The Vision (10.31.25): How shall we clear ourselves?

 

Image: Fall path, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 44.

And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants (Genesis 44:16a).

Genesis 44 continues the ongoing record of how the Lord worked out reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers.

Here are at least two things we might consider in this chapter as practical applications:

First, we might consider that reconciliation, both vertical and horizontal, often takes a slow and circuitous route.

It might stretch over a long time, even over many years, before all things are resolved.

Are there men with whom we need to be reconciled, especially ones who share with us a like precious faith in Christ?

How might the Lord be working even now to overcome sinful resentments, hurts, and ill feelings to bring about a glorious reconciliation?

Might we join in praying and even working toward such ends?

Second, we can meditate on what I have called the “evangelical” statements shot through this chapter.

Consider v. 4: “Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?”

Has God done good to you and you have answered with evil?

Has some fellow man, or fellow believer, done good to us, and we have answered with evil?

If we have been confronted with some unresolved and festering sin in our lives, might we answer with the realization that Judah did when he said in v. 16: “What shall we say…?” “What shall we speak?” And especially, “how shall we clear ourselves?”

Have we thought, as did Joseph’s brothers, that we could hide or harbor in our hearts sinful thoughts and deeds which God did not know about? Joseph’s brothers did.

This is a theme that appears in several Psalms.

In Psalm 10:11 we read that the wicked man “said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.”

Likewise in Psalm 94:7 it says that the “workers of iniquity” (v. 4) say, “the LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.”

Would we confess as Judah does in v. 16, “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.”?

A.W. Pink said of this passage, “There could be no communion of heart until full confession of guilt had been made. And this is the goal God has in view” (Gleanings in Genesis, 404).

Once we come to such a realization will we then say to the Lord Jesus Christ as Judah did to Joseph in v. 18: “Oh my Lord… let not thine anger burn against thy servant.”?

The man whose conscience has been awakened to his own sinful life and his own guilty conscience apart from Christ realizes that he cannot clear himself. His only hope is to look to Christ and live.

We hear evangelical echoes of that theme even in this OT account of Joseph. May the Lord use and apply these words to us, by the power if his Spirit, even today.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 343: Book Interview: John Hooper, It is Written: A Believer's Guide to the Doctrine of Scripture

 

Find book info (including ordering info) here.

JTR

WM 342: "SHOCKING" Analysis: Lanier, "Grumpy Protestants," and the Authority of the LXX

 

JTR

The Vision (10.24.25): And God Almighty give you mercy

 

Image: Fall Morning Scene, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025

Note: Devotional taken from last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 43.

And God Almighty give you mercy… (Genesis 43:14).

Perhaps the greatest theme in the record of Joseph (Genesis chapters 37—50) is providence, but a key subtheme is reconciliation, both vertical (men with their God) and, especially, horizontal (among men).

Four straight chapters are devoted to this theme in its account of Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers (Genesis 42-43-44-45), and it even reappears in the final chapter, as the brothers fear Joseph’s retribution when their father dies (see 50:20).

Genesis 42 ended with a cliffhanger. There is a terrible famine. Simeon is being held hostage. Jacob refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt.

Genesis 43 continues and advances the record of holy history relaying how Jacob/Israel finally relented in the face of terrible famine to send his precious son Benjamin with his remaining sons to Egypt. He did so with a prayer for them, “And God Almighty [El Shaddai] give you mercy before the man….” (43:14a).

Israel continues in v. 14b, offering up his resignation to the circumstances: “If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” Sometimes men today say, “It’s going to be what it’s going to be.” This sounds like the Doris Day song “Whatever will be, will be” from the classic Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much. It’s hard to discern whether this is a sentiment which Moses commends as a godly response or whether it is a sign of Jacob’s spiritual weakness. No matter, all things are indeed in the Lord’s hands.

Maybe some hearing this today may think they are in a similar situation. If so, we are called to offer up our circumstances to the just judgements of an all-wise God and pray for his mercy for all involved.

God heard Israel’s prayer. When the brothers arrived in Egypt, Joseph welcomed them to his home (43:17). His steward washed their feet (43:24). And Joseph spread a table and “set on bread” for them (43:31-32).

Joseph might be seen again as a type for Christ. We can reasonably see in Joseph’s gracious reception of his brothers what the Lord does for every believer. He meets our prayer for mercy with mercy. He welcomes us into his household, ministers to us, and spreads a table before us.

May God Almighty give us mercy.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 341: Article: Father, Forgive Them: The Case for the Authenticity of Luke 23:34a

 

Read the article here on my academia.edu page.

JTR

WM 340: Analysis: Are "THEOLOGICAL JUDGEMENTS IRRELEVANT" for establishing the TEXT of Holy Scripture?

 

JTR

The Vision (10.17.25): What is this that God hath done unto us?

 

Image: Nandina, North Garden, Virginia, October 2025.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 42.

And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored; and lo, it is even in my sack: and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us? (Genesis 42:28).

Genesis 42 introduces yet another spiritual theme that is present in the Joseph record of Genesis. This is the theme of repentance and even reconciliation. It involves reconciliation on the horizontal level, especially centered on Joseph’s relationship with the brothers, but also upon the vertical level between all these men and the Lord.

Joseph meets his brothers when they come to Egypt, but they do not recognize him. He overhears his brothers acknowledging their sin again the brother they sold into slavery (Joseph himself!) and connecting it to their chastisement: “We are verily guilty concerning our brother… therefore is this distress come upon us” (Gen 42:21).

Though Joseph might have done his brothers great harm, he sends them home with food and money in their sacks. God is working reconciliation.

What spiritual applications might we draw from Genesis 42?

First, we can look at the brothers, and by looking at them we are looking in a mirror.

We have sinned against God. We might think we can hide and obfuscate this, but one day our sin will find us out (Num 32:23), if not in this world, then before the judgement seat of Christ at the end of the ages.

We are not “true men” (Gen 42:11). We have broken God’s law, including bearing false witness, and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

The Lord in his mercy makes this known to us. We know we are “verily guilty” and deserving of God’s wrath and punishment, and so we have anguish of soul.

Even as believers we can backslide. And when the Father lovingly brings corrective chastisement, we might ask, as did the brothers of Joseph, “What is this that God hath done unto us?” If we are not feeling it now, we likely will one day.

Might we see this as the Lord preparing us for reconciliation with men, and, most importantly, with God himself?

Second, we can look at Joseph as a type or anticipation of Christ.

Joseph suffered on account of his brethren. Christ suffered on account of our sin, but he still works to do us good.

Joseph gave liberally to his brothers. Christ supplies us with an outrageous generosity.

Joseph fed his brethren. Christ taught that we should love and even feed our enemies (Matt 5:44; Rom 12:20).

No payment can ever be made for the salvation that comes from Christ. It is a free gift, so the money is always left, as it were, at the mouth of the sack.

Salvation by grace is a one-way transaction. We do nothing to deserve it. He does everything to provide it. Thus, we exclaim, What is this that God hath done unto us!

If Joseph acted in a generous and forgiving way toward his brethren, how much more has Christ done for us!

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle