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Today’s Watchtower comments mention
the account of Joseph, the son of Jacob.
One of the subjects
considered in this Bible account
is repentance.
We will consider these questions:
What is true repentance,
and how does Jehovah reward
those who show it?
True repentance consists of two steps.
A person needs to acknowledge
his wrong course
and offer clear evidence
that he has turned away from it.
Both steps are mentioned
in the account of Joseph.
So let’s consider some parts of the account.
Jacob dearly loved his son Joseph.
But how did the brothers of Joseph feel
about him?
In Genesis chapter 37,
we read three times
that the brothers of Joseph hated him.
One day,
Joseph and his brothers were alone,
far from home
and far away from their father.
The brothers seized that opportunity
to act on their hatred
by throwing Joseph into a water pit.
Later, Judah proposed
to sell Joseph as a slave.
At the time,
Joseph was only 17 years old.
As we know, in Egypt,
Joseph became a slave,
a prisoner, and a powerful ruler.
We will focus on his time as a ruler.
During that time,
Jacob and his family lived in Canaan
and suffered from a lack of food.
So to obtain food,
Jacob sent his sons to Egypt.
When Joseph saw his brothers,
he recognized them,
but the brothers did not recognize Joseph.
The second time and the third time they met,
the brothers still did not recognize Joseph.
Those encounters were painful for Joseph.
The first time they met,
how did Joseph react?
He “began to weep.”
The second time they met,
how did Joseph react?
He “gave way to tears.”
The third time they met,
how did Joseph react?
“He began to weep.”
Now, why did Joseph make himself
go through these painful events?
Because he wanted to find out
if his brothers were repentant.
As mentioned,
true repentance consists of two steps.
It starts with acknowledgment.
Did the brothers acknowledge their sin?
Yes, they did.
It is recorded at Genesis 42:21.
We read in verse 21 what the brothers said:
“And they said to one another:
“‘We are surely being punished
“‘on account of our brother
[that is, Joseph],
“‘because we saw his distress
“‘when he begged us to show compassion,
“‘but we did not listen.
That is why this distress has come upon us.’”
Those words expressed remorse.
The brothers had taken a step
toward repentance.
They had acknowledged their sin.
But what about the second step
of true repentance?
Did the brothers turn back
from their bad course?
How did Joseph find out
if they really had a change of heart?
Well, Joseph prepared
the next phase of his plan very carefully.
Of course,
Joseph couldn’t go back in time, 22 years,
but he could create the circumstances
that closely resembled
the event that had happened
more than 20 years ago.
So, what did Joseph do?
He moved forward with a plan
that would cause his brothers
to get in such deep trouble
that they could only escape
captivity in Egypt
by leaving one of Jacob’s sons behind
as a slave.
And to resemble closely
the circumstances of 20 years earlier,
that son had to be
a son who was dearly loved by Jacob.
So Joseph’s plan
was to force his ten brothers
to bring Benjamin to Egypt.
Why Benjamin?
Jacob dearly loved his son Benjamin,
just as Jacob had dearly loved
his son Joseph.
So in this carefully developed plan,
Benjamin served, in effect,
as a substitute for Joseph.
The way the ten brothers would treat Benjamin
would reveal to Joseph
if his brothers were repentant
about the way
they had treated him in the past.
So Joseph continued
with the final phase of his plan.
Before the sons of Jacob returned to Canaan,
Joseph had a silver cup placed
in Benjamin’s bag.
When they were on their way home,
Joseph sent his official after them
to search the bag of all the brothers.
We can imagine
how frightened the brothers were
when the cup was found in Benjamin’s bag.
Now they had to return to the Egyptian ruler,
but what could they tell him?
At this point in the account,
keep in mind that some 20 years earlier,
it was Judah who had proposed
to sell Joseph as a slave.
And it was also Judah
who had persuaded Jacob
to send Benjamin to Egypt.
What would Judah do now?
To his credit,
Judah accepted the responsibility
to speak to Joseph in behalf of his brothers.
We read Judah’s words to Joseph
at Genesis 44:16:
“What can we say to my master?
“What can we speak?
“And how can we prove ourselves righteous?
“The true God has found out
the error of your slaves.
“We are now slaves to my master,
both we and the one
in whose hand the cup was found!”
With these words,
Judah offered that all 11 brothers
would become slaves.
But Joseph didn’t want his plan
to go in that direction.
So at Genesis 44:17,
Joseph answered Judah:
“It is unthinkable for me to do this!
“The man in whose hand the cup was found
“is the one who will become a slave to me.
As for the rest of you,
go up in peace to your father.”
So Joseph gave Judah and his nine brothers
the opportunity to walk away free
if they were willing
to leave Benjamin behind as a slave.
At that moment,
Judah found the courage
to disagree with the Egyptian ruler
and began a long speech.
In fact, Judah’s speech
is the longest speech recorded
in the book of Genesis.
As we read Genesis 44,
starting with verse 33,
at the conclusion of his speech,
Judah said to Joseph:
“Please, let your slave [that is, Judah] stay
“instead of the boy as my master’s slave,
“in order that the boy may return
with his brothers.
“How can I return to my father
without the boy along with me?
“I could not bear looking on
when this calamity befalls my father!”
With these words,
Judah offered himself
to take the place of Benjamin as a slave.
Judah showed that he was no longer
the Judah of 22 years ago.
He had changed.
Judah showed true repentance.
At that moment,
Joseph’s test was over
and he revealed his identity.
Now, what do we learn
from this moving account?
Does Jehovah reward
those who show true repentance?
Yes, Jehovah guided events in such a way
that Judah became
the ancestor of the Messiah.
What a precious reward
for showing true repentance!
And what about us?
We all make mistakes.
We all need Jehovah’s mercy.
So how comforting it is to know
that Jehovah will freely forgive us
if we truly repent
by acknowledging our sins
and by turning away from them!

Hermanus van Selm: What Is True Repentance? (Gen. 44:16)