Whew, it sure is hot and dry around here. If we don’t get some rain soon, the harvest is going to be slim. Huh! There I go again, complaining about the weather. I told myself I wouldn’t do that anymore. No matter how bad it might get, it will never be as bad as THE FAMINE. Have you heard about the BIG ONE? It lasted seven years. The worst part of it was that it caught us completely off guard. The seven years before had been a time of incredible harvest. We brought in huge crops. The grain was as the sand of the seashore. Then all of the sudden, things dramatically changed. In stark contrast to the years of plenty came the beginning of the most severe famine we had ever seen, not only in these parts, but in all the earth. Every one could feel its affects.

I remember how devastating the famine was to my family. My brothers and I were so overwhelmed that we just stood around, looking at one another, not knowing what to do next in order to survive. Needless to say, we were greatly relieved when our father Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt. Pharaoh’s second in command, the governor of the land, had wisely stored crops in the years of abundance. Father sent nine of my brothers and me on a trip here to Egypt to buy the food we desperately needed to live. Dad did not send Benjamin, my half brother with us. He was afraid that harm might come to his beloved son, the only son left from his marriage to Rachel. After what we allowed to happen to our brother Joseph, dad didn’t trust us to take care of Benjamin. I suppose I can’t blame him for how he felt.

We came to Egypt, thinking that our sole purpose was to acquire food for survival. We expected to make a brief visit and quickly return to Canaan, our homeland. We learned later that God had much more in store for us in Egypt than we could have ever imagined.

Israel’s sons bow before Egypt’s ruler

Traveling to Egypt, weak from a lack of food, was difficult enough. Entering into the presence Egypt’s ruler was even more distressing. There he was, second in command. Only Pharaoh was greater than he was. His right hand was adorned with the Pharaoh’s signet ring—the symbol of his authority to act in the name of and with the power of Pharaoh himself. When he wanted someone jailed or hung from their necks, all it took was for him to breath a word of instruction to his servants, and they did whatever he asked without question. Not so much as a hand or foot was lifted in all Egypt without a word of authorization from this man. When his chariot came down the path, everyone shouted, "Make way." Needless to say, when we came into his royal presence, we showed all the respect we knew how. We bowed down to him with our faces to the ground.

Egypt’s ruler accuses Israel’s sons

We were jolted when in a harsh tone the ruler asked of us, "Where do you come from?" With as much composure as we could muster, we told him we came from Canaan to buy food. We were totally taken off guard by what he said next. The ruler accused us of being spies who had come to Egypt to find out where the nation was unprotected and vulnerable to attack.

We quickly responded, "No, my lord…Your servants have come to buy food. We are the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies." The ruler remained unconvinced. He repeated his accusation a second time. We maintained our innocence and said to the ruler, "Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more." The ruler wouldn’t believe us. He insisted we were spies.

Egypt’s ruler puts Israel’s sons to the test

In order for us to prove otherwise, we had to be put to the test. The test the Egyptian ruler considered first was quite severe. We were informed that nine of us would be put in jail while one of us returned to Canaan to get Benjamin and bring him back to Egypt. For three days, the ruler put us in jail custody to stew over this possibility. On the third day, he came back with a more merciful test. We would be given grain to take back to our starving households. Only one of us would have to remain in custody.

While the ruler’s second test was much less harsh than the one he proposed first, it was still not going to be easy. It was difficult not only because one of us would have to sit in jail, but also because it would be extremely hard to convince our father to let Benjamin go. Joseph, our brother, was no more and our father couldn’t stand the thought of losing Benjamin too. Even so, the ruler was most insistent that Benjamin join us on our return trip. Only his coming back would verify the truth of what we said and spare us from death.

Israel’s sons conclude, "We are being punished"

As we proceeded to do what the ruler told us to do, we concluded together that we were being punished for the horrible things we had done to our brother Joseph. We were extremely jealous of our brother because of the special treatment he received from our father. As if favoritism in the family was not a big enough problem, Joseph told us some crazy dreams he had that predicted he would rule over us and we would bow down to him. This caused us to hate him all the more.

