is longing. Perhaps longing for wholeness. Longing for atonement. Longing for peace. Longing for redemption. Longing for intimacy. Longing for love. Longing for resurrection life. Longing for God.

When the apostle Paul says, pray without ceasing, he doesn’t mean, talk to God non-stop. He means, be honest about your longings. Stay in touch with what really matters to you because that is where you will find God’s purpose. That is where God will answer the longing of your soul with his presence.

May the Lord give you the desires of your heart. Amen.     

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • What does divine discontent feel like? Why might we experience divine discontent? What can we do about it?
  • What do Joseph’s brothers long for? 
  • What treasure has God put in the sack of your soul? Why is it there?
  • Why does Joseph weep when he sees his brother Benjamin? What is Joseph’s longing?
  • Can you think of a time, in your own experience, when you were deeply moved? What happened? What longing were you in touch with?  
  • What is your equivalent of wanting a vanilla wine biscuit? What deeper longing do your surface desires point to? 
Tawa Baptist

Attachment

Scripture: Genesis 42:25-43:14

Video Link: https://youtu.be/qdL_nTpVw54

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Fear and attachment
  • Faith and attachment
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When children are young, they often form an attachment to a soft toy, a teddy, a blanket or something else they cannot part with. The attachment gives the child a feeling of security.

Eventually though, the child forms other attachments. They make friends or get a pet and the toy or the teddy is put away. Although the kinds of attachments we make change through the various stages of our life, the basic reason for forming attachments remains the same, security. 

Attachments are important. We need healthy attachments to survive and thrive, much like a plant needs an attachment to good soil. Sometimes though we become overly attached to the wrong things. Things which might make us feel good in the moment but provide no real or lasting security and are actually harmful to our wellbeing, causing us to wither and die.

This morning we continue our sermon series in the life of Joseph. Previously, Joseph’s brothers had travelled to Egypt to buy grain. They did not recognize Joseph but Joseph recognized them and decided to test them to see if they had changed for the better. 

Joseph needed to know the quality of their attachments. Were they still attached to the wrong things? Or had they formed more healthy, life-giving attachments? We pick up the story from Genesis 42, verse 25…

25 Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’s silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, 26 they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left. 27 At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack. 28 “My silver has been returned,” he said to his brothers. “Here it is in my sack.” Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, “What is this that God has done to us?” 29 When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said, 30 “The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. 32 We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan.’ 33 “Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, ‘This is how I will know whether you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households and go. 34 But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.’ ” 35 As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man’s sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. 36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” 37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back.” 38 But Jacob said, “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

In these verses we see how fear affects attachment.

Fear and attachment:

Imagine yourself in a room full of gold. The gold is yours to keep if you want it. And you do want it. You’ve got bills to pay and having some money tucked away would give you peace of mind, or so you think.

The problem is this room you are sitting in with the gold is on a ship far out at sea.  And the ship is sinking fast. If you stay with the gold, you will go down with the ship and if you try to take some of the gold with you, in your pockets, the weight will drag you under the waves.

The choice is clear. If you want to live, you must abandon your attachment to the gold.    

Many of us have an attachment to money, although we may not like to admit it. We like having money because wealth gives us a feeling of security. It puts some of our fears to bed and makes us feel safe.

The problem is, having money also awakens other fears. Specifically, the fear of losing our money. Too much wealth can be as bad as too little. Riches, like poverty, tend to isolate us.

But when faced with a crisis, a choice between life and death, most of us would sacrifice the money to save ourselves. The fear of death is usually greater than the fear of poverty. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time.

Joseph had suffered much at the hands of his brothers. They had sold him into slavery for 20 shekels of silver. By doing this the brothers had demonstrated a greater attachment to money than to Joseph.

When Joseph’s brothers leave Egypt to return to Canaan, Joseph orders his servant to put the silver they had paid back in their sacks. Why does Joseph do this? Is the silver a subtle reminder of his brothers’ crime? Or is Joseph being generous and repaying their wrongdoing with good?

Whatever Joseph’s motivation, when the brothers later discover the silver has been returned, their hearts sink and they feel terribly afraid.

They know this is not a good look. It makes them appear dishonest and gives the lord of the land more reason to distrust them.

In fear the brothers say to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?” Their guilty consciences see the returned silver as a punishment from God.

Although guilt doesn’t feel good, it is not always a bad thing. Guilt acts like bolt cutters for an unhealthy attachment. When we are attached to something that is harmful, like drinking too much for example, then (if our conscience is functioning properly) we will feel guilty about it and the guilt will motivate us to break our harmful attachment to alcohol.   

The brothers’ fear and guilt is a necessary step in the process of their redemption.

When the brothers get home to Canaan and explain to their father Jacob what happened, how the lord of the land wants them to return with Benjamin, Jacob is fearful also. He won’t have a bar of it saying…

38 “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.”

Clearly, Jacob’s attachment to Benjamin and to his own grief is greater than anything he feels for the rest of his family.

Benjamin is no longer a child. He is a young man in his 20’s. Jacob’s attachment to Benjamin is not healthy. It keeps Jacob in a prison of fear and threatens the survival of the whole family.

While it is natural for parents to feel a strong attachment to their children, there comes a point when we need to trust God and let our children go. Not all at once, but gradually and with the support they need. Our attachment to our kids needs to flex and adapt as they grow.

It is difficult for Jacob to do this though because he has lost his favourite son, Joseph, and he is still living with the pain of that loss.

