Ge. 45: They Make Themselves Known

So Joseph gets all antsy-in-his-pantsy and can't bear to wait another second longer to tell his brothers who he is. He throws out all non-Hebrews and starts weeping, so loud that the Egyptians heard him. (I think that's where we get that expression..."Man, his car stereo was so loud the Egyptians heard it.")

Then Joseph busts out, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" It had been over twenty years by this point. If I were to put myself in, say, Asher's shoes at this point, I'd be like..."how does he know about Joseph?" And once I realized he was serious, I'd pee my pants with fear. There's no telling what this weeping lunatic is going to do.

Then, in convincing his brothers who he is, he reveals an amazing work of the LORD. This is too wonderful. Not just what God did, but how Joseph realizes it. I hope you'll read it. I just love how the NKJV delivers it:

"But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."

Can you believe that? Deliverance! Preservation! The dreams. The attitude. The selling. The prison. The place of honor. God was there, guiding all of that. God put that all together. In a coming time of need, God put in place a plan to preserve the family of Jacob. Years in advance. Everything that happened had meaning, and was a piece of a puzzle. God moved a nation to save a family. God had Joseph sold by his brothers for a reason. Had him become the servant of a high-ranking official for a reason. Falsely accused by Mrs. Potiphar for a reason. Imprisoned for a reason. Able to interpret the dreams of servants of the king for a reason. All these horrible things, God put together for something amazing.

Joseph realizes that it was God who did this. At the height of amazing power and position, Joseph didn't forget who put him there. Joseph tells his brothers to go home and tell his father what he has told them, and bring him back quickly.

Joseph even tells the Pharaoh what's going on, and the Pharaoh is pleased, and makes it so that Joseph's brothers have all the luxuries and gifts and provisions Egypt can offer for their journey back to Canaan. He gives Benjamin all this extra silver (on the sly or out in the open, I'm not really sure...doesn't say) and then promptly tells them not to quarrel on the way.

So they get back home, and they tell Jacob about what Joseph had told them, and that he is the ruler of Egypt. I had to laugh, because I pictured how I thought Jacob must have reacted. He was stunned. Probably thought they were messing with him. He thought his favorite son was long dead. Can you imagine the joy when Jacob saw all the loot they brought back from Egypt? Not superficially, in that..."Yay, I have all this stuff." No. "My son is alive." The NIV says Jacob's spirit was revived at that point. Now he was excited to go see his son.

Next time, on benchescleared:

The journey back.

Ge. 43: Ben Fu: Da Return

OK, so, the famine is still going on in chapter 43, Simeon is still in prison, and Jacob's family is running out of grain. Probably didn't take long. Jacob, who had no way of knowing how long the famine was going to last, told the brotherhood to go back to Egypt and score a little more grain.

Judah tells his dad that Joseph said "You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you." At least in the NIV. I had to look, but I didn't remember Joseph saying that. Perhaps this was a "to-the-best-of-my-recollection" incident, or maybe Joseph said it and it wasn't recorded. Eh, anyway, Joseph's orders were to bring back the youngest in order to not die.

Jacob asks, "Why on earth did you tell him you had another brother?"

The boys reply like, "Whaaat....he was giving us the bare-bulb interrogation treatment, and we had diarrhea of the mouth." You know, where you just run your mouth until something that makes sense comes out. They didn't know he would want them to bring Benjamin back.

Judah gets even more testy and self-assured, saying that he would bear full responsibility for what happens to Benjamin, and that they should stop screwing around and hit the road. They could have been there and back twice, for Pete's sake.

Jacob is finally convinced. He has them prepare gifts from the land, as well as double the silver to pay for the past grain and the new grain. In an amazing example of being able to let go, Jacob/Israel brings back Mr. Cool. He prays that God will give them mercy so that Simeon and Benjamin and all that will come back alive. "If I am bereaved, I am bereaved." Is that a weird acceptance of what may or may not happen? I think that reminds me of me...the desire to prepare myself either way, for whatever outcome God may have, as I'll have to live with it either way.

So Joseph sees them coming in the distance, Benjamin with them, he decides its time to party. He has his steward slaughter an animal, and prepare the noon meal.

So, if you are already scared of what Joseph is going to do to you, not knowing what's coming, and then he has you come to his house personally? That's a scary thought. Like being sent to the principal's office. Only the principal has a guillotine or something in the back. They figured Joseph wanted to enslave them and seize their donkeys.

Isn't it interesting that the things we treasure, we sometimes assume others would treasure...at least I assume that. And these shepherds figured the governor or Egypt needed, or would confiscate their meager donkeys.

