We left Joseph, elevated to the #2 position in Egypt, 13 years after he was sold into slavery. The famine comes and Jacob sends 10 of his sons to Egypt to buy food:

The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread… When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. (Genesis 41.53 – 42.3, ESV)

We then enter the cat-and-mouse game he plays with his brothers, as recorded in Genesis 42 – 45. If you’re not familiar with the story, please take the time to read it. We have to ask ourselves why Joseph behaved as he did:

Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.” (Genesis 42.6 – 9, ESV)

He finds out his father and younger brother are alive and well and then throws them all into prison for three days. Then he releases all but Simeon (why Simeon?) and tells them to come back with their youngest brother. The brothers are beginning to catch on that they are being punished for what they did to Joseph:

Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.” (Genesis 42.21 – 22, ESV)

The brothers return to tell their father, Jacob, what happened, and we get interesting insights into his mindset:

And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me…My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol…Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? (Genesis 42.36 – 38, 43.6, ESV)

• Jacob still takes everything personally: “all this has come against me…why did you treat me so badly…”
• Jacob still shows gross favoritism: “He is the only one left.” The only one? You have 11 sons, but only one of them counts?

Finally, the brothers prevail, and off they go back to Egypt with Benjamin. Joseph still doesn’t reveal himself, even when he gives a dinner party.

…he said, “Serve the food.” They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. (Genesis 43.31 – 32, ESV)

By the way, racial prejudice isn’t new! There are other lessons in all of this, which we’ll discuss when we finish the story tomorrow. What do you think is going on here?