†. Gen 42:1 . .When Jacob learned that there were rations of grain in
Egypt, he said to his sons; Why do you just keep looking at each
other?
You can just picture what was going on. One brother would turn to another
and ask; What are we going to do for food? And the other would just shrug
and raise his eyebrows. They must have been doing that a lot lately because
apparently it was beginning to grate on their dad.
†. Gen 42:2-4 . . He continued: I have heard that there is grain in
Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and
not die. Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from
Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the
others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.
To Jacob's knowledge, Joseph was dead. His mother was certainly dead,
having died giving birth to Benjamin back in chapter 35. So, to Jacob's mind,
all that's left of the love of his life is Benjamin. So that if something were to
happen to him, he would have nothing left to remind him of Rachel, and that
whole side of the family would be gone.
Benjamin, at this time, wasn't a little kid. He was born when the family
moved south from Bethel to Hebron back in chapter 35. And as Joseph was
now about 38, and sold into slavery at 17 while Jacob was at Hebron, then
Benjamin is, at the bare minimum, at least 21.
†. Gen 42:5 . . So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy
grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
That must have been an interesting sight. The brothers mingled in with
caravans traveling to (and from) Egypt, and there must have been a lot of
them because the drought had effected the whole land of Palestine, possibly
even clear up into Syria and Lebanon. Traveling in a caravan had its
benefits. With food so scarce, grain would be more valuable than money,
and lone travelers would be easy targets for desperate clans; and brigands
too.
†. Gen 42:6a . . Now Joseph was powerful in the land; the one who
sold grain to all its people.
Apparently, before anybody could obtain grain, they had to first go by the
Minister Of Agriculture's office and purchase a permit in the form of an
official receipt, which was then taken to a designated silo and redeemed for
grain. Apparently, collecting the money, and issuing permits, was a task that
Joseph personally supervised himself rather than delegate to subordinates:
which tells me that Joseph trusted no one. And no surprise.
Those permits were a golden opportunity for graft and/or embezzling. A
dishonest clerk could smuggle some of those permits out of the office and
distribute them to friends and relatives and/or peddle them on the black
market because they were just as valuable as Cap & Trade emission permits
and food stamps. You could probably scalp those grain coupons for at least
double what somebody paid for them.
†. Gen 42:6b-8 . . So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed
down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw
his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger
and spoke harshly to them. Where do you come from? he asked.
From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food. Although Joseph
recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.
One can hardly blame Joseph for acting like a stranger. For all he knew, his
brothers were still toxic; and might be inclined to find new ways to mess up
his life yet once more like they did when he lived at home. When people
have been burned by someone they trust; that trust is not easily regained;
nor does it deserve to be. Those men tried to murder Joseph-- his own flesh
and blood kin. That's something that's neither easily forgotten, nor easily
forgiven; and shouldn't be. Joseph's reluctance to befriend his brothers at
this point is fully justified. Only a fool would try to kiss a rattlesnake after
one bites him on the nose.
But at the same time, this presents a dilemma for Joseph. No doubt he's
anxious for an update of his father Jacob's health and welfare, and also of
his one full brother Benjamin; against whom Joseph harbored no bad
feelings whatsoever. I sincerely believe that if it wasn't for Joseph's concern
for his father and kid brother back home, that he never, ever would have
told his brothers anything about himself. They would have come and gone
with no consciousness at all that they'd ever passed his way.
It's not surprising that Joseph's older brothers didn't recognize him. He was
just a shiny-faced, 17 year-old teen-ager the last they saw him. They
haven't seen their kid brother for the past 21 years. In that time his face
and his voice had aged to that of a matured 38 year-old man. Plus he's
cultured far different than any of Palestine's sheep herders. He has an
Egyptian hair cut, an Egyptian beard, speaks the Egyptian language, wears
the expensive clothing of Egyptian aristocrats; and he's a top-of-the-heap
Egyptian government official; a position in which they would never in a
million years expect to find their sheep-herding kid brother.
