CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 43:7. The man asked us straitly.] Heb., “Asking, asked.” He earnestly enquired about us and our kindred.—
Genesis 43:9. Let me bear the blame for ever.] Heb., “I shall be a sinner to thee all the days.” He would consent to be reputed guilty of violating his plighted faith. Thus in 1 Kings 1:21, shall be counted offenders is literally, “shall be sinners.”
Genesis 43:11. The best fruits in the land.] Heb, “The song, music, or melody of the land.” The idea is, that for which the land is celebrated, those productions which are the pride of the land and which have given rise to songs of praise. A little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds. “These are the same (excepting in two cases) with the articles conveyed to Egypt by the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:25). These are articles that grow best in a drought.”—(Jacobus). None of these would be necessarily affected by the failure of wheat.—
Genesis 43:12. Take double money in your hand.] “The meaning is not, as would appear from the A.V., that they were to take three payments,—double money besides that which was in their sacks—but that they were to take money of a second, i.e., the same amount. And so they describe what they had done, though not with the same Hebrew word, Genesis 43:22.”—(Alford).—
Genesis 43:14. God Almighty.] Heb. El Shaddai. (Genesis 17:1; Genesis 35:2.)—
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 43:1-14
JACOB UNDER THE PRESSURE OF WANT
I. His change of resolution. He had refused, at first, to part with Benjamin. Even Reuben’s desperate proposal was rejected. (Genesis 42:37.) But Judah’s proposal is accepted (Genesis 43:9), for the father had confidence in the honesty, frankness, and persevering energy of this son. Judah makes a practical appeal to his father, and puts the case before him in all its stern reality. His argument was unanswerable. (Genesis 43:8.) Jacob now sees the dire necessity of the situation. His sons must go to Egypt without their younger brother. The affection of the father now struggles with the dread of famine, and after one more feeble objection, Jacob submits. (Genesis 43:6.) He who once said, “My son shall not go down with you,” makes up his mind at last to say, “Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man.” (Genesis 43:13.) Thus we learn gradually to submit to what we plainly see is the will of God. How great is power of want, in the hands of Providence; how inexorable its demands!
II. His piety throughout.
1. His faith in God. “God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin.” (Genesis 43:14.) This was that name of God under which Abraham was blessed: “I am God Almighty,” and also that which Isaac invoked in blessing Jacob, “God Almighty bless thee, and give thee the blessing of Abraham.” Jacob must now have thought of the covenant promises and blessings. Now he is forced by hard necessity most entirely to cast himself upon God, for now nothing else is left to which he can cling. It is the property of faith to make ventures; and we do not know what great faith is until we are called upon to give up something that we hold most dear, and cast ourselves upon the eternal love of God alone. When all is gone, our faith must still look to God, who is our soul’s true portion.
2. His honest principle. Jacob commands his sons to take back the money which they found in their sacks, saying, “Peradventure it was an oversight.” (Genesis 43:12.) It is true religious honesty to return that which comes to us by the mistake of others.
3. His resignation. Jacob does not behave as one who is forced to yield to fate, while his heart rebels against it. His is not the stoical acceptance of destiny. It is the resignation of a religious mind. He yields in a manner worthy of a man of God, “If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” (Genesis 43:14.) He is willing to resign all entirely into the hands of God. It is as if he had said, “I commit the event unreservedly to God. If it seems good to him to bereave me of my children, the will of the Lord be done; I have nothing to say. The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away.”
4. It is no reflection on his piety that he changed his purpose. The fact that Jacob in consenting to give up Benjamin changed his purpose, lays him open to the charge of inconsistency. But the circumstances are all changed now. The famine continues, want stares them all in the face, and he has to choose between the dreadful alternative of starvation and the risking of the life of one son. We may be too careful about keeping up what we call our own consistency. For, after all, if a man is under no circumstances to change his conduct, then would conversion be impossible. Consistent with the unchanging truth of God, with the eternal law of righteousness, we must and ought to be; but not invariably consistent with ourselves; for our goodness is imperfect, and we are liable to mistake and error. Instead of adjusting our present conduct to our former habits and thoughts, we should act upon our present convictions, leaving the present and the past to reconcile themselves as they may. It is only by looking continually to God, and not to ourselves, that we can walk sure-footedly in the present life.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 43:1-2. They had, indeed, met with difficulties and dangers on their former journey, but greater difficulties and dangers must be encountered to prevent worse. Let it not be thought a hard matter that the service of Christ often requires peculiar hardships and hazards. The world requires as great sacrifices as Christ, and is far less able to recompense them. In labouring for the meat that endureth to everlasting life, we seldom meet with such difficulties and perils as are often encountered in labouring for the meat that perisheth.—(Bush.)
