To continue with our story of Joseph, who had worn the incredible coat of many colors, we find him still guardian of the king's stores after seven years of plenty and now entering the seven years of famine.
Joseph had been thirty years old when the abundant years began. Now, as the period of famine began, Joseph found himself busy sorting out who was to receive food from the storage and who would not. The food was to be sold, and the funds from the sales to go to the Pharaoh. People from throughout Europe came to find food.
Famine was catastrophic in those days. A crop failure would cause great hunger because the people relied solely on their own crops for food. Lack of storage, refrigeration, or transportation turned a moderate famine into a desperate situation. Grain was a universal need as it was used in everything eaten. It could be dried and stored much longer than vegetables, milk products or meat. It was so important it was even used as money.
Now, back in Joseph's original home, where his father Jacob/Israel still was living, the family, too, was starving. Jacob, still not aware that his once favorite son had been sent to Egypt in a traveling group who sold Joseph in Egypt as a slave, asked his other sons to leave for Egypt to buy food, "so that we may live and not die," Jacob said. But he refused to let his youngest son, Benjamin, go with them, as Benjamin was Joseph's brother from Rebekah. and she was no longer alive. Benjamin was now the new favorite, the child of his old age.
When Joseph's brothers arrived in Egypt, they bowed down with their faces to the ground. When they stood again, Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Joseph recognized their bows as he remembered an earlier dream of his when his brothers bowed to him, but he said nothing to reveal he knew them.
Joseph's last memory of them was of staring in horror at their faces as slave traders carried him away. Were his brothers still evil and treacherous, or had they changed over the years? Joseph decided to put them through a few tests to find out. "You are spies!" he said to them. "You have come to see where our land is unprotected!"
"Oh! No! My Lord! Your servants are 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."
Joseph went on, "It is just as I told you: You are spies! And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of your number to get your brother, the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that our words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!" And he put them all in custody for three days.
On the third day, Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God: If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households. But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified and that you may not die." This they proceeded to do.
The brothers of Cana said to one another, "Surely we are being punished because of our sin to our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that's why this distress has come upon us." But Rueben was not to be denied, "Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now we must give an accounting to his blood."
Joseph understood them, and turned away from them to weep. Then, turning back, he had Simeon taken from them and bound him before their eyes. Then, giving orders, Joseph had their sacks filled with grain, to put each man's silver brought for payment back in their sacks and gave them provisions for their journey home.
At the place where the brothers stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to feed his donkey and found the silver. He wakened his brothers and their hearts sank . "What is this that God has done to us?" they cried.
When they returned to Canaan, they told Jacob, their father, all that had happened to them. And Jacob their father became totally disheartened and cried out, "You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more and now you want to take Benjamin! Everything is against me!"
Then Rueben said, "You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring Benjamin back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back." But Jacob said, "My son will not go down there with you! His brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow."
And so, as the famine was still severe in the land, when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, "Go back and buy us a little more food."
Will the brothers be able to take Benjamin, the last child, from Jacob to satisfy the Egyptian? Will Jacob change his mind about Benjamin and allow him to go? What about Joseph? Will he give in? Find out tomorrow!!
Don't you just love family squabbles? Never a dull moment. Too bad we are all alike...human! And that's why we need the Lord!
Jo INMN
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