(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

in Genesis chapter 42. And we're gonna finish up this chapter. The name of the sermon is, Simeon Held Captive, Simeon Held Captive. So let's start at verse number 18, just where we start our scripture reading. And there are no points tonight. I'm just gonna kind of go verse by verse and look at various things. But as a reminder from last week, we're starting at verse 18. We talked about this last week. Joseph said unto them the third day, "'This do and live, for I fear God.'" And I talked about how making the statement that he fears God is basically stating that he rejects the Egyptian religion because in the Egyptian religion, as we read last week, there was no fear of the gods. The idea was the gods were on your side. And so when he's stating he fears God, I mean, he is basically stating he rejects the Egyptian religion. It says, "'If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye carried corn for the famine of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die.' And they did so." And I also talked about last week how Joseph really wants to see his brother Benjamin. We're gonna see that in each of these chapters, how he really wants to see Benjamin. Verse 21, "'And they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and he would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us.'" Now look, realize that in verse 21, 20 years have gone by. And when this situation comes up, the first thing is it's because of what we did to our brother 20 years ago. And what that's showing you is that they've had a guilty conscience and feel awful for 20 years. Right? Go to Acts 24. Acts 24. Acts 24. And look, I've never done something like selling somebody into slavery, but these are people that are, we're not looking at reprobates. His brothers were looking at people that were sinners, just like we are people with a conscience. And you know what? 20 years later, after doing something really terrible, they still feel horrible about it. And one thing we can learn, I'm gonna assume you never do something that serious, but at the same time, whenever you sin, what takes place is you carry a guilty conscience with you after doing it. The Bible says, you know, sin pleasures for a season, writing temporary happiness, and then the guilt just weighs you down and you feel horrible about it. And really there's nothing better in life than just going to bed at night with a conscience that is just clean, that is just free of some major guilt upon it. Bible says in Acts 24, verse 14, But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worshiped by the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow that there should be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void to offense toward God and toward men. And you know what Paul says is, you know, one thing I strive to do is have a conscience that's void of offense. And he's saying toward God, I want to have a clean conscience. I want to go to bed at night. And yes, you know what, even the thought of foolishness is sin. You're never going to go a day where you are 100% perfect. But at the same time, you can go to bed at night and say, you know what, I'm right with God right now. God, forgive me for not being as zealous as I should be. Forgive me for any mistakes or bad thoughts or sins that I'm unaware of. But you can go to bed at night and say, you know what, I tried my best today. And you can wake up in the morning and you're in a good mood. You say, why? Because you've got a conscience that is innocent, right? You realize you don't have a major sin. You know, it's interesting, if you go to bed at night and ask for forgiveness for something that you did wrong, and it's not just something small, but something that you really feel bad about, even afterwards when God has forgiven you, your conscience still will often rip you apart. And you feel horrible about it. And then you think to yourself, man, why don't I just do what God says? Because I hate going around having this conscience that feels awful. And one thing Paul strived for was a conscience void of offense toward God. You know, he also strived to have that toward man as well. He strived his best not to offend his brothers in Christ. He strived his best not to say things that would cause people to get mad at him. And obviously if he's a preacher, he's gonna offend from time to time. But he said, you know what? I wanna make sure that I'm right with my fellow brother in Christ. I'm right with my fellow sister in Christ. What's interesting in verse 16 is he says, in here and do I exercise myself? When you think of exercise, exercise in and of itself, unless you're playing a sport, is usually not fun. Right, you know, when I say that I enjoy working out, you know, it's not, that's not really a dishonest statement, but I enjoy when I'm done with the workout. I feel really good. But during the workout, it's like, man, I really wish I could be in shape by just sitting on the couch doing nothing, right? Exercise takes work. Exercise