Joseph: Let the Testing Begin!

 

In our previous episode of God’s One Big Story—Dreams, Dreams, and More Dreams—we saw how the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker led to…

• • Joseph’s long-awaited release from prison;
  • His appearance before Pharaoh and his providential interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams; and,
  • His exaltation to the position of Grand Vizier of Egypt, the second-in-command position over the whole land.

In this episode, after years of serving as Pharaoh’s right-hand man and the administrator of Egypt’s food distribution program, Joseph is confronted by his past when the brothers who sold him into slavery suddenly appear before him seeking to buy grain. They don’t recognize him and rather than reveal his identity to them, he decides to put them through a series of tests to see what kind of men they have become.

 

Episode #5 of Biopic #4
Cast:     Narrator     Jacob/Israel     Joseph     Brother/brothers     Reuben  

When this episode begins, we find that Joseph has been in power for nine years, with the seven years of predicted plenty having already passed, and with the people and the land having suffered through the first two years of the promised famine.  Egypt wasn’t the only country feeling the effects of the famine, though.  Canaan, the land where Joseph’s family was living, was also beginning to experience its deprivation.

Narrator:  When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons…

Jacob:  Why do you look at one another?  Indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die.

Narrator:  So Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.  But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, ‘Lest some calamity befall him.’  And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.  Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them…

Joseph:  Where do you come from?

Brothers:  From the land of Canaan to buy food.

 

 

Narrator:  So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.  Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and said to them…

Joseph:  You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land!

Brothers:  No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.  We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men; your servants are not spies.

Joseph:  No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.

Brothers:  Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more.

Joseph:  It is as I spoke to you, saying, ‘You are spies!’  In this manner you shall be tested: By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.  Send one of you, and let him bring your brother; and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you; or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies!

 

 

Narrator:  So he put them all together in prison three days.  Then Joseph said to them the third day…

Joseph:  Do this and live, for I fear God:  If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses.  And bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.

Narrator:  And they did so.  Then they said to one another…

Brothers:  We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us.

Reuben:  Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now required of us.

 

 

Narrator:  But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.  And he turned himself away from them and wept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Thus he did for them.  So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there.  But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money; and there it was, in the mouth of his sack.  So he said to his brothers,

Brother:  My money has been restored, and there it is, in my sack!

Narrator:  Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid, saying to one another…

Brothers:  What is this that God has done to us?

Narrator:  Then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them, saying…

Brothers:  The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country.  But we said to him, ‘We are honest men; we are not spies.  We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.’  Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for the famine of your households, and be gone.  And bring your youngest brother to me; so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may trade in the land.’ 

 

 

Narrator:  Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly each man’s bundle of money was in his sack; and when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.  And Jacob their father said to them…

Jacob:  You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me.

Reuben:  Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.

Jacob:  My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave.

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Our Review

 

For our review, let’s now look back at some of…

The Most Important Points in this Episode

— Why do you look at one another—upon learning that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob did the logical thing and ordered his sons to go there to buy some for their family. However, instead of jumping at the chance, they just stood there looking at one another. At this point, it had been about twenty-two years since they sold their brother into slavery and even though they didn’t know where he was or if he was still alive, they seemed to be very hesitant to go down to Egypt themselves.

— Joseph’s ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt—however reluctant they may have been, out of necessity, the brothers headed off to Egypt—but without their brother, Benjamin. Like the many other groups who were making the same journey, they most likely traveled in a donkey caravan and completed the 250 mile or so trip in about three weeks.

— Joseph was governor over the land—since Joseph was in charge of Pharaoh’s food distribution program, his brothers had to come to him to get permission to buy the grain they needed. When they appeared before him, even though Joseph knew who they were immediately, they didn’t recognize him. Instead of him being dressed as a slave, Joseph was now dressed as a king—one before whom they readily bowed their faces to the ground in honor. (This would be the first of four times that they would do so in this episode.)

