The Result of the dream

Genesis 42 (Part 1 of 3)

Have you ever experienced injustice? I suppose we all have felt we have been treated unfairly at certain point in our lives. But have you ever experienced what you would call a gross injustice? Looking at the passage, we’re going to consider over the next few episodes what I would call a gross injustice. Then I thought to myself, what does the word gross mean? I looked it up the English word in the dictionary and I found that it meant flagrant and extreme, and then it gave an example, you know, how the dictionary gives you an example of the word in a sentence. The example was its use in the term gross injustice, so apparently those two words go together more than even I was aware. I think the question should really be how do should we handle injustice when it really gets hard and focused on us. 

As you know, if you been with us as we’ve been working through Genesis and we’re into the life of Joseph now and if there was ever a man who experienced a gross injustice, it was this guy Joseph. He did absolutely nothing wrong except he had dream when he was a young teenager which his brothers didn’t like. A dream in which he was ruling over his eleven brothers and even his whole family and they didn’t like that, in fact it caused hem to feel great jealousy and envy towards him. Then came the injustice, the gross injustice. He was sold by his brothers in the slavery and then he ends up in prison in Egypt for something he didn’t do. You know the story, he ends up, first of all in Potiphar House and Potiphar’s wis wife tries to seduce him and when he rejects here she turns on him and accuses him of attempted rape and he ended up in prison. The having helped a fellow prisoner by interpreting a dream for him this guy promised that he would say something for him when he got out of prison, forgot to do so. This young man Joseph has just experienced not one injustice, but one injustice after another. His brothers sold him into slavery. Potiphar wife lied about him and accused him of something he did not do and he gets thrown into prison for something he is innocent of and his fellow inmate who got set free and promises to put in a good word in for him with Pharaoh, completely forgets about him. Every time Joseph turns around, he’s been treated unjustly. So how did he handle it, and what can we learn from his response to such gross injustices.

Well amazingly by the providential hand of God working in the everyday events around him, he does get out of prison, and he s to be elevated to what amounts to the Prime Minister or the Vice President of the whole nation and because he was able to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. He is put in charge of all the food supply for the whole nation of Egypt when the Lord revealed that we’re going to be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Because of Joseph they is in charge of the plan to store food in reserved for the seven years of plenty to be used later during the famine years. As we opened Genesis 42, we are dealing with a man that has been dealt with very unjustly. He’s experienced one injustice after another, but now he’s in a place of power and he’s dealing with the famine. Now, in chapter 42, verse one we see what is happening back in Palestine with Joseph’s father Jacob and brothers, who we see are also facing a famine.

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?” He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt”.

(Genesis 42: 1-3)

Interesting scenario, they’re running out of food but at least they still had some money, and Jacob the father of this clan found out that there was food to be had in Egypt. Now there are eleven sons left at this point in time, of course Joseph is in Egypt and the other 11 are still at home, and they’re just sitting around looking at each other, and the father says, why are you just looking at each other? Doesn’t that just sound like something a father would say to his sons? Why are you just sitting there doing nothing, why don’t you do something? How about going down to Egypt and buy some food for us? So, they agree to do that. Then it he says Joseph’s, 10 brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.

How many sons did Jacob have? Answer, twelve. How many are in Egypt? One then how many are then left with Jacob? Eleven. How many go to Egypt to buy grain? 

If you’re reading the text, it sort of just slaps you in the face that 10 go, not 11, so one is missing, they don’t all go. Furthermore, look at the verse three is says, “Joseph, ten brothers”. It didn’t say Jacobs ten sons it said Joseph’s ten brothers. Bible experts say it say this choice of words selected because the author is deliberately writing this story from the viewpoint of Joseph, and it’s pointing out that it’s his brothers that are coming, not just Jacob’s sons. Verse four,

But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. So, Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also.