is hard. And you gotta push yourself to the limits, right? They say no pain, no gain. And here's the thing, you can look at that same word exercise and realize that Paul's saying, you know what, to have a conscience that's void of offense, I had to work at it. I had to put in energy. I had to put in effort. He's saying, I had to make a conscience choice to put away sin and fight against sin. You say what? Because it doesn't happen by accident. Nobody just accidentally ends up being a great Christian. It's like, man, I wasn't even trying to read the Bible and I read it 10 times last year. I just kind of, you know, I was just going about my day, not really planning to, and I was like, yeah, you know, just read the Bible, right? Wasn't really trying to live a godly life, but I found myself soul winning all the time. No, no, no, you have to actually make a conscious effort to do things that matter, right? And here's the thing, in life itself, if you want to be successful, you've got to make an effort to do stuff as well. You don't get, you know, a high salary at your job unless you work hard at it. You want to get promotions, you got to work hard. That's the way it is. If you want to be right with God and have a clear conscience and draw night at God, it takes work. It takes effort. Go back in your Bible to Genesis 42. Genesis 42. For 20 years, they've been carrying around a guilty conscience. They feel horrible about it because the first thing they mentioned, they don't realize this is Joseph. It says later on, he's spake by an interpreter. And yet when they're having a problem in life, they immediately correlate it to Joseph. And what that shows is they believe they're under the curse of God for what they did. I mean, it's been 20 years. I am sure that those brothers said that they were sorry to God for it. But the thing is, they're thinking in their heads, he's still sold into slavery. He might be dead, we don't know what took place. And so they can't get rid of that guilty conscience, even though they probably prayed about it and asked for forgiveness, they are carrying it around with them. But you know, what's interesting is that of these brothers, they don't all feel bad about it. You see, you've got 12 brothers, and of course there's Joseph who the crime was done to. Then you've got Benjamin who is not there and also did nothing to Joseph. So you've got 10 brothers left and nine of them feel really, really horrible, except Reuben, right? And as I've said, Reuben is really not a good guy. We're really gonna see that in this chapter if you pay attention. Because notice what it says in verse 22, "'And Reuben answered them, saying, "'Stake I not onto you, saying, "'Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear. "'Therefore behold also his blood is required.'" Reuben's statement is saying that he doesn't feel like he did anything wrong. He's like, I told you not to do it, right? Well, first off, we're gonna look here in a second at what Reuben said, but Reuben did not say, do not sin against his child. He is changing what he said. He says here in Genesis 42, I told you not to sin. And what he's doing is he's absolving himself from the situation. And people oftentimes do this. He places the blame on him to separate himself from the action. Wait a minute, he was involved in the selling of his brother to slavery because of the fact that he left him in a pit and he didn't do anything more. He was also guilty, but he just doesn't feel bad about it. Now, turn to Genesis 37, I'll show this to you. Genesis 37, Genesis 37. By the way, if somebody messes up in life and they say, you know what, man, I really messed up. This is why God is punishing me right now. And then you respond to them, I told you not to do that. You're an obnoxious jerk. They already feel horrible, right? I mean, the brothers are saying, man, they're feeling awful for what they did. And then Ruben's like, let me just kick you while you're down, right? I mean, the right response, even if what he was saying is true, which it is not, if the right response would be to say nothing. Because when people screw up and they admit it and they realize it and they feel horrible about it, you don't have to tell them how they mess. I mean, just imagine somebody is married and then let's say, for example, they start drinking and it causes their wife to run out on them because they destroyed their life and they're a horrible father. And then all of a sudden they reach the realization, man, I destroyed my life, I'm never drinking again. I told you not to drink. How is that helpful in the situation? What Ruben's saying is not helpful at all. It's just showing that he is an obnoxious jerk. That's what you see. But did he say he did not sin against his child? Well, Genesis 37 verse 21, and Ruben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him. And Ruben said unto them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. According to what we see in Genesis 37, unless something took place that is not recorded, Ruben did not say do not