Great Moments in Bible History
Number 46
A Painful Reminder
Things were going great for Joseph. Instead of being a slave or a prisoner he was second in command of the most powerful nation around. His interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams had come true: after seven years of great plenty, Egypt was in the middle of one of the worst famines ever—but thanks to Joseph, Egypt was prepared.
Joseph had put the past out of his mind. As he explained when he named his first son, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house” (Genesis 41:51). All of that suddenly changed in the story we are looking at today.
Joseph did not know it, but while he was busy feeding starving Egyptians, his family up in Canaan (the family he wanted to forget) had also run out of food. His father Jacob said, “‘Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.’ So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt” (Genesis 42:2-3). Actually, Joseph had eleven brothers. Ten of them were half-brothers because his father had married two sisters. Only one of them—Benjamin—was his full brother. “But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him.” Joseph and Benjamin were the only children of Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel. She had died giving birth to Benjamin, so Jacob made those sons his favorites. That was what had led to the hatred that caused the other brothers to sell Joseph into slavery. In the two decades since that tragic event Jacob had not changed. He didn’t mind risking the lives of the ten other sons—just not his favorite Benjamin.
Joseph, of course, was ignorant of all this. He was happily going about his business of providing grain to the people when suddenly he was reminded of his painful past. “Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground” (verse 6). This was not a reminder that Joseph welcomed. The last time he had seen those brothers he had pleaded with them not to sell him into slavery—and they had hard-heartedly refused to listen.
“Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. ‘Where do you come from?’ he said. They said, ‘From the land of Canaan, to buy food.’ And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.” At this point it sounds like Joseph just wanted to get rid of them. But our author adds, “And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.” Over twenty years earlier God had given Joseph two dreams that predicted that his family would one day bow down to him. Joseph recognized that God was finally bringing those dreams to pass. We cannot know for sure what was going through Joseph’s mind at the time, but he certainly behaved like he would prefer not to have to deal with his brothers ever again. “And he said to them, ‘You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land’” (verse 9).
Those harsh accusations must have disconcerted the brothers. “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.” I assume the reason they mentioned all being sons of one man is that no father in his right mind would send all his sons together on a dangerous spy mission. Joseph simply repeated his accusation that they were spies. He may have done that simply to gain additional information. If so, it worked, because they added, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more” (verse 13). The one who “is no more,” of course, was Joseph himself. The mention of the youngest reminded Joseph of his brother who was probably only a toddler when he last saw him. This appears to give Joseph an idea. “By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.” The narrator does not tell us what Joseph was thinking at this point. It would be no surprise if he wanted to see his little brother again. It is possible that he wanted to get him away from the rest of the family given how dangerous he knew the other brothers to be. In any case, God will ultimately use this as an opportunity for good for the whole family.
Joseph continued, “Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.” Then he put them all in prison for three days! This was giving them a taste of what they had once given him. On the third day he brought them out and kindly modified his order. Instead of all but one staying in prison, all but one would get to go back home and only one would be kept behind in prison.
At this point something amazing happened. It had been over 20 years since they sold Joseph into slavery and it does not appear that they had discussed the matter with each other during the intervening years. Now they started talking about it. “Then they said to one another, ‘In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us’” (verse 21). They saw that they were in trouble with that strange Egyptian official and their immediate thought was that God was paying them back for what they did to their brother all those years ago. In fact, this is the first time those brothers are recorded as mentioning God in the entire story.
Reuben (the oldest) then reminded his brothers, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” That must have come as a big surprise to Joseph. He had no idea that one of those brothers whom he wanted to forget had actually tried to save him.
“They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and wept.” I wonder who had suffered more in the intervening two decades—Joseph or his brothers? Prior to that day I’m sure Joseph would have said that he had, but now it is obvious that the brothers’ consciences had been paining them for years. As soon as something bad happened to them, they immediately assumed it was payback for what they had done so many years earlier.
One of the things people ignore about sin is that it doesn’t go away just because it happened a long time ago. As teenagers we might have done something as a lark—just “harmless” fun—but decades later it still pains us to remember it. The fun of that lark is long gone, but the guilt remains.
A Trial for Jacob
The brothers knew it was going to be a hard sell to get their father to allow his favorite son Benjamin to go with them back to Egypt. They were right about that. Joseph had kept Simeon behind in prison as a guarantee that the others would come back. Jacob simply gave Simeon up as lost for good and refused to allow Benjamin to go. This left the family in a bind. Not only would they never see Simeon again, but they couldn’t buy the food they needed to survive.
Reuben tried to persuade his father. “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you” (Genesis 42:37). This was truly over the top. How would it help Jacob if Reuben kept his promise and killed his two sons? Those sons were Jacob’s grandsons! Predictably, Jacob was not moved. “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.” Jacob was still playing favorites, letting the ten sons know that all of them put together mattered less to him than his favorite Benjamin. This will be important in the coming chapters when Joseph gives the ten brothers the chance to save their hides at Benjamin’s expense. It will allow Joseph to see whether they really have repented of what they did to him.
But Jacob will also have to deal with a painful choice. Will he really sacrifice the whole family for his one favorite? God is going to make him deal with that question in the next story.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible.