The Beginning and Meaning of Everything that Matters Can God make us forget our past hardship (41:51)? Can He also make us reckon with our past distress (42:22)? Genesis 42:1-38 Outline: Jacob sends his sons to Egypt for food, but they are tested by Joseph and return to their father in fear. Gen. 42:1-24 Joseph’s brothers come to him to buy food, but he tests them while hiding his identity from them. Gen. 42:25-38 Joseph’s brothers return home to their father with food, but they are fearful about money he has hidden in the bags. What’s going on in this chapter? This chapter picks up very naturally where the previous chapter left off (“all the earth came to Egypt…to buy grain,” 41:57), but now zeroes in on one particular family who also needs to buy grain in Egypt (“Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt,” 42:1), and thus resumes the narrative of Jacob and his family in the land of Canaan. This chapter, along with the next several chapters (41:1-45:28), rehearses the going and coming of Jacob’s sons to Egypt for food, along with their interactions with Joseph especially, and culminates in “all…of the house of Jacob” moving to Egypt and being preserved through the famine (46:1-34). This chapter primarily depicts Jacob’s sons’ interaction with Joseph who, while hiding his identity from them, tests their word while forcing their hand; it also demonstrates their distress over their circumstances and actions, along with the distress of Jacob. It thus ends unresolved on a (relational) cliffhanger. This chapter, while beginning to develop numerous themes, especially highlights how God uses the wisdom and position of Joseph to prepare Jacob’s family to be preserved, and what God means by preserving Jacob’s family. What does God do in order to preserve His people? What all does it mean for God to preserve His people? God providentially begins using Joseph to test his brothers and so prepare them (and Jacob) for their eventual reunion and preservation. Genesis 42:1-24 Genesis 42:25-38 In the wisdom of God, He orchestrates that, for both Joseph and his brothers, their past returns to surprise them: It returns to confront Joseph with the personal relevance of God’s truthful word (v. 9) It returns to confront his brothers with the personal responsibility of their guilty actions (v. 21) How will both handle the confrontation of their pasts? Bitter revenge? Self-interested despair?