One day, as Joseph came to see us in the fields dressed in the richly ornamented robe our father had given him, we decided we had had enough. At first, we plotted to kill him, throw him into a cistern, and allow the animals to devour his body. Our brother Reuben convinced us not to shed his blood, but to throw him directly into a cistern in the desert. His plan was to come back later to rescue him and take him back to our father. Before Reuben could carry out his plan, a caravan of Ishmaelites passed by traveling to Egypt. I suggested that instead of killing our brother that we sell him as a slave to these merchants. My brothers agreed and we sold Joseph for twenty shekels of silver. To cover our tracks, we dipped Joseph’s robe in blood and came back to our father, telling him some ferocious animals tore him into pieces and devoured him.

The look of distress on Joseph’s face from what we were doing to him still haunts me. He pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen. Reuben told us not to sin against the boy, but we wouldn’t listen to him either. Because of what we did, we are being punished. Because we ignored our brother’s distress, this distress had come upon us. We had to give an account for his blood.

Shortly after our painful memory of what we had done to Joseph, Egypt’s ruler had our brother Simeon taken from us and bound before our eyes. It was evident that he was very serious about his demands. We would most certainly have to bring Benjamin with us on our return trip if we expected to see Simeon released from prison. Egypt’s ruler filled our sacks with grain and gave us provisions for our trip. We loaded our donkeys and left.

They question, "What is this that God has done to us?"

That night, we stopped to feed our animals and get some rest. As we opened the mouth of our food sacks, we made a shocking discovery. There, setting on top of the grain, was the silver we had brought to purchase food from Egypt. Our hearts sank. We turned to each other, trembling in fear and said, "What is this that God had done to us?" How could we explain what happened to Egypt’s ruler? What if he did not believe us that a mistake had been made and that we were innocent? Surely God was punishing us for what we had done.

When we arrived back in Canaan, we told our father everything that had happened to us. We told him how Egypt’s ruler spoke harshly to us and treated us as spies. We explained how, even though we insisted that we were honest men and openly shared everything about our family; Egypt’s ruler still would not believe us. We conveyed to dad the test Egypt’s ruler had given us to assure himself that we were not spies. We told him about Simeon being in prison and about Benjamin having to go back with us if we expected to get our brother out of jail and be able to trade in the land again. Then we opened our sacks and showed him the money pouches. Again, we were struck with fright at the sight of the glistening coins.

He concludes everything is against him

When our story was finished, Father blamed us for depriving him of his children. He blamed us that Joseph was no more and that Simeon was no more. Simeon was still alive, but in my father’s eyes, he might has well have already been dead. I still vividly remember dad’s pessimistic cry, "Everything is against me!"

He clings to Benjamin

Having already lost two sons, father was not willing to part with Benjamin. Even when Reuben rashly vowed that he would have his sons put to death if he did not take good care of Benjamin and bring him back safely from Egypt, father stubbornly clung to his youngest son, refusing to let him go. Joseph was dead and Benjamin was the only son left from father’s marriage to Rachel. If harm came to him, it would have brought father’s gray head down to the grave in sorrow. None of us wanted to see Father’s last days spent in mourning so we allowed the matter to be dropped, at least for a little while.

The famine continues and the food is gone

The matter of having to return to Egypt could not be ignored indefinitely. The famine remained severe and our food ran out. Father told us to go back to Egypt and buy a little more. I reminded him of the solemn warning the governor of Egypt gave us that we would not see his face if Benjamin was not with us. We told father we would not go down to Egypt to buy food if our brother was not with us, but that we would willingly go if he were with us.

Father questioned why we felt it necessary to share so much about our family, especially about having another brother. We explained again how the Egyptian ruler had questioned us so closely and that we simply answered his questions. How could we have known that he was going to make the demands he did using the information we gave him?

Realizing dad needed some assurance, I stepped forward to guarantee the safety of Benjamin. I took personal responsibility for anything that happened to him and expressed willingness to bare the blame for the rest of my life if I did not bring him back to father. Somebody had to do something. If we didn’t act soon, we would all die of starvation. We had already delayed long enough for us to make two trips to and from Egypt and could wait no longer.

Father finally agreed that we had to take Benjamin. He suggested that we take with us the best products of our land as gifts for Egypt’s governor. We took balm, honey, spices, myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. We also took with us double the amount of silver. We planned to return the money put in our bags on the first trip and also to pay for the new provisions of food. Perhaps the gifts and the silver would convince Egypt’s ruler that a mistake had been made and that we were indeed honest men.

