It's Not as It Seems

Joseph's brothers returned from Egypt without their brother Simeon. Nothing had gone as they had hoped, and their father Jacob was heartbroken. Simeon has no chance of rescue, because from the perspective of Jacob, he concludes that Simeon is in the hands of a ruthless tyrant who thinks that Simeon is involved with spies and with thieves and who is certainly doomed. For Jacob, this was a second devastating blow. As far as he knew, Joseph had been dead for years, and now this.

It was useless to go on as far as he could see. But today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr. R.C. Sproul will remind us that God's people are never abandoned. I love the title of today's message, It's Not As It Seems. We continue now with our story of the life of Joseph. And we've seen the terror that came into the hearts of their brothers when they realized at their encampment on the way back to their father's home that they had opened one of the sacks of grain and found money hidden in the sack. And they knew now that they would be accused of being thieves and of being spies by the officer of Pharaoh who had met with them. And so they told their story to Jacob, but they left out that little detail. But we read in verse 35, then it happened as they emptied their sacks that surprisingly each man's bundle of money was in his sack.

And when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said to them, you have bereaved me. Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more. And you want to take Benjamin.

Everything is against me. Now, a couple of things I want to say about this particular conversation that Jacob has with his sons. One, for those of you who have been following these lectures for some time may recall that when we talked in the past about divine providence that I lectured on this text and on Jacob's reaction.

But I don't want to just say, go listen to that lecture. This is integral to this narrative, so we're going to look over some of this ground again for some of you who were with us earlier on. But there's another problem before we get to that, and that is this problem of the text telling us that now they open all the sacks and are surprised to find money in each man's bundle of money was in his sack. Now, are we to assume then that on the way home when one man opened his sack and found money in it that no one else thought to look in their sacks to see if there was money in those sacks as well? That seems strange, doesn't it? You would assume that if they found money in one sack, they'd check all the sacks to see what was going on. But the Bible is silent on this.

Now, this is the problem that is raised. The Bible uses a form of narrative frequently, particularly in the Old Testament, but not exclusively in the Old Testament, that involves a kind of recapitulation where you will get the gist of a story the first time around, and then when the story is recapitulated, you will have added details. And you see that in Stephen's narration, for example, of the progress of events that took place in Abraham's migration out of the land of the Chaldees. You know, how did he leave after his father died or before his father died? And you look at the account in Genesis, and you look at the account in Acts, and it looks like the two are in conflict.

But if you realize that the second recapitulates the first and fills in some of the details, these problems are resolved. Now, the point is that these men obviously had several sacks of grain. There's no reason to assume that they went through every sack. Maybe each one looked in one of their sacks and didn't see anything, or it may be that, in fact, they only did look in the one sack, and that was enough to terrify them, and they didn't see the rest until they got back.

But in any case, we have this account that when they saw this and that their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And this is the occasion for Jacob to express his profound grief where the patriarch Jacob, who had received the promises of God and the patriarchal blessing, is now driven to the very rim of the spear. And he says, You have bereaved me.

Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me. Now, when we did look at this text in the context of the doctrine of providence, we remember that the hand of providence is invisible, and the kingdom of God is invisible. And we don't know what God is doing beneath the surface of those things that we can perceive with our own flesh. That hidden beneath the visible lies always the invisible rule of God. And that's the hard thing for the Christian, is to trust is to trust his life and his future to an invisible reign because things are not always as they appear to be. That's what it means in the New Testament.

It says we are to walk by faith and not by sight because sometimes our sight gives us no hope whatsoever for the future. And this is what Jacob is doing at this point. Jacob is human. Jacob is responding now in the flesh. He's responding to what he knows.

He's responding to the facts as he has perceived them. And he says, you come back to me with this situation, and you have bereaved me. You have brought me nothing but grief. Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more.

Everything is against me. That's how it looked. And this was not just a hasty assumption on Jacob's part. Why would he not reasonably assume that Joseph was no more? What evidence did he have that Joseph was dead? He didn't see the death of Joseph. He wasn't an eyewitness to the death of his son. But his sons had come back and testified en masse that they were eyewitnesses of the death of Joseph.

