ground” (Gn 42:6), unwittingly fulfilling the very dreams they had sought
to prevent by
selling him as a slave.
Joseph, however, recognizes them, has them arrested and accuses them of being spies.
To verify the truth of their words that his younger brother, Benjamin, is still alive, Joseph
binds Simeon and demands that the remaining brothers bring Benjamin to prove they
are not spies. Once again, the brothers must return to their father, Jacob, without one of
their brethren.
Joseph sends the brothers, minus Simeon, back to their father Jacob. However, he
takes the money they had paid for the grain and conceals it in the sacks of grain. This
detail is crucial to the story’s plot: Joseph is reminding his brothers of their earlier sin.
When the
brothers arrive home, they will have wealth, but one of their brothers will be
gone! Joseph re-creates the very scene the brothers maliciously had created in selling
Joseph so many years earlier. When the brothers arrive home enriched but without a
brother, Jacob concludes they are clearly guilty of selling their brother Simeon as a slave
to the Egyptians. Jacob cries, “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 upon me”
(Gn 42:36). Note that Jacob blames them for the loss of Joseph and of Simeon. Jacob has
seen a doubling of events—the returns of his sons enriched with silver and short a
brother—and in the doubling he sees intentionality.
At first, Jacob refuses to let Benjamin go with his other sons to Egypt. But later, when
his family is in danger of starving to death, Jacob relents. He gives
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them balm, honey,
myrrh, and gum, along with double the money to atone for taking grain without payment,
reasoning that “perhaps it was an oversight” (Gn 43:12). Jacob’s lack of conviction
implies that he no longer trusts his sons. Now we have come full circle. While earlier in
the story the sons had lied and deceived their father about
the fate of Joseph, now,
ironically, the sons are telling their father the truth. They leave home, taking one of
Rachel’s sons, this time Benjamin, down to Egypt in a caravan bearing the same goods as
the caravan that had carried Joseph (Gn 37:25). Another doubling of events!
Again the brothers greet Joseph by bowing down to him on the ground (Gn 43:26).
Joseph hosts a meal for them and seats them according to birth order at table. They are
astonished at their seating arrangements, and Joseph is deeply moved to see his full
brother, Benjamin. Once again, re-supplied with grain and with Simeon restored to them,
they leave Egypt in peace. But
shortly into their journey, Joseph’s chief steward overtakes
them. He charges them with stealing Joseph’s silver cup, which Joseph had planted in
Benjamin’s sack. As their bags are searched they deny the theft, swearing that whoever
has taken it should remain a slave in Egypt. To their shock, Joseph’s silver goblet is
discovered in Benjamin’s pack. Now is the crucial moment in the story. Will they again
abandon one of their brothers, a son of Rachel, to be a slave in Egypt?
The brothers have changed. Judah, the very one who had proposed selling Joseph into
slavery, has been humbled by the grace of God over the years (which is why his seemingly
irrelevant story is inserted into the narrative in Genesis 38). He pleads: “Benjamin only
is left of his mother’s children; and his father loves him.… Take me instead. I’ll be a slave
to my lord instead of Benjamin” (see Gn 44:18–34). Judah is now willing to become a
slave and make an offering of himself to save his brother.
Joseph discerns the change in heart; his brothers are different men now. He breaks
down crying and reveals, “I am your brother!” After Joseph’s brothers overcome their
shock, there is great rejoicing. They ask forgiveness for their great fault. Joseph
magnanimously understands, “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it
for good” (Gn 50:20; see Gn 44:5–8). Joseph, because
of his faith, is able to see God’s
hand in all his suffering and blessings. It is because
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of Joseph’s slavery and God’s
blessings, which gave him his powerful position in Egypt, that Joseph is able to spare his
family from starvation and death during the famine. Joseph brings Jacob’s entire family
down to Egypt where Jacob is reunited with his beloved son and Jacob’s family prospers—
and the covenant blessing entrusted to Jacob can continue.
Throughout the book of Genesis, God’s blessing on mankind is passed on. In
creation, God blesses Adam and Eve. After the flood, Noah receives the blessing. Noah’s
son Shem passes on the blessing to Abraham, and Abraham passes it to Isaac. Then Jacob
steals the blessing. Genesis ends with Jacob passing the blessing to his sons, who will
become the twelve tribes of Israel (Gn 49). In the various blessings Jacob bestows upon
his twelve sons, two stand out. The first is the blessing to
the repentant Judah, to whose
future line the kingship is given: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah” (Gn 49:10).
The second is that rather than giving a blessing directly to Joseph, Jacob gives a blessing
to Joseph’s two sons (Ephraim and Manasseh)—which elevates them to the level of
Jacob’s other sons. Thus, in a sense, Jacob adopts Joseph’s sons, and so for a short time
the tribes of Jacob/Israel will number thirteen. The story of Genesis ends with Jacob
bestowing his blessings upon his sons. The story of Genesis that began with the blessing
of creation now finds the man named Jacob and his family richly blessed.