The Terrible Mercy of an Empty Stomach Text: Genesis 42:1-5
Introduction: Providence in a Dysfunctional Family
The Bible is not a collection of stories about nice people. It is the story of a great God who works His purposes through profoundly broken people. And nowhere is this clearer than in the family of Jacob. We have seen the jealousy, the deceit, the favoritism, and the violence that has ripped this family apart. Twenty-two years have passed since the sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph into slavery, seared their consciences, and then lied to their father's face. For two decades, they have lived with this lie, a festering wound covered over by the routines of life.
But God is the great surgeon, and He is not afraid to use a sharp knife to cut out the poison. That sharp knife, in this case, is a famine. We must not think of this famine as a random act of nature, a mere meteorological event. In the Bible, famine is frequently an instrument of divine judgment and purpose. God is sovereign over the rain, the sun, and the harvest. And He is sovereign over the gnawing emptiness in a man's belly. He will use this famine to drive these guilty men out of their land of Canaan, their land of deceitful comfort, and down into Egypt, the very place where their sin has been gestating into a glorious, unforeseen salvation.
This is the doctrine of providence in shoe leather. Providence is not a soft, sentimental idea that everything will just work out. It is the doctrine that God, in His absolute sovereignty, governs all things, including the sinful choices of men, to bring about His good and holy ends. As Joseph will later say, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen. 50:20). This chapter is the beginning of that great reversal. God is setting the stage, not just to feed a starving family, but to lance a boil, to bring about repentance, and to preserve the line of the Messiah. He is about to make these men confront the skeletons they have locked away in the closet for twenty years.
We are about to see a fearful father, ten guilty sons, and one hidden, sovereign brother. And through it all, we will see the hand of God, weaving a tapestry of redemption out of the tangled threads of human sin and weakness.
The Text
Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, "Why are you staring at one another?"
Then he said, "Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy some for us from there, so that we may live and not die."
So ten brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt.
But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "Lest any harm befall him."
So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
(Genesis 42:1-5 LSB)
Paralysis and a Father's Prod (v. 1-2)
The scene opens with a picture of utter paralysis.
"Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, 'Why are you staring at one another?' Then he said, 'Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy some for us from there, so that we may live and not die.'" (Genesis 42:1-2)
The famine is severe, not just in Egypt, but "in the land of Canaan also." The supplies are dwindling. Death is a real possibility. And what are these ten strapping sons of Jacob doing? They are staring at each other. This is the posture of guilt and indecision. They are frozen. Perhaps they are thinking of Egypt, and the memory of what they did on the road to Egypt all those years ago rises like a ghost in the room. They sold their brother to traders heading for Egypt. To go to Egypt is to go back to the scene of the crime. Their shared guilt has rendered them inert.
It is Jacob, the old patriarch, who has to prod them into action. "Why are you staring at one another?" It is a rebuke. It is the voice of a father who sees his sons paralyzed by something he does not understand. He knows there is grain in Egypt; the news has traveled. The solution is obvious. "Go down there and buy some for us... so that we may live and not die." The stakes are as high as they can be. This is not about profit; it is about survival. And yet, they hesitate.
This is a picture of how unconfessed sin works. It cripples us. It makes us passive and fearful. We know what we ought to do, but the memory of our past compromises holds us back. We stare at one another, hoping someone else will make the first move, hoping the problem will somehow resolve itself. But problems, especially famines, do not resolve themselves. God has sent this famine to force a confrontation they have been avoiding for two decades.
Ten Guilty Men on a Mission (v. 3)
Spurred by their father's command, they finally move.
"So ten brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt." (Genesis 42:3 LSB)
Notice the number. Ten. This is the precise number of brothers who conspired against Joseph. Reuben had second thoughts, but he was complicit. Judah proposed the sale. All ten of them dipped the coat in goat's blood. All ten of them stood before their father and lied. And now, all ten of them are being sent on this journey. Providence is meticulous. God is not rounding up "most" of them. He is sending the whole jury back to face the evidence.
Their journey "down to Egypt" is more than just a geographical descent. It is a theological one. Egypt, in Scripture, is often a place of testing, of bondage, and of worldly power. Abraham went down to Egypt and compromised his wife. But it is also a place of preservation. God is sending them down into the belly of the beast, into the heart of a pagan empire, in order to save them. This is how God works. He often leads us into difficult and worldly places to accomplish His holy purposes. He sends us into the world, but not of it, to be salt and light, and sometimes, to be brought to our knees.
