Genesis 42:28

But Joseph followed up what he began by directing each man's money to be returned in his sack. He wanted to deepen the work beyond a mere sense of punishment for their past evil toward himself. Food for their journey alone might not have had that effect. But the money given back would strike them as nothing like a sale, and nothing like the way of man. And it came on them by stages. At their stopping place only one opened his sack to feed his donkey and saw his money in the mouth of the sack. He told the others, and it dismayed them all. They could only say to each other, "What is this that God has done to us?" A bad conscience brought God before them.

Joseph had to prepare not only a blessing for them, but them for a blessing. The money in their sacks will not let them forget God. They may have turned their backs on that stranger in Egypt who spoke so roughly to them and called their sin to mind. But God's eye was still upon them, and God still had something to do with them.

Had they had eyes to see, they would have learned from this that Joseph was a giver. But in their condition gifts only stirred up deeper fear. Their hearts fail at the discovery of their money. "What is this that God has done to us?" (verse 28). They have remembered their sin; now they see that God is dealing with them. The fear of God is rising in their souls. Not the holy fear that marked Joseph. "They feared because they were offenders; he feared lest he should offend." Joseph's goodness should have gladdened their hearts. Instead they are miserable and afraid in front of a goodness that their guilty consciences tell them they do not deserve.

His brothers too were shocked at this. They realised that God was stepping in, but for what purpose they do not understand. They were afraid. John Newton captures this reaction in his hymn "Amazing Grace": "'Twas grace first taught my heart to fear." It is always grace that brings us face to face with the living God. Because of our sin, that meeting frightens us at first. This is the first time we hear the brothers mention God's name. So we know they did not miss what Joseph had said about his own fear of God.

Their consciences were still at work, and they saw in it an act of retribution on God's part. We too can recognise that the hand of God truly was in it.

God would not work the grief of the world that leads to death. According to His goodness He would work repentance that leads to salvation. Then the truth they had heard from their father would no longer be a mere theory but a living reality, as it was in Joseph's soul.

A bad conscience is an awful companion. But it is a great thing, if you have a bad conscience, to pay attention to it. How it pulls a person up. And they begin to think about their sins. They say, "What is this that God has done to us?"

My friend, if you could read God's ways you would find them to be all love. You think He is rough. No, no — He loves you with all His heart, and He has given His Son for sinners like you and me.