Found Out! True Repentance
Genesis 44
Numbers 32:23 says, “… be sure your sin will find you out.” Moses spoke these words to the Israelite tribes of Gad and Reuben who had just pledged to fight until the land of Canaan was conquered for their brethren before they return to their inheritance east of the Jordan River. Moses’ full statement to them was: “But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.”
In the statement “be sure your sin will find you out” is revealed the mystery of sin and the necessity of repentance. The nature of sin is such that, whether or not others find out your sin, your sin will “find you out.” You cannot hide your sin from the all-seeing God. Sin carries within itself the power to pay the sinner back, and sin’s payback is death and hell. Don’t even think about toying with sin. It cannot be tamed, outrun, or shaken off. No matter how safe you think you are, if you are a sinner, your sin will find you out.[1]
Speaking about the hypocritical sins of the Pharisees, Jesus said, “For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.” (Luke 12:2). The only way to escape sin’s imprisonment and deadly grip is to be forgiven of your sin by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 10:9; 1 John 2:2; Revelation 1:5).
This truth, “be sure your sin will find you out,” is illustrated profoundly in Genesis 44 with Joseph’s brothers. The reason this chapter is so vital to us centuries later is that repentance is an indispensable part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet it seems in our day repentance is seldom discussed and frequently misunderstood. In Genesis 44, we get to see Joseph observing whether his brothers have real repentance in their hearts, as he tests them and tries their hearts. I invite you to come along and ask God the Holy Spirit to show you if indeed, your repentance is genuine, or not.
When last we left Joseph and his brothers, they were enjoying a great feast at Joseph’s house in Egypt (although they still didn’t know it was Joseph). For the first time in over 20 years, all 12 brothers were together. The last statement in Genesis 43 was, “So they drank and were merry with him.” Plenty of food, plenty to drink, much to celebrate. Everything seemed to finally be going well for Jacob’s sons. The trouble with this Egyptian governor has been resolved, they have Simeon back from prison and Benjamin is safe. For a moment they seemed to forget about their brother Joseph and what they had done to him.
Boy, are they in for a big surprise! They are about to be found out and set free from their guilty past, and they don’t have a clue that Joseph is behind it all. And behind Joseph stands God who has orchestrated every detail to bring them to this moment of repentance.[2] In the last two chapters of Genesis, Joseph had been testing his brothers, seeking to prove whether or not they were still the same jealous, hard-hearted men who had planned to kill him and sold him into slavery all those years before. Are they still willing to break their father’s heart to cover their guilt and save themselves? Had they changed?
In Genesis 44 Joseph gives one more soul-searching test of the hearts of his brothers. He desires to be reconciled with his brothers. Even through his testing of them, Joseph has shown great kindness and concern for his brothers. He had forgiveness in his heart. But as I said last time, when sin has broken a relationship, repentance is necessary for reconciliation. Forgiveness is only transacted when there is repentance. Will they not only regret what they did but will they truly repent of their sin?
This is the test. So, in Genesis 44:1-6 we have Joseph’s setup for the test. In Genesis 44:7-13 we see the response of the brothers. In Genesis 44:14-17 we have the sentence against Benjamin. Then finally in Genesis 44:18-34, the speech from Judah.
1. The Setup (Gen. 44:1-6)
While the brothers slept that night in anticipation of their departure for home the next morning, Joseph was busy with setting up their final test.
1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack. 2 Also put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his grain money.” So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. 3 As soon as the morning dawned, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, “Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Is not this the one from which my lord drinks, and with which he indeed practices divination? You have done evil in so doing.”‘ 6 So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words.
The brothers must have thought that they had it made. The great Egyptian had been so friendly to them; he filled their bags to the very top; they had Simeon back and Benjamin was safe with them. They could return to their father in peace. All of this, however, was part of Joseph’s strategy. The test would come out of the blue; it would devastate them; and it would force them to respond to this sudden disaster. In other words, Joseph had made the test as demanding as he could. Character is best tested in the heat of a crisis.[3]
The accusation was designed to provoke maximum fear. Joseph had instructed his servant to take his “cup, the silver cup” (Gen. 44:2) but then tells the servant to mention that Joseph used the cup for divination (Gen. 44:5). To practice divination is to uncover hidden knowledge by supernatural means. It is associated with the occult and fortune-telling, a practice later forbidden in the Law of Moses (Deut. 18:10). Divination by means of goblet is well known from the ancient world, something like reading tea leaves. I doubt that Joseph really practiced divination. Rather, this is just one more element of the carefully constructed disguise and strategy of Joseph. He wanted them to think that he was an Egyptian with the power to know their secrets until they confess their sin. He had already shown that he was able to seat his brothers at the table according to their age, an act that astonished and puzzled them (Gen. 43:33).
