Genesis 43

v1-14: “Judah’s conscience had just struck him for what he had done a long time before against Joseph, and, as evidence of the truth of his repentance, he is ready to guarantee Benjamin’s safety.” His care for Benjamin, was his way of trying to make some amends for what he had done to Joseph. True repentance will be seen in a person’s actions.

v15-25: “If we should ever know what is meant by a famine of the word, let us not think much of travelling as far for spiritual food as they did for physical food.”

v26-34: The serving of food given to Benjamin, showed the brothers’ that he was Joseph’s favourite. He did this to “see whether his brothers would envy Benjamin” because of “his larger serving of food, as formerly they had envied him because of his finer coat.” We should “be content with what we have, and not begrudge what others have.”

Genesis 44

v1-17: We should not “judge what people are like by what they have been before, or what they will do by what they have done before.” Change is possible and “even the worst people may improve in time.”

v18-34: It is worth noting that “Judah’s faithful devotion to Benjamin in his distress,” will be “rewarded long afterward by the faithfulness of the tribe of Benjamin to the tribe of Judah, when all the other ten tribes deserted it.”

Genesis 45

v1-4: “When Christ shows himself to his people, he encourages them to draw near to him.”

v5-8: God providentially ordered all things “to preserve a small family of Israelites.” Prior to “the years of plenty,” God ensured that Joseph came to Egypt, and was promoted to a high position “to supply Jacob’s house in the years of famine.”

v9-15: Like Joseph, our Lord Jesus, has been exalted and says that “he wants all those who are his to be with him where he is.”

v16-28: The best that this world has to offer is simply stuff in comparison with what is in store for us in the future. Joseph’s family could leave “what they had in Canaan” behind because of what will be theirs in Egypt.