(Genesis 42: 4-5)

Jacob wants to keep Benjamin safe at home lest any calamity should befall him, isn’t that interesting? The implication seems to be that Joseph had been Jacob’s favorite, the apple of his eye, so to speak and now, and as far as he knows, Joseph is dead. Apparently, he’s got another favorite now, and it’s Benjamin. He’s willing for them all to go but he’s going to keep Benjamin in case some calamity would come upon him. 

So, the story opens with Jacob commanding the other ten sons, the ten brothers of Joseph to go to Egypt to get some grain, otherwise they will starve to death. What happens next is they get to Egypt and they will meet Joseph, now they have not seen Joseph for a long, long time. One author estimates that the brothers had not seen each other for 21 years.  So, it’s been a very long time since they last saw him. 

What now follows in this passage is a sort of verbal confrontation and things get a little complicated, so I’m going to try and simplify it by calling this round one, round two, round three, round four, round five, of a testy conversation and these rounds of confrontation are found in versus 6 to 24. 

So, let’s begin with round one, starting in verse six.

Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.  As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.” Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him

(Genesis 42: 6-8)

So, Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him? Alright, this is round one. First part of the conversation and it’s pointed out that Joseph was governor over the land. We know from previous passages that he oversees everything. He’s in charge of all the food, he has virtually absolute power in the only person he was accountable to was Pharaoh the king. So, he either managed the food distribution himself or an account was given to him, and people had to go through Joseph to get some of this preciously stored food. That is the point. The text says that Joseph’s brother did not recognize him and as I mentioned, it was at least 20 years since they had seen him, and they wouldn’t have ever expected him to be the governor. As a matter of fact, this happens to me all the time. I know someone in a certain situation, and you meet them out of that context, and I don’t recognize them. Sometimes I have to pause because I know, I know that person, but don’t know where I know them from. You know, I know that person and you must stop and think for a minute where do I know them from. Sometimes I can place the, sometimes I can’t. But in this case, they didn’t even recognize him, so, we can easily justify why they did not recognize him, but he recognized them.

It says in verse 7 he spoke roughly to them, now the Hebrew word translated roughly means hard, cruelly severely. The text will later tell us that they spoke to them through a translator, and what he says is harsh to them, but they had no way of knowing who he was, but he knew who they were. That’s the first round. The second round begins in verse 9.

Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” “No, my lord,” they answered. “Your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.”

(Genesis 42: 9-11)

So, in round one he recognizes them. In round two he says you’re spies. Now, of course he knows they’re not, but he’s going to give him a hard time. This would have been a serious charge, even today in many countries of the world spying is a capital offense, so you can believe it was very likely a capital offense in ancient Egypt. To accuse them of being spies was serious stuff, but their response is rather interesting. 

This is their defense; we are brothers, we all one man’s sons and we are honest man. What has the fact they are brother got to do with anything? The theory would be that if they were spies, it was likely it would have been a military operation, and soldiers would have been sent. Unlikely then that they would be all related and in those days a father wouldn’t send ten of his sons on a military operation for fear that he’d lose them all. The argument seems to be it’s not reasonable that we would be spies because we’re all brothers, end of round two. Round three, begins in, verse 12.

 “No!” he said to them. “You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” But they replied, “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.”

(Genesis 42: 12-13)

Alright, now they are letting loose on some information that he can use against them. Who is the one that’s back in the land? Benjamin. Who is the one that is no more? Joseph, and they don’t even know they are talking to Joseph, the one they have just described as being no more, because as far as they are concerned, he is dead. Round four picks up at verse 14.

Joseph said to them, “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 your 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.

(Genesis 42: 14-17)

So. He’s going to test them, and he is going to put them into prison for three days now to dwell on their situation. He’s really in a position to some real hurt to them on the basis of the great injustice he previously experienced at their hands. He’s really in a position to make them suffer now, if he so chose. What will he do? 

At this point, he’s just pretending to not accept their explanation and he’s giving them a very hard time. So, we now come to round five. It starts in verse 18 and goes all the way through verse 24, but we shall pick it up next time.