Scripture Daily

Context No. 2050 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 44:14-29: in context

14Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him. 15Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Don’t you know that such a man as I can indeed do divination?” 16Judah said, “What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? How will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and he also in whose hand the cup is found.” 17He said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.” 18Then Judah came near to him, and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and don’t let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh. 19My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ 20We said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.’ 21You said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22We said to my lord, ‘The boy can’t leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23You said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.’ 24When we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25Our father said, ‘Go again and buy us a little food.’ 26We said, ‘We can’t 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.’ 27Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28One went out from me, and I said, “Surely he is torn in pieces;” and I haven’t seen him since. 29If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.’

Joseph's silver cup has been found, by his own design, in Benjamin's sack, and the brothers are hauled back before him in dread. They fall to the ground, and Judah, speaking for them, can find no defense. What will we say to my lord? he asks. How can we clear ourselves? And then he says something that reaches beyond the present accusation: God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Standing falsely accused of theft, Judah senses in it the just uncovering of their old, hidden guilt, the sin against Joseph they had buried years before.

Judah's words are striking, for they are not really about the cup. The brothers were not guilty of stealing it; the accusation was false, arranged by Joseph. And yet Judah says, God has found out the iniquity of your servants. He is reaching past the present charge to a deeper guilt, the sin they had committed long ago against their brother Joseph, whom they sold into slavery and mourned as dead, a sin they had buried and carried in silence for years. Now, standing accused, their conscience awakens, and they sense that their old, hidden guilt has caught up with them, that God has brought their buried sin to light. This reveals something true about buried sin. We can commit a wrong and bury it, cover it over, carry on as though it were forgotten, hidden from others and pushed from our own minds. The brothers had done this for years, living with the buried guilt of what they did to Joseph. But buried sin does not truly stay buried. It works in the conscience; it surfaces, often at unexpected moments; it catches up with us. Be sure your sin will find you out, Scripture warns; and the brothers' guilt found them out at last, surfacing in their dread as they stood accused. What we have buried has a way of coming to light, in the awakening of conscience, in the sense that our old wrongs have caught up with us. And this is not only a warning but, rightly received, a mercy. For the surfacing of buried guilt is the opening to deal with it at last, to bring it into the light, to confess and be free of it. You have set our iniquities before you, the psalmist says, our secret sins in the light of your presence. God brings buried sin to light not to torment but to be dealt with, confessed, forgiven. This searches our own buried wrongs. Is there a sin we have covered over, carried in silence, pushed from our minds, that yet works in our conscience and surfaces to accuse us? The brothers' words, God has found out our iniquity, remind us that buried sin does not stay buried; and the awakening of conscience is God's invitation to bring the hidden thing into the light at last, to confess it and be free, rather than carrying it buried and unresolved.

Is there a sin I have buried and carried in silence, covered over and pushed from my mind, that yet works in my conscience and surfaces to accuse me, and can the brothers' words, God has found out the iniquity of your servants, remind me that buried sin does not stay buried, so that I bring the hidden thing into the light at last, confessing it and finding freedom rather than carrying it unresolved?

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