Coming Around

What goes around comes around.

Now Joseph was governor over the land; it was he 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. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” Although Joseph had recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Joseph also remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them. - Genesis 42:6-9

Do you think Joseph was waiting for his brothers to arrive?

He knew everyone in the land had no food, and it was just a matter of time that word would get to his family that Egypt was the place to go.

So, I would guess that Joseph knew they would be coming, and to get even with them for what they did to him, selling him into slavery, he devised a strategy.  He accused them of spying so he could force them to bring his brother Benjamin to him.

Most likely he didn't trust them.  He knew what they were capable of, so he needed to see Benjamin to know he was still alive.

Of course we don't know what might have happened to them if they couldn't produce him.  But Joseph trusted the dreams he had when he was with them, the dreams that told him they would bow down to him, they and their father with them.

So, he set the wheels in motion to have them all come before him.

Joseph had plenty of time to think about what he would do when he met his brothers again, and I am sure he knew that day would come.  Perhaps he thought about that when he proposed to Pharaoh that he be put in charge of the grain.

So, here is the question.  Did Joseph plan to forgive them, or was he looking to punish them?

I think he may have been motivated to get even at first, but we will see that he has a change of heart when they all come together.

And I think that is the lesson in the story. 

When we have the power to get even and use it forgivingly, we demonstrate the loving grace of God.

More to come...