Context No. 2768 of 4322 · Genesis

Genesis 42:26-38: in context

26They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there. 27As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack. 28He said to his brothers, “My money is restored! Behold, it is in my sack!” Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?” 29They came to Jacob their father, to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30“The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country. 31We said to him, ‘We are honest men. We are no spies. 32We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is today with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way. 34Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’” 35As they emptied their sacks, behold, each man’s bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 36Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.” 37Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons, if I don’t bring him to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him to you again.” 38He said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm happens to him along the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

On the road home from Egypt, one of Joseph's brothers opens his sack and finds his silver returned inside it, and their hearts sink. Trembling, they ask one another, what is this that God has done to us? At home they report to Jacob everything about the harsh lord of Egypt who insists they bring Benjamin back, and Jacob comes apart. You have bereaved me of my children, he cries. Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, now you would take Benjamin. Everything is against me.

The irony runs deep. Jacob says everything is against him at the very moment God is quietly working everything for his rescue. The son he mourns as dead is the lord of Egypt arranging bread through the famine, and the frightening demands are steps toward a reunion Jacob cannot imagine. He reads God's providence as loss because he can only see the one piece in front of him. What felt like God against him was, in truth, God saving him.

When I say everything is against me, might God be working, out of my sight, the very thing I am grieving the loss of?

Sources

Genesis 42:36: "You have bereaved me of my children! ... All these things are against me."
Genesis 50:20: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good... to save many people alive."
Romans 8:28: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God."