sin against the child. Now, obviously killing your brother would be wrong, but here's the thing. Ruben was also wrong to suggest throwing his brother into a pit. How is that okay? Right, I mean, if he wanted to do fully what was right, he said, don't you dare touch him. He's like, he's staying with me. He didn't do that, right? Because what Ruben also did was wrong. He basically didn't do something as bad, but what he did was wrong as well. He's trying to separate himself from the situation, but in reality, what he did was incorrect as well. I go back to Genesis 42, Genesis 42. I'm not stating that Ruben's not saved. I have no idea. I'm stating he has no character. I mean, the man did sleep with his father's wife. It's not really that extreme to say he doesn't really have very high character. Now, when you passively read here, it sounds like he's the one that's the good person, but when you really look at what he's saying, it's like, well, wait a minute. Why are you criticizing your brothers? And why don't you feel remorse for the situation? They really screwed up, but at least they got to a place where they realized they messed up and are trying to get right about the situation. Genesis 42 verse 23, and they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And so of course they have no idea. They're going to assume that this person in Egypt doesn't understand what we're saying, obviously. I mean, they probably presume he's either Egyptian by blood or he was raised in Egypt. And they just assume, you know, he's speaking in the Egyptian language. He doesn't understand what we're saying. But of course, Joseph understands every single word. So what Joseph is seeing and what he's understanding is he's got nine brothers, not Ruben, that feel horrible. They feel sorry. And they are essentially asking him for forgiveness, but they can't really do that because they don't realize Joseph is there. I mean, they feel horrible. They're like, man, we really messed up. We feel awful about what we did. Now look, Joseph is a great character in the Bible. And I believe he probably handled this situation better than any of us would. He did not handle it perfectly. At this moment, he should have forgiven his brothers immediately because they are essentially saying that they're sorry, right? Because obviously they don't realize Joseph is there, but they're like, you know what? This is our punishment because we messed up, we did wrong. He's essentially, they're essentially saying, we messed up, we're sorry. Joseph should have just immediately forgiven them. Now I wouldn't have immediately forgiven them. I'm not stating I would have handled it differently. I'm just saying Joseph doesn't handle it perfectly. Go to Matthew 18, Matthew chapter 18, Matthew 18. And look, through these coming weeks, I mean, it takes Joseph some effort to reach that point where he's willing to forgive them. And quite honestly, I find that pretty encouraging because you hear this kind of preached different ways, but I've heard a lot of people say that Joseph just immediately forgives his brothers. And what, it's hard for us to really comprehend this because of the fact we know that we wouldn't do that immediately. And it makes Joseph come across as like this superhuman person that's basically perfect. When in reality, what you see is he does struggle to forgive but he does eventually fully forgive. And the encouraging thing to me, I find that more encouraging because what that shows is you might not wanna forgive someone, but you can learn to forgive. Just as Paul learned to be content, when you're reading this, you're gonna see that Joseph, he doesn't really fully forgive them at first. It takes some kind of begging from Judah later on. And then eventually he reaches that point where he is able to forgive. And so if you find yourself unwilling to forgive in life, unwilling to move on, unwilling to have compassion or mercy towards someone, realize that you can learn it even if you don't feel that way right now. Matthew 18, verse 21, "'Then came Peter to him and said, "'Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me?' "'And I forgive him, till seven times.'" Look, Peter's a great guy, but sometimes a bit, my abong or sometimes he's not really thinking because this is a bit of an arrogant statement. He's saying, man, I'm willing to forgive seven times, right? Look at me. Jesus saith unto him, "'I say not unto thee until seven times, "'but until 70 times seven.'" 