Verse 16, And Judas said, What shall we
say unto my Lord?
And I think this, again, is one of
the finest speeches that this man is going
to make here, and I won't be able
to finish it all today.
It just looks like in this continued story,
we get to the dramatic point, then I
have to leave off.
But let me read.
And Judas said, What shall we say unto
my Lord?
What shall we speak?
Or how shall we clear ourselves?
God hath found out the iniquity of thy
servants.
Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we,
and he also, with whom the cup is
found.
He makes full confession that it's because of
their sin that this has come upon them.
And he said, God forbid that I should
do so, but the man in whose hand
the cup is found, he shall be my
servant, and it's for you, get you up
in peace unto your father.
Now, you see, he's going to hold Benjamin,
and he says to these other brethren, Go
on home, you're free, but Benjamin's going to
stay.
Now, listen to Judah.
Then Judah came near unto him and said,
O my Lord, let thy servant, I pray
thee, speak a word in my Lord's ears,
and let not thine anger burn against thy
servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh.
You see the position that Joseph occupies.
My Lord asketh servants, saying, Have ye a
father or a brother?
And we said unto my Lord, We have
a father, an old man, and a child
of his old age, a little one, and
his brother is dead, and he alone is
left of his mother, and his father loveth
him.
And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him
down unto me, that I may set mine
eyes upon him.
And we said unto my Lord, The lad
cannot leave his father, for if he should
leave his father, his father would die.
And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your
youngest brother come down with you, ye shall
see my face no more.
And it came to pass, when we came
up unto thy servant my father, we told
him the words of my Lord.
And our father said, Go again and buy
us a little food.
And we said, We cannot go down.
If our youngest brother be with us, then
will we go down.
For we may not see the man's face,
except our youngest brother be with us.
And thy servant my father said unto us,
Ye know that my wife bear me two
sons, and the one went out from me.
And I said, Surely he's torn in pieces,
and I saw him not since.
And if ye take this also from me,
and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down
my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
We're looking here in the 44th chapter of
the book of Genesis to one of the
most human stories and dramatic stories that you
possibly could have.
You'll recall that the family of Joseph, that
is the boys, 11 of them, have now
come down to the land of Egypt again
to buy corn.
Joseph insisted that they bring their brother, Benjamin,
with them.
And they brought him along, and he made
them a dinner, invited them to dinner.
And as we concluded chapter 43, we read,
they drank and were merry with him.
Apparently, they were at ease now.
They accepted Joseph's hospitality, and they feel very
comfortable.
But he's preparing a test for them.
And we saw that he sent them back
home, but he took his cup.
I wish I could say more about that
cup, but it was used for divining, for
prophecy.
I don't think you can read into it
here anything of a heathen nature, for this
man was a prophet of God.
We've had several instances of that.
But we find that that cup was put
in the sack of Benjamin, and when the
brethren came back, they were so sure that
the cup was not there, they said, the
man should be put to death if you
find it in any sack, and the rest
of us will be your slave.
They were so sure it was not with
them.
But of course, Joseph had put it in
Benjamin's sack purposely, or had one of his
servants there to do that.
When it was discovered, all of them came
back.
They went in before Joseph, and Joseph wanted
to test them now about their love for
their brother, Benjamin.
He says, all right, Benjamin is guilty.
Leave him here.
He'll be my slave.
You see, they had sold him into slavery
one time, and now he says, just leave
him here.
He'll be my slave.
The rest of you can go home.