Genesis-134 – Where Have You Come From?

The Word of God is from Genesis 42:1 to 8.

 

“When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy grain for us, that we may live and not die.” So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “Lest some calamity befall him.” And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. So Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, “Where do you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.” Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.” Amen.

 

The True Meaning of Joseph’s Story

The story of Joseph is a miracle-like story the more one hears and reads it. We enjoy reading and cherish this story of Joseph because he truly endured great suffering, yet he is one of the people who achieved what we commonly call success.

 

If Joseph's story had ended in chapter 41, we would have celebrated his success with him and prayed for our children. We would have said, "Lord, grant our children Joseph's wisdom, and guide them to do great things both in this world and before God." In a sense, this is the sincere wish of many parents, and I am not discouraging such prayers.

 

However, the Bible does not end Joseph's story in chapter 41, but continues it for nine more chapters, until chapter 50. This is because Joseph’s story is less about Joseph's personal success story or his recovery process, but more about how God saves His children, leads them, and molds them into His own people.

 

Therefore, as we study this story of Joseph together, we must not forget that Joseph’s story is not a simple success story. Although it appears to be so, it is actually a story of God's salvation. This is simultaneously a story about Jacob and all his descendants, and their entire history of salvation. It is, in fact, a story about all twelve individuals, including the ten brothers, Joseph, and Joseph's younger brother, Benjamin. I emphasize again, it is a story about everyone. Who is also included in that? Joseph is included as well.

 

This story does not merely conclude with the brothers coming to Joseph, asking for forgiveness, and Joseph forgiving them. It is also the story of how Joseph receives his own salvation within this process, and the same is true for the brothers. Finally, another point we must not forget is how Joseph plays the role of a shadow of Jesus Christ here. This is because the ultimate purpose of this history of salvation is not just to save Joseph, but to save the nation of Israel through Joseph, and through the nation of Israel, who eventually comes? Jesus Christ eventually comes. Therefore, Joseph's story holds that historical connection, and we must view it together.

 

Thus, the conclusion of this story is not that Joseph maintained a good relationship and reconciled with his brothers until the end, and that the brothers accomplished great things; as I mentioned last time, it concludes with returning to Canaan. The story itself confirms that this is the history of salvation.

 

Joseph’s Inner Conflict and the Pursuit of Salvation

Now, as we examine this story piece by piece, although not all pastors are like this, in my case, the story continuing from Genesis 41 to 45 is a very difficult one to preach on. This story is like a never-ending story.

 

This is because the admirable aspect of Joseph, which you all know well, appears only in chapter 45. That is when Joseph gives that famous speech, saying, "Brothers, do not worry too much. Hasn't God sent me ahead of you to save you and Israel?" We know this, and if you start by viewing Joseph as merely the 'admirable Joseph,' he can appear as a petty man who enacts very small-scale revenge.

 

He gathers his brothers, accuses them, saying, "Are you spies?" and puts them in jail. Then, when they are sent home, he secretly puts their money back in their sacks. He sends them off as if he is treating them well, but attaches a condition: he will not give them grain again unless they bring their youngest brother. When they go home to bring the youngest brother, their father, Jacob, stubbornly refuses, saying, "Absolutely not." In this process, everyone, a gap in time occurs. There is a time lapse between the first visit and the second visit.

 

Let us calculate the time. Joseph became governor at the age of thirty, and there were seven years of plenty. So, the famine began when he was thirty-seven years old. The Bible does not explicitly record whether the brothers came immediately after the famine began. However, the event of him meeting his entire family two years later is recorded. Therefore, during that two-year period, at least a year or so had passed between the first visit and the second visit. And during that time, everyone, his brother Simeon had been locked up in jail.

 

If this is not revenge, what is it? Of course, you might think it is minor compared to what he suffered, but it is clear that Joseph's heart was not in a state to say, "Ah, brothers, it is nothing." I am not intentionally trying to diminish Joseph's heart, but if you and I are to properly understand salvation, you must realize that salvation is not just 'believing in Jesus and going to heaven' but understanding what it means to believe in Jesus. If so, what kind of relationship do I have with God as a believer, and what kind of relationship do I form with my brothers and sisters? The Bible tells us what happens within us when we believe in Jesus, and we are going to trace it one by one. I repeat, today's sermon has no end. That is because it is one part of a continuously unfolding story.

