Sunday, February 8, 2015

Genesis 42: What Goes Around Comes Around

Well, well, well.  Look who dropped down to Egypt to pick up some food for their family in the midst of this terrible famine!  It is ten brothers from the land of Canaan.  They say that they are all the sons of one man.  They have one other brother, the youngest, still at home with their father.  And they have one brother who is no more.  (Of course, that brother who is no more just happens to be the one to whom they are telling their story and trying to buy grain from.  The beauty part is that they have no idea they are standing before their brother Joseph!)
How much do you think Joseph relished this opportunity to enact his long-ago dream and see his brothers bow before him?  To realize that these men who sold him into slavery years ago are now in a subordinate position before the one they had so grievously wronged?  To have the chance to exact revenge upon those who ruined his life, ripping him away from his father and his homeland?

Joseph's plan is to wage a little psychological warfare on his brothers.  After all, turnabout is fair play.  What has gone around is now coming around.  He begins by accusing them of being spies.  They are not there to buy food for their family in Canaan, he angrily charges; they are there to scout out Egypt's weaknesses!  When they protest and insist upon their story, Joseph calls them on it.  He has them thrown into prison with the demand that they prove their tale by bringing their youngest brother to Egypt also.  (Their youngest brother, Benjamin, is Joseph's only full-blood brother.  He is also blameless in what happened to Joseph being sold into slavery.  No wonder Joseph would like to see him!)

Joseph then releases them - except for Simeon, who he keeps in prison.  (Don't feel too bad for Simeon; Joseph was similarly put in prison for years as an innocent man.  Simeon at least had done something treacherous earlier in life to deserve a little punishment!)  If they ever want to see Simeon again, they will return with their youngest brother.  Joseph sends them on their way with sacks full of grain, along with a little something extra.  He put the money they had brought with them to buy the grain back in their sacks!  

When the brothers realize what has happened, they feel that they are sunk.  They will be regarded as cheaters and swindlers - if not outright spies - if they return to Egypt now.  Though Reuben wants to go to get Simeon out of prison, Israel refuses to risk losing Benjamin, the last son he had with his beloved Rachel.  It looks like Simeon will have to cool his heels in an Egyptian dungeon a little while longer!

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