The brothers started for home again at daylight the next morning, their donkeys loaded with sacks of wheat they had bought. How relieved they must have felt when they were outside of the city, and on their way. and perhaps they said to one another, “See how full our sacks are; we have all we can carry. That man was very good to us this time.”
But now along the road behind them comes a man driving very fast; he comes along side and says, “Wherefore have ye rewarded evil. for good?” He charged them with having stolen his lord’s cup out of which he drank, and with which he could tell secret things. They replied they should not be charged with doing such a thing, and reminded him that they brought back their money which they found in their sacks, and they were willing that the one who had the silver cup should die and the rest of them be servants.
Joseph had told the steward the night before to put the cup into Benjamin’s sack. This might seem strange, but Joseph’s object in doing this was to gradually get at their consciences, and he saw he could more quickly reach them by dealing with Benjamin, and holding him, than by taking any of the others; and then to charge them with being thieves, was nothing like as bad as that which they were guilty of. The terrible sin they were guilty of, was getting rid of Joseph; they really were guilty of murder.
They quickly took down their sacks, and opened them, very sure that the cup was not there. The steward wisely began at the eldest and ended at the youngest. which was Benjamin’s sack. and there was the cup! Now their happiness was changed to deepest sadness! The brothers tore their clothes, as people did in those days when they were very sad or angry, and loaded their sacks on their donkeys again, going back with gloomy faces to the city from which they had started but an hour, perhaps, before.
We next see them at Joseph’s house, for Joseph had not yet gone down to the storehouse, as it was still early. Once more they dropped down on the ground before him, now to beg him to be merciful. Joseph said, rather sternly. I suppose. “What deed is this that ye have done? wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?” that is, he was able to understand things which were hidden from others. In all this he is a type of the Lord Jesus. We can hide nothing from Him, and whatever we have done that is wrong, we had better tell Him all about. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).
Judah, conscience stricken about that old sin of selling Joseph to be a slave, speaking both for himself and his brothers, answered in a hopeless way. “What shall we say unto my lord ...or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of thy servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants.” Surely they were remembering now their bad behavior to their lost brother, and their consciences were telling them that God had found it out; it wasn’t just Joseph who was making trouble for them.
The time is coming when all this will be fulfilled with the Jews who crucified the Lord Jesus. They shall yet bow down before Him, and shall look on Him whom they have pierced.
He also wants each one of us to own before Him what we have done with Him; whether we have taken part with those who have said, “Away with Him,” or with those who have accepted Him as their Saviour. If we own it now, we shall get His grace shown ‘to us, but if we wait till the day of judgment we. shall bow the knee before Him, and receive His judgment by being banished from His presence.
Joseph said he would not take all the men for slaves, but just the one with whom the cup was found, but the rest could go home in peace to their father.
Judah then went close up to Joseph and pleaded with him not to be angry; also told him about the old father, who could not bear to part with the youngest son; and of the other son of the same mother, that was gone, and that Jacob their father, would die from the sorrow if they went home without Benjamin; how he, Judah, had made himself the surety for the return of the little brother, and would bear the blame for ever.
“Now therefore,” he said, “I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go with his brothers.”