In his book, God of Surprises, Gerard Hughes (a Catholic priest and spiritual director) says this; “The answer is in the pain. We fear whatever causes us pain and try to escape, but in escaping we are running away from the answer… Face the fears that haunt you.” (page 101)

Jacob needs to face his fear of losing Benjamin. But will he find the faith he needs to do this?

Faith and attachment:

We continue the story from verse 1 of Genesis 43…

1 Now the famine was still severe in the land. 2 So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.” 3 But Judah said to him, “The man warned us solemnly, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’ 4 If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. 5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’  6 “Israel asked, “Why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother?” 7 They replied, “The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. ‘Is your father still living?’ he asked us. ‘Do you have another brother?’ We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, ‘Bring your brother down here’?” 8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life. 10 As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice.” 11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. 12 Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. 13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

In these verses Jacob finds the faith to face his fears. Faith plays an important part in the formation of healthy attachments. 

In the movie, The Sound of Music, Captain von Trapp does not enjoy a close or warm attachment to his children. Then along comes Maria who, through love and music, restores the father to his family.

In the middle of the film, the Captain and Maria start to form a romantic attachment. And, as is often the case with romantic attachments, neither of them is really that aware of their feelings at first.

Maria is confused and, after a quiet word from Baroness Schraeder, decides to return to the convent where she stays in seclusion and prepares to take vows to become a nun.

When the mother superior learns that Maria is actually afraid and hiding in the convent, to avoid her feelings for the Captain, she wisely encourages Maria to return to the von Trapp villa to face her fear and look for her purpose in life.

As it turns out, the Captain’s feelings of love for Maria have not changed, except now he has found the courage to admit his feelings to himself and to Maria. Baroness Schraeder sees the reality of the situation and gracefully leaves. Maria and the Captain are then married.

Faith plays an important part in forming healthy attachments. Faith helps us to face our fears and our pain. At the same time, faith enables us to hold things loosely, so we can let go in trust.

By faith Maria was able to put her romantic attachment to Captain von Trapp in God’s hands. She was willing to let God be God.

In Genesis 43, Jacob finds that he must face his fears and let go in faith, or else lose everything. The famine is so severe that the brothers must return to Egypt to buy more grain, or else they will starve. But they can’t return without taking Benjamin with them.

Reuben, the eldest brother, had tried persuading his father by saying that Jacob could put both of his sons to death if he doesn’t bring Benjamin back with him. But Jacob refuses.

If Reuben is that careless with his own sons, why would Jacob trust him with Benjamin. What good would it do to destroy more innocent lives? Reuben’s proposal is not the letting go of faith. It is the reckless letting go of desperation. It shows that Reuben’s attachments are not healthy.

Later Judah tries persuading Jacob by offering himself as guarantor for Benjamin saying, “I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him…”

You may remember from Genesis 38 that two of Judah’s sons had died. Judah understands his father’s pain all too well.

Unlike Reuben, who was risking his sons’ lives, Judah is taking the risk on himself. Judah is saying that he will take the blame if he fails to bring Benjamin back safely. Judah’s proposal is more like the letting go of faith.

This reveals a real transformation in Judah’s character. Earlier, in Genesis 37, it was Judah who had led the others in selling Joseph into slavery. Now Judah takes the role of leader again, only this time he is not serving his own interests. This time Judah makes himself vulnerable and let’s go of his power in order to help others.   

We see a change in the other brothers too. Twenty years earlier they might have ignored Jacob’s wishes and kidnapped Benjamin in order to get him to Egypt to buy grain.

But now, having witnessed the suffering of their father, the brothers let go of their attachment to violence and power in order to honour their father and allow him to decide.

In the end Jacob realises his options are limited. If he does not let Benjamin go, they will all die. So, Jacob finally allows Benjamin to travel with his brothers to Egypt.

But notice Jacob’s advice to his sons. “Take the best products of the land as a gift… Take double the amount of silver with you… And may God Almighty grant you mercy… As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

In faith, Jacob faces his fear of being bereaved. He does what he can to prepare his sons (sending them off with gifts for the man) and then trusts his sons and the success of their mission to God’s mercy. This is the letting go of faith. Jacob is learning to let God be God.

Letting go in faith requires thoughtfulness and courage. We do what is in our power to do and we trust God with the rest.

Conclusion:

Unhealthy attachments can reveal themselves in many ways. The accumulation of wealth, the compulsion to try and control everything, an obsession with what others think, an affair of the heart, overworking, a destructive habit, self-righteousness, becoming too dependent on one person for our security, and so on. These are all signs of an unhealthy attachment to something.   

If we find ourselves holding onto something so tightly that we cannot let go and leave it in God’s hands, then it has probably become an unhealthy attachment. A millstone around our neck. Something that weighs our soul down and will eventually kill us.

What fears do you need to face?

What attachments do you need to hold more loosely?

Or perhaps let go of altogether?

Jesus understood our need for attachment. He also knew the human tendency to form attachments to the wrong things. The Lord says…

‘For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’  

In the end, the only thing that really matters is the quality of our attachment to Jesus.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Why do people form attachments?
  • How does fear affect our attachments? Why do we need to face our fears? What fears do you need to face?
  • What role does guilt play in breaking unhealthy attachments?
  • What role does faith play in the formation of healthy attachments? Can you think of ways that faith has helped you in forming attachments?
  • How might we know when an attachment has become unhealthy? What unhealthy attachments do you need to let go of? Ask God for his grace in doing this.
  • What can you do to strengthen your attachment to Christ?