So he sets the stage for Benjamin to be found guilty in the sight of Joseph because Joseph is interested to see if they will treat Jacob’s favorite with as much jealousy, callousness, and contempt as they once did to him. Notice that twice the servant mentions their “evil” deed: “Why have you repaid evil for good?” (Gen. 44:4); and, “You have done evil in so doing” (Gen. 44:5). His words are designed to take the brothers back to the evil they did to Joseph, to prick their consciences, to remind them of their guilt before God.
2. The Search (Gen. 44:7-13)
7 And they said to him, “Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from us that your servants should do such a thing. 8 Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? 9 With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.” 10 And he said, “Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless.” 11 Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. 12 So he searched. He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
Overtaking these Hebrew men as they headed back to their father, the steward accused them of stealing the silver “divining” cup. With smug confidence and self-righteousness, the brothers assured the steward that such a thing was beyond them. After all, had they not attempted to return the money which they found in their sacks from the first journey?
The brothers are so confident that none of them had stolen the cup that they make a bold statement: “With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.” (Gen. 44:9). Slavery was what these men had most feared (cf. Gen. 43:18), and yet they were willing to risk it because they were certain of their innocence. Knowing where he would discover the cup and knowing the intent of his master test the brother’s loyalty to Benjamin, the steward modified their self-imposed sentence: “Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless.” (Gen. 44:10).
Each man hastened to take down his sack and open it, for they were certain that their innocence would be proven. While nothing is said of the gold which was placed in each man’s sack (Gen. 44:1), the discovery of their money in each of their sacks must have made their hearts sink just as it had before (Gen. 42:28, 35). Their logic had been, “Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?” (Gen. 44:8). And yet, they did have his money. Imagine the sense of dread that must have come over these men as each sack was opened. The basis for their righteous indignation was gone. But the steward makes no mention of their money. All he wished to discover was the thief of the cup. From the oldest to the youngest, the steward made his way down the line until he reached Benjamin, the last. So Genesis 44:12 says, “the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.”
Now this word, found, that “the cup was found” is a key word in this chapter. It shows up eight times in Genesis 44. God is finding out, he’s searching through and finding out their sin, their evil, so that what was hidden is now being found. The brothers will be brought face-to-face with their sin.
Here was the first phase of the final test of Joseph’s brothers. Would they renounce Benjamin as a thief, abandon him, and get safely out of Egypt as quickly as possible? More than twenty years had passed since they had sold Joseph into slavery, and yet it was as though they were reliving the event. Benjamin, Jacob’s beloved, was in their care, far from Jacob’s protection. He was accused of a terrible crime for which there was no opportunity to establish his innocence. They, without any real guilt, such as they deserved before, could choose to walk away and be free at Benjamin’s expense. They could return to their father just as they had done so long ago and break his heart with the news that his other son was “no more.” More than twenty years later, the same temptation faces these men. Will they evidence a change of heart, or will they act in self-interest? That is what Joseph must know. The moment of truth has arrived. “Their life seemed to hang by a thread, but oh how strong the thread!”[4]
3. The Sentence (Gen. 44:14-17)
Here Benjamin is sentenced, but the brothers all admit their guilt.
14 So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there; and they fell before him on the ground. 15 And Joseph said to them, “What deed is this you have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?” 16 Then Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants; here we are, my lord’s slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup was found.” 17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
The brothers all fall prostrate before him, no longer seeking justice, but mercy. Joseph rebuked them for their wicked deed, again reminding them of his ability to know the truth (by “divination”). They could not deceive him; he knew all. That is the thrust of his words.
Judah seeks to convey their brokenness. They are without any defense. The key sentence in this chapter is in Genesis 4:16, “God has found out the iniquity of your servants.” The word iniquity speaks of perversity, depravity, in-dwelling sin, and the guilt that accompanies it. It is God against whom they have sinned. They see that it is not for the theft of Joseph’s cup that they are now in trouble, but for their hidden sins of the past. “True repentance doesn’t make up a defense for the small area where you’re innocent, but rather admits the larger sphere where you’re guilty.”[5]
As all were guilty of that past sin (except Benjamin, interestingly), so they are all guilty before the governor of Egypt, and thus all are his slaves. They will suffer together since they shared in a common act of sin. But Joseph would not hear of this. Instead, he twists the knife when he says, “Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, go up in peace to your father” (Gen. 44:17). Will they continue to take responsibility for their sin or will they abandon Benjamin to save themselves?
4. The Speech (Gen. 44:18-34)
Judah once again assumes the role of spiritual leader among his brothers. It was he, after all, who had offered himself as surety for Benjamin’s safe return (Gen. 43:9). When the Egyptian offered him and his brothers their freedom at Benjamin’s expense, Judah rose to speak and to plead. And what follows, in Gen. 44:18-34, is the longest speech and the most passionate speech in the book of Genesis. Here Judah will declare his willingness to suffer on behalf of his brother, and he reflects a heart which has been changed by the hand of God.