Cont.
/
Egypt, he said to his sons; Why do you just keep looking at each
other?
You can just picture what was going on. One brother would turn to another
and ask; What are we going to do for food? And the other would just shrug
and raise his eyebrows. They must have been doing that a lot lately because
apparently it was beginning to grate on their dad.
†. Gen 42:2-4 . . He continued: I have heard that there is grain in
Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and
not die. Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from
Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the
others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.
To Jacob's knowledge, Joseph was dead. His mother was certainly dead,
having died giving birth to Benjamin back in chapter 35. So, to Jacob's mind,
all that's left of the love of his life is Benjamin. So that if something were to
happen to him, he would have nothing left to remind him of Rachel, and that
whole side of the family would be gone.
Benjamin, at this time, wasn't a little kid. He was born when the family
moved south from Bethel to Hebron back in chapter 35. And as Joseph was
now about 38, and sold into slavery at 17 while Jacob was at Hebron, then
Benjamin is, at the bare minimum, at least 21.
†. Gen 42:5 . . So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy
grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
That must have been an interesting sight. The brothers mingled in with
caravans traveling to (and from) Egypt, and there must have been a lot of
them because the drought had effected the whole land of Palestine, possibly
even clear up into Syria and Lebanon. Traveling in a caravan had its
benefits. With food so scarce, grain would be more valuable than money,
and lone travelers would be easy targets for desperate clans; and brigands
too.
†. Gen 42:6a . . Now Joseph was powerful in the land; the one who
sold grain to all its people.
Apparently, before anybody could obtain grain, they had to first go by the
Minister Of Agriculture's office and purchase a permit in the form of an
official receipt, which was then taken to a designated silo and redeemed for
grain. Apparently, collecting the money, and issuing permits, was a task that
Joseph personally supervised himself rather than delegate to subordinates:
which tells me that Joseph trusted no one. And no surprise.
Those permits were a golden opportunity for graft and/or embezzling. A
dishonest clerk could smuggle some of those permits out of the office and
distribute them to friends and relatives and/or peddle them on the black
market because they were just as valuable as Cap & Trade emission permits
and food stamps. You could probably scalp those grain coupons for at least
double what somebody paid for them.
†. Gen 42:6b-8 . . So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed
down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw
his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger
and spoke harshly to them. Where do you come from? he asked.
From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food. Although Joseph
recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.
One can hardly blame Joseph for acting like a stranger. For all he knew, his
brothers were still toxic; and might be inclined to find new ways to mess up
his life yet once more like they did when he lived at home. When people
have been burned by someone they trust; that trust is not easily regained;
nor does it deserve to be. Those men tried to murder Joseph-- his own flesh
and blood kin. That's something that's neither easily forgotten, nor easily
forgiven; and shouldn't be. Joseph's reluctance to befriend his brothers at
this point is fully justified. Only a fool would try to kiss a rattlesnake after
one bites him on the nose.
But at the same time, this presents a dilemma for Joseph. No doubt he's
anxious for an update of his father Jacob's health and welfare, and also of
his one full brother Benjamin; against whom Joseph harbored no bad
feelings whatsoever. I sincerely believe that if it wasn't for Joseph's concern
for his father and kid brother back home, that he never, ever would have
told his brothers anything about himself. They would have come and gone
with no consciousness at all that they'd ever passed his way.
It's not surprising that Joseph's older brothers didn't recognize him. He was
just a shiny-faced, 17 year-old teen-ager the last they saw him. They
haven't seen their kid brother for the past 21 years. In that time his face
and his voice had aged to that of a matured 38 year-old man. Plus he's
cultured far different than any of Palestine's sheep herders. He has an
Egyptian hair cut, an Egyptian beard, speaks the Egyptian language, wears
the expensive clothing of Egyptian aristocrats; and he's a top-of-the-heap
Egyptian government official; a position in which they would never in a
million years expect to find their sheep-herding kid brother.
Cont.
/
