Genesis 43

This passage in Genesis is inviting everyone of us to fully surrender our lives to God; why? Because surrender is the path to security; the only way to secure the life you need is to surrender the life you want; this call to surrender shows up in five areas over the course of these two chapters.

Outline

  • First, surrender your fears (43:1-15)
  • Second, surrender your failures (43:16-28)
  • Third, surrender your feelings (43:29-34)
  • Fourth, surrender your future (44:1-14) 
  • Fifth, surrender your freedom (44:14-18)

Christ Connections

  • This passage parallels the parable of the prodigal son but this time it is the wayward older brothers who leave their home to go to a far country where they are welcomed in by the rejected son through a feast that starts the process of reconciliation. In his grace and kindness, Joseph welcomes undeserving sinners to dine alongside him and gives them a generous portion as an act of reconciliation and restoration. In the gospel, Jesus mirrors the grace of Joseph by welcoming undeserving sinners to the table to receive a generous portion of his Spirit as an act of reconciliation and restoration.
  • Judah’s actions remind us of the words of Jesus for all of us to deny ourselves and take our cross.
  • This is the first instance in the Bible of a human serving as a substitute. Judah offering himself as a substitute for Benjamin points ahead to the coming Messiah from the line of Judah. Only Jesus doesn’t just offer up his freedom but actually offers his own life. Nevertheless, both men trade freedom for the sake of restoring brothers and for the sake of pleasing a father. Jesus becomes our substitute both to set us free from slavery to sin and to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father.

Applications

  • Jacob had determined that the way God was going to fulfill his promise to Abraham was through Joseph, he had to let go of his way of fulfilling God’s plans so he could surrender to God’s way of fulfilling his plans. In the same way, we have to let go of our way of fulfilling God’s purpose for our life before we can surrender to his way of fulfilling God’s purpose for our life.
  • The Bible tells us that we are spirit, soul, and body. All of us have a tendency to be on one end of the spectrum or the other: we either deny our emotions or are defined by our emotions. Genesis 43 instead calls us to surrender our emotions, to give them over to God, rather than our emotions shaping us.