— Joseph remembered the dreams—seeing his brothers bow before him, Joseph was reminded of the dreams he had so long ago. It was those dreams that had helped fuel his brothers’ jealousy of him and one of the primary reasons they sold him into slavery. Contrary to the emotions displayed by Joseph later in this episode, here he seems rather detached—giving no indication whether he was angry or upset, or happy to see his brothers after all this time. It makes one wonder if he—knowing that the famine was also affecting Canaan—had been expecting them to show up at some time.

— You are spies—if Joseph hadn’t known who they were, this would have been a valid accusation. Other countries might very well have dispatched spies to see if the famine had left Egypt vulnerable for a takeover. Joseph accused them three times of being spies and each time he did, they responded by disclosing more and more information about themselves, their father, and their brother.

— We are honest men—when his brothers claimed to be honest men, Joseph decided to test their honesty by putting them in prison for three days—something which must have seemed like poetic justice to Joseph. Then, upon their release, Joseph informed them that the real test would be for them to bring their younger brother to him while one of the brothers remained in prison.

— We are truly guilty concerning our brother—having had three days to think about their situation, and after being confronted by these new demands, the first thing the brothers thought of was their shared guilt in the treatment of Joseph years ago. Not knowing that he could understand them, they freely acknowledged their cruelty—as well as the fact that it was Reuben, the eldest, who had wanted to rescue him.

— He took Simeon—this revelation must have come has a surprise to Joseph and in response to it, instead of choosing to detain Reuben, he decided to hold Simeon instead. This, too, would have been another case of poetic justice because, as we learned in the Jacob: Rape and Revenge episode, it was Simeon and Levi who were responsible for wiping out the entire town of Shechem in retaliation for the rape of their sister.

— Restore every man’s money to his sack—in addition to giving them the grain that they had come for, and provisions for their trip back to Canaan, Joseph had his servant put their money back in their sacks. As for his motivation, it could merely have been a means of blessing his family—or it could have been another test to see if they had truly changed and become honest men.

— They were afraid…what is this that God has done to us—the brothers immediately think the worst and that these events must be part of God’s punishment on them.

— Jacob…all these things are against me—Jacob himself immediately thinks the worst, even though these events will end up being the means of restoring him to his long, lost son.

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In Summary

Since this and some of the upcoming episodes deal with the matter of testing, let’s take a few moments and consider the following questions…

   — Why does God allow us to be tested?

The truth is that everyone will be tested—even Christ was tested while he was in the wilderness—and as we learned in our study of Abraham, testings are an essential part of our Spiritual Growth. From Abraham’s experience, we learned that after God reveals some new truth or gives us some new instruction, He allows us to go through a period of testing to see how faithfully we will steward that revelation. Once we have done that successfully, He is free to share even more of Himself and His truth with us. Surprisingly, the tool that He uses most often to facilitate this spiritual growth is Satan and his temptations! But while Satan uses his temptations to separate us from God, God uses them to draw us closer to and more dependent upon Himself.

   — In this situation with Joseph and his brothers, why did the brothers need to be tested?

In order for us to answer this question, we need to remember what God’s plan was for these sons of Jacob—that is, He intended for the twelve of them to become the foundation upon which the nation of Israel would be built. As long as their past sins remained unconfessed and unforgiven, and they remained alienated from one another, that plan was never going to be realized.

   — What did the testing reveal?

The first thing to surface in response to each of Joseph’s tests was his brothers’ guilt at having sold him into slavery. Even though twenty-two years had passed and life for everyone seemed to have gone on, their sin remained unconfessed, unforgiven, and always at the back of their minds.

The testing also revealed that the brothers had changed in some very important ways…

• • Their father’s grief over losing his favorite son had made them more determined to protect him from another such loss;
  • Although they once delighted in making a profit off the sale of their brother, money no longer seemed to be a motivation for them; and,
  • Even though Benjamin had taken Joseph’s place as his father’s favorite son, they didn’t appear to be resentful or jealous of him as they had been of Joseph.

And, as we will see in our upcoming episode—Joseph: The Testing Finally Pays Off–Judah, the renegade who had previously left home, married a pagan, and fathered twin sons by his daughter-in-law, Tamar, had returned to the family and would soon be taking a leadership role in it.

 

 

 

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