Next Steps - Genesis 42:21-28

42:21-24 - Even though we know that the Bible isn't chornologically accurate, it makes it seem like the conversation that the brothers have between themselves as to why all of this misfortune is befalling them happens after Joseph has given them the alternate ultimatum that only one brother stay imprisoned instead of nine of them. It would make sense to me that all the brothers were imprisoned, and while there they had this conversation and Joseph overheard them, that's why he changed his mind as to letting nine of them leave instead of just one, but I guess why he changed the terms of their proof of not being spies and whether or not it has anything to do with this conversation, doesn't really matter.

Surprisingly, after the ten brothers are accused of being spies by the governor over all the land of Egypt, they start to do a little self-reflection and come to the conclusion that all this misfortune is because "we are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us." When Joseph heard this an realized that they were talking about selling him away into slavery and that they had been haunted by guilt over this for the last 15+ years, the range of emotions that he must have felt had to have been vast. In fact, it was so gutwrenching to him that "he turned himself about from them, and wept." Interestingly, while the brothers were conversing amongst themselves, they were speaking Hebrew, and assumded that Joseph was an Egyptian and therefore could not understand them "for he spake unto them by an interpreter." But he did understand them, and I can't even imagine how conflicted and hurt and vindicated he must have felt. The IM notes, "Over twenty years had passed since his brothers had sold Joseph into slavery, and yet they still felt tremendously guilty about what they had done." Not guilty enough to actually go try to find or free him, so there's that.

At this point, either because of or in spite of hearing that his brothers still remembered the evil that they had done to him, Joseph gives the nine brothers back the food and "took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes." I wonder if Simeon thought to himself, "you jerks better come back for me," because at this point, the brothers didn't have a great track record of doing what was right for their brothers. Simeon goes to prison and the rest of the nine brothers head back to Canaan with the food they bought to retreive Benjamin and come back to prove they weren't spies to this crazy governor guy so they could get Simeon back. I always wondered what Joseph would have done with Simeon while he was in prison but the other brothers went back to Canaan. I don't think that the brothers hurried back because it seems that they waited to return until they needed more food again, so probably quite some time, and Simeon languished in Egypt that whole time. I always thought that if I were Joseph, I would get Simeon out of prison and spend that time alone with him, tell him who I was then bond with him while we were alone. But according to one article I saw, it said that Simeon was the one who instigated and executed the exile and selling of Joseph, so maybe that's why he chose Simeon to stay in prison.

42:25-28 - Joseph's next mind trick is to give his brothers the food that they wanted to buy to take back to Canaan with them, but secretly, "to restore every man's money into his sack." I honestly still don't really understand why he did this, obviously he had a reason, but I haven't ever understood how it played into his plan. It seems like everything that Joseph did was a way to test the integrity and repentance of his brothers, which makes sense. They perpetrated a horrific crime upon him, and if he is to forgive them or at a minimum not execute them because of his position, then it makes sense that he would want to know exactly what kind of men they were before deciding which way to go. He accused them as spies so that he could take them into undisputed state custody, whereas if they were accused of thivery, that could be determined easily enough, where as national security issues were more ambiguous and had severe consequences. This gave Joseph the most discretion over the fate of his brothers, so that makes sense. He imprisons Simeon to see if they will return for him, which Joseph much assume that they will because the ten men had proven multiple times that they were loyal to each other, just not Joseph and Benjamin was yet to be determined.

It seems like Joseph returned the money for the food into the sacks as a test to see if they would return it, or if their greed would win out, especially considering that they sold him for silver. I think there might have been a few different purposes for the returning of the money, first was to test their integrity, second was so that Joseph would have even more proof that they were spies if the need arose, because of course spies would steal. Third was to put the fear of Pharaoh into them because they would ahve seen that their money had been returned, and knowing that they had been in hot water with Joseph already, they must have known that if Joseph discovered that the money was missing from their payment, he could have sent all of Pharaoh's armies after them. Fourth, to guarentee that they had enough money to make it back to Canaan and then return again to Egypt. Fifth, to work that fear into the likelihood of them returning, because not only did they have to retrieve Simeon, but they had to clear up this "misunderstanding" about the money that they still would have owed to Joseph for the first initial food purchase. They didn't need the fear of the armies of Egypt coming for them in their homeland over the missing payment. Sixth, to stir up more fear of God in them, because they had already attributed the mess of being accused as spies and being imprisoned as punishment from God, surely money showing up in their bags would have been attributed to God as well. In fact, after discovering that all the money had been returned, "they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us?"