And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.”
The cup turns up in Benjamin's sack, and Judah offers no defence. He confesses a guilt that has nothing to do with the cup — so why does a man stop clearing himself when he is innocent of the theft?
Innocent of the Cup, Guilty of a Brother
The brothers had stolen nothing. Yet the charge reached back to something far older:
W. T. P. WolstonJoseph says, "What deed is this that you have done?" and Judah says, "How can we clear ourselves?" Friend, are you anxious to clear yourself? Listen to me. Confess your sins. That is the necessity... Tell me, what iniquity was there in relation to the cup? None; but it served to rouse conscience. It brought up the twenty pieces of silver, and the wickedness of their history in days gone by.
Their innocence about the cup was real, but they said nothing in their own favour:
J. G. BellettConviction loses sight of everything but sin. Its own offence is all it looks at... Once they hid their guilt under the lie they sent to their father. Now they are willing to hide their innocence about the cup under the confession they make to Joseph.
"God Has Found Out"
Judah does not say the governor found them out. He names God. No human pressure produces that kind of admission:
C. H. MackintoshNone can teach like God. He alone can produce in the conscience the true sense of sin, and bring the soul down into the very depths of its own condition in His presence. This is all His own work. People run on in their course of guilt, taking notice of nothing, until the arrow of the Almighty pierces their conscience. Then they are brought into deep searching of heart and intense exercise of soul. Only the rich resources of redeeming love can give them relief.
The End of Self-Defence
Three questions come before the confession: what to say, what to speak, how to clear themselves. Judah drops all three in the same breath:
Hamilton SmithThey no longer try to justify themselves about the present, and they do not try to clear themselves about the past. They are convicted sinners "found out" by God; and they entirely submit to Joseph, "we are my lord's servants," they say.
Seeing your state is one thing. Saying it out loud is another:
W. T. P. WolstonThis is the point God would bring us to. Not only conscience making us see our state, but also the owning of that state. "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." So said David in Psalm 32, and so must every soul that really turns to God.
Judah, of All People
Reuben was the eldest, but Judah answers. Of the brothers, he is the last one you would expect to stand beside a younger son under accusation:
L. M. GrantIt is not Reuben, the eldest, who speaks to Joseph, but Judah, the one who had been leader in selling Joseph as a slave. He does not plead any defence whatever. He had not been guilty of stealing the cup. Even so, he realises that God was using this to remind him of their earlier guilt in selling Joseph... He does not condemn Benjamin and justify himself. Instead he takes his place with Benjamin and his brothers, willing to accept the place of slaves to Joseph.
Once, their father's grief counted for nothing to Judah. Now it is the thing he cannot bear:
F. B. HoleInstead of hardness, great tenderness of feeling, particularly for his old father, Jacob. Then it did not matter how Jacob would feel; now it mattered everything to him. Here we see repentance at work — the kind no one ever regrets.
A Caution
Deep feeling is not proof of a changed heart. One writer gives a warning:
C. StanleyThere may be any amount of anguish, sorrow, and remorse, as it was with Judas Iscariot, and still no true conversion, and no true change of mind.
The Larger Picture
Some writers see here a picture of Israel's future meeting with Christ:
Frederick W. GrantHe is unknown to them, yet He is seeking them. He will make them see their Benjamin as Ben-oni, the son of sorrow — and that as the fruit of their own sin. Benjamin is taken from them: they have lost their part in Messiah, because they rejected Him. Everything deep in Judah's heart is stirred. Then, in his agony for Benjamin, Joseph reveals himself and overwhelms him.
Summary
- Found out. The cup was never the real charge. It reached back to a twenty-year-old sin no one had confessed.
- God teaches. Judah names God as the one who uncovered them. Real conviction of sin is His own work, not the pressure of circumstances.
- Clearing stops. Three questions collapse into one confession. They stop defending the present and stop excusing the past.
- Judah changes. The man who led the sale of Joseph will not save himself at a younger brother's expense. Repentance shows in what he is willing to lose.
- Test it. Remorse can run deep and still not be conversion. Real repentance owns the guilt and submits.