Genesis 43:3-9. The duties of parents and children.
1. Children should obey their parents in the Lord. But,
2. Parents should not enjoin upon their children that which is unreasonable, or impracticable.
3. Children should consider the infirmities of aged parents, should bear with them, and especially should not interpret unkindly or severely what they may say under the pressure of extraordinary affliction. The sons of Jacob set an example here. They did not blame their father for bringing this groundless charge against them, but are content calmly to justify their conduct by pointing out the necessity of the case
Judah is the eloquent one among his brethren. His eloquence had carried the measure of Joseph’s sale; it had prevailed on Jacob to send Benjamin with them; and here, finally, it makes Joseph unable to endure the restraint which he wished to put upon himself.—(Delitzsah).
The end, however, is attained, not more by his touching eloquence than by his heroic deed, when he offers himself as surety for Benjamin, and is willing to sacrifice himself by taking his place.—(Lange).
Genesis 43:10. Men blinded by affection too often disappoint themselves, and by needless and unwise delays cut themselves off from the enjoyment of much happiness that they might otherwise have secured to themselves.—(Bush).
Genesis 43:11. Perplexity is blind and untractable. Let the mind but settle, and it will soon yield to a reasonable motion, if seasonable, especially as this of Judah was: for besides the weightiness of his words, necessity now speaks for him, that most powerful orator.—(Trapp).
A rash man will, at all hazards, obstinately persist in a course once determined upon, but a wise man will yield to reason. The manner in which the patriarch acquiesces is worthy of remark. It is not the sullen consent of one who yields to fate while his heart rebels against it. He yields in a manner worthy of a man of God, proposing first that every possible means should be used to conciliate the man, the lord of the land, and then committing the issue of the whole to God. He recollected the effect of a present in appeasing his brother Esau’s anger when coming against him with an armed host.—(Bush).
Take of the best fruits. Of the verse or melody, saith the original; that is, of the most praiseworthy fruits; such as deserve to be commended in verse, and sung of, to the praise of God the giver.—(Trapp).
The prized fruits of the land of Canaan. In Jacob’s words there appears an objective poetry, or the poetry of the lands, as it may be called. It consists of their noblest products, not as they serve the common wants of life, but rather its healing, adornment, and festivity. When he selected them, however, Jacob could have but little thought how mighty the influence these noble gifts of Canaan’s soil would have upon the great Egyptian ruler—how they would impress him as the wonders of his youth, the glories of his native land.—(Lange.)
Genesis 43:12. Jacob, who at first thought that the money was put into the sacks with a malicious purpose, is now disposed to put a milder interpretation upon the matter. In things doubtful, men are disposed to come to that conclusion which makes most for their peace of mind. They make an effort to think that to be true which they wish to be true.
No man of integrity will take an unrighteous advantage of the mistakes of those with whom he deals. Nothing is more palpably inconsistent with the great rule of doing to other men as you would that they should do unto you. Besides, it would have been very unsafe for Jacob’s sons to have taken advantage of an oversight in the present case. It might have confirmed the suspicions of the lord of Egypt. But it is never safe to do any injustice while God reigns in heaven.—(Bush.)
Genesis 43:13. We learn gradually to submit to the greatest trial of all when it becomes a necessity.
Genesis 43:14. This is like that of Esther, committing herself and her attempt to God, “If I perish, I perish,” (Esther 4:16); and like that of those saints in the Acts, “The will of the Lord be done.” Jacob prays for Benjamin’s safety, but will be content that his own will be crossed, so that God’s will may be accomplished. This is the right way of praying; this is to “draw near with a true heart.” (Hebrews 10:22).—(Trapp.)
It is too much in the desponding spirit of his former complaint. (Genesis 42:36). He looked too much at the secular, human side of the matter, and too little at the spiritual and divine side. When we are in the dark, why should we not rather expect deliverance than yield to despondence?—(Jacobus).