490. I think common sense would say that you don't keep account of each time because here's the thing, you might be able to count up to seven, you will lose track up to 490 unless you mark it. And if you're forgiving someone, you shouldn't be marking why you did this, you did this, you did this. So, I mean, he could have said 80 times seven, or the idea would be you're gonna lose count up to 490. Basically, if your brother does wrong against you and he actually comes with sincere apology, forgive them. Now, of course, you gotta, I mean, there's no guarantee it's gonna be sincere. They say, oh, you know, I'm sorry. And just, it's completely unsincere because even in this passage, it's in the context of forgiving your brother. You look at church discipline and in 2 Corinthians 7, that gives you the signs of real repentance, like someone's really trying to get right. But if someone really messes up and then they really come and ask for forgiveness, you should forgive them. Go to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, notice what it says in verse 31. Actually, let me turn there myself because I wanna look at the verses before that. Verse 30, I think, yeah, verse 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. When it says we're sealed unto the day of redemption, remember the Bible says in whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. It says you're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, meaning you're eternally secure, meaning you cannot lose your salvation. And what that means is the Holy Spirit is indwelling you. But with the Holy Spirit indwelling you, if you do right, then the Holy Spirit's gonna be happy with you. Because the Holy Spirit is not merely a force. It's hard for us to comprehend the Holy Spirit. We comprehend God the Father and God the Son a lot easier than the Holy Spirit. It's not merely a force. And the Bible says you're able to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. How? Well, if you're indwelled with the Spirit of God and you do wrong, basically the Holy Ghost goes with you as you do wrong. Right, so when you're sinning and doing wrong, it's grieving God because it's like you're forcing them to be involved in it, right? And then the Bible's gonna give you a list of things that are gonna cause the Holy Spirit to be grieved. Let all bitterness. See, being bitter is gonna grieve the Holy Spirit. So if somebody's done wrong against you, then you know what? You're not meant to hold bitterness. You're not meant to hold grudge, right? It says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. It's very easy to preach to forgive somebody. It's very easy for me to get up here and say, Joseph ought to forgive his brothers immediately. I'm not saying it would be easy to do. If somebody does you wrong and you're mad at them, you don't wanna forgive. You say, but why should I? Because you don't wanna grieve the Holy Spirit of God? Because of the fact God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you? Because what the Bible's saying is, you know what? You were forgiven and you did not deserve it. So why don't you forgive somebody else that does not deserve it? Anyway, the Bible also says, God will show himself merciful to those that are merciful. So the thing is, let's say that you are a very forgiving person. Yeah, the good news is, God's gonna be more forgiving with you when you do wrong. So instead of looking at it like, man, that person's done me wrong, why don't you look at it as, hey, you know what, God's gonna be merciful to me if I'm merciful to other people. So it's actually in your benefit. The other thing is this, in verse 31, it says, let all bitterness. Look, if I'm extremely bitter about something, that doesn't harm the person I am bitter at. It harms me. If you're filled full of bitterness and wrath and anger, you're only destroying yourself. Right, and look, I believe this is a situation that Joseph has completely forgotten about. I don't think that every single day he was bitter towards his brothers, because when you read the earlier chapters, you don't see that. What I believe, though, is that when his brothers show up, all of those old feelings come back out. I think he's forgotten about it. He never expected to see them again. And then he sees them, and he realizes his brothers, and all of a sudden the bitterness is there. The anger is there. He doesn't wanna forgive him. He had forgotten about it, but now all of a sudden it's come back to his mind. Go back to Genesis 42. Genesis 42. I mean, the right response is, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. Right, I mean, when somebody does you wrong, look at how Jesus handled it. Look how Stephen handled it when somebody did wrong to them. And you know what? It's hard to believe when you see, you think of, though, Jesus on the cross, and before he was crucified, you know, he's in the middle of these two other people being crucified, they are both mocking him, right? When you read the gospels, both of them are mocking him. And we often forget about that because the thief on the cross who gets saved all of a sudden changes. But you know what? He changes because he saw Jesus. He heard him speak and he saw his attitude and he realized this is different, right? And I wonder if the forgiving attitude of Jesus is the reason why that thief on the cross ended up getting saved, right? And so look, if you're willing to forgive someone when they do you wrong, then they might actually show a lot of gratitude toward you. And the best response for Joseph would have been to forgive immediately. He does not do that. And