Genesis 42:1-2 - When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?”  He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.  Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” 

While Joseph was in Egypt, a terrible famine spread over that part of the world – in fulfillment of revelation, as Joseph had explained to Pharaoh.  Joseph had stored plenty of food in Egypt ahead of time, but everyone else was starving.  God sent Joseph ahead of them to Egypt to make these preparations, so that God could save their lives when the moment of need came. 

In the same way, God the Father sent his Son, Jesus, to this world to complete the project of salvation.  “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)  Through his death and resurrection, Jesus prepared all the spiritual resources we would need to come safely to eternity, to inherit eternal life.  Jesus is the one whom God sent ahead of us to prepare a place for us in eternity.  “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”  (John 14:2-3).  The story of Joseph is prophetic; it points forward to the work of Jesus, the plan of salvation.  Today, everything is ready and waiting for us – all the blessings of salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the gifts and revelations, the fellowship and support of the Body, the peace that transcends understanding – everything that comes from eternity and brings us to eternity. 

Yet men sit in darkness and fail to enter this place of light and life.  “And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.  Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.”  (Hebrews 3:18-4:1).  “Their mind is on earthly things.”  (Philippians 3:19).  We need to go reach those who are in darkness – to bring them to the light.  

God the Father speaks to us today with the same message Jacob gave his sons:  “Why do you just keep looking at each other?  Go get grain from the One who has what you need.”  He challenges man to seek the blessing of eternal life, instead of staying complacent in sin and darkness.  The time is short; soon the Rapture will come, and there will be no more opportunity to get salvation.  There is only one place to get grain.  “I am the Lord your God who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open wide your mouth and I will fill it. . . you will be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”  (Psalm 81:10, 16).

It is interesting that he rebukes them for “looking at each other.”  This creates a funny mental picture – of the hapless brothers without food just sitting around looking at each other, wasting time.  Nobody was taking the initiative to solve the problem.  Everyone was waiting for someone else to do something to solve the problem.  They were irresponsible and passive. 

The phrase is interesting, however, because it describes so clearly the state of those who are lost.  They spend their lives looking at each other, instead of looking to their Creator, their Savior.  They look at each other in jealousy and competition.  Scientists have done studies showing that people do not become happier when they get more money.  Instead, people are happy only when they have more money than the people around them do.  People look at each other.  For a long time, it was a mystery that people in some rich countries were not any happier than those in poor countries.  Now we understand that the reason is the people in rich countries compare themselves with their neighbors, and they feel unhappy that they are the same as everyone else.  

People are imitators of one another; most of human behavior is mere imitation of what people see others doing.  In every country, people dress the way they see other people dressing, and think other types of dress are strange or exotic.  People eat what they see other people eating, live in the types of homes they see other people inhabit, and speak like the people around them.  A child taken from one country and sent to live in another quickly adopts the language, dress, and manners of the people he sees around him, regardless of his place of origin.  

The same is true of sin.  Unbelievers think it is strange to be dedicated to the Lord, because most people they know are living for themselves, pursuing the pleasures of this world.  If some sin becomes commonplace in a region, people no longer think it is a sin because everyone seems to be doing it.  Sins that would horrify people elsewhere seem normal and acceptable to those in a community where they see each other doing the same thing frequently.  They spend their lives just looking at each other, instead of looking at the Savior.  Another example of this in the Bible is King Saul, who seemed unconcerned at first that the Lord had rejected him for his disobedience, but he still wanted Samuel the prophet to help him save face or avoid humiliation in front of the people.  (1 Samuel 15:30).  

They do not perceive their need for salvation, because they seem no worse than the other people they see.  They believe they are good people who do not need a Savior.  This is because they are just looking at each other, instead of going to the One who has the grain (Jesus).  Any fad, fashion, or social trend captivates their attention and motivates their desires.  Young people – even the children of believers – wear immodest and provocative clothes, insisting that it is what “everyone else wears nowadays.”  Our Father in heaven challenges us: “Why do you just keep looking at each other?  Look instead to the Rock, the Sun of Righteousness.  Go get the Bread of Life – there is only one place to get it.”  We need to go buy grain “so that we can live and not die.”  (Genesis 42:2). 

The worst situation, however, is with religion, which always borrows ideas and practices from other groups, instead of seeking the Lord to find out what He wants them to do.  Religions generally fall into two categories.  There are traditional groups, with their rituals, ceremonies, liturgies, creed, culture, and political power.  Then there are the various religious “movements,” which are more radical, experiential, and constantly introducing strange new things to keep their members excited.  One thing all these groups have in common – whether traditional religions or newer movements – is their dependence on man.  Traditionalists adhere to the ways of doing things passed down by their predecessors.  They look to their forebears instead of looking to the Lord Jesus.  Even if the custom was wrong or produced terrible results, they keep following the example they saw in others.

The movements imitate each other and steal ideas and tricks from each other.  Any bizarre technique or practice used in churches seems “normal” if it happens in other churches in that area.  We regularly hear pastors justify practices (found nowhere in Scripture) by saying, “All the churches in our country do this, so we are not willing to question it.”  The churches live by fads and copying one another, regardless of whether the practice or teaching is in the Bible.  They are looking at each other instead of looking at the Light, the Fount of Living Water.  They do not ask the Lord how to baptize their members; instead, they read books or copy what they see other churches doing.  They do not seek the Lord’s revelation about their style of worship; they want to be like the other popular churches in this regard.

The ultimate example of “looking at each other” is ecumenism, when the religions begin to blur together.  This ecumenical trend is the goal of the Enemy, the project of the Antichrist, to unite all the religions in the Last Days, including those who claim to be Bible-believing Christians.  They say they are learning to appreciate other faiths and other perspectives, but by doing so, they are denying that God has a preference, a will that He wants to reveal to us.  If we deviate from what the Lord wants us to do, we are in disobedience.  It does not matter whether someone has interesting ideas in their movement, or a long history for their tradition. All that matters is whether we are operating within God’s project.  Everything else will go toward ecumenism, a religion that claims to unite all humanity. 

It is interesting that in the stories about Joseph and his brothers, the Scriptures mention three times that his brothers were looking at each other.  The first passage is the one quoted at the beginning of this lesson, where Jacob rebukes his sons and commands them to go get some food so they will live and not die.  The second instance is in Genesis 42:28, when one of the brothers finds the silver that Joseph put back in his sack after they bought their grain (they looked at each other in fear and self-pity).  The third instance is during the brothers’ second trip to Egypt, when Joseph seats them at the table according to their age, highlighting the presence of Benjamin: “The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment.”  – Genesis 43:33.  Jacob represents God the Father, who challenges man and calls us to “Seek the Lord while He may be found,” to stop following man’s ways.  The second situation is about the silver coins, a symbol of redemption through the Blood of Jesus (betrayed for the thirty pieces of silver).  The third instance is a prophetic symbol of the way the Holy Spirit wants to order and arrange the church (and our lives), with emphasis on the New Birth.  The operation of the Trinity flows through the stories about Joseph and his brothers, showing how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work to draw man away from looking at the world, or those around us, so that instead we can set our hearts and minds on things above.  We need to look to the Lord, our source of life and revelation.