 

God's Saving History Encompasses Even the Past

Let us start with the brothers first. Look at Genesis 42:1. It begins like this: “When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?”

 

Everyone, was there a reason for Joseph and his brothers to meet? During the seven years of plenty, Joseph never set foot in Canaan to visit his brothers. Even with such success, he did not go to Canaan. There should have been no reason for them to meet. What was Joseph's intention? It was to forget Canaan. It was, "I will now forget everything in Canaan, everything of my past where I was born and raised. I will abandon it."

 

But the Bible, God, pursues that. Is it truly possible to abandon it? One of the misunderstandings that believers have is that they often think that becoming a new person after believing in Jesus means wiping away all the past and starting fresh today. That is not the case. As I emphasized last week, salvation is not just saving your present or future; it is confessing that God's saving history was also at work in your past. We confess that all those events are now being used to bring about God's good within His history of salvation.

 

Thus, there is no believer who is simply a 'person who ended up here just by living.' Even if you feel 'I was truly lazy' or 'I failed in my faith life,' the moment you realize that the Lord is leading me, your whole life is inevitably reinterpreted as: "At that time I disappointed God, but even that, God endured and was patient with me." You do not simply have unrelated events in your life that led to you living well only now. God saves your entire life, putting none of it to waste, keeping it all within His embrace.

 

However, Joseph did not think that way. By naming his son Manasseh, he conveyed the meaning, 'Ask no more about the past, I am now an Egyptian. I will live as an Egyptian.' But what caused the two sides to meet? It was the famine. Neither Joseph nor Jacob planned it. The sons of Jacob did not plan it either. A famine occurred, and it brought them together. Until the moment before they met, neither side anticipated it at all.

 

This event ultimately informs us that the most crucial role in this history of salvation originates from God. Most of us only understand these things when we look back later, but we do not know them when we are experiencing them, do we? However, when we look back after going through it, we understand a little more, "Ah, this was the place where God intervened. This was where God took my hand. This was where God carried me. This was where God embraced me."

 

God actually started this salvation, but He began it very quietly. It was not through some extraordinary event that the two met, but simply through the famine that led them to seek grain, and they met. However, in Joseph's case, the moment he saw his brothers and recognized their faces, he realized that God's work was not quiet, but like a storm. God's work had rushed into his life like a storm.

 

How surprised he must have been! His brothers, whom he had never expected, had arrived. What was the first thought that came to him? The moment Joseph saw his brothers, we can see from the text that the thought of, "Oh, well met. Now you'll pay," was not entirely absent. This is because he accuses them of being spies and puts them in jail. Therefore, we cannot say that thought was completely absent, but at the same time, he seemed to have some awareness of the providence of God that he had learned until then.

 

Twenty Years of Living with the Burden of the Past

But if God started this work, what was it like for Jacob and his brothers? That is the beginning of the passage we read. Jacob's words are: “Why do you look at one another?” This means, "Why are you just staring at each other's faces?" Of course, as you read it, you might think, "Why are you doing nothing and just staring at each other's faces? Go quickly and bring the grain." But it has a much more diverse meaning than that.

 

Joseph seeing his brothers, seeing them bow down, remembering his dream, and remembering his Canaan—that his first words were, "Where do you come from?"—shows that the scars and the past in his life were not simply disappearing, no matter how much he told himself, "I will forget this. God has made me forget."

 

Then what about Jacob and the brothers? Joseph left home at seventeen, became governor at thirty, and lived through seven years of plenty. More than twenty years had passed. Twenty years had passed for Joseph, and twenty years had passed for the others too.

 

So, how did the other side live? This is contained within the opening words, “Why do you look at one another?” It is not just, 'Why are you doing nothing?'

 

Everyone, Jacob says this. Let us look at verse 4. “But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers…” He does not just say Benjamin, but Joseph's brother Benjamin. Did the father forget his son? Or was he holding him in his heart? Joseph was in Jacob’s heart.

 

The same goes for the brothers. When they were locked up and Joseph demanded they bring the youngest, what was the first thing they said? “We are suffering this trouble because we sinned against Joseph.” Everyone, does that not seem strange? Twenty years had passed. Yet, what was still in the hearts of these brothers? Joseph was still there.

 

Jacob's words give us much to consider. “I cannot send Benjamin with you. For I fear that some great calamity may befall him if he goes with you.” Everyone, what must their hearts have felt? Joseph and his brothers left. The father believes Joseph is dead. That is why he refuses to send Benjamin. Refusing to send Joseph's brother Benjamin—doesn't that once again hammer a nail into the hearts of the brothers? "Joseph's brother, he died because he went with you. He couldn't return."

 

The brothers are probably wrestling with their conscience now. The father is in the pain of losing a son, and the brothers were in a continuous state of being pricked by their conscience. This entire family was under a very dark shadow.

 

When the brothers speak of their family, they say this: "They replied, 'Your servants are twelve brothers...'" Not eleven, but twelve brothers. They are now trying to justify themselves to Joseph. "We are not spies, we are not undercover agents. We have a home in Canaan, we have a father, and we have family members," they say, adding, "The youngest is with our father, and the other one is no more."

 

The Korean translation renders it strangely as 'is no more.' The English ends with 'no more.' Saying 'is no more' is similar to saying, 'I do not know what happened to him.' Don't they know? They do. They sold him. Yet, what do these brothers say to Joseph before that? “We are honest men.” This means, "We are upright people." "We are very honest." Yet, they stand before Joseph and say they do not know where he went.

 

And everyone, if Joseph's story were not so prominent in their minds, why would they speak of twelve brothers? They know Joseph is not dead. They sold him. Everyone, the phrase “Why do you look at one another?” means that genuine communication is not happening in this family. "Why do you not communicate with one another, why do you not cooperate with one another, why do you not try to live together?" This is the most heartbreaking statement from Jacob, the father leading this family.

 

The father is only clinging to Benjamin, and the remaining sons, even though Joseph is gone, are experiencing the same difficulties, and even more severe difficulties. Because they are in a situation where they do not know what to do. They find a love that has already cooled down among themselves, and they try to shift all their problems onto each other. What does Reuben, the older brother, say? “Didn't I tell you not to do it? But why did you do it and cause this situation?” Not only Reuben, but probably all the other brothers had something to say too.

 

These are the unresolved problems sinking beneath the surface, festering in their hearts. Joseph was stuck in the past, saying he would forget the past, but he was stuck in the past. The brothers were stuck in the past too. Jacob’s brothers lived under a dark cloud for twenty years after selling their brother. They were anxious and uneasy, and because of their sin concerning Joseph, which they could neither acknowledge, confess, nor speak of, they continued to live in darkness.

 

The Deep Longing for True Reconciliation

The drama "Our Blues" features actress Kim Hye-ja and actor Lee Byung-hun as a mother and son. However, due to deep wounds accumulated since childhood, they hate each other like enemies. They live with their relationship severed, not speaking a word, filled with resentment and hatred.

 

Then, the mother, Kang Ok-dong, played by Kim Hye-ja, falls ill and faces death. In a typical drama, one might expect a reconciliation and a beautiful ending, but this drama does not conclude so simply. The wounds of the relationship do not easily heal until the end, and the story unfolds with a bit of pain.

 

Facing death, one character asks Kang Ok-dong, "What kind of place do you think the next world is?" Kim Hye-ja responds: “The next world must be a good place. Because no one who went there has ever come back. If it wasn't good, why would no one return?” This scene deeply resonated with me as a pastor. I heard it as a message that “God’s Kingdom is a place so good that no one needs to return.”

 

And the son, played by Lee Byung-hun, narrates at the end:

 

“Without saying 'I love you' or 'I am sorry,' my mother, Kang Ok-dong, left behind a bowl of my favorite doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) and returned to the place where she first came from. Holding my mother and weeping, I finally understood. All my life, I hadn't hated my mother; I had wanted to reconcile. I had wanted to hold my mother in my arms and cry freely.”

 

The son only realized after she had passed away. He realized that he hadn't hated his mother, but had actually longed for reconciliation. But he met his separation without ever expressing that feeling.

 

This is why the drama is titled 'Our Blues.' The Blues is not merely a music genre, but represents our sorrow, our scars, our pain that has not been fully healed.

 

Joseph also could not bring himself to reveal his scars. Perhaps most of us find it difficult to bring out our own pain and difficulty. The same was true for the brothers. Even the brothers who sold their younger sibling could not bring out their pain.

