"This circumstance,
like so many others, is significant of things spiritual.
It teaches us that, in the service of our Lord, there
can be no perfect freedom until there is an entire
surrender. We may have gained a certain amount of
liberty, —typified by the permission given to the nine
brothers, after they had been in ward for three days, to
return to Egypt,—but it is impossible that we should
not, in some measure, feel the Egyptian bondage of sin,
typified by Simeon's captivity, unless and until all has
been given up, which our Lord and Master may require at
our hands. In this seems to be represented the
experience of many a beginner in the ways of God. He is
wavering, irresolute; there is something dear to him
which he is reluctant to part with ; he has not fully
counted the cost; he is half-inclined to keep back part
of the price ; at a command such as, "Sell all that thou
hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow me," he is
half-ready to turn sorrowfully away. As long as it is
thus with him, he will surely find that he is not set
wholly free from the power of those temptations by which
he was mastered and enslaved before. If he may be said
to have escaped from Egypt, and to be ready to serve
God, still he has not yet entered into the promised
rest: he is still detained in the wilderness, for he has
still a hankering after the fleshpots." (pp. 85-86)
"The nine brethren
returned with Benjamin, because they were convinced that
they could obtain no favour whatever, unless they did as
they were required ; the lord of the country had
declared that they should see his face no more, and
Simeon must remain in bondage, and they must all perish
of hunger. Thus is the heart of man at length persuaded
to give itself to God. " (p. 86)
"The previous
confession of the men one to another, "We are verily
guilty concerning our brother ; therefore is this
distress come upon us," and the reproach cast on the
rest by Reuben, " Spake I not unto you, saying, do not
sin against the child, and ye would not hear ;
therefore, behold, his blood is required," did indeed
move the heart of Joseph deeply, but it did not
induce him to reveal himself; on the contrary, " he took
from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes." And
thus when troubles come upon erring men, and they
acknowledge that their sins have found them out, and
their thoughts, as Reuben, accuse one another, their
secretly-loving and compassionate Lord often is as if He
heard them not, but is still apparently severe, and
makes them feel their bondage, though at the same time,
mingling mercy with the needful chastisement, He gives
them spiritual food without money, and without price,
and all needful provision for the way. But when they are
sufficiently humbled under the mighty hand of God; when
they are brought to feel that their case is indeed
desperate ; that they have no escape nor defence, no
resource, save in an appeal to the mere compassion of
their Lord, and in a total surrender of themselves to
His service, then is Christ pleased to reveal Himself,
as one fall of mercy and loving-kindness, not only as a
pardoning God, but as a most tender friend and brother,
who draws near unto all that call on Him, and enters
into such intimate communion with them, as proves Him to
be indeed " of one heart and one soul," (see Acts iv,
32) with all that believe on His Name." (pp. 99,100)
"And now the barrier raised by impenitence was removed,
and pardoning love poured forth like a flood which could
be restrained no longer. All these things were done, all
were written in the Book of God, for our admonition, and
for our encouragement, on whom the ends of the world are
come, and to whom the Gospel has been made known, to
encourage us to believe, though conscious of manifold
offences against the Father and the Son, we yet may find
favour, when with hearty repentance we turn to Him, who
is " not ashamed to call us brethren." (p. 104)