They pulled it off! Jacob’s sons conspired together to kidnap and sell their brother into slavery and their dad was never the wiser. Twenty years had now passed and their father still knew nothing of their crime. They had succeeded in deceiving the deceiver. It looked as if the old man would die without ever discovering their sin. They no doubt thought they were home free. They may have even suspected that Joseph had died by now.
Little did they realize that it was not their earthly father but their Heavenly Father Who was their greatest threat. Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap (Gal. 6: 7). God calls men and women to account for their sins. He may not call them to account today or tomorrow but he certainly does call them to account.
God brought these brothers to a realization of their sin in the most startling and unexpected way. A famine sent them to Egypt. Did they wonder as they journeyed, “Will we see Joseph?” Did they talk among themselves about the possibility? Did they impose an unspoken code of silence about the brother with the Technicolor© coat? Did they wrestle with guilt pangs along the way? We don’t know. What we do know is that God brought them face to face with their sin in a most unusual way.
Although they initially lied about their crime (42: 13) they obviously began to see the judgment of God on their sin. It is plain that we are being punished for what we did to our brother (42: 21). Once again they felt the pressure of their father’s grief (42: 36; 43: 6, 14). Now they fear that their fate will be the same as Joseph’s (43: 18). Listen to their confession in 44: 16: “What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied. “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity. We are now my lord’s slaves.”
God actually did these brothers a favor. No longer did they need to cringe in fear. No longer did they need to keep looking over their shoulder. No longer did they have to wait for the other shoe to drop. Facing their sin allowed them to be embraced in Joseph’s complete forgiveness (45: 5). They could even forgive themselves because they had been forgiven. That can be you. Run from and hide your sins and you will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy (Prv. 28: 13).