Genesis 43: Do It For Benny

The people who hurt you don’t just disappear, do they? Sometimes they show back up at the worst possible moment, and you have to decide what kind of person you’re going to be next. Genesis 43 drops us right into that tension as Joseph stands face-to-face with the brothers who sold him into slavery, while a famine in Canaan forces Jacob’s family to depend on Egypt for food.

We walk through the turning points of the chapter: Judah stepping up to personally guarantee Benjamin’s safety, Jacob sending gifts and double money, and the brothers bracing for punishment because guilt has a way of making mercy feel suspicious. Then the story flips. Simeon is released, a feast is prepared, and Joseph quietly fulfills the dream from his youth as his brothers bow before him. The moment that cracks him open is simple and devastating: Benjamin is there, and Jacob is still alive. Joseph slips away to weep, then returns with self-control and surprising generosity, even giving Benjamin five times the portion.

We also slow down for the heart-level application. Forgiveness is not pretending it was okay, not excusing sin, and not instantly rebuilding closeness. Forgiveness is refusing to let what they did to you determine your future and letting God handle what you can’t carry. If you’re working through betrayal, family conflict, or long-held bitterness, this Bible study on Genesis 43 offers a clear next step toward reconciliation and spiritual freedom.

Subscribe for the next chapter, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find the Bible Breakdown Podcast. What does forgiveness look like in your real life right now?

