The Brothers Come to Egypt

“Now please let your servant stay here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy.” — Genesis 44:33

The famine spread far beyond Egypt. Back in Canaan, Jacob and his family were running out of food. Then Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt.

“Go down there and buy some grain for us,” Jacob told his sons, “so that we don’t die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers set off for Egypt. But Jacob kept the youngest, Benjamin, at home. Benjamin was Joseph’s only full brother, and now he was Jacob’s favourite. Jacob couldn’t bear to lose him too.

In Egypt, the brothers came to the governor who was in charge of selling grain, and they bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

The governor was Joseph! He knew his brothers at once. But they didn’t recognise him at all. Joseph was grown up now, and he was dressed like an Egyptian and spoke Egyptian. And Joseph remembered his dreams about his brothers bowing down to him.

Joseph decided to test them. Were they still the same cruel men who had sold him? He spoke to them harshly. “You are spies!” he said.

“No, my lord!” they said. “We are honest men. We were twelve brothers. The youngest is at home with our father, and one is no more.”

“Then prove it,” said Joseph. “One of you must stay here in prison. The rest of you go home with grain, and bring your youngest brother back to me.”

The brothers said to one another, “This is happening because of what we did to Joseph. We saw how upset he was when he begged us to let him go, but we wouldn’t listen.”

They didn’t know that Joseph could understand every word. Joseph turned away from them and cried.

Joseph kept Simeon in prison and sent the others home with sacks full of grain. When the grain ran out, Jacob had no choice. He had to let Benjamin go. Judah promised his father, “I will take care of him myself. If I don’t bring him back, you can blame me for ever.”

When the brothers came back to Egypt with Benjamin, Joseph gave them a feast. Then he tested them one last time. He had his own silver cup hidden in Benjamin’s sack of grain. When the brothers had set off for home, Joseph’s servant chased after them and searched the sacks. And there was the cup, in Benjamin’s sack!

The brothers were horrified. They went back to Joseph and threw themselves on the ground.

“The one who had the cup will be my slave,” said Joseph. “The rest of you can go home.”

This was the real test. Years before, they had let their father’s favourite son be taken away as a slave. Would they do it again?

Judah stepped forward. “Please, my lord,” he said. “If we go home without the boy, our father will die of sadness. Please let me stay here as your slave instead of him. Let the boy go home with his brothers.”

Judah, who had once sold Joseph as a slave, was now ready to become a slave himself to save his brother. The brothers had changed.

Read it in your Bible: Genesis 42–44

Dear God, thank you that you can change people’s hearts. Please change my heart too, and make me ready to help and protect others. Amen.