36 Jacob’s sons wanted to take their brother Benjamin back to Egypt country, just like Joseph told them to. That made Jacob sad. So Jacob said to his sons, “I don’t want to lose any more of my kids. My son Joseph isn’t here any more, and my son Simeon isn’t here any more. And now you want to take my son Benjamin away from me too. All those things are really sad for me.”
36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.
36 And Jacob their father said to them, You have bereaved me! Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you would take Benjamin from me. All these things are against me!
36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.
36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You’ve taken my children from me. Joseph’s gone. Simeon’s gone. And you are taking Benjamin. All this can’t really be happening to me!”
36 Their father Jacob said, "You have caused me to be without children. Joseph is not living, Simeon is held in chains, and Benjamin you would carry away. All these evils have fallen back upon me."
You know, God is the one that has power over everything. So I’m asking God to make that man feel sorry for you mob. If he feels sorry for you, then he will let your brother Simeon go free, and he will let Simeon and Benjamin come back here with you. But if those things don’t happen, and if my sons die, then I can’t change that.”
Sometimes you will want to do bad things and you will find it hard to stop yourself, but remember that other people find it hard to stop themselves from doing bad things too. And remember this, God wants to help you. He will show you a way to stop yourself from going wrong, and he will help you to go the right way.
So as we think about all of this, what do we learn? It is this. We are on God’s side. He is with us, so it doesn’t matter who is against us, they can’t win against God.
And Joseph gave food to his father, and his brothers, and the rest of his father’s family. He made sure that each brother always had enough food for their whole family.
Then Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, he talked to his father Jacob. Reuben said, “Let me take Benjamin to Egypt country. I will look after him, and I promise that I will bring him back to you. If I don’t bring him back to you, then you can kill my 2 sons.”
And Joseph’s worker started to look in all those bags. He looked in the oldest man’s bag first, but the cup wasn’t there. Then he went to the next oldest man, and he looked in that man’s bag, but the cup wasn’t there. And he kept on doing that with all the men. He looked in all of their bags until he got to the youngest man. That young man’s name was Benjamin. Joseph’s worker looked in Benjamin’s bag, and he found that silver cup.