Chapter 45 begins with the dramatic revelation that the powerful governor seated before the men from Canaan is actually their once-hated brother. Joseph has just finished listening to Judah's desperate pleas to take him into slavery in exchange for allowing Benjamin and the others to go free. It's at this point that Joseph knows it's time to reveal his identity. He's waited for the Lord to finish completing an important work in these men's hearts and now he can see that the work has been completed. They are not the kind of men they once were. As Judah stood before him, begging him to let Benjamin go, I think Joseph was reminded of the day when he himself begged for his freedom from the bottom of a dry cistern, but all he heard while he cried out was Judah's voice negotiating the price of Joseph with traders going down to Egypt. I think the dramatic change Joseph sees in Judah and in the other nine who betrayed him convinces him that it's time to do what the Lord does when a person comes to Him in repentance and sorrow---it's time to extend mercy and forgiveness.
Our first verse picks up right after Judah completes his speech. "Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, 'Have everyone leave my presence!' So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it." (Genesis 45:1-2) Naturally he doesn't want to break down in front of men who work with him every day. He needs to maintain a professional atmosphere, but his emotions are so overwhelming that they can hear him crying through the thick doors and walls of his beautiful palace. Gossip travels fast and it gets all the way to the king's palace where even Pharaoh hears that visitors from Canaan brought the powerful Joseph to tears.
"Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph! Is my father still living?' But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence." (Genesis 45:3) His interpreter is gone from the room and he speaks to them in his native language for the first time since they've been dealing with him. I think the fact that the first thing he asks is whether his father is living demonstrates to us how overwrought he is in this moment. Judah has already testified that Jacob is still living because he said he couldn't go home to his father without Benjamin because that would kill his father. It seems as if Joseph just says something off the top of his head here, maybe because he doesn't quite know what to say at the beginning or maybe so he can ask them a question in their own language as proof that he is not an Egyptian who doesn't understand Hebrew. But his brothers can't speak because their nightmare has suddenly grown even worse. Not only is the man seated before them very powerful in the land of Egypt, but he's the brother they cruelly treated and betrayed. And they are completely in his hands. He can do anything he wants to them, including having them put to death. I think they're shaking in their sandals now.
"Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Come close to me.' When they had done so, he said, 'I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing or reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.'" (Genesis 45:4-7) Joseph isn't saying that these men never sinned. Just because God allowed Joseph to be sold into slavery doesn't mean that the men who sold him weren't in the wrong. Joseph is saying, "You sold me but I forgive you for it. God has used me here in Egypt. God has placed me in a position to save many lives, which is something I never could have done if I'd remained in our father's home with you. Yes, you wronged me, but God has shown you mercy. He always knew you were going to sell me into slavery because He knows everything that every human being will ever do. He worked with what He knew about you. He used that knowledge to preserve not only my life and health in Egypt, but also to preserve your own. This famine is going to go on for five more years. If God hadn't let me be sold into Egypt, no one here would have known the famine was coming and no one would have had a plan in place to survive it. You could not have come here for food because the Egyptians themselves would have been starving. You would have perished during these years when nothing grows in the fields or on the vines. I have made my peace with the past and now I can see the big picture---that this was all part of God's marvelous plan to do something greater than I ever could have imagined. I'm not holding anything against you. You don't need to be afraid of me."
"'So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt." (Genesis 45:8) Joseph is the adviser of Pharaoh. It is likely in that sense that he is referring to himself as a father figure to the king since Pharaoh takes his every word to heart and follows all his instructions. It's also possible that Joseph is older than Pharaoh and may have taken the king under his wing, in a way. We know from the ancient history of Egypt that several kings ascended to the throne at a young age, usually due to their fathers dying while still in their prime. The most famous of all Egyptian kings, King Tut, was crowned as Pharaoh at the age of about eight or nine. Joseph is approximately forty years old here in Chapter 45 and the king has definitely been a grown man ever since he first called Joseph out of the dungeon, for we don't see him under the authority of a guardian whom he must consult before making decisions. Minors who became Pharaohs had to co-reign with a responsible, politically experienced adult until they came of age to make decisions on their own. But still, Pharaoh could be Joseph's junior by a fair number of years.
"'Now hurry back to my father and say to him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don't delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me---you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.'" (Genesis 45:9-11) The Hebrews will be segregated in Egypt. We've already learned in our study of Genesis that the Egyptians considered themselves the most superior race on earth and that they would not even sit down to eat with a person of another race. Racism is a sin, and it's wrong to have prejudice toward anyone because of their skin color or nation of origin, but the Lord is going to use the prejudice of the Egyptians to keep the people of Israel from falling into idolatry. If the Israelites had moved during the famine to a land where the people would mingle with them and intermarry with them, they would have been drawn into pagan practices. But in Egypt they will be kept separate and will maintain their own religion and culture. When Joseph tells these men God had a plan all along to "preserve" them in Egypt, I don't think he's just talking about keeping them alive during the famine. I think he's talking about preserving them as a separate people, for when they emerge from Egypt several centuries later in the exodus, they will still be a separate people and will be ready to start becoming the great nation the Lord intends to make of them.
"'You can see for yourselves, and so can your brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.' Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him." (Genesis 45:12-13) What he's asking these men to do will require them to make a full confession to their father. They will have to admit to Jacob that they despised the young Joseph because of their jealousy toward him and that they intended to kill him at first but decided to sell him into slavery instead. They will have to apologize to their father for deceiving him and for making him think all these years that Joseph is dead. Their confession is going to cause Jacob to see how he wronged his children by treating one son so much better than the rest of them. It was a sin for him to love one son more than all the others and he will have to acknowledge and repent of his sin. Once all these men get their sins and failures out into the open with each other, healing begins.
We conclude our passage today with Moses telling us, "Afterward his brothers talked with them." A curtain of privacy has been drawn across their private family time. I believe it involved confessions, apologies, and many tears. Moses respectfully chooses to shelter these twelve men from our view during their time of deepest emotion.
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