Genesis 42

Hunger forces our hands. We have to eat if we want to live. Jacob and his extended family needed grain, as did many other people, and they knew where to find food. There was grain in Egypt.

These details of life would bring the sons of Jacob, all except Benjamin, into contact with Joseph again for the first time in many years. When Jacob had received false evidence of Joseph's death, he thought that his grief would bring him down to the grave. He was not willing to risk the loss of Rachel's only other son, Benjamin. Rachel had died giving birth to this boy, and it was thought that his older brother, Joseph, had been torn to pieces by wild animals. Jacob did not know if he could live through the loss of Benjamin. He would not let him go. The weakness of their father concerning Benjamin was an unwanted reminder to his other brothers of what they could never forget: They had sinned in the matter of Joseph.

God was about to reveal something that they had tried to hide for so many years. The process of bringing the truth to light would take place before the face of Joseph himself. It would involve a wrenching series of events that would bring the sons of Jacob to repentance.

Joseph's brothers did not recognize the man they had sold to the Ishmaelites now that he was in his glory. They bowed down to him as they would have to any great stranger in his position. In their show of respect, they fulfilled the word that God gave to Joseph so many years before in a dream that his brothers would bow before him.

Joseph did not immediately reveal himself to his brothers. It was within his power to give them comfort at that instant, but he chose to do something better for them. He questioned them, challenged them, and put them in a very tight spot; and not for just a few days, but for a long time. He was working on a better goal than quick happiness, and that would take some time to accomplish. Recognize here the love of God for you through tough times. Remember that He disciplines those He loves as a true father does his beloved sons.

In this process, Joseph secured necessary information about his father and absent brother. He found something that would make a difference to the other brothers. Years before they had sold him into slavery without an adequate consideration of what the consequences would be. Now they displayed some understanding of what Benjamin's death would mean to their father. It would be through these painful dealings with this mysterious great man of Egypt that the Lord would produce an amazing repentance that would bring some healing to Jacob's family.

How did Joseph do this? He made this demand of his brothers: “You shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.” This requirement touches at the appropriate tender spot, their father's special love for one of the brothers above the others. He imprisons them for three days, after which he sharpens his demand, making one suffer for the rest as a representative: “Let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and bring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.”

In their own hearts they made the connection between this distress concerning Benjamin and their horrible sin in the matter of Joseph so long ago. “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.” Joseph understood their earnest conversation among themselves, and it moved him greatly.

Simeon would be the Christ-like representative this time, staying behind in Egypt as a pledge. The rest of the brothers returned home. They had to witness the binding of Simeon before their eyes. But they were given the grain that they needed, and Joseph even saw to it that their money that they brought to buy grain was secretly returned to them. When they found this out they were alarmed. They said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

When Jacob heard the whole story of how this great man of Egypt had probed them closely regarding Benjamin, he was alarmed. Reuben offered his own two sons for surety in order to secure their father's permission to return to Egypt, this time with Benjamin, according to the demand of the man who insisted that they could not see his face again unless they brought the boy. Jacob was adamant: “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.” Yet there would be hunger again, and hunger would eventually force the issue.

It is normal for a father to care about his son. Jacob loved the two boys who came from Rachel. He set them above the rest. We may not like it, but his devotion for Joseph and Benjamin was a fact.

There is another Father who had an even stronger love for His Son. God the Father loved His Son in the fullest measure, but He was willing to give Him up for us all. This was a tremendous sacrifice. It had to be done in order to achieve the Lord's eternal purpose.

Yet Jesus lives even now. Jacob will soon be able to wash away tears of his old deep grief. And soon the plans of God will be perfectly accomplished. But the grief of our Father for the suffering of His Son was very real. Thus we know that the love that God has for us is true and deep. He gave His Son for our sake. When He calls us His beloved, He means it.