18 Then Judah came near to him and said: “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, “Have you a father or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, “We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, “Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22 And we said to my lord, “The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23 But you said to your servants, “Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more.’ 24 “So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord. 25 And our father said, “Go back and buy us a little food.’ 26 But we said, “We cannot go down; if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father said to us, “You know that my wife bore me two sons; 28 and the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn to pieces”; and I have not seen him since. 29 But if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.’ 30 “Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, 31 it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. 32 For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, “If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’ 33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. 34 For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?”
Judah humbly asks for an opportunity to tell the whole story from the beginning to the end (Gen. 44:18). So Judah retells their situation in Genesis 44:19-26. Then in Genesis 44:27-32 he conveys the accurate picture of the effect that Benjamin’s capture would have on their father Jacob. Then at last Judah offers to substitute himself in place of Benjamin (Gen. 44:33-34).
Twenty-two years earlier Judah, bitterly resentful of his father’s favoritism, had engineered the selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Now he was prepared to offer himself as a slave so that the other son of Rachel, the other favored son of Jacob, could be set free. Twenty-two years earlier, Judah had stood with his brothers and watched when the bloody tunic they had brought to Jacob as a means of covering up their crime, sent their father into a fit of anguish that was to last for years on end; now he is willing to do anything in order not to have to see his father suffer that way again.[6]
Judah was not the same man he once was. He was not the man any longer whose idea it was to get rid of their brother and make some money on the side. He was no longer the man who raised boys so evil that God executed them in the middle of their lives. He was no longer the man who refused to fulfill the duties of a patriarch and see to the needs of his daughter-in-law and, as a result, later committed incest with her, thinking her a prostitute.
Judah’s speech represents nothing less than a shocking and sublime transformation. From a betrayer of his family, he became the savior of it. From a selfish and indifferent son, brother, and father, he had become a man whose love for others was a power sufficient to make him offer his own life for theirs.
There are two ways you can tell that repentance is genuine[7]: First, there will be the absence of any blame, except toward yourself. Judah didn’t blame Jacob for playing favorites; he didn’t blame Benjamin for the stolen cup; he didn’t blame Joseph for being cruel. That’s the first mark of genuine repentance, when a person says, “I have sinned. I take full responsibility for what I have done.”
The second mark of genuine repentance is that it always affects your relationships, both with God and with others. Judah here sees that God is behind all these circumstances. If you have repented of your sin toward God, it will show in a change of heart toward those who have wronged you. Instead of bitterness, there will be a concern for their feelings and an absence of concern for your own feelings. Judah never complains about what will happen to him as a slave, because his focus is on what would happen to his father if Benjamin becomes a slave.[8]
It is interesting, isn’t it, here, the guilty offers himself as a substitute for the innocent. But there would be another lion of the tribe of Judah who was innocent, but who would offer himself as a substitute for his guilty brothers. And that substitute would be accepted and He would live and die in their place that they might experience His glory.[9]
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was without sin, and yet He offered Himself to take the penalty you and I deserve for our sin. He bore God’s wrath so that we who are sinners could go free. “Be sure your sins will find you out.” You cannot escape from the consequences of your sin. All you can do is to plead for mercy and the grace of God. Jesus Christ has already atoned for your sin by His death on the cross. Have you repented of your sin and believed on Him for forgiveness and the gift of eternal life? The only way we can approach God is by submitting to His authority over us, by owning up to our sin, and by appealing to His great compassion as demonstrated in the sacrifice of His own Son on the cross. If we approach Him on that basis, He will never turn us away.
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[1] What does Numbers 32:23 mean when it says, “Be sure your sin will find you out”?, Got Questions Ministries, https://www.gotquestions.org/be-sure-your-sin-will-find-you-out.html
[2] Ray Pritchard, Do You Want to be Set Free? Genesis 44-45. https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/do-you-want-to-be-set-free/
[3] Robert Rayburn, The Heart of the Gospel, Gen 44:1-34, https://www.faithtacoma.org/genesis/the-heart-of-the-gospel-gen-441-34
[4] Robert Deffinbaugh, The Final Test: Dothan Relived (Genesis 44:1-34), https://bible.org/seriespage/final-test-dothan-relived-genesis-441-34#P4537_1365521
[5] Steven Cole, How Grace Leads To Repentance (Genesis 43:15-44:17), https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-72-how-grace-leads-repentance-genesis-4315-4417
[6] Rayburn. Ibid.
[7] Cole. Ibid.
[8] Cole, ibid.
[9] Rayburn. Ibid.
