Genesis 42:26-34 – Having an aligned conscience

Midway from Egypt to Canaan, they had to tend to the donkey because of the distance in travel. One of the brothers opened his sack and to his horror he saw his money, paid for the grain, in his sack. Alarmed, he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack.” As they heard what he said, their hearts sank. They trembled and said to one another, “What is this that God has done to us?”

For the first time in the account that they mentioned God. Why did they suddenly become alert to God? It was their guilt at work bringing about a quickened conscience. They were terrified as they became aware of the hand of God in what they were experiencing. However, this was no ordinary fear but godly fear. In a moment they concluded that God was against them. And all at once they knew that God’s hand was behind the circumstances of their lives. God was in it all to bring them to the point where He wanted them to be. This is the whole purpose of godly fear. Are we in the situation of life where, everything in life just seems to give way? It could well be the hand of God beckoning us to take a fresh look at the situation of our life, and to rethink His purpose for us.

And when they finally arrived home, they narrated to their father what had happened and how they responded. Jacob’s sons narrated to him what they told the man in-charge. They said, “The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly with us, and took us for spies of the country. But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no longer alive, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.’ The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households, and go. But bring your youngest brother to me that I may know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will give your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’”

The reason they framed the account this way was in the hope of persuading Jacob, to allow them to bring Benjamin along with them for the next trip to Egypt. Notice how they missed out on some of the details. They did not tell him that they were held in prison for three days. And they did not tell him that the right hand man of Pharaoh, whom they did not know was Joseph, threatened to execute them. And they also did not tell Jacob that some money were found among the grains in one of their sacks, midway to Canaan. The reason they avoided these details was because they knew that Jacob would flatly refuse to allow Benjamin to accompany them to Egypt for the next trip. So they remained absolutely quiet concerning these matters. We need to be mindful that whatever wrong we have committed, there will always be times of testing. When we realize our flaws during testing, we need to own up to them and respond to God’s grace. It will bring about the effectual awakening of our conscience and help us align our life with God.