Psycho - Genesis 42:1-20

42:1-6 - Even though the process of transferring the wealth of Egypt from the common people to Pharaoh took many years, it was still well within the time frame of the people’s remembrance, being taxed of a significant portion of their crops, then having to buy that food back at inflated prices where they were hungry. Long story short, the people were probably pretty angry with the Egyptian government, and Joseph was the front facing symbol of that system, regardless of whether he personally believed it to be immoral.

We’re not exactly sure at what point in the famine the land of Canaan becomes impacted enough to look elsewhere for food, but at some point, presumably several years into the crisis, “Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, (and) Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another?” Since the time that the boys sold Jospeh off as a slave to travelers, we have only heard about what has happened to Judah with the Tamar business, in which he can assume that he was humiliated and humbled. Other than that, we don’t know anything that has happened to Jacob or his family in the last 15+ years, it does seem though that Jacob has not been impressed with his sons in the meantime, as he comes at them with a fairly sarcastic tone. Interesting that there are all these grown men standing around with no initiative whatsoever and it seems like just waiting for themselves and their families to starve to death.

Ten of the sons of Jacob “went down to buy corn in Egypt,” Joseph was already presumed dead so he couldn’t go, but Jacob didn’t send Benjamin “Lest peradventure mischief befall him.” Jacob does not trust his other sons with the safety of his youngest, even though surely Benjamin was old enough to go to Egypt, he had presumably taken Joseph’s place as the favorite. TB points out that at this point in the famine, probably millions of people were flocking to Joseph for food, and surely Joseph would have had a system in place where all these millions of people could have bought the food, so it would have been unlikely that Joseph would have personally interacted with his brothers.

Regardless of how unlikely, it ends up that “Jospeh’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.” Jospeh recognized them immediately, but they didn’t recognize him. TB notes that this was probably because at this point he would have gone by his Egyptian name, worn Egyptian clothes and make up and wigs, spoken solely Egyptian with people, and been in a position of such great authority that it probably never crossed their minds that the young boy they sold away would have at any point become more than a household slave.

The emotions that must have gone through Joseph when he recognized his brothers must have been over the top, the betrayal, the hope that they could be a family again. When I was young and heard this story, I immediately thought that Joseph would have said “hey guys, it’s me!” and wanted to be friends again, but now that I’m older and have learned about boundaries, etc I can see how Jospeh might not have wanted to be BFFs with his brothers again so quickly. I’m sure he had planned out in his head what he would have said and done if he encountered them again, but I doubt he ever thought that it would actually happen.

42:7-20 - Joseph doesn’t plan on making this encounter easy for them, maybe it’s because he wanted them to get a taste of what he suffered, but maybe it was because “Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them,” and realizes that God had been in control of his whole ordeal from the very beginning. There are sometimes in life when you get the gift of hindsight and are allowed to see the way that God has orchestrated His hand in your life to make everything work out, and it’s a truly awesome experience. I’m sure that when Joseph saw all this put together, he must have reeled from it.

This is the point where he decides that not only is he not going to just let his brothers waltz out of Egypt with food, but he’s going to make the sweat a little bit first. First, he accuses them of being spies, “to see the nakedness of the land ye are come.” This was probably a serious problem for Joseph, national security, especially when Egypt seems to be the only place with food throughout the whole region and not only are foreigners interested in the food, but native Egyptian peoples were as well. So being on the lookout for spies was certainly something that Joseph probably had at the forefront of this mind quite a bit.

His brothers probably weren’t expecting this response from the governor of the land at all, I mean, they were simply shepherds from a far away desert, nobody important, why would they have triggered the espionage bell in this man who oversees millions of people and transactions. They contest “we are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies.” Jospeh knows they aren’t spies, but he pretends not to buy it. The two groups go back and forth a few times, Joseph insisting that they are spies, and them disputing that they are not.

The brothers find themselves in serious trouble at this point because while they aren’t Egyptian, they are still in the land of Egypt and subject to the appointed government while they are there. The position that Jospeh is in, he’s judge, jury, and executioner if he feels the need for it, and they don’t know this guy, they don’t know if he’s fair, if he’s shady, if he’s just trying to steal their money, if he’s a paranoid psychopath. Joseph could have been anyone with any motivation and the whole group of men could disappear without anyone even thinking twice about it.

Going back and forth a bit, Joseph says that they only way they are leaving is if “your youngest brother come hither.” He suggests that one of the brothers be sent to retrieve this youngest brother that they had told him about, and that’s how he will know that they are not spies. This doesn’t make any sense to me, I mean, they could just go out and grab some random dude off the street and tell him to pretend that he’s their youngest brother. Even if Benjamin did come to Egypt, how is he going to convince this crazed governor that his brothers are not spies. It makes no sense, and this is where it probably start sweating quite a bit, and to prove his point, Joseph puts them all in prison for 3 days.

After 3 days, Joseph comes back and gives them another ultimatum, they can all go back with the food they bought and retrieve the youngest brother, except one has to stay in prison in Egypt to ensure that they actually come back, and this because “I fear God.” Again, I don’t know what this proves, but it’s Joseph’s show.