A Father's Fearful Favoritism (v. 4)
But one son is conspicuously absent. The dysfunction of this family is still on full display.
"But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, 'Lest any harm befall him.'" (Genesis 42:4 LSB)
Here we see Jacob's besetting sin: favoritism. He had favored Joseph, the firstborn of his beloved Rachel, and it nearly destroyed his family. Now that Joseph is gone, that same toxic affection has been transferred entirely to Benjamin, Rachel's only other son. In Jacob's mind, Benjamin is all he has left of the woman he truly loved. The other ten sons? They are, in this moment, expendable functionaries. But Benjamin is precious.
Jacob's reasoning is soaked in fear and distrust. "Lest any harm befall him." What does this imply about the other ten? He is sending them on a long and dangerous journey, but his primary concern is for the one who stays behind. He doesn't trust them. And why should he? They came back from a routine trip once before with a bloody coat and a story about a wild animal. Jacob may have believed the lie, but the trauma and suspicion have lingered. The wound is still there.
This favoritism, this fear, is actually a crucial part of God's plan. Joseph, in Egypt, will need to know if his brothers have truly changed. Have they repented of the jealousy that drove them to sell him? The ultimate test will be how they treat Rachel's other son. Will they sacrifice Benjamin to save their own skins, just as they sacrificed Joseph? Jacob's clinging to Benjamin sets the stage for the great test of character that is to come. God's sovereignty is so precise that it weaves even our sins and fears into the fabric of His redemptive story.
Lost in the Crowd (v. 5)
The verse concludes by placing the brothers in a wider context.
"So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also." (Genesis 42:5 LSB)
They are not alone. The famine is widespread, and a great migration of hungry people is heading toward the only known source of food. The sons of Israel, the covenant family, are just one desperate group among many. They are anonymous, lost in the crowd. They think they are going to conduct a simple business transaction, to trade silver for grain and go home.
They have no idea that the entire apparatus of the Egyptian state, the entire relief effort for the known world, is being run by the brother they betrayed. They are walking into a trap, but it is a trap of grace. They believe they are seeking bread to save their physical lives, but God is maneuvering them into a position where they will be offered a greater bread, the bread of repentance and reconciliation, that will save their souls.
They are "among those who were coming." From a human perspective, they are nobodies. But from God's perspective, they are everything. The entire famine, the elevation of Joseph, the preservation of Egypt, it all has this one family at its center. God is willing to shake the nations to discipline and save His people. He will move heaven and earth to bring a sinner to repentance.
Conclusion: Driven to Grace
This short passage sets in motion the final act of the Joseph narrative. And it is a profound illustration of how God works in our lives. We are often like the ten brothers, paralyzed by our past, content to stare at our problems rather than deal with them. We build comfortable lives on top of old lies and unconfessed sins.
And so God, in His terrible mercy, sends a famine. He empties our cupboards. He brings us to the end of our resources. He makes us hungry. This can be a financial famine, a relational famine, a spiritual famine. He introduces a crisis that forces us to move, to go to a place we would rather not go, to face a past we would rather forget.
And where does He drive us? He drives us to the one we have wronged. He drives us to the one who holds the keys to the storehouse. He drives us, ultimately, to Jesus. Joseph is a magnificent type of Christ in this story. He is the rejected brother who was cast out, presumed dead, but has been exalted to the right hand of power. He alone has the bread of life. And when we are driven by the famine of our sin, we come to Him, just like the brothers, not even recognizing Him. We come seeking relief, seeking a transaction, and we have no idea that we are falling into the hands of the one we betrayed with our sin.
But He recognizes us. And though He may speak harshly at first, though He may test us to see if our repentance is genuine, His entire plan is to strip away our pride, break our hearts over our sin, and then reveal Himself in a flood of forgiving grace. God's goal is to bring the whole family, even the fearfully protected Benjamins of our hearts, into His presence, and to feed us at His table. The famine is a severe mercy, designed to drive us out of our land of self-sufficiency and down into the land of grace, where the rejected Son reigns, and the bread is free.