Genesis 42
Genesis 42:1-38 (NLT)
1 When Jacob heard that grain was available in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you standing around looking at one another?
2 I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy enough grain to keep us alive. Otherwise we’ll die.”
3 So Joseph’s ten older brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain.
4 But Jacob wouldn’t let Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, go with them, for fear some harm might come to him.
5 So Jacob’s sons arrived in Egypt along with others to buy food, for the famine was in Canaan as well.
6 Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came. When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground.
7 Joseph recognized his brothers instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where are you from?” he demanded. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied. “We have come to buy food.”
8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn’t recognize him.
9 And he remembered the dreams he’d had about them many years before. He said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.”
10 “No, my lord!” they exclaimed. “Your servants have simply come to buy food.
11 We are all brothers—members of the same family. We are honest men, sir! We are not spies!”
12 “Yes, you are!” Joseph insisted. “You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.”
13 “Sir,” they said, “there are actually twelve of us. We, your servants, are all brothers, sons of a man living in the land of Canaan. Our youngest brother is back there with our father right now, and one of our brothers is no longer with us.”
14 But Joseph insisted, “As I said, you are spies!
15 This is how I will test your story. I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you will never leave Egypt unless your youngest brother comes here!
16 One of you must go and get your brother. I’ll keep the rest of you here in prison. Then we’ll find out whether or not your story is true. By the life of Pharaoh, if it turns out that you don’t have a younger brother, then I’ll know you are spies.”
17 So Joseph put them all in prison for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live.
19 If you really are honest men, choose one of your brothers to remain in prison. The rest of you may go home with grain for your starving families.
20 But you must bring your youngest brother back to me. This will prove that you are telling the truth, and you will not die.” To this they agreed.
21 Speaking among themselves, they said, “Clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn’t listen. That’s why we’re in this trouble.”
22 “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy?” Reuben asked. “But you wouldn’t listen. And now we have to answer for his blood!”
23 Of course, they didn’t know that Joseph understood them, for he had been speaking to them through an interpreter.
24 Now he turned away from them and began to weep. When he regained his composure, he spoke to them again. Then he chose Simeon from among them and had him tied up right before their eyes.
25 Joseph then ordered his servants to fill the men’s sacks with grain, but he also gave secret instructions to return each brother’s payment at the top of his sack. He also gave them supplies for their journey home.
26 So the brothers loaded their donkeys with the grain and headed for home.
27 But when they stopped for the night and one of them opened his sack to get grain for his donkey, he found his money in the top of his sack.
28 “Look!” he exclaimed to his brothers. “My money has been returned; it’s here in my sack!” Then their hearts sank. Trembling, they said to each other, “What has God done to us?”
29 When the brothers came to their father, Jacob, in the land of Canaan, they told him everything that had happened to them.
30 “The man who is governor of the land spoke very harshly to us,” they told him. “He accused us of being spies scouting the land.
31 But we said, ‘We are honest men, not spies.
32 We are twelve brothers, sons of one father. One brother is no longer with us, and the youngest is at home with our father in the land of Canaan.’
33 “Then the man who is governor of the land told us, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take grain for your starving families and go on home.
34 But you must bring your youngest brother back to me. Then I will know you are honest men and not spies. Then I will give you back your brother, and you may trade freely in the land.’”
35 As they emptied out their sacks, there in each man’s sack was the bag of money he had paid for the grain! The brothers and their father were terrified when they saw the bags of money.
36 Jacob exclaimed, “You are robbing me of my children! Joseph is gone! Simeon is gone! And now you want to take Benjamin, too. Everything is going against me!”
37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I don’t bring Benjamin back to you. I’ll be responsible for him, and I promise to bring him back.”
38 But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down with you. His brother Joseph is dead, and he is all I have left. If anything should happen to him on your journey, you would send this grieving, white-haired man to his grave.”
What Joseph’s brothers had done to him was not a small thing. All were guilty to some degree of his agreed murder, replaced by trafficking, and what must have been an insurmountable trauma of rejection from his own brothers. He must have already resolved this to some degree before God, but as a human, there was surely a great deal of pain and a natural drive for vengeance to overcome. This must have been a shock for him to all of a sudden have most of the perpetrators standing before the person he’d become despite their best efforts, someone who could easily give them their just due. As righteous as he was, there was still a working through somehow trusting them again. His pranking of them with mistreatment, returning their payments, and making demands might have been a part of his working through what his flesh might have been pressing him for.
The amount of rejection and abuse Joseph received from his brothers was extreme and greater than normally experienced, but there is encouragement from him in this story for any experience of rejection or mistreatment we may experience. Our initial response to an encounter with the perpetrators may include elements of the flesh that reflect diminished trust and reticence to be hurt once again. What continued in Joseph, though, was a tenderness and love for his family that would transcend the magnitude of their transgressions. For the heart that has received the love and forgiveness of the Master, there is this same tenderness of heart that will prevail over the natural shouts of the flesh for vengeance. The experience of His grace towards us will condition and prepare for the moment when we are confronted with the very ones who have inflicted pain and rejection. This love that is received becomes salvation for us, keeping us from becoming the perpetrators ourselves. It also provides for the revelation of Christ we carry to become life and salvation for them. The help they require is contingent upon our forgiveness. It’s already well-placed in the heart. It just takes sweet submission.