“Silent witnesses: a silver cup”
Genesis 44:1-2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
They say it all started with the Greeks. It’s no surprise. Quite a lot of our modern traditions come to us from the Greek culture, and trophy cups are no exception. Back in the day, athletes of the very first Olympic games won not only an olive wreath, but also a silver cup.
And so it is today. First created in 1892, there’s the Stanley Cup, what’s called the oldest professional sports trophy in North America. And it’s called that because a man named Lord Stanley first made it and gave it to the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, (which was, at the time, the very best hockey team in all of Canada). You could see it today in Toronto, where it’s on permanent display in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
And if golf is your game, then you’ve probably heard of the Ryder’s Cup, a trophy given only to men, and the Solheim Cup, given only to women. And let’s not forget about the Royal Musselburgh Old Club Cup which, supposedly, is the oldest trophy still played for in the world, dating all the way back to 1774. That’s an old cup!
And probably the most familiar cup of all is the one called, “America’s Cup,” the trophy given to the fastest yacht in the world. But just a heads up--to win it, you better save up your pocket change, because building a ship and training a crew will cost you more than $100 million!
Horse Racing has the Breeders’ Cup, Lacrosse has the Champion’s Cup, Tennis has the Wimbledon Cup, and Rugby has the Challenge Cup. Even Cricket has a cup, what’s called, the Ashes Urn. But don’t worry, it’s not what you think. Inside are the ashes of a cricket stick.
The Bible talks a bit about cups too. Think of the words of Psalm 23. It’s where it says, “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” The prophet Nehemiah was once a cupbearer for a king. And on Maundy Thursday night, as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, “Take this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
And in our text for today, we hear about a cup once more, a silver cup. I’ll read the words of Genesis chapter 44: “Then he commanded the steward of his house, ‘Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.’ And he did as Joseph told him” (Genesis 44:1-2).
Let me take you back in time to about 1400 years before Christ, to better understand what’s going on.
As you’ll likely remember, a man named Jacob had twelve sons. And out of those twelve sons, there was one who was his very favorite, Rachel’s firstborn, the one named Joseph. And since he was his favorite, he made him a robe, a coat of many colors. But as the Bible says, “When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him” (Genesis 37:4).
Then to make matters worse, that’s when Joseph had a dream. He said, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
And what did his brothers say? You can imagine. They said, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to rule over us?” And as the Bible says, “They hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.”
Then when he dreamed another dream about the sun, the moon, and eleven stars all bowing down before him, that was pretty much the last straw.
And sure enough, one day when the twelve of them were out watching their flocks, all of them wanted to kill him, except for one. It was Reuben who said, “Let’s not take his life. Let’s throw him in a pit here in the wilderness.” Then they stripped him of his robe, his multi-colored robe, soaked it in goat’s blood, then sold him into slavery.
So off he went to Egypt, to Potiphar’s house, the captain of the guard. But just when he thought life was beginning to turn out for the good, that’s when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of assault. So off he went to prison, the king’s prison.
Time passed. That’s when Pharaoh dreamed a dream. There he was, he said, standing beside the Nile, where he saw seven huge and beautiful cows eating grass, when, all of a sudden, seven other cows, seven ugly and thin cows, came up out of the Nile, and ate them. Then the very same thing happened with seven ears of grain. What did it mean?
No one knew. Out of all the magicians and wise men of Egypt, no one had a clue.
But just as soon as Joseph heard the dream, he said, “God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine.”
And since Pharoah loved and trusted Joseph so much, he made him his “Grand Vizier,” second in command of all of Egypt, which, let me tell you, was a really, really big deal!
And sure enough, just as Joseph said, for the next seven years, Egypt enjoyed a time of plenty, grain that he stored up in storehouses throughout all of the kingdom.
And after those seven years of plenty, just as Joseph said, came seven years of famine. And as the Bible says, “All the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.”
And having nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, all of a sudden, who shows up? You guessed it--Joseph’s brothers.
It had been twenty-two years, twenty-two long years. Behind him was a torn, bloodied, multi-colored coat, a cold, dark pit, months of slavery, and years in prison. But now, no longer was he the 17-year-old boy crying out for mercy. Now he’s forty years old, and second-in-command of the most powerful nation on earth--a man to be admired, and a man to be feared. And just like he had dreamed so many years before, there were his brothers on their knees before him. And though they didn’t recognize him, (how could they?!), he most certainly recognized them.