Father sent us on our way to go back to Egypt. As we departed, he asked for God’s mercy that Benjamin and Simeon be able to come back safely and then he made a very fatalistic comment. He said, "If I am bereaved, I am bereaved." It was obvious that he did not have high expectations of a good outcome.

Following dad’s instructions, we hurried down to Egypt to present ourselves before the governor. As he saw us coming, he had one of his servants take us to his house. We were frightened that he intended to attack us, overpower us, and seize us as slaves because of the silver that we discovered in our sacks.

They plead their case

Before entering the rulers house, we spoke to the steward at the entrance. We explained how we had found the silver on our first trip in the mouths of our sacks and how we had brought it back with us along with the additional silver to buy food. We insisted that we didn’t know how the silver had ended up in our bags. Then an incredible thing happened. This Egyptian whom we expected to know nothing about God told us not to be afraid because our God had given us the treasure in our sacks. He assured us that he had received our payment, he brought Simeon out to us, he gave us water for our feet, and he fed our animals. What was going on?

Egypt’s ruler makes personal inquiries of Israel’s sons

When the governor got home, we quickly presented our gifts and bowed down to the ground before him. We expected he would accuse us and that we would have to defend ourselves, but instead, he asked us very personal questions about us and our family. He asked how we were doing. He asked if father was still alive. He asked if Benjamin was the younger brother we had told him about. Then he suddenly left the room. What had we said? Why did he leave? When he came back, he gave no explanation. Instead, he instructed his servants to feed us a meal.

He seats the brothers by their birth order

As he sat us down, to our astonishment, he did so in the order of our ages from the firstborn to the youngest. How could he have known?

He favors Benjamin with larger portions

Another peculiar thing he did was to give Benjamin five times as large of portions as he did us. We didn’t necessarily appreciate the favoritism, but we didn’t think it wise to complain either. After all, the ruler had allowed us all to feast and drink freely with him.

He sends Israel’s sons home

The morning after our dinner with the governor, we were sent on our way home. We were glad to be on the road with everyone accounted for. What a relief to leave Egypt together.

Israel’s sons are accused of theft

"What now?" we said as we looked back to see the dust of the road kicked up as the governor’s servant came chasing after us. The steward stopped us and breathed an unbelievable accusation. He said, "Why have you repaid good with evil? Isn’t this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done." How could we have been accused of doing something like that? Why would we steal the governor’s cup when we had been so careful to bring back the silver we found in the mouths of our sacks? Convinced that we would be found innocent, we responded, "If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves." The servant did not require death for the guilty and slavery for everyone else, but only slavery for the one found to have stolen the cup.

  The ruler’s cup is found in Benjamin’s sack

Each of us quickly lowered our sacks to the ground and opened them to invite the steward’s search. The servant started with the oldest and finished with Benjamin. You can imagine the horror we felt when, as if it were in slow motion, the cup was raised from Benjamin’s sack. We tore our clothes in grief and loaded our donkeys to return to Egypt.

We came into the governor’s house once again and threw ourselves before him. When asked for an account of what we had done, I spoke for my brothers. I explained to the ruler that there was nothing to be said that could prove our innocence. God had uncovered our guilt and we had to face the consequences. That’s right, we. Yes, the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, but we were determined not to leave Benjamin alone. I suggested to the king that not only Benjamin, but that we too were his slaves. The ruler would not consider such an option. Only Benjamin, the one found to have his cup had to be his slave. The rest could return to Canaan in peace.

I already foolishly turned over one of my brothers to a life of slavery and was not going to do it again. I promised my father that I would take care of Benjamin and it was time for me to speak up. I requested a word with the ruler and begged that he not be angry with me. As Pharaoh’s equal, he could have done anything he wanted, but my well-being was not important. I had to stick up for my brother and do what I could to secure his release to go back home to father.

I explained to the ruler how my brothers and I had openly answered all his question. When asked about our family, we told him about our aged father and younger brother. We told him about Benjamin’s deceased brother and explained that he was the only one left of his mother’s sons and a beloved son of our father. I reminded the ruler of his request that Benjamin come to Egypt and the difficulty we told him that would bring. We told him how our father might die from the distress of having Benjamin, his beloved son, leave him. Even so, the ruler threatened us that we could not see him again if we didn’t bring Benjamin to Egypt.

