Why did Joseph's brothers blame God for an apparent theft? (Gen. 42:28)
Genesis 42:28
ESV - 28 He said to his brothers, "My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!" At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?
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Asked April 30 2018
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Jack Gutknecht
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Tim Maas
Joseph's brothers had already shown (Genesis 42:18-20) that they had a sense of guilt over what they had done to Joseph years before (Genesis 37:18-32). Therefore, when they found their money in their sacks that Joseph (unbeknownst to them) had put there, and they didn't know how it had happened, they attributed it to God, since they believed that they would be accused of theft, and thought that it was God's means of exacting vengeance against them for their mistreatment of Joseph. (Also, Joseph himself told his brothers (when they returned to Egypt in Genesis 43:15) that God must have placed the money in their sacks (even though he, of course, knew that he himself had done it), because he did not yet want to reveal his identity to them.)
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