Reality Therapy (Genesis 42:18-38, Romans 8:31-39)
Rev. Robert F. Ingram, July 3, 2022Part of the Morning Worship at North Greenville Church series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
From Egypt, Joseph’s brothers return to Jacob in Canaan. They tell Jacob that the Egyptian ruler (the unknown brother Joseph) wants them to bring back Benjamin to join Simeon as a hostage to atone for thievery (really a scheme). Jacob has been suffering through a famine and is now facing the loss of a third son, Benjamin, who was supposed to carry on the patriarchal line. He already suspected his 10 sons of doing away with Joseph years ago. Now he feared imprisonment and death in a foreign land. God provides an answer to Jacob’s despair. In Latin, we would call this an example of Deus pro nobis, or God with us. As Paul tells us in Romans 8, if God is for us, who can stand against us? When we are in trouble, we look for someone of esteem to testify on our behalf. Paul says that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. God certainly has the power to deliver Jacob from his distress. Our God of providence foresees the future. He is emphatically pro nobis. We live under His sovereign care, and He is intimately acquainted with all of us. He cares for beauty in creation, and He has special care over His children. God can transform evil intent for good; He can turn darkness into light. Yet, His providence must be lived out, and we must remain steadfast in trouble. Sometimes we experience severe mercies. His grace will always be sufficient. In this world, we will have tribulation, but also the promised Comforter, the Holy Spirit. His love will not let us go, so we must not exaggerate our circumstances. Jacob’s story ends well, as he experiences a reunion with his long lost son, Joseph. Thanks be to God for His abundant mercies.
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Genesis 42:18–38 (Listen)
18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, 20 and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so. 21 Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” 22 And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” 23 They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. 24 Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. 25 And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man’s money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.
26 Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. 28 He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
29 When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33 Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way. 34 Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”
35 As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.” 37 Then Reuben said to his father, “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.” 38 But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”
(ESV)
Romans 8:31–39 (Listen)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(ESV)