Genesis 43

Serve the food.

Previous post: Genesis 42

For those who haven’t been following along, here’s a brief synopsis to bring you up to speed in Genesis.

God created the world. And, it was good. Then, God created mankind and womankind and placed them in the midst of a garden of all the things they could ever want. In said garden, God gave man and woman one rule: don’t eat from that tree over there. If you’ve ever met humans before, you know exactly how they reacted to the one rule: they broke it. They ate the forbidden fruit and messed up, well, everything. Mankind, womankind, creation, and nature…all of it fractured. All of it broken. But, God had a plan to forgive, redeem, and restore. By Genesis 43, we’ve followed the stories of a few of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’re beginning to see a lot of foreshadowing of God’s redemption that is to come. In fact, Joseph’s story might just be the biggest foreshadowing yet. His family killed him (at least, they thought they did). In doing so, they inadvertently sent him on God’s path to a position of power…a position to enact justice or grant mercy.

As things stand in Genesis 43, Joseph’s brothers, who have run out of the first supply of food he bestowed upon them, make the nerve-wracking trek back to Egypt to essentially beg for their lives again. Joseph sits at the proverbial right hand of the king (Pharoah) with the authority to give life to those who wished him death…or to take their very lives from them.

“When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground.” Genesis 43:26, NIV

These sinner brothers who bow in front of the innocent Joseph have messed up. A lot. They hold zero bargaining power. They don’t have the resources to buy mercy. They’ve brought gifts; but let’s keep it real. Their gifts are sort of like if I were to give Elon Musk a $20 Starbucks gift card. Also, I realize they don’t know Joseph’s true identity yet, but they might as well have said, “We sold you and left you for dead; but, hey, here’s a Starbucks gift card. Can we have some food so we don’t die?” But, I digress. My point: these brothers don’t have the resources to buy mercy, and they aren’t righteous enough to deserve a favor. They stand powerless hoping against hope for some undeserved grace. (Been there, fellas. Solidarity.) The choice is Joseph’s: enact justified revenge or bestow amazing grace. Enter three of my favorite words in this chapter and in life. “Serve the food.” (verse 31)

The sinners were starving, so they ran to the only place—the only one—they knew was capable of feeding them…the only one they knew who was capable of giving them life. These starving fellas threw themselves at the mercy of the one they’d betrayed, and what did he do? Kill ‘em all Old Testament judgment and wrath style? No. He had their feet washed (Genesis 43:24, foreshadowing John 13) and was moved with compassion (Genesis 43:30, foreshadowing Matthew 9:36 and Matthew 14:14 and Mathew 15:32 and Matthew 20:34 and Mark 1:41 and Luke 7:13). Then, Joseph threw those undeserving sinners a feast—intro’ed with the words we all long to hear in one way or another: “Serve the food.”

Jesus talked about being the “bread of life.” He spoke often of banquets and feasts and food for the hungry. A big part of his ministry was feeding people literally so they would have a taste of what it was like for him to feed them wholly, spiritually.

That’s my biggest takeaway from Genesis 43. There are times in all of our lives when we feel as though we’re starving. Sometimes, it’s because of our own stupid choices. We’ve lied. We’ve betrayed. We’ve sinned. We’ve fallen short. We desperately want to be rid of that feeling of guilt…that feeling of shame. Starving, we throw up a prayer to the only one we know who has the power to alleviate that guilt and shame…the only one who has the ability to wipe it all away. We have no bargaining chips. We beg for mercy. Do you know what God says in moments like that…when we helplessly bow to his authority and beg for mercy?

“Serve the food.”

Here’s this week’s AI rap summary:

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™