Messianic Education Trust
		Mikketz   (Gen 41:1 - 44:17)

B'resheet/Genesis 44:9   Who is found with it from your servants shall die and also we will be slaves to my lord.

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These very strong words are being spoken by the eleven sons of Ya'akov to the steward of the Grand Vizier of Egypt in response to the accusation that one of them has stolen the Grand Vizier's silver goblet. The steward knows more of the story than the brothers; he knows that he himself put the silver goblet in the sack of the youngest brother at the command of the Grand Vizier and has now been sent out to 'discover' the goblet and bring Benjamin back to the Vizier's house. Neither the steward or the eleven brothers know that the Grand Vizier is in fact Yosef, their missing brother, who has set the whole scenario up in order to test the brothers and see if they have changed in the years since they sold him into slavery in Egypt. Yosef wants to know if the brothers will now stand by Benjamin as one of themselves or abandon him as - like himself - the favourite son of Rachel, Ya'akov's favourite wife.

Now let's take a few steps backwards and find out how things reached this point. The chapter starts with Yosef telling his house steward to fill up each man's bag with food - "as much as they can carry" (B'resheet 44:1) - and, as with the first grain-buying trip, to put the money they have brought to pay for the grain in the mouth of the bag. However, Yosef tells the steward, "Put my silver goblet in the mouth of the bag of the youngest one, together with his money" (v. 2, NJPS). Unaware either of the money or goblet, the brothers leave with the first light of morning; they have a lot of walking to do to get home. According to Google maps, a modern walk from Cairo to Jerusalem would take six to seven days.

Hardly have they had time to leave the city far behind, when Yosef sends his steward after the brothers in hot pursuit, to 'discover' the goblet and bring everyone back to his house. Yosef has already given the steward his lines - "Why did you repay good with evil? It is the very one from which my master drinks and which he uses for divination. It was a wicked thing for you to do!" (B'resheet 44:4-5, NJPS) - a curiously ambiguous accusation. The steward is not to actually mention the goblet or the purported theft. Nahum Sarna suggests that "this deliberate vagueness is intended to fill the brothers with a sense of foreboding", or, as Gordon Wenham puts is, "a general accusation to produce maximum consternation."¹ Nevertheless, the brothers manage to infer what this is all about and respond in a robust and forthright manner: "Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything of the kind!" (v. 7, NJPS). Pointing out that he himself had witnessed their attempt to return the money owing for their first expedition, they protest their innocence in no uncertain terms: "How then could we have stolen any silver or gold from your master's house!" (v. 8, NJPS).

Next comes our text. The brothers are so secure in their innocence that they invoke a death sentence on whoever the thief might be - but, they are sure, it won't be one of them! This far exceeds any judicial punishment for theft that we see authorised in the biblical text, but the words have a certain familiarity, a strong feeling of déjà vu. Where have we heard something like this before? In the words of their father, Ya'akov, when he was charged with stealing on his return from Paddan Aram to the land of Canaan. After chasing him across the desert for a week, Laban accuses Ya'akov or someone in his household of having stolen his household gods. "Not so!" the patriarch rants, unaware that Rachel had stolen them, "anyone with whom you find your gods shall not remain alive! In the presence of our kinsmen, point out what I have of yours and take it" (31:32, NJPS). Like father, like sons; "the brothers pronounce a death sentence on the thief ... their cries of innocence parallel those of Yosef"² as they have already recounted in Yosef's hearing: "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" (42:21, ESV).

Apparently, it's easy thing to do - pronouncing imprecations against yourself or someone close to you. We find no less a person that King David doing exactly that. He is confronted by the prophet Nathan after he has arranged for Uriah the Hittite - the wife of Bathsheba, who is now pregnant with David's child - to fall in battle against the king's enemies. Nathan tells the king a story about a rich man who stole the beloved only lamb of a poor neighbour to feed a guest, and "David flew into a rage against the man, and said to Nathan, 'As the L-RD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He shall pay for the lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and showed no pity'" (2 Samuel 12:5-6, NJPS). "But, don't you see," the prophet continues, "That man is you!" (v. 7). In just the same was as the brothers are guilty of the murder-come-kidnap of Yosef, David is guilty of the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband.

