Genesis 42
You have heard, my dear children, how. Joseph was made almost as great as the king. A great deal of corn grew in the fields next year and the year after, and for seven years after the king's dream. But then scarcely any corn grew. The poor people came to king Pharaoh, and said, We have nothing to eat, and we shall die. "Then Pharaoh said," Go to Joseph; he can help you." So the people went to Joseph, and he opened his large barns full of corn, and sold the corn to the people. They brought money, and large bags, or sacks. Joseph took the money, and filled the sacks with corn. A great many people came to buy corn. Some came from a long way off; but Joseph had corn enough for all.
Among the people who came, there were ten men who had come from a far country. Each of them had an ass, and on the ass a sack, and in their hands they brought money. Who do you think these were? They were Joseph's brothers. When Joseph saw them, he remembered them, though he had not seen them for twenty years. He knew those cruel brothers, who had sold him for twenty pieces of silver. If he pleased he might have punished them. He might have told his servants to kill them. Do you think Joseph will punish his brothers, or do you think he will be kind to them? Now you shall hear how he behaved to them.
The brothers thought Joseph was a great lord, and they did not know that they had ever seen him before; for he wore fine clothes, and he was grown to be a man, and he had another name, which the king had given him.
So when the ten brothers saw him, they bowed upon the ground before him. Then Joseph remembered his dream about the sheaves bowing down to his sheaf, and he saw that God had made it come true. Joseph felt ready to forgive his brothers; but he wished first to see whether they were sorry for their wickedness, and whether they loved their father and little Benjamin; so Joseph did not tell them who he was. He even pretended to be unkind. He spoke to them in a rough voice, and said, "Where do you come from?”
"From the land of Canaan," they said, "to buy food.”
But Joseph said he did not believe they spoke truth. "You come," he said, "to see what a bad land this is, with no corn growing in it, and you mean to bring some king with soldiers to fight us.”
"No, indeed," said Joseph's brothers, "we do not. We are ten poor brothers, and we are 'come to buy food.”
But Joseph said he would not believe what they said.
Joseph's brothers answered, " We are all brothers, and once there were twelve of us, but one is dead, and the youngest is with our father, who is an old man." They tried to make Joseph believe what they said, but he would not: that is, he pretended not to believe them.
At last Joseph said, "I must see your youngest brother. I will send one of you to fetch him, and 1 will keep the rest in prison, till he comes back with the youngest brother.”
The brothers were much frightened when they heard this; for they knew their father would not choose to part with Benjamin, lest he should be killed. So not one of the brothers said he would go and fetch Benjamin.
Joseph put them all in prison, and kept them' shut up together for three days. While they were shut up, they had time to think of their wickedness to Joseph.
When people are shut up, they have time to think and to pray. I hope, dear children, when you are shut up, as a punishment, that you pray to God to make you good. The brothers were very much frightened; they did not know what Joseph was going to do with them.
At last Joseph came to them in the prison, and said, "This is what you must do, and then you shall live for I fear God.”
How glad and surprised the brothers must have been when they heard Joseph say that he feared God, for the other people in Egypt worshipped idols.
Joseph said, "I will only keep one of you shut up in the prison, and all the rest of you may go back, and take corn home with you; but when you come again, you must bring your youngest brother with you; or I shall think that you have not spoken truth; but if you do bring him, I will believe you.”
The brothers were glad to think that they might go back, yet it made them sad to hear that one of them would be kept in prison. They remembered their wickedness to Joseph, and they said to one another, "It was very wicked of us to treat him as we did. How he begged us to spare him, and we would not; and now God is punishing us for it.”
Joseph heard what they said, and it made the tears run down his cheeks; so that he was obliged to go out of the room to weep. He did not like to see them unhappy; but you know he wanted to find out whether they were kind to Benjamin, and whether they loved their old father, and whether they were sorry for all they had done.
When Joseph came back, he took one of the brothers, called Simeon, and said that he would keep him in prison till the others brought their youngest brother with them. So Joseph had Simeon bound with ropes, or chains, while the other brothers stood round.
Then they must have remembered how once poor Joseph had been bound, and sold for a slave.
Simeon was left alone in the prison, and did not know whether his brothers would ever come back, and whether he would ever be let out.
Before the brothers set off to go home, Joseph said to his servant, “When you fill those men's sacks with corn, put back into their sacks the money that they paid me for it, and give them also something to eat by the way." Joseph wished his poor brothers to have some food by the way. And the servant did as Joseph told him; but Joseph's brethren did not know what the servant had done.
How glad these brothers were to get away from Egypt, and to come back to their father, and to their little children, who had scarcely anything left to eat!
When they were come home, they told their father all that had happened. "There was a great lord," they said, "who sold corn to the people; and he spoke very roughly to us, and said that we were not come to buy corn, but that we only wanted to see the land, that we might bring men to fight the poor hungry people that lived there. He called us 'spies.' We told him that we were not spies, but were twelve brothers—that one was dead, and that one was with our father in the land of Canaan. But that lord would not believe us, and told us we must bring our youngest brother with us; and he took Simeon, and shut him up in prison, and said that he would not let him out till we came back with Benjamin.”
Poor old Jacob was very sad when he heard all this. Then the brothers began to open their sacks of corn, and they were quite surprised to find their money at the top of their sacks; but they were not pleased, for they thought that someone had put the money there to get them in disgrace, and that when they went back to Egypt, they should be punished for stealing; so they were much frightened.
They had not stolen this money; but they were thieves, for they once had stolen Joseph, and sold him for twenty pieces of silver. God knew that they were thieves.
They were more afraid than ever of going back to Egypt, and of seeing the great lord; yet they wished very much to go, for they had only brought a little corn, and they wanted more; and they knew that poor Simeon would remain in prison till they went back to Egypt. How could they persuade Jacob to let Benjamin go? For Jacob said "No, I cannot trust Benjamin with you, lest some harm should happen to him. You have taken away two of my children, Joseph and Simeon, and you would not bring Benjamin back if I were to let him go. If any evil were to happen to him, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." Jacob felt that it would break his heart to lose Benjamin, he loved him so very much.
So the brothers were obliged to stay in Canaan; for they knew it would be of no use to go to Egypt, except Benjamin went with them. What trouble they now were in! God was punishing them for their wickedness.
Hymn 14
Famine had spread on every side,
And thousands flocked from distant lands
To Joseph, who their need supplied
From Stores as countless as the Sands.
Amongst the rest a troop appeared,—
Full well were they to Joseph known;
Their cruel looks he once had feared,
When in the pit they cast him down.
Those features he could recollect,
Though worn by care, and scorched by heat;
But little did those men suspect
They bent around their brother's seat.
The youthful bloom had left his cheek;
Grave and majestic was his air;
A language Strange they heard him speak,
And splendid garments saw him wear.
He spoke to them in tone severe,
And made them all their history tell;
And glad was he no tale to hear
Of woe and death that had befell.
Yet Joseph would his name conceal,
Nor his own tender love express,
Until he saw his brothers feel
Sorrow for their past wickedness.
But while he caused them grief and pain,
Compassion filled his gentle heart;
His tears he could not long restrain,
But stepped aside, and wept apart.
Child
Thus my dear Savior felt for me,
Before I loved Him as my Friend;
Did then each tear with pity see,
To every sigh and groan attend.