And as he sat on his throne and looked down at them kneeling before him, imagine the emotions that coursed through his heart--the betrayal, the sadness, the hurt, the thirst for revenge. He needed time. He’d have to figure this out. So he accused them of being spies, and had them thrown into jail.
Then he decided, before he could tell them who he was and all that he had done, he had to give them a test. Were they the same ones who once sold him into slavery, who once wanted to kill him, or were they truly sorry for what they had done?
Which takes us to the words of our text, chapter 44, verse 1: “Then he commanded the steward of his house, ‘Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.’ And he did as Joseph told him.”
“My cup,” he said. “The silver cup.”
It’s funny if you think about it. Of all the things to steal, the very last thing would be Joseph’s silver cup. Obviously, it was something that was very important to him, something worth quite a lot to him. And to steal that cup would have been the most brazen and foolish thing anyone could ever have done.
It was a set up, plain and simple.
So what happened next? Just as soon as Joseph’s soldiers caught up with them, they found that cup, then hauled them all back to Egypt. And as his brothers once again knelt down before him, they said, “We are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found.” And as they laid out before him all the things that they had done, that’s when Joseph knew they weren’t the same ones who once wanted to kill him. After twenty-two years, they were truly sorry for what they had done.
So he cried, the Bible says. He burst into tears and said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. But don’t be distressed or angry, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
It’s one of the most beautiful stories in all of Scripture.
So what should we learn? There are quite a lot of things, really. I’ll leave you with this--no matter what we endure in life, no matter the brokenness or betrayal, the hurt, the pain or the self-doubt, or even the pitch-black nights of our soul, God is in control. And though all things might seem against us, and drive us to despair, there’s a purpose in that plan, and a plan in that purpose, a word of power and grace. As Joseph himself would say, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).
Born in March of 1475, Michelangelo, along with Leonardo da Vinci, became the driving force of the Italian Renaissance. And over his lifetime, he created some of the most beautiful works of art ever known to man. And among those works, one of the most amazing of all is one called, Pieta.
But it wasn’t easy. First, he scoured the quarries of Carrara for just the right kind of marble, then he watched as it was cut, then had it carted all the way to his studio. For two years, he sweated over it in the heat of summer, and shivered over it in the chill of winter.
How did he do it? His primary tool was a hammer, not to mention an array of sharp chisels and rasps--the tools of a torturer, or so it seemed.
Yet later, when his work was complete, one of his contemporaries would say, “It would be impossible for any craftsman or sculptor, no matter how brilliant, ever to surpass the grace or the design of the Pieta.”
So it is for us. The circumstances of life are often jarring and impossible for us to understand or even endure. Yet through it all, we are God’s workmanship, God’s masterpiece, a work of His hands.
Before we leave this text, there’s one more thing to say. You know, out of all the characters we find throughout the Bible, and there are many, there’s no one who’s more like Jesus than this one named Joseph.
Think about it--when Joseph was born, his mother, Rachel, was barren. When Jesus was born, His mother, Mary, was a virgin. Joseph was a shepherd, and so was Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Both were hated by their brothers without cause. Both were persecuted for speaking the truth. Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver. Jesus was sold for thirty. Both escaped death by finding refuge in Egypt. Both became servants. Both were tempted, yet refused to sin.
Both wore royal robes, and both were dressed as kings. Then both were stripped of their robes, and suffered bitterly at the hands of others. And while a goat’s blood was spilled on Joseph’s robe, Jesus’ blood was spilled on His.
Both were falsely accused. Both were sentenced with two criminals and, in both cases, one was saved, and one was lost.
Both forgave those who wronged them, and both became savior of their people, turning evil into blessing, and harm into good. And after suffering the worst that man could think of, both were exalted, and both were given all power and authority. And as Joseph’s brothers once knelt before him, the day will come when, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
There’s no one like our Savior Jesus.
Dear Father, the story of Joseph reminds us of Your grace and providence even in the worst of what life can bring. Help us to follow the example of our Lord Jesus, never doubting Your power and promise to save, for His sake. Amen