Yosef's steward hears the words of the brothers, softening their rash outburst of self-judgement to, "Although what you are proposing is right, only the one with whom it is found shall be my slave; but the rest of you shall go free" (B'resheet 44:10, NJPS), before searching each sack in turn, deliberately leaving Benjamin's sack until last. After ten sacks, each containing only money and grain, the tension has risen and, finally, the goblet is found just where the steward planted it: in the mouth of Benjamin's sack. What will the brothers now do? Reloading their asses, the whole party returns to the city. Leon Kass explains, "At last, they clearly show themselves to be their brother's keepers. They will try to stand or fall together ... they are at last affirming the unity of the whole tribe."³ Returned to the city and once more back in Yosef's presence, Judah speaks to announce their collective responsibility: "Here we are, then, slaves of my lord, the rest of us as much as he in whose possession the goblet was found" (44:16, NJPS). Once more, Yosef offers his brothers a dishonourable life-raft - "Far be it from me to act thus! Only he in whose possession the goblet was found shall be my slave; the rest of you go back in peace to your father" (v. 17, NJPS) to see if they really will stand together.

Yeshua knew what it was to be deserted by His friends and His disciples. At the Last Supper, He told the disciples, "Look, the hour is coming - indeed has come - when you will be scattered, each to his own, and you will abandon Me" (John 16:32, TLV). Later, at the Mount of Olives, He said, "This night you will all fall away because of Me; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered'" (Matthew 26:31, TLV). Peter and John followed Yeshua to the house of the high priest when He was arrested, but Yeshua stood alone to make a way of reconciliation for Jew and Gentile alike at the cross; this too fulfilling prophecy: "Then I looked, but there was none to help; I stared, but there was none to aid -- So My own arm wrought the triumph" (Isaiah 63:5, NJPS).

Although some of the women stayed during the crucifixion and were rewarded by being the first to see Him three days later risen from the tomb, of the disciples only John is recorded as being present at Golgotha. Some of the disciples ran to inspect the empty tomb when the women brought the news of the resurrection, but didn't see Yeshua. The rest of the disciples gathered where Yeshua found them: "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews" (John 20:19, ESV). Filled with the Spirit just fifty days later, the empowered and emboldened disciples took the gospel all over the known world and beyond in the following years. All of a sudden, they knew their calling - together!

Nevertheless, Yeshua had taught His disciples that, in the end-times, "brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death" (Matthew 10:21, ESV), later adding that when it came close to His return, "many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray" (24:10-11, ESV), concluding that "the one who endures to the end will be saved" (v. 10:22, ESV). James echoes that - "Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast" (James 5:11, ESV) - while the writer to the Hebrews confirms that Messiah Yeshua is faithful over G-d's house as a son and "we are His house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast" (Hebrews 3:6, NIV). Rav Sha'ul warns us that before Yeshua returns, there will be a great apostasy or falling away (2 Thessalonians 2:3), giving more detail in his letter to Timothy: "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons" (1 Timothy 4:1), echoing the words of Yeshua that "the love of many will grow cold" (Matthew 24:12b).

What is Yeshua calling us to do in these last days before He returns? I believe G-d is asking us to do two things: firstly, to strive - that is, work hard, struggle - towards unity. Not a cuddly, fluffy, huggy sort of unity, based solely on words that is only skin deep, but a heart unity of people brought together by the Spirit, committed to Yeshua and to each other. Secondly, to be zealous for His name, both in proclamation - telling others about Yeshua and the Father's invitation to join His kingdom - and in apologetics: explaining our faith to those who ask and defending G-d Himself and the integrity of His word as the Spirit gives us words. Both of these require us to be humble and open to the voice of the Spirit, listening for and obeying His promptings. As the Body of Messiah in this generation, we must be prepared to stand or fall together, affirming the unity of the whole people of G-d, being each other's keepers and, if necessary, putting our lives on the line.

1. - Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50, Word Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1994), page 424.

2. - Terence Fretheim, "Genesis" in The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary, Vol I, edited by Leander E. Keck, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2015), page 252.

3. - Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2003), pages 588.

Further Study: Isaiah 33:2-6; John 16:1-3; Revelation 2:10-11

Application: Are you standing or falling, prepared to accept death or slavery together with your brothers and sisters rather than letting Yeshua down? Submit to the voice of the Spirit today and commit to be a radical disciple learning to stay with Yeshua at all costs in this life, so that we may stay with Him for ever in the next.

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© Jonathan Allen, 2023

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