Last week, we left Joseph’s brothers bowing down to him. Still through an interpreter, he asks:

“How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?” Genesis 43;28

They respond that he is alive and well. Joseph looks about until he spies Benjamin, his own mother’s other son. Deeply moved, Joseph goes out to a private room to weep.

After he washes his face and attempts to control himself, he returns to his brothers to declare, “Serve the food.” You would think their good treatment, the fact that Joseph is interested in their father and their younger brother, plus the fact that they have been seated around the table in order of their age would alert them to Joseph’s identity. But I suppose in their minds, Joseph is either dead or has become a slave off in the boonies somewhere.

Isn’t that just like us? Something is fairly plain in front of us, but we are blinded by fear or a self-centered attitude, past sins or bitterness. “He who has eyes to see, let him see. He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” Jesus said.

Well, we soon get the idea that Joseph is very partial to Benjamin since Benjamin’s plate is stacked five times higher than the other plates! Now, the plot begins. Joseph intends to send the others back home and find a way to keep Benjamin, so he  instructs his steward:

“Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. Then put my silver cup in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack.” Genesis 44:2

Of course the idea is that they will be brought back; Benjamin will be kept, and the others will graciously be let go. However, when they are stopped on the trail and brought back to Joseph, the brothers are not about to leave Benjamin for fear of breaking their father’s heart.

Judah steps forward to give a 16-verse plea. He reiterates the whole story again: the need for grain, the trip to Egypt, Joseph’s series of family questions, the demand to bring the younger brother back, the agony of their father, and the remembrance of losing his son, Joseph. “If I lose this son it will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.” So there’s no way Judah can go back without Benjamin, because he personally guaranteed the boy’s safety.

Quite a change for Judah. He was the one who suggested that they sell Joseph to the caravan of traders years before.

Judah’s final plea:

“Please let me remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let my brothers return with the boy. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father.” Genesis 44;33-34

Will this passionate plea suffice? Will he continue to make them squirm to get back at them for all the heartache they caused him? Or will he see their repentant hearts?

Next week – at long last, the great unveiling!

~ Joyce ~