And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
The steward searches the sacks one by one, oldest to youngest, and every brother watches. Why would the ruler of Egypt hide his own cup in the sack of the one brother who never wronged him?
The Search and the Shock
One writer points to the innocent man at the end of the line:
L. M. GrantThe search began at the eldest, finishing with the youngest, in whose sack the silver cup was found (v. 12). What a shock to them all! What a traumatic experience for Benjamin who knew himself innocent!
A Charge with No Crime
The brothers had not touched the cup. One writer asks what their real guilt was:
W. T. P. WolstonTell me, what wrong had they done about the cup? None. But it served to wake up conscience. It brought back the twenty pieces of silver, and the wickedness of their past. Well said the poet, "Conscience makes cowards of us all."
Another writer marks what the cup was for:
James BoydIt was not used to get at the affections of his brothers. It was a means of getting at their consciences.
Dothan Revisited
The cup in Benjamin's sack cost the youngest brother his freedom. The other ten could walk away unharmed. One writer sees the old crime set up a second time. Dothan was the field where they had turned on Joseph years before:
J. G. BellettThis place, this moment, was the field of Dothan again. They were returning, in spirit, to the place where all their offence was committed. In the field of Dothan, in Genesis 37, they had to answer one question. Would they sacrifice their innocent brother Joseph to their lusts, their envy, and their malice? Now Benjamin is claimed as a captive because of the cup found in his sack. He is claimed as one who has forfeited life and liberty to the lord of Egypt. The same question is put to them again. Will they sacrifice him, and go on their way home, easy and careless and satisfied?
Another writer sets out the choice the ten men now faced:
Hamilton SmithBenjamin stands in the place that once had been Joseph's — the youngest and best-loved son of his father. Benjamin will go into slavery, as Joseph once filled the place of a slave. The ten brothers are completely free, as they were before, to return to their father in peace. What will they do in these circumstances?
Severity That Came from Love
One writer explains why Joseph chose such a painful method:
William KellyHe did it for God's sake and for their sakes, not for his own. He wanted a real and visible work of God in their conscience and heart. That is what put the cup in Benjamin's sack. No doubt the shock of finding it there deeply troubled the brothers. But it must be so where sin of the deepest kind lies at the bottom of everything. This was only a means to make them feel it and judge it. After all, the pain of the means he used was very brief... and the same day ended with forgiveness and joy and tender love.
The same writer adds a caution: "Love dictated it in the fear of God. Yet we may feel that the way he took was in no way what the New Testament would suggest to the Christian."
The Result: Self-Defence Abandoned
Once the cup came out of the sack, they stopped defending themselves. One writer weighs that change, and adds a warning:
C. StanleyThe memory of their sin now overwhelms them. They give up all attempts to clear themselves, and hand themselves over as guilty... A person may feel any amount of anguish, sorrow and remorse, as Judas Iscariot did, and still have no true conversion and no true change of mind.
One writer sees here a pattern of how God will deal "with the nation of Israel when He takes them up again, and brings them to acknowledge their guilt in rejecting Him" — James Boyd
Summary
- Searched. The steward went from eldest to youngest. The cup came out last, in the sack of the one brother who had never wronged Joseph.
- Accused. There was no theft. The false charge existed to reopen a true one — the twenty pieces of silver and the brother they sold.
- Tested. Benjamin now stood where Joseph once stood, and the ten were free to walk home. They faced Dothan a second time.
- Loved. The severity came from love and lasted hours, not years, and the same day ended in forgiveness.
- Broken. They stopped clearing themselves and owned their guilt. That was what Joseph had been working toward.