 

Everyone, there is a very important point regarding God's salvation. It is that God, who embraces and loves your entire life, accepts even your past. He forgives it, and in that reconciliation with God, He enables you to know what you are facing in your life and who you are.

 

We are so unaware of our own hearts that genuinely long for reconciliation that we just stubbornly internalize it. The father and son, the husband and wife, and the brothers and sisters who hold onto those festering feelings within them—the Bible does not just leave those images as they are. God not only desires us to deal with them but deals with them Himself.

 

The brothers, living under the burden of a guilty conscience, and Joseph, who was suffering yet resolved to suppress it—these two meet. As I said before, Joseph was not an easy person. He asks right away, “Where do you come from?” If they had recognized Joseph, what question could be more terrifying than this one? They proudly say, "We came from Canaan." I think if I were Joseph, the words, 'You sold me there,' would have been going back and forth on my lips. It would have reached this point. Joseph holds back. And then he accuses them of being spies.

 

The Starting Point of Repentance: Do You Understand the Other's Distress?

After they go through this, Joseph puts them in jail. He tells them, "You are spies," four times, and they deny it four times. No matter what they say, Joseph does not listen, and while they are locked in jail and called back, they speak in Hebrew to each other (as Joseph is an Egyptian, they think he does not understand). With the interpreter in front of them, they talk and say, as mentioned before, "What is going on? He demands we bring Benjamin. Oh, we are suffering this trouble again over the brother issue because we sinned against our brother." A crucial statement follows.

 

Let us read it together. It starts from verse 18, and Joseph begins to speak to them. Let us read verse 21 of chapter 42 together. “Then they said to one another, ‘We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.’" Then follows Reuben's story.

 

Everyone, they had been hiding their sin or pain from each other, but as Moses says in the Book of Numbers, "Be sure your sin will find you out," it truly found them. The sin came back to these brothers. For the first time, the brothers speak of what they had done. “We are guilty.” Now, they confess their guilt, and the process of repentance and turning back is beginning, is it not? But the most important part of that beginning is revealed here: "We saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.”

 

That is, the story that comes first in repentance, drawing near to God, and restoration is actually not what we usually think of as 'I have done wrong; I have a problem.' The Bible here states the most important content regarding true repentance. The beginning of repentance is not about how much I apologized, or how much I admitted my fault to the other person, but whether I understand the distress of the other person.

 

Everyone, when we apologize, we usually do so out of a guilty conscience or out of a feeling of 'Am I only this capable?' or 'I haven't done much good, I've done wrong.' The focus is on ourselves. We often think that if we sincerely say, "I have done wrong," then everything is over. When do you know whether you are self-centered or not? When you apologize and the other person either ignores it or continues to be angry, what do you do? It is not, 'Ah, it is natural for you to be angry. I was truly wrong.' Instead, it is, "I apologized! Why are you making a scene? I clearly said I was wrong, so why are you yelling at me?" You react this way, don't you? Do you know why? Because our apology was about satisfying ourselves.

 

It is similar when we repent. We list our sins to God. "I did this wrong too. I was greedy. I was arrogant. God, I am truly an unspeakable sinner." All true words. I understand. But to think that doing only that is sufficient is very different from the repentance we are currently learning about. It is not how much you have done wrong that is important; it is how much God's heart ached because of that wrong.

 

The depth of God’s sorrow and the difficulty that your sin caused Him is what you discover at the cross. The reason why the Lord cried out, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ and all the pain He had to endure then was because of sin—and that pain refers to the suffering and anguish that God experienced because of sin.

 

God accepts it when you and I say to Him, "Lord, we did wrong. We did not do well. We will do better next time." Perhaps God even says, "Yes, that is right." But the reason why your life and mine do not change, even though we repent and say, "I am a sinner" and "I was wrong," is that we have no interest—no interest in God's heart. We are only interested in our own hearts. We are only interested in 'I am free now because He forgave me.' We have no interest in how we treated God and what led to that.

 

Repentance Sympathizing with God’s Heart

Everyone, we are perhaps still too much like children. But when does Joseph, who saw his brothers and put them in jail, start to cry? It is at this very moment. "How distressed he must have been? But we would not listen to his distress." He cries then.

