"Knowing Peace" Genesis 43 Pastor Allan Wooters, D.Min.
I began this series with a message seeking to give hope to fractured, dysfunctional families. That issue resurfaces in this sermon but with a different focus. That focus concerns forgiveness and peace. If you came from a difficult family situation, how do you ever find peace concerning the experiences you have had? Being told you simply must forgive those who have hurt you just rings hollow or impossible to do. We cannot just pretend that nothing happened or that what was done to us wasn’t serious. But what if there is a chance for reconciliation? Now what? That is the situation Joseph faced. He had the option of getting revenge, walking away forever or seeking peace. By God’s incredible grace, peace triumphs and restoration occurred. If it can occur for the massively dysfunctional family of Joseph, it can happen for anyone.
Chapter 43 continues the story of the famine which had decimated the region, vs.1 – 10. Over his protests, Jacob knows his son Benjamin must go to Egypt. The fear that griped Jacob with this decision is seen in vs.13 – 14. The men return to Egypt but not empty-handed. They bring gifts and extra money. Recall that on their return home from first going to Egypt that the brothers had found their money in their grain sacks. It would appear they had stolen the grain. To try to prove their innocence they take double the money and various gifts to the official. Upon arriving, Joseph sees them and orders his steward to prepare a meal and to tell his brothers that they are to dine with Joseph. Now remember, these men don’t know it’s Joseph so when they are told they will dine with the Egyptian official who had treated them so harshly before, they are deeply concerned, vs.18 – 25.
Now there’s a good question to consider at this point. That question is: what is God up to? With all this drama, all the twists and turns of this plot, what is God doing? One answer is that God is still acting to save His chosen people. By getting Jacob’s sons to Egypt, they were able to eat and live and not perish. But there’s more here than the fact that God is saving the lives of Joseph’s family. God is also seeking to heal the family. To put it another way, God is moving to create peace in this very fractured family.
We see this movement toward peace in the fact that the Hebrew word for peace is used four times in this chapter. That word, shalom, or peace isn’t always evident in our English translations. For example, in v.23 Joseph’s steward greets the men, “Be at ease….” But the marginal reading in our Bible has it literally, “Peace be to you….” In v.27, Joseph asks about their peace and the peace of their father. The men reply that Jacob has peace, (v.28). Understand, that for Jews, this peace isn’t simply peace of mind. It is a profound word which denotes that one has peace in all aspects of his or her life. They have life abundant. It is a peace that includes physical, mental, spiritual, and relational wholeness. Today, if someone asks you, “How are you?” and you say, “I’m doing good,” or, “I’m well,” you are saying you have shalom.
In our text, God is moving to make peace in Joseph’s family. We can think of various reasons why but most of all God is seeking peace in this family because God is a God of peace. Our faith, anchored as it is in Christ, makes Christianity the real religion of peace. God cares so much that we have peace He sent Jesus to die for it. By His death we have peace with God and the peace of God as Paul expounds in detail in the book of Romans. This peace is to extend to all our life including our relationship with family and others. How that works out is seen in the account of each of the key players in this chapter. Consider the brothers.
The Brothers
They must return to Egypt and it’s not a happy thought. They had to argue with their father over taking Benjamin. But one man makes the difference. It’s Judah. He steps forward and pledges himself to this mission and declares that he will be responsible for his youngest brother who is now the favored son. This is a huge change. Back in chapter 37 it was Judah who formulated the plan to sell Joseph in the first place. In chapter 38 we read of his having an affair with a woman he thought was a sacred prostitute. It was all about himself in both acts. But now, in chapter 43, it seems that Judah is truly concerned about everyone else, not just himself. This is evidence that he is a changed man. He’s not fully there yet. He hasn’t admitted to having done anything wrong at this point concerning his deceit concerning Joseph and other matters. But here’s the thing, he is acting different and substantive change takes time in most cases.
