CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 42:27. In the Inn.] “A camping place for the night rather than a caravansera. The term is from a verb meaning to lodge, and has the local prefix. These halting grounds are well understood by travellers, and are fixed according to the distance and the convenience of water for man and beast.”—(Jacobus.) There are no places of entertainment; even at the present day, in this desert over which they had to pass.—
Genesis 42:28. And their heart failed them.] Heb. And their heart went forth. Thus, Song of Solomon 5:6., “My soul failed when he spake.” (Heb. “Went forth.”) They had no courage left.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 42:25-28
THE MISERIES OF AN AWAKENED CONSCIENCE
I. They pursue the sinner everywhere. In a strange land, and far from any human habitation, these men are suddenly alarmed. Time and place are nothing to conscience. When once awakened it will not allow the sinner to rest.
II. They drive the sinner to put the worst construction upon every event. Joseph’s real motive in treating his brethren thus, was love; but that love was now operating so as to confound, perplex, and dismay them. They read it as a design to ensnare and find occasion against them. Thus when our conscience is awakened, we are alarmed and confounded even by those things which may be really working for our peace.
III. They are intended to lead the sinner to repentance. By this harsh treatment Joseph designed, as an immediate purpose, to fill the minds of his brethren with consternation and fear. But he had a deeper purpose of love. He hoped to bring them to humble their souls in penitence before God, so that they might feel the guilt of their sin and obtain forgiveness. In this way God deals with the sinner when He would bring him to a right mind; leads him into dark and perplexing situations so that he is utterly unable to perceive the design. By turns his hopes and his fears are awakened, so that he might be forced to bring his sin to remembrance and feel his utter danger and helplessness. The evil which God thus brings upon awakened souls is only that deep darkness which precedes the dawn. Had Joseph’s brethren known all, they could not have been brought to the right state of mind. And so, if we knew all God’s designs concerning us, it is possible that we might be spared some pain, yet might we miss many a salutary lesson. If we are in God’s way at all, there is a meaning of goodness for us—a purpose of love and blessing. But God’s order is this,—that it is only by the law, which brings home to us the knowledge of sin, that we can obtain the blessings of the Gospel.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 42:25-28. They construe this circumstance to mean something against them; but in what way they know not. They do not reproach the man, the lord of the land, though it is likely from his treatment of them that they would suspect some ill design against them: but overlooking second causes they ask, “What is this that God hath done to us!” To His righteous judgment they attributed what they had already met with (Genesis 42:21-22), and now it seems to them that He is still in a mysterious way, and with a design to require their brother’s blood at their hand. Such a construction, though painful for the present, was the most useful to them of any that could have been put upon it.—(Fuller.)
Simeon is left in pawn, in fetters; the rest return with their corn, with their money, paying nothing for their provision but their labour; that they might be as much troubled with the beneficence of that strange Egyptian lord, as before with his imperious suspicion. Their wealth was now more irksome to them than their need; and they fear God means to punish them more in this superfluity of money than in the want of victuals. It is a wise course to be jealous of our gain; and more to fear, than desire abundance.—(Bp. Hall.)