May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”
Jacob has run out of food and out of options. Egypt's ruler will not see his sons again unless Benjamin goes with them. So the old man gives up the son he had refused to send. His parting words hold a prayer and a sigh at once.
The Name He Calls On
Jacob does not ask for luck or leverage. He reaches for the specific title under which God had made Himself known to his family.
Edward DennettTo the patriarchs God made Himself known under another name. This name first appears in Genesis 17:1, "The LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty" — that is, EL SHADDAI. The word El is said to mean strength, omnipotence. Some think Shaddai means the same thing. Others prefer the rendering all-sufficient, or self-sufficiency. Either way, the two words together carry divine attributes, since omnipotence and all-sufficiency are found in God alone.
That choice of name says something about Jacob himself. He had known this name before and lost his hold on it.
J. G. BellettSo afterwards in Genesis 43, when he is sending his sons into Egypt a second time to buy food, he commits them into the hand of the Lord as "God Almighty." This also tells us something happy about Jacob's condition of soul. At least in some measure he had recovered the power of that name. He had once lost it, and everything he went through at Peniel had not given it back to him.
Plans First, Mercy Second
Notice the order. Jacob makes all his arrangements first, and prays last. One writer sees in that a picture of how people still deal with God.
Hamilton SmithHaving made all his plans, Jacob finally commends his sons to the mercy of God Almighty. He puts his plans first and God Almighty second. If there is anything lacking in his plans he expresses the pious hope that the mercy of God will make up the shortfall. And this is how men treat God and Christ today. God in mercy sent His Son. Christ accomplished the mighty work of redemption. Yet man still clings to his own doings. He treats the mercy of God and the work of Christ as mere fillers for any little gaps in his own efforts. And as with Jacob, so with men: their own plans leave them in hopeless uncertainty. Jacob had to confess that after all he is quite unsure of the results: "If I am bereaved, I am bereaved."
"If I Am Bereaved, I Am Bereaved"
Commentators differ over that closing line. Hamilton Smith hears uncertainty. Another writer hears a man who has stopped fighting God, and sets the change beside Jacob's earlier grief over Joseph.
The Bible TreasuryWhen the strong will belongs to a man of natural strength, there is no complete surrender while any link of nature remains. All the sorrow of heart we read of in Genesis 37 and Genesis 43, over Joseph and Benjamin, was needed. It brought Jacob's heart and will into full submission. In the first instance he tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and refused to be comforted. But in the last he says, "If I am bereaved, I am bereaved" — in other words, "I submit." What a difference! What desolation, when the heart is wrenched and finds no resource in God! What a contrast, when the Almighty God is a refuge!
The Larger Picture
One writer sees more here than a family crisis. He reads Jacob's letting go of Benjamin as a picture of what the nation of Israel must one day do.
Samuel RidoutWith all the fervour of a love that cannot sacrifice its last hope, he refuses to put the child of his old age into the hands of this unknown, seemingly cruel, and yet God-fearing ruler of Egypt. But he must place the child of promise into the hands of God, as Abraham did long before. He will receive him back again — not merely as he gave him up, but joined to his long-lost but never-forgotten son, through whom all the glory and blessing were to be secured. In the same way, Israel must give up their national hopes of greatness and glory, pictured in Benjamin, into the hands of a righteous God. They will find those hopes and claims made good to them through the very One they had rejected and cast out.
Summary
- The Name. Jacob calls on God as El Shaddai — the almighty and all-sufficient One. This is the name God used when He made Himself known to Abraham.
- The Recovery. Reaching for that name shows he had recovered, at least in part, a hold on God he had once lost.
- The Flaw. He arranges every human safeguard first and adds God's mercy last. One writer sees in this how people still treat Christ's work as a top-up for their own efforts.
- The Surrender. Commentators differ over "If I am bereaved, I am bereaved." One hears plain uncertainty. Another hears a broken will saying, "I submit."
- The Return. Jacob had to put the child of promise into God's hands, as Abraham did, and he received him back joined to the son he had mourned as lost.