 

Shall I put it differently? Everyone, how much do you think God cried, holding on to you? How much was He distressed? How much did He plead? "Do not sin. Do not go down that road. That is not the way. That is the path of your death." How much did God plead with you, holding on to you? When I was a pastor in Korea, I visited the police station several times because of middle and high school students. They would cause trouble and could not call their parents, so they would call me as their guardian. What sin did I commit that I had to go to the police station several times?

 

When I went there, of course, in minor cases, I would just go as a guardian and say, "I am sorry. I will do better," sign the papers, show my ID, and say, "I am the church pastor," and then leave. But in other cases, the parents eventually had to come. When the parents came, what did they do? They would grab the pants leg of the young police officer—now that I think about it, I was a very young man myself when I went to Korea and saw the traffic police, they were just kids. The traffic police are very young, aren't they? They would grab the pants leg of such a young man and cry and plead. "Just let him off this one time. My child is not a bad child. It was a mistake, so please just overlook it." Everyone, that is a parent's heart.

 

Is God's heart less than a human heart? When you fell into sin, when you unknowingly walked the path of death, when you were going about trying to establish your own kingdom rather than God's Kingdom, what did God do to you? According to this passage, He pleaded. "No. That is not the way," He said. How did that move God's heart? Because of your actions that you inevitably committed, the sins you inevitably fell into, how much did God's heart ache? Have you ever thought about it? Have you truly repented because of that? Father, how much did God’s heart ache at that time?

 

Everyone, I am not just telling a story; you know this story well, don't you? When we raise children, especially daughters, they often call their mother or father. "Mom, Mom, how did you raise me?" Because raising a child is so hard. Do they listen to a word? They constantly cause trouble, from morning until late at night. Raising a child is a tremendous task. Compared to that, how easy is raising a dog? That is why people seem to keep many dogs. Do they contradict you? They are always happy. So, because there is no suffering, people seem to like it. But raising a child is an immense task, isn't it? So, we call them. How about you? "Father, what was Your heart like to bring me this far?" Have you ever prayed about that?

 

It is just, "Lord, You saved me again. Ah, I did wrong. Please forgive me. I won't do it again next time." Everyone, repentance is too light. We have never sympathized with God's heartache. There is no sincerity in that, I mean. Repentance that sympathizes with God’s heart—the feeling that, "How much did the Lord grieve and hurt over this sin, and how much did God pour out everything for me because He loved my life?"—if that feeling is absent, our repentance will inevitably be light.

 

Everyone, hasn't it become time to grow up? Isn't it time to understand God's heart to some extent? How could you not know the Father's heart, having endured as much as you have and been hurt as much as you have? The heart that endured while the Father raised you and led you this far—what kind of wound was it? That Father's heart called you, led you here, holds you, and raised you. Everyone, for what will you be thankful? Where will your prayer be directed?

 

The Completion of Repentance: Discerning God's Will

When we think of Joseph, we always think of his great confession, but he also met his brothers without any preparation. And later, he confesses, “Hasn’t God brought this about?” This statement reveals what is contained in his repentance, showing us precisely that discerning God's will is a part of repentance.

 

Everyone, repentance is not simply 'I have done wrong. I will not do it again next time.' First, it is true that I have done wrong. It is true that I am a sinner. But because I am a sinner, because I have done wrong, I must know how I have affected the Father's heart.

 

Everyone, why is it often difficult for us to accept an apology from someone? We tend to be reluctant, right? Why? Because we feel there is no sincerity. We think, "How much my heart ached, how much I was upset, and you're just going to brush it off with one word?" If we feel this way, it seems insincere. What about our repentance? Do you really think about what your sin is, and what it did to God's heart? This starting point is absolutely necessary for repentance. The other part, which we will continue to deal with, is that discerning God's will, God's heart, is within this repentance. That is why we cannot stop this repentance here and will continue next week.

 

Let us pray.

 

Lord, what amazes us is that through these events, You have healed us, restored us, and brought about good within us. While Your heart was in anguish, and You faced us every day with Your tears, therefore, Lord, we also want to come before You and sing, praise, and pray like this. Lord, please rejoice now. Rejoice because of me. I have come before the Father. I will walk with the Father. I will remember Your grace. Who can know the Father's heart? But that God lives within me through the Holy Spirit. Lord, how did You endure us? Be with us and receive praise from us, and make our hearts burn brightly because of You. Let us realize what it means to dedicate everything to the Lord, and to what extent Your love for us extends, so that our hearts may be overwhelmed by that love. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.