3. WHAT HAS GOD DONE TO US? 21-28 a. A reckoning of blood. After hearing what Joseph said they begin to speak in Hebrew to each other not realizing that Joseph could understand them since he had been speaking through an interpreter. Their consciences are finally offended, after twenty years, and they confess that they are not honest men. They are guilty men. They saw Joseph and his distress when he begged them not to throw him in the pit and sell him into slavery. They see that what Joseph is putting them through is punishment for what they did to him. That’s when Reuben, who is not the beacon of honesty as we have already seen in his dealings with his father’s concubine, speaks up. “Did I not tell you not sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” Remember what he also said to them, “What am I going to do?” But he leaves that part out. It is here we see that Joseph is not putting his brothers through the test because he is seeking revenge. Hearing what his brothers say, Joseph turns and weeps. Joseph’s heart is soft toward them but he decides to continue to test his brother’s honesty and so has Simeon bound and places their money into their sacks without them knowing and then sends them on their way. b. Fear and trembling. At a rest stop on the way back home, one of the brothers opened his bag and found his money was in his bag. The brother tells the rest and they turn to one another and say a very honest and truthful thing, “What is this that God has done to us?” What? The brothers believe in the providence and discipline of God. The text says that their hearts failed them and they trembled. Sounds like their grandfather Isaac who trembled greatly when he realized that the discipline of God was upon him. If they doubted the words of Reuben before now they are fully convinced God is against them. Little do they know, that this is God saving them.