Anyway, they plead with Joseph's steward, saying they didn't know about the silver in their sack, so they brought it back, plus enough to pay for more grain. Wonder if they had enough to cover interest?

Joseph's steward lies about God, saying God put it back in their sacks and that he received their silver. Isn't that heartwarming? I don't believe this dishonesty even in the spirit of giving pleased the LORD.

So Simeon is released, they wash up, feed the donkeys, and Joseph comes home at noon to gifts and more bowing from the brotherhood of the Jacob.

"How is your aged father?"

"Alive and well." More bowing.

He sees Benjamin and is moved so deeply that he has to leave the room to go weep. Again. He composes himself and comes back. "Serve the food," is his order.

They all have to eat separately, Joseph alone, the brothers alone, and the Egyptians alone. Why? Well, there is a very good reason. Egyptians detested eating with Hebrews, those dirty shepherds. Even though Joseph was in charge of them, it didn't change the fact that he was a dirty Hebrew.

But the brothers got to be amazed because their seating order was in order of their ages. Benjamin received 5 times as much portionage as everyone else. More favoritism. Which is a great idea. Not. Anyway, there was much feasting.

Ge. 42: Joseph Messes with His Brothers

Wouldn't you know it, the worldwide famine crisis spreads to Canaan, where Jacob and his family still live.

Jacob tells his boys about Egypt, where he heard tell there was grain. In order to not die, he sends his boys down there to get some. So, everyone but Benjamin packs it up and head down there. Benjamin stayed behind, because Jacob feared what would have happened to him, the last remnant of Rachel. It was probably in Jacob's mind that the guys couldn't (or wouldn't) protect Benjamin.

When they got there, Joseph recognized them, but they didn't recognize him. It had been over 13 years, and Joseph was no longer a boy. Joseph's brothers, as he had dreamed back in chapter 37, bowed down to him, but Joseph spoke harshly to them. Finally, he can be in power over these guys who wanted to kill him, who sold him, and who let his father believe he was dead. He (pretendfully) accuses them of being spies, scoping out his land. But one of them answered, "No, we want to buy food. We come from Canaan, the youngest is with dad, and one is dead."

Joseph wanted to see Benjamin, his full blood brother, so he makes a deal with them. To prove they aren't spies, Joseph tells them to send one back home to bring the youngest back, and he will keep nine of them in prison. So for three days, the brothers sit in jail. Then Joseph comes back with another deal. Keep one guy here in prison, and the other nine go back home to bring back the youngest...so they won't die.

The brothers, no stranger to God's justice, assume God is punishing them for what they did to Joseph, and that they didn't listen when Joseph pleaded for his life. And maybe God did have them by the ear on this one, even though they were never really in danger. Don't you wonder if God uses situations like that? Times where God kind of lets you come to realization of where you messed up, and you think He's punishing you, but in reality, its your own guilty conscience? Hm. Reuben pipes up, "I knew we shouldn't have done that. I told you not to. Now we must account for his blood." All this in full view of Joseph, who we come to find out is using an interpreter, although he understood his brothers speaking his native language. I find this pretty amazing. His brothers had no way of knowing he knew their language.

Upon hearing Reuben's reply, he turned away from them and wept. Why? Was it because there was a shred of love in at least one of his brothers? That someone in his family cared about him? That this would be a chance to reconcile with them? I'm sure a million different emotions flooded back through Joseph's mind.

So he had Simeon taken from them, and imprisoned.

Unbeknownst to his brothers, Joseph gave orders to return each man's silver back into their sack, and to give them provisions for the journey home.

What mercy! What forgiveness....It would be very hard for me to want to be kind to those who betrayed me, and essentially wanted me dead. But Joseph shows me how a person who walks with God is supposed to act toward those who treat him poorly.

On the trip home, one of them discovers the silver, and they still think God is up to something.

When they get back to Canaan, they tell Jacob about their encounter with the governor of Egypt, about how they were treated as spies, and the deal he made, and why Simeon didn't return. As they emptied their sacks, each man found the silver used to pay for the grain. The showed Jacob, and he finally freaks. Mr. Cool loses his mind, saying, "everything is against me, Joseph is dead, Simeons is probably dead, and now you want to take Benjamin away."

Reuben, who really trusts this Egyptian guy, offers his two sons lives as collateral if they don't return with Benjamin. He vows to bring him back. Ah, Reuben. The oldest. The wisest. Except his sons probably weren't too thrilled about the deal, depending on how old they were. Chapter 42 ends with Jacob refusing to let them take Benjamin back. And I think, What about Simeon? Maybe Jacob feared they'd all be killed if they went back, and bought more grain with the same silver they bought the first round with?