Not only that, they gave forensic evidence of the death of Joseph by presenting the mutilated coat that was covered with blood. Why wouldn't Jacob believe that Joseph was no more? And why does he assume that Simeon is no more? Well, just as they had returned years ago without Joseph, now they come back from this foreign land with this story of this harsh ruler who had thrown his son into prison, and maybe he would say, well, this is a bad situation. We better move heaven and earth to go down there and get Simeon back.

He's possibly still alive. But once they find this money in the bags, how much hope does Jacob have of ever seeing Simeon again? He said, he kept Simeon there as a test to see if you were honorable men, and now you come home with all this money in your bags. Simeon's had it. Simeon is no more, and everything is against me. Remember when you were children, things went wrong, and you cried out the little ditty, nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I'm going to go eat worms.

That's Jacob now. That's what he's saying. Everything is against me. You know, he's saying, if it weren't for my bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all.

He said, this is terrible. What happens to his faith in the promises of God? At this moment, faith is at a low ebb, and he's walking by sight and not by faith. Now, what's the reality?

Let me just back up a minute. One of the relentless critiques of the Christian faith comes from those in the realm of psychology, psychiatry, who say that religion is nothing more than wish projection. It is the opiate of the masses. Religion is for people who need a crutch, for people who are emotional cripples, who simply cannot cope with the conflicts, the pains, and the afflictions that we must endure as human beings. And so, we turn to this pie in the sky and to this invisible God that we hope will someday bail us out and give us rest on the other side of the Jordan. And we might even push this to the point of saying the Christian is a person who's lost touch with reality. His psychological need for comfort is so great that he lives in a make-believe world of faith, a world that does not correspond to reality.

Well, sometimes the crutch is on the other foot. The point is that we don't always see reality. There is much more to reality than what meets the eye. We've come to understand that we may think we're in a safe environment, but we know that at any moment our bodies may be invaded by bacteria or viral infections that are microscopic and sub-microscopic, that they are invisible to the naked eye.

And so, we have to go through elaborate medical testing to find out if we have a life-threatening illness that has invaded our bodies. Because it's not visible to the naked eye. So that what goes on in that realm of what is invisible to us is of enormous significance for life and for death. And so, we've come at least to learn that we can't live entirely on the basis of what we perceive with our bodies. And so, we've come to learn that we can't live entirely on the basis of what we perceive with our naked eyes. Now, when we look at this statement by Jacob, we say Jacob, in his unbelief at the moment, who's out of touch with reality.

Because his perception, his empirical analysis is completely wrong. It couldn't be further from the truth. Joseph is no more.

False. Joseph is some more. Joseph is not only not dead. Joseph is no longer a slave. Joseph is no longer in prison. Joseph is the prime minister of Egypt.

That's something, not nothing. But Jacob doesn't know the truth about Joseph. What about Simeon? Simeon is no more. Simeon has no chance of rescue. Because from the perspective of Jacob, on the basis of the information he has, he concludes that Simeon is in the hands of a ruthless tyrant who thinks that Simeon is involved with spies and with thieves and who is certainly doomed.

And yet, in his entire life, Simeon was never in a more safe environment than he was here, in the protective custody of his brother, his brother who is the prime minister of Egypt. The last person in the world Simeon had to worry about in terms of harming him physically was Joseph. Because Joseph is God's agent of redemption for Jacob and for his brothers. And then the final conclusion of Jacob is, everything is against me. He hadn't heard Paul's words, all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. He hadn't read the New Testament where it says that if God be for us, who can be against us? Never in Jacob's life has the providence of God been more singularly focused on the immediate welfare of Jacob than at the very moment when he says, everything is against me. Because at the moment he comes to that conclusion, he's on the threshold of finding his son who was dead, of being reunited with the son that he loved so much, of having his family redeemed from the ravages of the famine. All of that is about to happen in very short time because God had so ordered the affairs of history to bring everything for Jacob.

But from his vantage point all he could see was that everything was against him. Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you. But he said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone.

If any calamity should befall him along the way, if any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. Reuben says, Look, I have two sons, your grandchildren. Let me go back there and get Simeon. And if I don't come back with Simeon, he can kill my sons. And Jacob says, Thank you very much.

I'll pass on your offer. Benjamin's brother is dead. I'm not going to risk Benjamin for anything, because if anything happens to Benjamin, then I go down into hell in total destruction. If anything happens to Benjamin, I'm on the rim of despair. I'm staring into that dreadful abyss, and the only thing I have left is Benjamin. I'm not risking Benjamin, because if anything happened to Benjamin, I'm not just on the rim of despair.

I'm in the depths of the abyss. And so Jacob says, No. And he has to swallow this. He has no hope for Simeon. He still has hope for Benjamin, and so he will not listen to the pleas of Reuben.

Now chapter 43 brings a little slight change as the clock is sped up a little bit in this narrative history. For we read in verse 1, Now the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, Go back and buy us a little food. You know, in the last passage, basically the response of Jacob to the pleas of Reuben is, Never. We're not going back down there.

I'm not going to let Benjamin go there. We're staying as far away from Egypt as we can, but then something happens. I mean, he could afford to take that position initially because in one sense the original mission of the brothers had been accomplished, not without casualties, but they did come back home with all of this grain. So, they did have at least temporary relief from the famine. And when Jacob was being so obstinate and saying, No more going down to Egypt, perhaps he was banking on this supply of grain that he had gotten to tide his family over until they were out of danger. He had to assume that the famine wouldn't last forever. But the ominous statement that follows is, The famine became severe in the land. Instead of getting better, the famine got worse and worse and worse. And the limited grain that they had been able to procure on the first journey was exhausted. And now Jacob is looking around and he's saying, Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more. And if things were against us before, they're worse now because we're all going to die unless we get some food.

So, he changes his mind, but his mind is not changed until the circumstances of the crisis are so intensified that he really has no choice but to take the risks that he had refused to take earlier. And so, the stage is set for the return to Egypt, for the brothers to come back to Egypt, for the brothers to come once again face to face with Joseph. I think Jacob's fears resonate with many of us.

Dr. R.C. Sproul has examined the very human condition of Jacob and his sons today. We're glad you've joined us for the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Each week, we're featuring Dr. Sproul's series, The Life of Joseph. Over the past several weeks, we've seen God's faithfulness to His people. We'd like to send you this 20-part series.

I think it will be a great encouragement to you. We've bundled it together with several other teaching series, including The Parables of Jesus, Knowing Scripture, Ecclesiastes, Galatians, and Knowing Christ. There are eight series in the set that we call The R.C. Sproul Teaching Collection. You can request it with your gift of any amount when you go to renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. We are so grateful when you request our resources and provide a financial gift, and if you'd like to increase the reach and impact of your giving, I hope you consider becoming a ministry partner.

When you sign up to give on a recurring basis, you'll receive a specially selected message of the month, Table Talk magazine each month, and other exclusive benefits. As R.C. often said, ministry partners are the backbone of this ministry.

So we invite you to go to ligonier.org slash donate to sign up. Well, there's no question that circumstances in life can overwhelm us, but the Bible brings us comfort. Let's listen to a final thought from R.C. One of the things that the New Testament says about the plight of the unbeliever is that in the final analysis, the unbeliever who is without Christ is also without hope in this world. You know, even with Christ, there are moments in every Christian's life when we share this sensation of Jacob, where we also come to the rim of the abyss and stare down into the darkness and endure the dark night of the soul and come to the precipitous conclusion that everything is against us. It's in that very moment that we need to lift up our heads and remember who God is and come back to His Word, because God doesn't give us abstract promises for the future, but He buttresses those promises to us with this record of redemptive history, where He gives us repeated examples of how He has fulfilled His promises in times past, and He gives us manifold witnesses of flesh and blood like ourselves who struggle with the same doubts and the same perplexities who are redeemed. And so the next time you are tempted to look into that abyss and to think that God has abandoned you, remember Jacob. Well, hunger caused Jacob's sons to return to Egypt, and what they found there changed the course of their lives. We hope you'll join us next Saturday as we continue our series on the life of Joseph. Thank you.