Joseph - episode 5

Joseph decided to test his brothers to see if they have changed. They will have to gain their father’s trust to bring Benjamin in Egypt, without harming him, as requested for Simeon’s liberation. We are in chapter 43 and onward of the Book of Genesis. «The famine was severe in the land. It happened, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, “Go again, buy us a little more food.” Judah spoke to him, saying, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’ If you’ll send our brother with us, we’ll go down and buy you food, but if you’ll not send him, we’ll not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.’” Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly, telling the man that you had another brother?” They said, “The man asked directly concerning ourselves, and concerning our relatives, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ We just answered his questions. Is there any way we could know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down?’” Judah said to Israel, his father, “Send the boy with me, and we’ll get up and go, so that we may live, and not die, both we, and you, and also our little ones. I’ll be collateral for him. From my hand will you require him. If I do not bring him to you, and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever, for if we hadn’t delayed, surely we would have returned a second time by now.”». Judah, the very one who many years before proposed to sell Joseph to the merchants, is the guarantor of Benjamin’s life. Jacob is forced by famine to accept the deal, even if reluctantly.

When they arrive in Egypt, the brothers are hosted by Joseph for a sumptuous lunch; at the sight of Benjamin Joseph is deeply moved and, at their final meeting, withdraws to weep. He saw signs of conversion in his family, they led safely his brother and returned the money he had hidden in their sacks, but he wants to check the firmness of this change with a final test. «He commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s money in his sack’s mouth. Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack’s mouth of the youngest, with his grain money.”». Joseph asks his steward to follow after the man and accuse them of stealing his master’s cup: the brothers respond by declaring themselves innocent and that if the cup would be found in one of their sacks the owner would be put to death and the others would become Joseph’s bondservants. When the cup is found in Benjamin’s sack the brothers tear their clothes and return to the town. «Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that such a man as I can indeed divine?” Judah said, “What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s bondservants, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found.” He said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”». Judah then speaks again and proposes to Joseph his life in exchange for Benjamin’s one, not to see the pain that would hit his father returning home without Benjamin. Joseph does not need anything else: the test is passed! Judah who hated him up to decide to sell him to the merchants is now willing to give his life for Benjamin, accepting without jealousy Jacob’s preference to the sons of Rachel. The brothers have really changed.

 

 

«Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, “Cause every man to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Does my father still live?” His brothers couldn’t answer him; for they were terrified at his presence. Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” They came near. “He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now do not be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. So now it wasn’t you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt». Joseph read his story in the light of God’s Providence, which has managed to turn an evil thing (the bad family situation of Jacob and his sons) into a good thing. He invites his brothers to bring their old father, the rest of the family and their property in Egypt (famine would last another five years), where they would find sustenance. «He fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him». With this touching scene of forgiveness and new dialogue we close this post and refer to the next to tell the meeting of Joseph with his old father and conclude the patriarchs’ long cycle with some final consideration.