Joseph's ten older brothers are standing before him. They don't recognize him. After all, more than twenty years have passed since they last saw him and he was just a teenager then. But he recognizes them. He chooses not to reveal his identity to them at this time.
Joseph looks just like an Egyptian and he speaks like one too. We will learn today that he uses an interpreter when speaking with his brothers, just as he would if he really were Egyptian and could not speak Hebrew. "As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. 'Where do you come from?' he asked. 'From the land of Canaan,' they replied, 'to buy food.'" (Genesis 42:7) He speaks to them just as he would if they really were foreigners and strangers. He is unsure of their purpose in visiting Egypt and he doesn't trust their motives. He knows the type of things these men are capable of. Based on their past treatment of him, he can't trust them any farther than he could throw them, as the saying goes. He is going to put on a suspicious and powerful attitude in order to find out more about the reason for their visit and about conditions back home.
"Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, 'You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.'" (Genesis 42:8-9) His voice is unfamiliar to them, especially since he's speaking in the Egyptian language and an interpreter is telling them what he says. I doubt he actually thinks they've come to Egypt as spies, but he wants to put some fear in them so they will answer personal questions without wondering why he's asking them.
"'No, my lord,' they answered. 'Your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.'" (Genesis 42:10-11) They say, "No, we're not a band of men who have come to Egypt on a mission to spy out the land and report back to our leader about the land's weaknesses. We are a family. We all belong to the same father. Our family isn't doing too well in this current famine and the food is running out in Canaan. Our father sent us here to buy food, not to harm anyone."
It sounds to Joseph as if his father is still alive, so they've answered one question he had on his mind. The other burning question on his mind involves the safety of his younger brother---his only full brother. Joseph knows that he himself was his father's favorite son because Rachel was his father's favorite wife. After Joseph was sold into slavery, Benjamin was the only son of Rachel's left. He knows his father well enough to realize that Jacob probably transferred the majority of his affection and attention to Benjamin and that these other ten may have transferred all their jealousy to Benjamin. Joseph is afraid they've done Benjamin harm. He's going to get very tough with his brothers in order to force them to produce Benjamin so he can see him with his own eyes. He is not going to be willing to take their word for it that Benjamin is fine. He's going to keep pushing at them until they are fearful enough to do anything he asks, including bringing Benjamin to Egypt.
"'No!,' he said to them, 'You have come to see where our land is unprotected.' But they replied, 'Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.'" (Genesis 42:12-13) They insist they aren't a group of spies by providing more details about their family. They say, "There were originally twelve of us and we all have the same father. There is one brother back at home with our father and there is one brother who has passed on." They've told the lie about Joseph's death so many times and for so many years that they intend to keep on telling the lie for the rest of their lives. They're stuck with it. If their father ever knew what they'd done, he'd disown all ten of them. They'd be outcasts from their society for perpetrating such cruelty upon their brother and their father. They must maintain this lie at all times, even when speaking with strangers, lest they slip up and say something that gives them away.
Joseph's fear that they are still the liars they always were is confirmed when they make the statement, "One is no more." If they are still lying about his fate, he can't be sure whether they are lying about Benjamin as well. He won't rest easy until he has absolute proof that Benjamin is alright. He puts more pressure on the men so that when he makes a demand of them (and an odd demand at that) they will be willing to obey it. He's not trying to be deliberately cruel to them. He's not being rough on them just because he can. The appearance of only ten of his brothers has made him so anxious that he won't be able to sleep at night until he sees Benjamin. Benjamin's absence from the group is making him think the worst. His younger brother is not a child but a grown man and he can't figure out why Benjamin wasn't sent to Egypt along with the others if he's alive and in good health. "Joseph said to them, 'It is just as I told you: You are spies! And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!' And he put them all in custody for three days." (Genesis 42:14-17)
How would producing their youngest brother prove to an Egyptian official that they are not spies? It wouldn't. It's not like the eleven of them have photo ID cards and paycheck stubs showing that they all live at the same address and that they are employed as shepherds on the same estate for their father. A DNA test won't be performed that proves this scraggly group of men plus Benjamin are all brothers and not an assembly of spies. Even if there were some official or scientific way to prove they are all related to each other, that wouldn't mean they couldn't also be spies. Brothers could very well share the same political or social ideology and band together to spy out the land of Egypt for a coming revolution. Joseph's demand, when you really stop to think about it, isn't logical. He knows it isn't and that it won't sound logical to the ten men if they really stop to think about it. He doesn't want them to stop to think about it, or if they do he at least wants them to be willing to comply with his demand even if they don't understand it. To get them to comply they have to have a reverent fear for what a man in his position can do to them. He places them in custody for three days, not to get back at them for the years he spent in prison in Egypt, but to show them he means business.
