Joseph’s brethren would never have considered going to him, were it not that God brought them to the end of themselves and caused them to have to move and seek food and grain for their daily sustenance. Such would be our case had not the LORD God caused us to know our need and seek Him for help. The dearth and great affliction that God brought upon Jacob and his family is typical of the LORD causing sinners to know their lost estate and begin to seek out help. Consider how all those that the LORD Jesus came to save were made to know their need first: Namaan the Syrian, (Luke 4) The Samaritan woman (John 4), Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10), The Canaanite Woman (Matthew 15:27)

2.) He causes them to hear of Christ the Bread of Life “And when Jacob heard that there was corn...” v.12

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” (Romans 10:17). The Spirit of God not only causes us to know our need as sinners, but opens our ears to hear the good news of Christ the Bread of Life. Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, and although not a place where he would have typically gone for sustenance, yet, hearing, he was drawn to send his sons there. Sinners, sensing their need would not know where to turn were it not for hearing of Christ, through the Gospel, and seek life and salvation in Him. John 5:24-“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” The moment that Jacob ‘heard’ there was corn, immediately he was drawn to send his sons to seek it. So spiritually, the Spirit of God causes sinners to know their need, to hunger and thirst, then to hear and seek after Christ as the only hope. Note the order...’He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him...” First the hearing, then the believing. None would or could believe who do not first hear of the true Christ,

When Joseph’s brothers first came to him for corn, they did not know him, nor did he reveal himself to them until the second time. Most of us heard the name of Christ long before we knew Him. Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery and had no more thought of ever needing or encountering him again. Such is our frame of mind when made to know our need. Although God in His gracious providence brought us to that place in our lives where He was pleased to reveal Christ in us, until or unless He did, we would never have known Him, unless He first revealed Himself. The apostle Paul had in envy hated Christ and thought himself rid of Him when He was crucified, along with the rest of his Jewish brethren according to the flesh. Yet, in Galatians 1:15,16 we read his testimony, “when it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.”