as a result of this, we'll see later on after his father dies, his brothers don't know if they're really forgiven. If he had just immediately shown forgiveness, they probably would have realized though that, hey, you know what? He really does forgive us. But Genesis 42, verse 24, and he turned himself about from them and wept. And I probably could have entitled this sermon the three sins of Reuben or something like that because notice verse 24, and he turned himself about from them and wept. So this is Joseph. He's very emotional right now. He weeps and returned to them again and communed with them and took from them Simeon and bound them before their eyes. You say, okay, what's significant here? We'll go to Genesis 29, Genesis 29. Take Simeon, name of the sermon, Simeon held captive. Simeon held captive. Genesis 29, verse 32. And Leah conceived and bare a son and she called his name Reuben. For she said, surely the Lord has looked upon my affliction. Now therefore my husband will love me. And she conceived again and bare a son and said, because the Lord hath heard I was hated yet. Therefore give me the son also. And she called his name Simeon. Simeon is the second oldest brother. Reuben is the oldest brother. Who should be held captive? The name of the sermon should be Reuben held captive. He's the oldest brother. You know why he's not held captive? Well, I'm not responsible. What are you guys handling, right? As the oldest brother, you are responsible. That's just the way it is, right? You know, my son Zeph is gonna be the one that's responsible as they get older, right? If they're sent out somewhere to do something, I'm gonna expect him to be the one. Hey, you're the oldest, your sister's younger. You're the oldest man. You're gonna be the one responsible. Look, Reuben should have been held captive. But he didn't wanna be held captive. He had Simeon do the job. Why? He's not willing to take blame. And he's also not willing to take on the responsibility of being the oldest brother. Turn to Genesis 42, Genesis 42. Genesis 42. My father is one of two in his family. He has one brother, no sisters. And he had one brother. His brother's already passed away. But his brother is younger than him. His brother was seven, about seven years younger. And my dad's told me this story before where one time, you know, he heard this yelling on the back porch or the front porch. And he went outside and there was like, you know, either two or three, I can't remember, two or three guys that were about to beat up his younger brother. And then my dad walks in the porch. My dad's, you know, bigger than and older than all of them. But there's three of them, two of them, three of them or whatever. And my dad told his brother, my dad didn't know what was going on. He's like, go inside. And basically my dad's like, you know what? I'm willing to take the beating on the behalf of something's gonna happen or whatever. Why? Because he's the older brother. It's just built inside of you. I mean, if you're the oldest brother, you're the oldest in that family, the oldest brother, there's that built in responsibility where you, and here's the thing, kids know this at a young age. My son Zeph feels that responsibility. We don't have to tell him that. Because, you know, he just naturally kind of takes charge over the other ones and he realizes that he's the one who's responsible, right? It's just built into you. And Ruben knows that he just doesn't want to take responsibility. Verse 25, then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn and to restore every man's money into a sack and to give them provision for the way. And thus did he honor them. And they laid their asses with the corn and departed thence. And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass to prevent her in the end, he espied his money for behold, it was in his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren, my money is restored. And lo, it is even in my sack. And their heart failed them and they were afraid, they were saying one to another. What is this that God hath done unto us? Now look, why would they be upset that they have money? Well, I mean, a couple of things to consider. Number one, because that money's only gonna last so long and if there's a lack of food, the money doesn't give you anything of real value. Corn is worth a lot more than money during this time period, right? The other thing is they have compassion towards Simeon. They are afraid they're not gonna get their brother back. Like they're not okay with losing one of their brothers. Right? And so they feel really bad about this. They're afraid, oh man, we're gonna be in trouble. And what you're seeing still is this guilty conscience. This guilty conscience. They feel like they are under the curse of God for the sin that they did. And look, of course, if you commit a major sin, you can be under God's curse. But they have that guilty conscience after all of this time. Go to Hosea chapter eight, Hosea eight, just after the book of Daniel. Daniel, Hosea, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Hosea chapter eight, Hosea eight. I think this is one of those stories with Joseph. I kind of wish I could see the video of this and feel the emotions, Joseph. You can't recreate this. I mean, it's been 20 years. This is something they make Hollywood movies at. 20 years since you saw your brother who sold you into slavery, right? I mean, it's a great story. It's very interesting. Hosea eight, verse five. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off. Now, what is that saying, thy calf, O Samaria? Well, they made a golden calf to worship. And that's not the calf that's being referred to from the book of Exodus. It's just the calf is just something that people worship. Right, and nothing's really changed. I mean, what's the biggest animal worship in the biggest idolatrous country in the world? Well, I mean, the calf in India, right? I mean, they're obsessed with the cow. And so there's nothing new under the sun. You know, people worship cows. Now, the main reason why people have worshiped cows throughout history is because they provide a lot of value. They give milk and they give good meat, right? And so they provide a lot of value. And as a result, people end up worshiping the creature more than the creator. But thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off. Mine anger is candled against them. How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? For from was Israel, was it also? The workmen made it, therefore it is not God. So that's pretty obvious. I mean, if somebody makes it, it can't be God. If somebody makes an idol with their hands, how can that end up being God? But that's the foolishness that people have. But the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. Now, this is a major sin. I mean, this is idolatry that he's speaking about. I mean, and this is in, you know, God's country, God's people, and they're developing idols. Then it says this, for they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. He's saying, you did this wrong, and what you're gonna reap is gonna be a whole lot bigger than what you sow. And this is just the way it is in life. I mean, if you decide to do something, what's coming back to is going to be worse. They've sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. So you sell your brother into slavery, doesn't get a whole lot worse than that, right? Go to Genesis 42, Genesis 42. And of course to us, the Bible says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. But you know, you sow the wind, you're gonna reap the whirlwind. It's actually, what you're gonna reap is going to be worse. Genesis 42 verse 29, And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell him unto them, saying, remember, this is about a 10-day journey. So it's said to be 10 days or more from Egypt to get all the way back to Canaan. So this is a long time that goes by after this takes place. The man who is the Lord of the land, referring to Joseph, spake roughly to us and took us for spies of the country. So you're saying that Joseph acted kind of rude to them because the Bible says he intentionally acted rough so they did not understand him. And we said unto them, we are true men, we are no spies. We be 12 brethren, sons of our father, one is not, referring to Joseph. And the youngest is this day with their father in the land of Canaan, referring to Benjamin. And the man, the Lord of the country said unto us, hereby shall I know that you are true men. Leave one of your brethren here with me and take food for the famine of your households and be gone. And bring your youngest brother onto me, then shall I know that you are no spies, but that you are true men. So I deliver you your brother and you shall traffic in the land. So they're giving the report to Jacob. And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every man's bundle of money was in a sack. And when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob, their father said unto them, me, have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. And look, I am sure that Jacob also feels horrible with Joseph. He probably feels responsible as well, because remember, he sent Joseph to his brothers and he thinks he died along the way. So for 20 years, Jacob's been carrying this around as well, whereas the father, I'll give you an example. I heard this story of there was this father in the ocean and he was swimming and his kids were afraid to go out on the water. And he had four of his kids go out in the water. They were afraid and a big wave came. All four of the children died and he lived. I mean, that man's gonna feel responsible about that for his entire life. He's gonna feel horrible, because obviously he had responsibility in that. And Jacob is going to feel responsible. He's gonna be a grieving father that is just like, man, why did I ever send Joseph? Why did I send Joseph? And for 20 years, Jacob is miserable, even though he didn't really do anything majorly wrong, and yet he's gonna feel responsible for Joseph dying, or at least he