The famine we read about in the last chapter was soon felt in the Promised Land, for the first three verses of this chapter tell about Jacob’s knowing that there was food in Egypt, when there was not enough to live on in their country, and saying to his sons that they should go down there to buy some, after which the ten men who had been so mean to Joseph, went to Egypt. Benjamin, the youngest boy, stayed at home.
Did the ten brothers think of their other brother, Joseph, taken as a slave over the very road, I suppose, that they now rode over to go to Egypt for food? I should think their consciences must have troubled them a little, at least, but they very likely thought that Joseph must be dead by now.
Next we see the ten brothers coming to Joseph, but not knowing him at all, and bowing down to him with their faces to the ground. Joseph knew them, but he made himself strange to them, and spoke roughly to them on purpose. He said, “Whence come ye?” They answered truly enough, “From the land of Canaan to buy food.”
Remembering his boyhood dreams, of which we read in chapter 37:5-11, Joseph spoke more roughly to them, saying, “Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land are ye come!”
Rather a little worried, we may well think, they answered again, telling Joseph that they had come only to buy food; they were all one man’s sons, and they said they were true men, and not spies. There were twelve brothers.
Just think of them telling Joseph that they were true men. He knew all about them, but they did not think of that. How often people talk about their good deeds, and make promises to the Lord Jesus of what they will do for Him, and will not own that they have had their part in crucifying Him, for they too, have said, “Away with Him.” We all have preferred anything rather than the Lord Jesus, and that is the same as saying, “Away with Him.”
Presently they were telling him the youngest was with their father, and one was dead, but Joseph still said that they were spies, and put them all in jail for three days. Then he said that one of them should be bound in prison, and the rest of them go home with the food they needed, but when they came back to get more food, they must bring their youngest brother with them to Joseph, so that he should know that they were telling him the truth.
They said one to another that they were truly guilty about their brother, because they saw the anguish of his soul, when he begged them to let him go, and they would not listen to him, and they realized that was why they were in all this trouble now. Reuben, who, you will recall, was not with his brothers when they sold Joseph to the traders on their way to Egypt, reminded them that he had said when Joseph was coming to them from their father that day, and they wanted to kill him, “Do not sin against the child,” and that his brothers would not listen to him, and now he said, “His blood is required,” that is, God was now going to punish them as the murderers of their brother.
Joseph was listening to their talk, but they didn’t know he understood, for he had spoken to them through an interpreter, who understood both the Egyptian, and the language of the people of Canaan. His kind heart was stirred deeply, so that he had to turn away, for the tears ran down his cheeks. Then he came back and talked again with his brothers, and made a prisoner of Simeon, who was the second in age.
How this is like the Lord Jesus! His heart yearns over us, yet He must get at the conscience, and make us feel our sinful condition, and have us own our sins to Him.
Then Joseph had his men fill the brothers’ sacks with grain, and put every one’s money back in his sack, and give them food for the journey. Then the brothers loaded their donkeys, and started for home, but on the way, when one of the brothers opened his sack to give his donkey some food, he found his money in the top of the sack. This made them all afraid again, and they said to one another, “What is this that God hath done to us?
It would have been right to take payment for the food he gave them, but he was dealing with them on the ground of grace, and therefore, he could take nothing from them. If he had given them what they deserved, lie would have punished everyone, but he did not want to do that, so it is all grace.
That is the way the Lord Jesus does with us. Many are so afraid to believe it is all grace. They are like Joseph’s brothers.
When they reached home, and had told their father about what had happened to them in Egypt, they emptied their sacks, and found each one his money. Now both the brothers and their old father were afraid, and Jacob said very sadly, “Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.”
Reuben, the oldest son, as we have noticed twice before, showed that he felt rather sorry sometimes, said to his father, “Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again,” but Jacob said, “My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
Poor Jacob! what sadness he had, but down there in Egypt his boy Joseph, whom he thought was dead, was the nearest one to the king, and the very one who had treated the ten sons so strangely when they went to buy food.