Judah is on the road to becoming a new man and to having shalom. When it comes to our past, our families and anyone who has hurt us, we should be looking for signs of real change. Is the person who hurt you not just saying they are different, but can you see evidence that their change is real? Seeing change may be hard since our thoughts of the person are clouded with the darkness of betrayal and hurt. But if there’s evidence of change then taking careful steps towards that family member is the right thing to do. Now of course, if you get close and discover they have not really changed then keeping your distance is justified. But knowing that God is a God of peace, that He is seeking to make peace in the lives of all people, at least should cause us to see if we can discern change in the person’s life especially if she or he says they have changed. Be open but be carefully discerning with someone who had hurt you but because God is real, we can risk restoring the relationship. Judah shows he was changing, and the others seem to be on this path to true change as well. Then there is Jacob.
Jacob
As his sons depart for Egypt, he is alone with the wives and kids of his sons. Daily he waits for what he hopes is good news. In some ways he deserved this due to his favoring two sons above the others. Now, he has no one left with him. It’s hard not to feel sorry for him but as you ponder his words it’s not too hard to see that Jacob’s cries are all about himself. Faced with the reality of the situation Jacob sends his sons off with words that betray his anger and self-pity: “If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” Jacob doesn’t bless his sons. He doesn’t offer a prayer for their success. He gives no encouragement, not one word of hope. Just, “Woe is me!”
Despite everything Jacob had been through, including all of the amazing blessings and encounters with God, he remained an arrogant, self-centered old man. It’s been said, “There’s no fool like an old fool.” Jacob would be the poster boy for that saying. From his stealing the birthright from his brother Esau, through his conflicts with his uncle Laban, to his wrestling with God at the river Jabbok, God had been working to show Jacob that he would never have peace trying to live life on his own terms and being focused totally on himself. Even now, that message is still not getting through.
The fact is Jacob had made idols out of his sons Joseph and Benjamin. They were the sons from his favorite wife, Rachel but that didn’t make the favoritism right. God wanted Jacob to bury those idols. He had plenty of chances to do this; to change the acts of toxic favoritism but he didn’t. So, God had to take those sons from him for a time so that all the family could be healed and be at peace including Jacob.
Just so, we need to be careful what value we place on things in life. I was raised by parents who survived the great depression. Due to living so poorly they vowed that my brothers and I would have everything. My father had a high-paying job, yet he always worked other jobs to make even more money. My mother worked as a teacher. We boys always had more stuff than we needed except any sort of close relationship with our parents. Money was their idol, time with us was scant. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to give your kids nice things but how we need to be careful not to let the drive for good things become all-consuming. I can’t go back and undo how I was raised but I can try not to let things, even very good things, become my idol like Jacob did with his two sons. If someone failed you in the past, undoing that past of course isn’t possible. But you can redeem the past by learning from it and vowing that for your part things will be different. You will pursue those things that make for life, joy, for peace.
And we do this knowing that God is at work in all we have experienced to make good come from it. Jacob couldn’t see all of God’s plan and it made him miserable. Joseph on the other hand did understand that God could be trusted and was working things out for good. That is Joseph’s great declaration at the end of this entire saga. When his brother come to him following the death of their father, they are sure that Joseph will now take revenge on them. But nothing was further from Joseph’s mind. He tells them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” (Gen. 50:19 – 20).
God is not only the God of peace, but He is also Lord over all things, the Almighty who can create a new day for you. It doesn’t always happen. Some folks reject God’s work in their lives and never change. But change can happen, and we must be open to this.
While we wait for this change, we don’t have to wait passively. First, we can pray. We can seek the God of peace asking that He makes peace a reality in our family. He might bring an amazing healing to your family. If it doesn’t happen, prayer can help us accept things as they are, learn from them, and move on with life.
Second, we can be looking for indications of change in others. If we come to see that a person has changed, we can move towards reconciliation. Because God can bring about change, we should be open to it.
Third, we can let go of our hurts because we know God is redeeming them for good. It might not seem that any good can come from some fractured relationship, but it can. Our Lord never forsakes His own and if you are His child you can rest assured that the Holy Spirit is making for a better time, a time of peace. Yes, it takes mercy on our part, wisdom on our part, hope as well as faith. But God is with us in this. Knowing that God is with us means even from our most difficult experiences with others we can know peace.
For Further Reading
Relationships: A Mess Worth Making, Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp