Genesis 42:18 Commentary and Bible Study

‘This do and live; for I fear God.’ This was strange language indeed to hear in Egypt, but it brings to their minds that fact that God is superintending all the affairs of their lives. ‘If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound.’ Now Joseph mitigates the severity of his response to them. It is likely that he had always intended to do this, but he tells them that because he fears God he will not treat them over-severely. They have families waiting for their return to Canaan, and if they are all kept imprisoned in Egypt, there will be no corn carried back and their families will starve, and Joseph will be responsible for that. He tells them to return home, and ‘they did so’ – they carried the corn back to their houses.This verse is special – it is the only explicit confirmation of sin on the part of the brothers. They admit their guilt in their dealings with Joseph. In their terror they ask why has God allowed this to happen? They say this aloud in the presence of Joseph, but because he has been speaking Egyptian, and his Egyptian has been translated by an interpreter, they don't realize that he can understand them. They begin to talk in hushed tones to each other. This is impossible. Our father will never part with Benjamin. We shall lose the one who's left behind forever into slavery. What are we going to do? And in their panic, that apprehension of coming into Egypt in the first place, because they had sold their brother into slavery, now surfaces. In a superstitious way, they say, this is God's hand on us. He is punishing us with all kinds of trouble because of what we did all those years ago. The brothers repent here, but there will be two further waves of confirmation and conviction to come. We see how much they understood at the time they exercised their cruelty on Joseph. Their consciences were speaking to them even then, but they suppressed them vigorously, and pressed on with the cruelty they had planned. Now, years later, the event is fresh in their minds. Though they were hard men, they could see how Joseph, who was little more than a child at the time, pleading pathetically with them. They understood something of what he was suffering – they use the word ‘anguish’ – but they refused to show pity. It has been with them all this time, unrepented of, not faced up to. Now in great distress, they listen to their consciences to explain why these things are happening to them. They believe in the justice of God and they have no defence against it: they are being punished for their wicked cruelty.Reuben is not making excuses for himself, he is making the charge worse – ‘I warned you. It was broad daylight murder.’ He says, ‘Didn't I reason with you at the time? and said, “Don't do it”? Listen to the lads pleading. And you wouldn't listen. You were all so callous. Now they are really convicted, and they are convinced that God is going to punish them for what they did 20 years earlier. They've done a lot of other terrible things in the meantime. They didn't follow Jacob in his faith at all. Joseph takes Simeon and binds him to break them down. You might say he has done enough already, but no, there is more that must happen. They are in a difficult situation. If they failed to bring Benjamin back, then on their return Simeon would be executed, but if they do not come back they will perish with hunger.