Last 5 Days
United by Food
1 When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” 2 And he 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.” 3 So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. 5 Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
6 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. 7 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.” 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.” 10 They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.”
12 He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.” 13 And they said, “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.” 14 But Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you. You are spies. 15 By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 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.” 17 And he put them all together in custody for three days.
18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households, 20 and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.” And they did so. 21 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.” 22 And Reuben answered them, “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.” 23 They did not know that Joseph understood them, for there was an interpreter between them. 24 Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. 25 And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.
26 Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. 27 And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. 28 He said to his brothers, “My money has been put back; here it is in the mouth of my sack!” At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”
29 When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, 30 “The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. 31 But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we have never been spies. 32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.’ 33 Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your households, and go your way. 34 Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”
35 As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. 36 And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.” 37 Then Reuben said to 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.” 38 But he said, “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.”
During the famine, Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt for sale. So, he sent his sons except for Benjamin to buy grain from Egypt. So, only ten of them went to Egypt. As Joseph, was the governor of Egypt who oversaw the selling of grains, the brothers came before him. He recognized them but they did not because he spoke through an interpreter (verse 23).
Joseph gave them a hard time. He accused them of coming to spy on them. His brothers denied they were spies and told him that they were a family with twelve brothers. But only ten of them came to Egypt to buy grains. We can assume that they told him that one of them is dead as Joseph told them to bring Benjamin to verify their story. He held them in custody for three days and on the third day, he instructed them to bring their younger brother to him while Simeon was to stay behind until they returned back with their younger brother.
The brothers discussed among themselves, but they did not know Joseph understood the Hebrew language. They were blaming each other for what they did to Joseph has now come bad to haunt them. Joseph asked his servants to fill their sacks with grains and put the money back into them before he sent them home. On the way home, one of the brothers opened his sack to get some grain to feed his donkey. He found the money in his sack and told his brothers about it. They became afraid and wondered what God was doing.
Upon returning home, they told their father what had happened, and the Egyptian governor’s instruction to bring Benjamin to prove what they said were true. The brothers emptied their sacks and found their money was also in their sacks. Jacob became afraid and said he has already lost Joseph and now Simeon, he did not want to lose Benjamin as well. But Reuben assured him that he will bring Benjamin back safely. Reuben assured him that he will bring his two brothers back with. If not, Jacob can kill his two sons. Jacob could only say if they were to die, he would die of sorrow.
In this account, we find that food as always can bring people together. For them, the food was grain that brought Joseph and his brothers together unknowingly. To bring people together for a meal is like opening a door to reconciliation as this story also showed us as Joseph will eventually be reconciled with his family. Although Joseph’s brothers were not aware that the Egyptian governor was their brother, they were divinely appointed by God to take the first step to seek their brother for help. Joseph, on the other, could have repaid them unkindly for what they did to him. He could withhold selling them any grain, but he did not. He even repaid them generously and kindly by giving them back their money.
The lesson we learned from this story is, do not be vengeful but be gracious and merciful. Do good to those who did evil to us. This is also what Jesus taught in the gospel. He taught us to love our enemies. Joseph showed mercy to his brothers who sold him into slavery and landed him to become a slave in Egypt. But God divinely made him into the second most powerful man in Egypt. We know because Joseph told his brothers that they meant it as evil for him, but God meant it for good for them. God’s sovereign will was to use Joseph to deliver His people from the famine.
Let us learn to be gracious and merciful as this is the nature and character of God too. Some people and even believers often have nothing good to say about anything and everything. They like to criticize and complain. Even the way and tone of what they have to say are filled with condescension and anger. If they could tape themselves and hear what they say and how they said it, they may know that they are far from what God was doing in Joseph’s life to teach us how to live a godly life by loving “enemies.”