I told the governor about the effort it took to persuade father to let Benjamin go. We reported to father everything that had happened and told him the ruler’s demands when we returned to Canaan after our first trip to Egypt. It was only because our food ran out that Father was forced to agree to let go of Benjamin. We insisted that Benjamin come with us as the ruler promised we could not see his face, that we could not trade in Egypt, and that we could not see Simeon out of jail unless Benjamin was with us.

I recited for the ruler word for word the emotional plea my father made before we left on our second trip to Egypt. He said, "You know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me, and I said, ‘He has surely been torn to pieces.’ And I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery."

I pleaded with the ruler to understand that if we did not have Benjamin with us when we returned to Canaan, our father would notice him missing and would die since his life was so bound up in his son’s life. Our father’s head would be brought down to the grave in sorrow and we would be responsible. I told the ruler that I especially would bear the blame for the rest of my life since I was the one who guaranteed that I would keep Benjamin safe.

Judah offers to take Benjamin’s place

After my emotional account of all that had happened, I pleaded with the ruler that he allow me to be a slave in my brother’s place. How could I go back to my father if Benjamin was not with me? I could not stand the thought of seeing my father suffer any more misery. He already suffered enough from what happened to Joseph.

The governor responded by crying out to his servants to leave his presence. Then, he began to weep. He wept so loudly that even Pharaoh heard about it.

Joseph identifies himself

When the ruler was able to control himself and gain composure, we learned why his emotions were so intense. He identified himself not as Egypt’s ruler, but as Joseph, our brother. He said, "I am Joseph" and then asked, "Is my father still living?" We were so shocked and terrified in his presence that we could not answer him. What was going to happen to us now? After all that we had done to our brother, what would he do to us? Would he lock us in jail for good and throw away the key? Would he have us serve doing hard labor as his slaves? Worst yet, would he have us killed? None of the possibilities that we thought of were encouraging prospects.

Instead of lashing out at us, Joseph invited us to come close to him. Joseph affirmed again his identity and verified the truth of who he claimed to be by recounting something only our brother would know, "I am the one you sold into Egypt."

He recognizes God’s hand

Incredible guilt weighed upon us for what we had done against our own brother. We felt distressed and angry at ourselves. Joseph assured us that we didn’t need to feel that way. He explained that what we had done against him was used by God to save the lives of people from the devastating famine. God sent Joseph to Egypt ahead of us to preserve a remnant for us on earth and to bring about a great deliverance. Joseph explained that it was not ultimately us, but God who had sent him to Egypt. It was God who put him in the place of lord of Pharaoh’s household and ruler of all Egypt. What an incredible perspective. After all of the unfair pain and mistreatment Joseph endured, He focused on God and what He was doing to accomplish His good purposes.

Instead of payback, Joseph offered us provisions. Joseph asked us to hurry back to tell our father what God had done and to bring him down to Egypt to live in the nearby region of Goshen. He invited us to bring down our families, our flocks, and our herds—everything we owned. Joseph promised to provide for us. We desperately needed his help as there were still five years of famine yet to come.

Instead of giving us the physical punishment we deserved, Joseph threw his arms around Benjamin and wept. Then he kissed each of us and wept over us. After all of the expressions of affection, we talked with him, rejoicing in the reunion and restoration God mercifully brought to our family.

1. When the tables turn and we have the power to strike back at those who mistreat us, we can act in love and forgiveness because we recognize what God has done for us.
2. When we have forgiven someone, we don’t just withhold retribution; we give blessings to those who have hurt us.
3. We need Joseph’s perspective to face the dark times of life.

Don’t view God as a God of vengeance who is out to get us.

Brothers—"We are being punished….What is this that God has done to us?"

Don’t adopt a pessimistic view of what God will do

Israel—"Everything is against me."

Don’t adopt a fatalistic view of life

Israel—"If I am bereaved, I am bereaved."

Rest assured that God is sovereign. We can trust Him to deliver us

Joseph—"God sent me ahead of you…to save your lives by a great deliverance."

4. When God brings hard times, He is not out to get us; He desires to restore us to fellowship.