MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 42:1-2
THE FAMINE IN THE HOUSE OF JACOB
I. Considered in its bearing upon the Divine purposes concerning the chosen people. It had been long ago predicted that the covenant people should be afflicted in a strange land four hundred years. God used ordinary means to bring this about. The family of Jacob must be driven to Egypt, and there increase to a nation, and by affliction and oppression be trained for entry into the Promised Land. It is remarkable that, not only Jacob, but his fathers Abraham and Isaac, had experienced a famine in Canaan and by reason of it were driven into Egypt. This must have sorely tried their faith; for the land which was promised to them seemed to be a land which ate up its inhabitants. But these afflictions wrought good for their souls, and trained them to lose sight of all selfish aims in religion and to be concerned only for the glory of God. They learned to submit to whatever means God might be pleased to use to bring about His purposes.
II. Considered in its effect upon Jacob’s sons. “Why do ye look one upon another?” This sad question revealed—
1. The utmost distress. They were as men who were stunned by a sudden blow.
2. Great perplexity. They could do nothing else but thus look one upon another. They seemed utterly helpless.
3. Forebodings of conscience. It was not altogether the great calamity of famine that made them so helpless and afraid. Conscience was now awake and filled them with other fears. Why must they wait for Jacob to tell them that there was corn in Egypt, and to suggest the obvious course of going down thither to buy? They surely must have heard this, and have known that in their very neighbourhood a caravan of travellers was already making preparation for that journey. (Genesis 42:5.) The news that there was plenty of food in Egypt would naturally spread rapidly all over the country. Distress has a quick ear. Why, then, are Jacob’s sons of all others the last to bestir themselves to seek help! Alas! to their guilty conscience, Egypt is a dreaded name, a threatening calamity, a foreboding evil. To them the road to Egypt is haunted by the memory of an awful crime.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 42:1. Jacob’s words resemble those of the four lepers: “Why sit we here until we die?” It is a dictate of nature not to despair while there is a door of hope; and the principle will hold good in things of everlasting moment. Why sit we here, poring over our guilt and misery, when we have heard that with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plenteous redemption? How long shall we take counsel in our soul, having sorrow in our hearts daily? Let us trust in His mercy, and our hearts shall rejoice in His salvation.—(Fuller.)
Genesis 42:2. Here the Divine decree of Israel’s sojourning and suffering in Egypt begins to be fulfilled, by a wonderful providence. The fulness of Joseph’s barns invites Jacob first to send, and then to go thither himself for relief. Shall not the fulness that is in Christ (John 1:16) incite and entice us to come to Him, as bees to a meadow full of flowers; as merchants to the Indies, full of spices and other riches; as the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, full of wisdom; as Jacob’s sons to Egypt, full of corn, in that extreme famine; that we may return with treasures full fraught with treasures of truth and grace?—(Trapp.)