thinks he died. And he's also feeling responsible for Simeon. He's saying, I should have never sent you on this trip. Now Simeon is gone. And he's like, man, Benjamin's gonna be gone. You shouldn't have said anything. Obviously he's a father that's grieving. Verse 37 is a shocking verse. Notice what Reuben says. And Reuben spake unto his father saying, slay my two sons if I bring him not to thee. Deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. What? Kill your sons? Right, I mean, what kind of a response is that from a father? Hey, you can trust me, dad. If not, just murder my sons. What? I mean, does that make any sense? I mean, sometimes we gotta just stop and really think, especially on stories, really stop and think about, and it's like, I mean, if you're a father in this room, it's like, what is wrong with Reuben? Why would you say that? I mean, I can imagine telling my dad, hey, dad, you can trust me. If not, I'm responsible. Not, if I don't do what I tell you, then just kill Zeph and Ezra. What? What kind of a father would even have that in his heart to say? A very selfish father, right? Couldn't we say that as parents? Can you imagine feeling that way or saying something so stupid? Why would that even be, I mean, but out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth's thinking he wants to look good. I'll be responsible. Well, if you're really responsible, Reuben, why weren't you the one held captive? Yeah, your father can really trust you when you made Simeon responsible, and yet he's like, you know, you're still not gonna take responsibility. If I don't bring him back, just murder my sons, right? What a weird, weird statement for a father. Go to 2 Samuel 18. Let's see the statement of an actual father that actually loves his kids. 2 Samuel 18, and this is the sermon, part from the sermon I preached at the anniversary in Pampanga. 2 Samuel 18, verse 31. This is a story of David, as he's gonna get the news that his son Absalom is dead. 2 Samuel 18, verse 31. And behold, Cushai came and Cushai said, and tidings, my lord, the king. The lord have eventually this day of all them that rose up against thee. And of course, Absalom would be the chief person. So Cushai's saying, they're all dead. And the king said unto Cushai, is the young man Absalom safe? I think he already knows from the statement Cushai made, but he wants the confirmation. And Cushai answered, the enemies of my lord, the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, who he is that young man is. And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber of the gate and wept. And as he went, thus he said, oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee, oh Absalom, my son, my son. David's saying, you know what? I wish I had just died in your place. You know, here's the thing. David wasn't even a good father, right? He wasn't. But there's still a natural compassion for your children. I mean, like, even in this world, if there's a father or mother that just, you know, is not invested in the lives of their children, and there's still a natural compassion that's gonna be there 99% of the time, where you would feel that way. I've heard it said that the most painful thing in life is to outlive your children. You know, as a parent, you're gonna be grieving over that. And he's just like, I would have died for the Absalom. And it feels horrible that his son is dead. Yet Reuben is just like, well, you can kill my sons if I don't do what I said. You know, that's just a very strange statement when you stop and think about it. It's not like, oh, wow, man, Reuben's really stepping in. They're like, it's just a bizarre statement. Why would you be willing to sacrifice your children? It's foolish. Go back to Genesis 42. The other thing is this, obviously Jacob's not gonna kill your sons. You make a stupid statement that Jacob wouldn't even do, right, he's obviously not gonna kill your sons. How's that gonna make it any better? Man, if I don't get my other son, then I'm just gonna kill grandkids. What? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. I mean, verse, and let's see, but what's really interesting in telling about this is Jacob's reaction to what Reuben said. Notice what it says in verse 38. And he said, my son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is left alone. If mischief befallen by the way in which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. And Jacob says, you know what, no, I'm not sending my son. And I'm sure that Reuben probably knew this would be the response. Why is this interesting? Go to Genesis 43. Genesis 43. Because here's the thing, Jacob says, no, you're not going back to Egypt. Now, why does he change his mind? What causes him to change his mind? Genesis 43, verse eight. And Judas said unto Israel's father, send the lad with me, and we will arise and go that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones. My sons will be surety for him. Is that what he says? No, he says, I will take responsibility, dad. I will be surety. I will make sure that we succeed and I will take 100% responsibility. He doesn't say, we're gonna be surety. All of us are gonna know. He says, I will be responsible. Now look, was Judas a great character in the Bible? I don't think I could call him a great character because he does do a lot of things wrong, but he also does a lot of things really good. And we also think of the lion of the tribe of Judah. Not Reuben. Say why? Well, look at Reuben. There's not much good to say about him. I mean, honestly, especially in this chapter when you see this, it's just, but here's the thing. Judah says, I will be responsible of my hand shall thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. It's also a more realistic statement because of the fact, obviously Jacob was not gonna kill Reuben's sons. And obviously Jacob wouldn't kill Judah if he failed because he obviously loves his son. But he's saying, I will be 100% responsible. And notice the reaction. For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned the second time. So Judah's saying, you know what? We could have already returned by now. We gotta just do this. He's like, I understand you're emotional, Dad. We've gotta do this. There's no other option. And their father Israel said unto them, if it must be so now do this. You know what you see? You see that Jacob does not trust his oldest son, right? Isn't that what we see? He trusts Judah. He's willing to listen to Judah, right? Obviously Jacob was around his kids enough to know that, you know what? Reuben is just someone who makes stupid statements, like just kill my son. He's like, there's Reuben again. Just saying something stupid. And it's like, he's not gonna be responsible for it. You know what would have taken place? If Reuben, if they went when Reuben said this and something happened and Benjamin didn't come back, Reuben would have made an excuse, right? He's the sort of person that will always just make an excuse and blame other people. You know what Judah said? I will bear the blame forever. Hold me responsible. Any punishment, whatever, you know, it's my fault, Dad. And you know what, Jacob trusts Judah. He does not trust Reuben. Here's some things that we see from Reuben as a recap. Number one, Reuben blames his brothers for the situation. He takes no responsibility. Is Reuben as much to blame as his brothers or at least some of his brothers? I would say, no, I don't necessarily think all the brothers were completely involved in this, but any one of them could have said, I'm willing to step out and say, I'll do anything to protect Joseph, which none of them did. Maybe Reuben's not as responsible as some of his brothers, but he's still somewhat responsible. Look, if something goes wrong and you are 5% to blame, you are 5% to blame. You say, well, you know what, it'd be like, you know, saying, well, you know what, something took place. Let's say somebody, you know, gets killed and you could have defended them, but you let it happen. It's like, well, I'm not the one who killed them, but you still allowed it to happen, right? You're still partially responsible. Reuben blames his brothers, even though he's also responsible. He allows his younger brother Simeon to be held prisoner instead of going in instead of him. He offers his sons to be killed. I don't understand. I mean, that's up there with Lot offering his daughters to the homos, right? It's like one of these statements that, I don't understand as a parent. And it's one of those things that before I had kids, I would have said it was bizarre. Having children, I'm just like, what could possibly come up in life where I'd say, hey, just do whatever to my kids. That's, I don't get it. That's Reuben though. He offers his sons to be killed. And then lastly, his dad just doesn't trust him at all. Right, he trusts Judah. He doesn't trust him. What we see is nine brothers feel extreme remorse. Reuben on the other hand is just making excuses. Benjamin's not really involved in the situation. And what we're gonna see in these chapters is we've got a guy named Joseph that is kind of just all over the place with his emotions. And it's understandable. You know, he doesn't seem, I don't believe that Joseph has logically thought out everything he's planning to do. He's just got a lot of emotions and he's not really sure how to handle it. I am sure there's part of him that wants to forgive, but it's just like he can't. And he wants to see Benjamin and we're gonna see that develop. It's very interesting. But the big takeaway is just Reuben is just a bad guy. Not saying he's not saved, but he just has no character. Let's close in order prayer. Your heavenly father, thank you for allowing us to see this story in Genesis 42 and help us realize that these stories in the Bible are real stories, characters we can learn from. Help us to just take time to slowly read these and really think about the stories and lessons that we can learn, God. And help us to be people that when we mess up, we don't blame other people, but that we're willing to take responsibility for it.