by Tad Lindley
I’ve always preached Joseph as being in full command of his forgiveness from the moment the money changed hands and he left Israel for the slave markets of Cairo, but recently I took a fresh look at Joseph and realized that perhaps it wasn’t really like that after all.
Hard to blame the guy. After all at a young age his 10 older brothers trapped him in a pit, and while he listened, were planning how to murder him. Fortunately, one of the brothers, Judah, suggested they sell him as a slave, thus saving Joseph’s life, but removing him forever from his family. As a slave he was falsely accused of raping a general’s wife and sent to an Egyptian prison without hope of parole. Then, in a seemingly miraculous circumstance, he met the king’s cupbearer in prison who served only a short sentence. He promised Joseph he would talk to the king and get him released. Sadly, the cupbearer immediately forgot his friend in prison. If all of this happened to you, because of your older brothers, you would carry a grudge against them too, wouldn’t you?
One day from D-block to Prime Minister
Then (in case you don’t remember the story) Pharaoh, King of Egypt, started having nightmares. He was deeply disturbed. Finally, after 2 years of forgetting Joseph, Joseph’s friend from prison suddenly remembered Joseph. He told Pharaoh, “There was a guy I met in D-block, he could interpret dreams like nobody’s business.” They rushed down to the prison. Got Joseph, took him to the barber shop, got him some street clothes, and then, boom, there he was standing before one of the most powerful men on the planet. Joseph explains that Pharaoh’s dreams are prophetic, and that tremendous famine is coming over the land. Then Pharaoh makes Joseph, the Israeli ex-con, Prime Minister over Egypt, charging him with preparing Egypt for the coming famine and guiding Egypt through the famine. (Genesis 41)
The past sneaks up on him
Suddenly Joseph is one of the wealthiest, most powerful men on earth. Only the providence of God can explain the path of his life. During the good years, Joseph has stored up massive amounts of grain, and now the famine has come. One day as he is overseeing the grain, he sees a group of 10 men and their donkeys coming towards him. Although he has not seen them for perhaps 20 years, he immediately recognizes them to be his brothers, the same ones who sold him so long ago. For their part, they cannot possibly recognize him. He now has an Egyptian haircut, Egyptian clothes, and Egyptian mannerisms. He is a complete stranger to them. (Genesis 42)
What would you do?
If you were Joseph, how would you handle the situation? Your long lost brothers now stand before you, and yet, unless you speak to them they will never recognize you. You could walk right past them if you wanted to. What do you do? I want to think that I would speak to them in our native language and explain who I was and hug them and cry with them and forgive them. But that is not what Joseph did. He spoke to them through an interpreter. And although he fully understood their Hebrew, he made it sound like he could only speak and understand Egyptian. (see Genesis 42 for the full details)
Getting creepy
Next thing you know, he has accused the 10 brothers of being spies and thrown them in jail. After a few days, he releases all but one, Simeon. He tells the rest, “If you ever want to see Simeon again, bring your grain you bought home and then come back with your youngest brother.” (This was Benjamin, Joseph’s full brother who had stayed behind in Israel.) He lets them buy grain, load their donkeys and head home. But to play with their minds he has the grain sellers sneak the brothers’ money they paid with back into the full sacks of grain. (Genesis 42)
Turning up the creep
The famine continues and Joseph’s brothers eat up all the grain, so they have to come back to Egypt for more. This time they bring Benjamin. They are taken to Joseph’s house to wait for him. When he shows up they still do not recognize that the Prime Minister is actually their brother Joseph. Through an interpreter Joseph asks them, “Is this your younger brother?” Then he runs out of the room as emotion bursts from within him. He has a good cry, washes his face and comes out playing it off like nothing has happened. He then orders them to eat. The servants seat the brothers from oldest to youngest, and Benjamin gets five times as much dry fish and a bigger seal oil dish than all the rest. They are scratching their heads wondering, “How do they know how old we are?” Then Joseph…
To be continued next week
