The need of Jacob now forces (for this is a new scene—Joseph is seen here in his exaltation over all) to seek in Egypt what he found not in his state of pilgrimage; the world knew not what to do, but then thus Joseph's brethren are brought into close contact with him, though they know him not. He, however, knows them. He makes himself strange, and then by their distress their conscience is awakened as to their old fault, while there is severity used towards them, yet is it according to the principle of the fear of God. Also grace is in exercise, though this makes them afraid, feeling that God is with them—Conscience being awakened, that vast and vital step;
But they are brought into the same position of feeling very graciously and in grace, still by power they could not struggle with, as the sufferer in the sin they had committed-they are all first thrust into prison themselves, and then in the person of Simeon, kept under bondage, and made to feel, through their father's interest in Benjamin, what the selling of Joseph was.