During those three days Joseph makes some alterations to what he's demanding of them. At first he asked that they all remain in Egypt but one who will go to Canaan to fetch the youngest brother. But he's become concerned about how severe the famine back home might be and he wants to go ahead and send food to his family. He's going to change his demands so that nine of the brothers are allowed to go home with the food while he keeps one brother in custody as insurance that they will return with Benjamin. One man can't carry enough food home to feed all the brothers, their father, all their wives and children, and all the servants. "On the third day, Joseph said to them, 'Do this and you will live, for I fear God: If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households. But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified and that you may not die.' This they proceeded to do." (Genesis 42:18-20)
The men agree to do what this governor asks. While they are packing up to leave, they realize that their current predicament is a result of their past sins. On the surface their circumstances may not seem directly related to how they treated their brother Joseph, but in their spirits they just know it. In their hearts they've always feared a day of reckoning was coming. This appears to be it. The fear of God falls on them. Their consciences are screaming louder than ever before. "They said to one another, 'Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that's why this distress has come on us.'" (Genesis 42:21)
Reuben was the only one of them who was the voice of reason on the day they put Joseph out of their lives. When he heard their plot to throw Joseph into the cistern and leave him to die, he intended to come back and retrieve him, take him to Jacob, and tell Jacob what the other brothers had done. But while Reuben was busy tending the sheep and waiting for an opportunity to pull Joseph out of the cistern without being seen and attacked by the others, the others sold him to tradesmen on their way to Egypt. The only thing Reuben is guilty of is agreeing with and maintaining the lie that Joseph was torn apart and killed by wild animals. He's a liar, but not a murderer or a slave trader. He speaks up now to remind his brothers that he tried to keep them from harming Joseph, "Reuben replied, 'Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.'" (Genesis 42:22-23) Reuben says, "If you'd listened to me and respected my authority as the eldest brother and as the representative of our father who was not present, we wouldn't be where we are now. I tried to help Joseph. I tried to keep you from committing such a horrible sin against him. Now we are going to have to answer for our sins. Our chickens are coming home to roost! We managed to deceive our father and at times we even managed to deceive ourselves, but we didn't fool God. He knows what we've done and is about to repay us for it."
Joseph overhears this conversation. He hears nine of his brothers admitting their guilt and acknowledging that they deserve any punishment the Lord dishes out. He hears Reuben protesting that he tried to stop them but they wouldn't listen, so he knows Reuben never wanted him dead or sold into slavery. "They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter." (Genesis 42:23) They believe Joseph doesn't speak Hebrew because their conversations with him were through an interpreter. They pour out their hearts to each other right in front of him not realizing he understands every word.
Joseph is so overwhelmed by their admissions of guilt and by how sorry they feel for their treatment of him that he needs a moment to compose himself. The knowledge that they are allowing the Lord to change their hearts brings him to tears, so he walks a distance away to cry where he will not be seen. These are happy, grateful tears to the God he serves who is at work in the hearts of his brothers making them into new and better men. "He turned away from them and began to weep, but then came back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes." (Genesis 42:24) Reuben is the oldest and most reasonable of the ten. Joseph sends him home with the other eight because he will be the best man to convince Jacob to send Benjamin to Egypt. Joseph keeps Simeon, the next oldest brother, with him and he puts on a show for the others by placing Simeon in shackles. This is intended to make them think things will not go well with Simeon if they don't return. Joseph, I am sure, will make certain that Simeon is treated very well while in custody, but the others don't know that. They have no idea what a tough Egyptian governor might be capable of if they don't obey him.
The Lord isn't just doing a great thing in the hearts of Joseph's ten brothers but He has also done a great work in Joseph's heart. Joseph has forgiven them. No one would have blamed Joseph if he'd seized the men and put them in prison for the rest of their lives for what they did to him. We can see that Joseph has the power to arrest and incarcerate people upon suspicion alone. He has no proof these men are spies but he's able to hold them in custody for three days without any evidence that they're up to no good. He's able to hold Simeon in custody without charging him with any crime. Pharoah thinks so much of Joseph that he questions nothing Joseph does. If Joseph wanted to execute his ten brothers for what they did to him, I doubt Pharaoh would even ask why, but if he did ask why I think he'd be fine with letting Joseph pass the death penalty on them once he heard the story of how they betrayed Joseph and sold him into slavery. The men who were once Joseph's bitter enemies are completely under his control right now. He could do anything he wants to them. But instead he weeps in thankfulness when he hears their statements of guilt and shame. He is grateful to God who is bringing them to repentance. This is how we know Joseph has forgiven his brothers. This is how we know if we ourselves have forgiven someone who wronged us. If we are happy about their repentance and conversion instead of still wanting to see God punish them, we know God has done a mighty thing in our hearts. He deserves all the credit for it because forgiveness is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of human efforts.
I told you the other day that a person who hurt me as much or more than anyone ever hurt me has repented and turned to the Lord in a genuine conversion, and I told you that I no longer want the Lord to discipline that person. In fact, the opposite is true. I want the Lord to bless this person and to help them continue to grow in faith and to grow in good character. But I can't take any credit whatsoever for feeling that way. I wasn't capable of forgiving such a large trespass. It wasn't in my human nature, but even if it had been, I lacked the willingness to try to forgive this thing. I wanted to hold onto my bitterness. It was God who changed my heart and the other person's heart. The same God who helped me has helped Joseph in our chapter today. The same God who brought to repentance the person who harmed me is the same God who is bringing Joseph's brothers to repentance. This is a cause for rejoicing! No wonder Joseph wept! God is good. God is faithful. He can do things we could never, in our puny human strength, do for ourselves. All the praise and glory belongs to Him. He is about to do things for Jacob's family that they never dreamed were possible. He is going to heal each individual heart and he is going to heal the family as a whole.
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