Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 45:21-23

21 And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

23 And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.

Joseph had shown favoritism to Benjamin when he hosted all the brothers for a meal, and at the time I had wondered whether this was only to test whether the other sons of Jacob would feel jealous. But now, with every guise and pretense discarded, he continues to show Benjamin a special preference, giving him a wealth of silver and five times the clothing that he gave to the other brothers. Obviously Joseph’s own life was incredibly deprived for a very long time, and perhaps his indulgence of Benjamin was a form of giving to his past self all the things he never had.

He also sends a great gift to his father, twenty donkeys weighed with the spoil of Egypt, including the life-sustaining grain that is in such short supply. Finally the entourage is ready to return to Canaan and come back with all the brothers’ households and their father.

Or rather, it is ready except for one thing. Joseph has some final parting words to his brothers that I find very intriguing. We will examine them tomorrow.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 45:12-15

12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. 

13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. 

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. 

15 Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.

Joseph’s command to “tell my father of all my glory in Egypt” may not seem the most humble, but we must remember that he has already declared that it was God who sent him to Egypt and raised him to this station. There is a great difference between recognizing the blessings that God has given us and simply being proud of our own accomplishments. If we are able to keep it in our heads that we have prospered and grown only by the grace of God, then it is in fact a good thing to recognize our wonderful bounty and feel pleased for it.

When you consider all the good that you have in your own life, does it cause you to feel thanks, or to feel boastful. That emotional reaction alone can tell you which side of this delicate balance you have fallen on.

Next, Joseph weeps upon and kisses his brothers. The image of weeping upon another’s neck is repeated several times throughout the scriptures. If one thinks about it, this is a very vulnerable position, where one fully lets loose all of their inner emotion, unashamed to be completely seen by the other.

And then, after this moment of cathartic release, all the information that we get is that “his brethren talked with him.” Perhaps the nature of that conversation wasn’t considered important to the scriptural record, but I would have loved to know what that discussion was like!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 45:9-11

9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not:

10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:

11 And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.

What greater evidence is there of Joseph’s forgiveness than his pure desire to take care of his brethren? I know the words I am reading are translated, but I am still struck by the tender compassion in phrases like “thou shalt be near unto me,” and “there will I nourish thee.” There is a sort of maternal concern conveyed in words like these.

But not only maternal concern, Joseph also says that he will be providing them with food and shelter, the chief responsibilities of a father. The once outcast brother will now be the foundation of life for the whole family!

And the family absolutely need Joseph to care for them like this. As Joseph reveals, there are another five years of famine remaining, enough to destroy his father’s household several times over. Yes, the brothers have repented of their prior hatred towards Joseph, but even if they hadn’t, they really wouldn’t have any choice but to put themselves under his protection! The must submit to his care or die!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 45:5, 7-8

5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

I have to admit, I feel perplexed by how much mercy and forgiveness Joseph is showing. How can he say that his brothers should not be grieved for what they did?!

But perhaps that is what makes his mercy so exceptional, the fact that it defies the natural, human reaction. Undeserved grace is hard for our fallen hearts to accept, but it is an essential piece of God’s plan for us.

What Jacob’s sons did to Joseph was wrong. Totally wrong. Yes, being sold by them into Egypt ended up working out for the greater good, but that still doesn’t justify them for doing something evil. At the same time, though, it really was a good thing that Joseph was sold into Egypt, as it got him where he needed to be to save his life, his family’s life, and the lives of countless others.

So how does one resolve these two things: an evil action but a good outcome? How does one demand justice for the evil, but also remain grateful of the good? Well, perhaps you don’t resolve them together. Holding gratitude and vengeance in one’s heart at the same time is impossible, so you just have to let go of one in order to hold to the other. And between the two, clearly the better choice for Joseph is to let go of worrying about the injustice so he can fully praise God for the arc of redemption.

Yes, the brothers did something wrong, but that’s between them and God now. As far as Joseph is concerned, all he can see is the beauty.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 45:4-7

4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Joseph has his brothers come nearer and speaks to them on a more intimate level. He assures them that truly he is their brother, and he proves it by recounting something that only he could now: how they betrayed him and sold him into Egypt. But he does not bring it up to shame them, he immediately follows it up by saying that he has no ill feelings on the matter. God has had a hand in it for good.

I can only imagine that when he was first sold into Egypt Joseph must have had a deluge of negative feelings. But now he sees it only as a blessed opportunity. He has been called to do a great thing, to preserve lives through “a great deliverance,” and he seems positively thrilled to have been a part of this work.

Another interesting note is that we find out how many years of famine had transpired thus far: two. In only two years Jacob and his sons had been brought to death’s door twice, and they weren’t even a third of the way through the ordeal! Truly they would have perished, and who knows how many more, if Joseph hadn’t been there to save the day!

