How can we clear our guilt?

 Read Genesis 44.

Like a surgeon's scalpel, the test cut deeper, down to the root of the problem area.  The brothers had jealously rejected Joseph as Jacob's favorite son.  Now, that Jacob openly loved Benjamin, what were their true feelings toward him?  Was he also dispensable to them or had the brothers changed? 

When the silver cup was found in Benjamin's sack, "they tore their clothes" in horror.  This proved their protection of him and their concern for their father's feelings.  This was different.  They had displayed a total lack of those two things in Joseph's case.

There was no divination.  The brothers would have expected such a pagan practice from an Egyptian leader, but Joseph worshiped God instead.  There was no crime committed.  Joseph set up this entire scene.  But the brothers did not know any of this.

Judah stepped forward as the spokesperson and recounted what happened and why.  In Chapter 37, it was Judah who suggested they sell Joseph as a slave.  Now, he pleaded for mercy on behalf of Benjamin and his father.  One can only imagine what Joseph was thinking as he listened to Judah's speech.  Was the LORD God at work in their lives?  Were the brothers truly sorry for their sin against him?  Was Joseph ready to forgive them?  Was this the right time for a full reconciliation?

Judah's question in verse 16 is the same one every human heart asks when they realize they have done wrong.  "How can we clear ourselves?"  Sin separates us from God and others.  The question was really prompted by his statement of guilt that followed.  Guilt is a good thing from God, meant to drive us to repentance.  A salient ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin.

Sin cannot be rationalized and it will not go away by itself.  Jesus substitutionary sacrifice on the cross is the one and only payment for our sin.  The Apostle John wrote: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)