Genesis 42- Lots of people have secrets. Lots of people feel that reputation is everything, so every time there is a fight, a difficulty, or a mistake, they put a lot of effort into covering it up or at least making sure it's never talked about. Yet it's always there. Leaving it as the elephant in the room or the thing you can't tell that one person doesn't make it less there. It still affects people. It affects how you think about yourself and how you relate to others. Most of all, it creates distance from the person with the smudgy spot on their soul and all of his or her loved ones. You know what I'm talking about. If you're human, you have some experience with this. If it's not you, you know people with taboo subjects. If you mention one word, disease, act, city, or topic, they tense up, so you don't mention it.
But it's you too. Come one. Everyone has an incident they regret that they are trying to distance themselves from. Time will do it, to a degree, but in this age of the internet, nothing is permanently forgotten if it's big enough. People have long lives and long memories. That's why I feel really bad for Joseph's brothers who have carried the secret of what happened to their brother for two decades. The secret makes the guilt even worse, and the guilt by itself with be considerable. You always hear, "The truth will out." And it will. Everything that's hidden will come into the light, eventually. Because God is that good.
The famine affects Joseph's family in Canaan. They all hear that there is food in Egypt, and Jacob says to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?" At first, I thought this was a "What are you standing around for?" statement, because the men should be heading down to get food. But the phrase in the Bible literally means "to look questioningly at each other." (Yeah, I looked it up.) They are looking at each other because any mention of Egypt brought Joseph to his brothers' minds, since they sold him to Egyptians. They would look at each other like, "Oh, Egypt. I wonder if Joseph s still alive." Egypt is a taboo topic. It brings The Incident quickly to mind. It's the stain on their lives. The thing that makes their hearts jump up to their throats.
Jacob continues, "I've heard Egypt has food. Go buy some, so we don't die."Jacob was always kind of a bad father, with favorite sons and everything. Now, he's also depressed! Yeah, he's all bitter and negative. He's faced hardship and loss. He lost his favorite wife and his favorite son, and now there is a famine. Jacob is careful to keep his other favorite son, Benjamin, from going on the errand. Benjamin had the same mother as Joseph, Rachel, the wife Jacob loved (as opposed to that cross-eyed other one). All of Joseph's brothers except for Benjamin leave for Egypt.
Joseph is in charge of selling the grain. When his brothers see Joseph, the don't recognize him. They bow down with their faces to the ground, fulfilling Joseph's pesky dreams from 20 years ago. Joseph recognizes them (they are, after all, all together and easier to recognize). Joseph decides to do something that, on first read, seems a little crazy, random, and cruel. It seems like he's playing games to see his brothers' reactions or to test them to see if they have matured. I've heard people say that God was guiding Joseph in order to make sure that the brothers got he proper correction and spiritual healing. That was certainly the result. It makes sense. Anybody else have other thoughts?
Joseph speaks harshly to them and says, "You are spies coming to see where our land is unprotected!" They deny it, claiming to be a simple family with a youngest brother back home. Joseph decides to put them in prison for three days (probably to get them to agree to his terms) and then to test them by saying, "You have to bring your brother, Benjamin here. Then I will know if you are telling the truth." The brothers start discussing how they are probably being punished because of what they did to Joseph. Rueben throws in an "I told you so," since he wasn't onboard with the plan to destroy Joseph.
This, and the strange looks they gave each other back in Canaan shows that this has been haunting them strongly for a large portion of their lives. They must think about it a lot. They jump to it quickly when they feel God is punishing them. But God is about to free them and teach them humility and service to their family. Being outed for a past wrong may seem like the worst thing that can happen. It can feel like dying. That's because something IS dying, but it's pride and lies and other bits of you that have to go, because God's not going to leave anyone in the bondage of secrets forever.
Joseph heard all of this and pretends not to understand their language. They are using an interpreter. Joseph goes away from them and cries. He comes back, takes Simeon (as collateral), and sends the rest of them back for Benjamin, their bags filled with grain. He takes silver in exchange. On the way home, one of the brothers sees his silver in his grain sack. The brothers tremble and say, "What is this that God has done to us?" They are worried that Joseph will think they stole from Egypt.
They get back to Canaan and tell Jacob what happened. They empty their sacks and see that each man's silver was in his sack. They think they haven't paid for the grain. The are scared. Jacob says, "You've deprived me of both Joseph and Simeon, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!" Wait a minute…did they fess up to selling Joseph? Nice. Or maybe Jacob just blames them because they went out and failed to come back with Joseph. That would make more sense with the beginning. I don't know.
Jacob refuses to let Benjamin go, even though Rueben promises to get him back and says Jacob can kill Rueben's sons if Benjamin is lost. Jacob says, "His brother is dead, and he is the only one left." REAL NICE, dude. "If harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow." It doesn't matter to Jacob that one of his sons would spend the rest of his life in prison in Egypt. Jacob needs the following drama to learn his own lesson.
God is going to prove that even when you think you've lost everything, you don't lose it forever. God has a bigger plan in mind. Joseph made the best out of his circumstances with as good of an attitude as he could, mentioning God every once-in-a-while and doing his best in difficult jobs. Jacob is in a "woe is me" limbo, thinking everything is against him. Of course, it's all about him in his mind. But God's working on a bigger project. It's not just about Jacob; it's about the whole family. It's about Israel, and then it's going to be about the world. It's not about how good you are looking, escaping punishment, or always living the good life. Just wait a minute. It's coming together.