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 45:1-3

1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

2 And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

I wonder how Joseph originally intended to reveal himself to his brothers. Perhaps if they had been willing to abandon Benjamin he never would have, except to his younger brother after they had left? Or maybe if they had tried to walk away, he would have revealed himself then and shut all the older brothers in prison?

In either case, whatever plans he did or did not have, it would seem everything was upended when he couldn’t hold his composure together any longer, and he calls for everyone to leave the room except his brothers.

There, alone with the rest of Jacob’s sons he takes off the mask. All this time they have known him only as the Egyptian prince Zaphnath-paaneah, but now he reclaims his true identity. “I am Joseph!” Then, though his brothers have already told him that Jacob still lives, he asks for confirmation of it one more time. This time he does not ask “does your father still live” but “does my father.”

The brothers, for their part, remain in stunned silence. When one holds a secret, it is a relatively small thing to them to uncover the truth of it. But to the one that has the secret revealed, it can be a major paradigm shift, a sense of one’s entire reality spinning to a new alignment. Thus, before any further conversation can continue, Joseph will first need to coax his brothers into accepting that their long-lost brother has returned to them again.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 44:24-29

24 And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

25 And our father said, Go again, and buy us a little food.

26 And we said, We cannot go down: if our youngest brother be with us, then will we go down: for we may not see the man’s face, except our youngest brother be with us.

27 And thy servant my father said unto us, Ye know that my wife bare me two sons:

28 And the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces; and I saw him not since:

29 And if ye take this also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

Judah now relates to Joseph the conversations he hasn’t been privy to, the ones that the brothers had back home with their father. He tries to appeal to Joseph’s pathos by describing the horrible grief that might come upon Jacob if Benjamin is harmed. Little does Judah know that this sympathetic plea would have an especially pronounced effect on Joseph, for Judah isn’t describing some strange Hebrew man being brought to death’s door by grief, he is describing the Egyptian prince’s own father!

Judah also references the loss of Joseph in clearer terms, and the fact that Jacob believes the boy was torn apart by animals. Judah does not, however, admit to the fact that they actually sold their brother into Egypt. These men have grown to admit their sins to themselves, and to accept that they deserve to be punished for them, however they aren’t yet willing to be seen by the outer world for what they truly are.

Even so, it seems that their repentance is near enough to complete for Joseph to accept it. Judah is going to make one final plea, and then Joseph will reveal all.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 44:18-23

18 Then Judah came near unto him, and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant: for thou art even as Pharaoh.

19 My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a brother?

20 And we said unto my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him.

21 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him.

22 And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.

23 And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more.

Judah draws near to Joseph and asks to speak with him on a more direct, emotional level. But even at this more intimate range, he still isn’t able to recognize his own brother. He continues to only see an Egyptian lord before him.

Joseph allows this more informal approach and Judah launches into a summary of all that they have gone through. He wants to make the whole picture clear to Joseph. He begins in familiar territory, relating experiences that Joseph already witnessed, but soon he will carry into other scenes that Joseph was not present for.

It would seem that Judah’s objective is to become known to Joseph, to let this powerful magnate see him as he really as, and hopefully find something there to take pity on. And so Judah reminds Joseph what a terrible predicament he had put them in, demanding that they bring their youngest brother to him, even though it might kill their father for grief.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 44:3-6

3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.

4 And when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men; and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?

5 Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing.

6 And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words.

This time Joseph does not leave his brothers to find the money on their own. Shortly after they leave, he sends his steward to apprehend them. The steward is instructed to overtake them, accuse them, and then reveal the incriminating evidence.

Of course, the steward knows that this accusation is false, as he was the same one Joseph used to plant the evidence to begin with. But evidently the steward is someone that Joseph trusts to obey and be discrete. Whether he understands Joseph’s full plan or not, he will humbly obey.

Also, it may seem harsh how Joseph is treating his brothers, but it is frankly far less brutal than what they deserve, and he is doing it to ultimately bless their lives. The test is a hard one, but a joyful reunion is going to be the end result.

Whether we find ourselves in the position of the steward or the brothers, there is a lesson for us to learn from this story. Like the steward we might at times be directed to do things that don’t make sense, like the brothers we might feel our trials cannot have a happy end. But if we will trust the Master, somehow everything will become what it should be in the end.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 44:1-2

1 And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s money in his sack’s mouth. 

2 And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

Joseph moves directly into the next phase of his plan. First, he continues his gracious streak by instructing the steward to stuff his brothers’ sacks with as much grain as they can possibly carry. But then two barbs are also hidden inside the great bounty.

First, he repeats the trick of putting their money back in the mouth of the sack. Once again, they will likely be afraid to see it there. After Joseph had shown them such graciousness, how would they expect him to react if they once again appeared to be thieves?

Then, he also has his own personal cup hidden in the sack of Benjamin. Here will be the real test. When the men find themselves in trouble, and Benjamin especially so, will they try to shift blame to the youth? Will they say that he must be the one guilty party, the sole thief among them, just to save their skins? They had sold Joseph off once before with far less motivation!