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Mission

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

How To Support The Podcast

Joseph’s Story So Far

Genesis 43 Read And Explained

Vengeance Or Restoration

Prayer And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter 43, and today's title is Do It for Benny. Do it for Benny. We're right in the middle of this story that becomes reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. But now we have to grapple with the fact that Joseph sees his youngest brother and how it kind of complicates the situation a little bit. So we gonna we go watch what he does for Benny. We're gonna get into that in just a moment. So you want to get your Bibles out. We're gonna kind of get us all caught up in just a moment. But while you're getting ready to go, make sure you take a moment to like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job. And you can find out all that information to the Facebook page and everything else by going to the Biblebreakdown.com or just BibleBreakdown.com. We've been with us for the past while we are now walking through the story of how the Jewish nation got to Egypt. And it starts with in the beginning, God created, and now we're at this junction of just kind of figuring out what Joseph's going to do. So to kind of catch you up real quick, Joseph had a slew of brothers. Their father's name was Jacob. And Joseph was a spoiled little kid, right? And he had a dream one night that one day the, you know, at the time youngest was going to be in charge of all of them. Well, that's a problem because the guy who was in charge, he was in charge of not just his immediate family, but for his extended family as well. And so they were like, nah, we ain't doing that. And so they ended up selling Joseph into slavery in Egypt, told their father he died. And so for the next several years, Joseph is in Egypt, and Jacob, the father, and the brothers, they're all just having families moving forward. Jacob has grieved his his, you know, what he thinks is his dead son. But now Joseph, he's got it, he's got really all the power in his hand because while Joseph was in Egypt to a crazy set of circumstances, he goes from the low man on the totem pole in a home to where now he's the prime minister of Egypt. And he is in charge of dispensing food to the whole land. It's just an amazing story. And one day, several years into this, Joseph is minding his business. He is now second in command of all Egypt, and his brothers show up. They don't recognize him, but he recognizes them. Though another crazy set of circumstances, he accuses them of being spies, but eventually lets all of them, but Simeon, one of his brothers, lets all the rest of them go, and says, You can come back if you'll bring your youngest brother, whose name is Benjamin. Well, they go back and tell Jacob, the father, what's going on, and Jacob is like, Absolutely not. The only son I have left of this wife that I had, that it's Benjamin. He's all I've got left of her. You can't have him. Well, that's a problem because Joseph had said, you can't have your other brother back, or get any more food, basically, until you bring back that youngest brother. So what are they going to do? Well, let's find out what happens and let's do it for Benji. Okay, here we go. Chapter 43, verse 1 says this. But the famine continued to ravage the land of Canaan. And when the grain they had brought back from Egypt was almost gone, Jacob said to his sons, Go back and buy us a little more food. But Judah said, The man was serious when he warned us, You won't see my face again unless your brother is with you. If you send Benjamin with us, we will go down and buy more food. But if you don't let Benjamin go, we won't go either. Remember the man said, You won't see my face again unless your brother is with you. Why are you so cruel to me? Jacob moaned. Why did you tell him that you had another brother? The man kept asking us questions about our family, they replied. He asked, Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? So we answered his questions. How could we know that he was going to say, Bring your brother down here? Judah said to his father, Send the boy with me, and we will be on our way. Otherwise we will all die of starvation. And not only we, but all you and our little ones. I personally guarantee his safety. You may hold me responsible if I don't bring him back to you. Let me bear the blame forever. If I hadn't wasted all this time, if we hadn't wasted all this time, we could have gone and returned twice by now. So their father, Jacob, finally said to them, If it can't be avoided, then at least do this. Pack your bags with the best products of this land. Take them down to the man as gifts, balm, honey, gum, aromatic resin, pistachio, nuts, and almonds. Also, take double the money that was put back in your sacks, as it was probably someone's mistake. Then take your brother and go back to the man. May God Almighty give you mercy as you go before the man, so that he will release Simeon and let Benjamin return. But if I must lose my children, so be it. So the men packed Jacob's gifts and double the money and headed off with Benjamin, and they finally arrived in Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the manager of his household, These men will eat with me this noon. Take these men inside the palace, and then go slaughter an animal and prepare a big feast. So the man did as Joseph told them, and took them into Joseph's palace. The brothers were terrified when they saw that they had been taken into Joseph's house. It's because of the money someone put in our sacks last time we were here, they said, and he plans to pretend that we stole it. Then he will seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys. This is definitely have a glass half empty kind of mentality, right? Okay, verse 19. The brothers approached the manager of Joseph's household and spoke to him at the entrance of the palace. Sir, they said, we came to Egypt once before to buy food. But as we were returning home, we stopped for the night and opened our sacks. Then we discovered that each man's money, the exact amount paid, was in the top of our sack. And here it is. We have brought it back with us. We also have additional money to buy food. We have no idea who put the money in our sacks. Relax, don't be afraid, the household manager told them. Your God, the God of your father, must have put this treasure into your sacks. I know I received your payment. Then he released Simeon and brought him out to them. The manager then led the men into Joseph's palace. He gave them water to wash their feet and provided food for their donkeys. They were told that they would be eating there, so they prepared their gifts for Joseph's arrival at noon. When Joseph came home, they gave him the gifts they had brought with them. And then he bowed then bowed low to the ground before him, which by the way, pause for quick, by the way, that is a fulfillment of the prophecy that he had as a dream as a kid, that one day they would bow before him. So prophecy fulfilled. Verse 27. After greeting them, he asked, How is your father? The old man you spoke about? Is he alive? So even after all this time, Joseph just wants to know how his dad is. Then Joseph looked at his brother, the son of his own mother. Is this your youngest brother? The one you had told me about? Joseph asked. May God be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph hurried from the room because he was overcome with emotion for his brother. And he went into his private room and broke down and wept. After washing his face, he came back out, and keeping himself under control, he ordered, Bring out the food. And the waiters served Joseph at his own table, and his brothers were served at the supper table. The Egyptians who ate with Joseph sat at their own table because the Egyptians despise Hebrews and refused to eat with them. Joseph told each of his brothers where to sit, and to their amazement he seated them according to their age, from the youngest or the oldest to the youngest. And then Joseph filled their plates with food from his own table, giving Benjamin five times as much as he gave the others. So they feasted and drank freely with him. Well, there we go. And so they finally go back to Egypt, taking Benjamin with them. And I love this idea. The God whom you serve must have helped you out. Which, yeah, because the God who they serve is also the God that Joseph serves. And so it just they it's all good. And then when they get back, or when Joseph gets back over there, then they bow before him, fulfilling the prophecy that God had gave Joseph all that those years ago. And then I love it, man. When he heard about his dad being alive, and then when he saw his brother Benjamin, he had to get out of there. It melted his heart. Yeah, there's no telling what he was doing, what he was thinking. I mean, you got to think, I mean, it was it's pretty, it's pretty rough stuff. He kept Simeon in jail that whole time. So I don't know if maybe we we're guessing here, this is not in the Bible, but we're guessing if maybe, just as human hearts tend to do, maybe there was a streak of bitterness there. Maybe there was some hurt there, some pain there. And so he's like, hey, put me in prison, forgot about me. Let's see how it feels. Right? But when he saw his brother, when he heard about his father, his heart melted. Went to a private room, and he he prayed, or rather, he prayed, he wept, and then he came back out and they feasted together. And I love that he gave Benjamin five times as much as the others. And I even wonder if maybe that's part of because he wasn't in on it. He was innocent and all this, and he did that. Here's the thing we talked about this yesterday, we're gonna talk about it again today, and that is this when you are faced with your past, you, I, we will have a choice. Will we seek vengeance or will we seek restoration? You know, forgiveness is is is a crazy thing because I think many of us, most of us, we struggle to have a proper definition of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not saying what someone did to us was okay. We're not saying that what they did to us was right. We're not saying that we're over it, you know, and that everything's good now. It's not saying we're gonna be best friends, it's not saying I'm gonna, you know, we're going vacation together. It doesn't say any of those things. Sorry, my dog just sparked. What it does say is I refuse to let what you did to me determine my future. And what Joseph decided in this moment was I'm not gonna let what they did to me so long ago rob another moment of what I've wanted all this time, which was my family. You're gonna have that choice to make. Are you gonna let what other people did to you in the va in the past determine your future? Or are you gonna let God handle them? That's what forgiveness is. It's saying, God, I'm no longer gonna let them define my future. I give them to you and I'm gonna move forward. For some of us, maybe it's time to begin the process of forgiveness, which once again is not saying it was okay. It's just saying, I refuse to let what they did to me define me anymore. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you're with us and that you're for us. I pray, God, you will give us the courage today to take every step of forgiveness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. God's word, sorry, my dog's barking again. God's word says in Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And if God can do that, he can do anything. I'm gonna get off of here before my dog barks again, and I will see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter 44.