Although Joseph was hundreds of kilometers away from his father's home in Egypt, no one living in the land of Canaan was spared from that huge famine.
Verse 1 of Chapter 42 records:
Why do you wait and see each other?
As we often say: Why are you so big-eyed and so small-eyed?
This describes a group of people who are at a loss in the face of adversity.
Experiencing great difficulties will always remind people of all the dissatisfactions in life.
This huge famine reminded Jacob of the accident he encountered more than ten years ago when he sent his most precious son Joseph, who was as old as Benjamin now, to look for his brothers. .
This is the eternal pain in his heart.
They all heard that there was food in Egypt, but Jacob did not intend to let Benjamin go with his brothers for fear that the misfortune would happen again.
Why didn’t they recognize Joseph?
Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
1. The Egyptians wear heavy makeup, especially the king and the ministers around him (not only women in Egypt wear heavy makeup), so the brothers cannot recognize him;
< p>2. In addition, they had requests from Egypt, and they did not dare to raise their heads too much in front of Joseph, who was as majestic as a king.3. Even if they asked others about the name of the prime minister in front of them, others would tell them that his name was Saphanath Banea, which was the name given to Joseph by Pharaoh. It means our savior, our savior, our savior.
These various reasons led to them not knowing that they “didn’t recognize Joseph.”
The harsh words meant that Joseph pretended to be as ferocious and unkind to outsiders as the Egyptians, with harsh words and a harsh attitude, making them feel that it was very difficult to accomplish this task.
When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be strangers and spoke harsh words to them.
Verse 9 of Chapter 42 says: Joseph remembered the two dreams he had had before and said to them, "You are spies who have come to spy out the reality of this land."
If a spy is discovered in public, he will be thrown into prison and unable to come out, or be beheaded immediately, in order to eliminate the Egyptian threat.
Remembering those two strange dreams, Joseph deliberately misunderstood his brothers, frightened them, and watched them bow down again and again? Was Joseph out for revenge?
Answer:
The two dreams that must come true are not God's special purpose to avenge Joseph!
Those two dreams were just to indicate to Joseph what would happen in the future (his father’s family and everyone in the world depended on Joseph, God’s servant, for their lives).
Joseph, who feared God, would not dare to use his power to bully others when God’s will was accomplished.
The reason why Joseph did not recognize his brothers immediately was because he knew very well that God would take the opportunity to discipline his brothers.
No matter how many times they explained with sincerity, Joseph put them all in prison.
Joseph said:
“Unless your younger brother comes here, you will not come out of this place... You must send one of you to bring your brother Come."
The father at home is anxiously waiting for them to go back to buy food. Here they will also remember the stupid things they did to their brothers more than ten years ago... God sees all this, and God will take advantage of it. Opportunity to punish them?
Three days without seeing the sun, three days of suffering...
I don’t know which one Joseph will choose among them to bring Benjamin back. It is very likely that he will not be able to bring him back... …
Their mentality is on the verge of collapse, and they seem to have no future.
During these three days, they inevitably prayed to God and sought Jehovah’s help. However, they knew they were guilty. Although they called on God, they lacked the confidence.
On the third day, Joseph brought them out of prison and said to them:
I fear God; if you do as I say, you will live.
Let’s leave aside what suggestions Joseph made. He first said that I fear God. This made the ten brothers who suffered in prison for three days and thought they would die: Thank God!
They knew that this person’s original attitude was extremely bad, but after three days, he changed so drastically that he actually gave them, who were considered spies, a chance to prove themselves, and was even willing to give them food to send them away. Go back, this is indeed an act of God!
Joseph did not want to take this opportunity for revenge. He wanted his brothers to build faith in God.
But Joseph cried.
Joseph's face was cold and ruthless, but he was forced to do so. In fact, he couldn't bear to treat his brothers like this, but he had to follow God's will and teach these brothers who used to do whatever they wanted.
That’s why Joseph cried bitterly!
Some parents are determined to punish their children for making mistakes, but they often hide behind their backs and blame themselves deeply or even cry.
If you are a parent, you will know this feeling.
At this time, Joseph was eager to get to know them as soon as possible, but at this time, they needed to recall what they had done before God.
So Joseph tied up Simeon in front of them. This gesture was enough to make his nine brothers mistakenly think that Simeon, who was left as a hostage, was in danger, even though he would not be killed in the Egyptian prison. With his life, he will also taste all the tortures in Egypt.
And Simeon, who once killed all the men in the city of Shechem with Levi, must be able to remember his sin!
Joseph ordered that their vessels be filled with grain, that everyone's money be returned to his pocket, and that he give them food for the journey, and they did as he commanded.
They discovered this situation when they left Egypt and stayed in the hotel in the middle of the night. They were worried and said to each other tremblingly: "What is God doing to us?"
Their lives may be in danger. They are still very immature, but they have such a seeking attitude towards what happens in life, which is worth learning and emulating.
Perhaps the difficulties before us are many and great, and the roles of the people involved are also quite complex. It may take us a lot of time to sort out these, but compared with these, what we should care more about is God’s end What to do?
What purpose does God want to accomplish in us?
After they bought food and returned home, there were some heated words between the father and the brothers.
These come from their own worries.
They are worried about what they will do when they run out of food in the future! There was a man in Egypt who treated them harshly, and their brother had been imprisoned. Simeon's life or death was now uncertain!
They were worried about how Simeon was doing in prison! Is this a trap? Did the Egyptian Prime Minister kill all of them in order to deceive this poor family?
They were worried that although they went through hardships to buy grain for the first time, they did not spend a single penny. What if the Egyptians discovered these things? They seem to be unable to clear their names no matter what!
After they finished eating their worries, they needed to take Benjamin to see the man, because if not, Simeon would suffer. Either Simeon would be trapped there and die, or they and Benjamin would suffer. Benjamin can't even come back...
Now, his father refuses to allow Benjamin to accompany him. What should we do?
Reuben, who was full of blood, said, "If I don't bring him back to you, you can kill my two sons. Just give him into my hands, and I will bring him back to you." You."
Can killing his two sons make up for these unfortunate events? Can the death of more relatives make Jacob, who has lost two sons, feel better? Is there any difference to him between killing his grandson and killing his son? Which one would his heart not hurt losing?
Jacob’s beloved Rachel has died many years ago. Among the two sons Rachel left for him, he has already lost Joseph. He cannot imagine losing Benjamin again.
Here, Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, did not call him Israel, but called him Jacob, allowing us to understand that he was among various worries and contradictions at this time.
In fact, he knew how to choose to solve this matter smoothly, but he didn't want to do that.
Jacob was not ignorant.
If you protect Benjamin carefully, you will not be able to buy grain from Egypt, and the whole family will starve to death. If you send Benjamin with him, something unexpected will happen to Benjamin; Everyone needs to be rescued and has hope of survival.
He actually knows what to do, he just has difficulty making a decision.
We can think about the so-called contradictions in life from the perspective of faith.
Many times our so-called contradictions and confusions are not due to not knowing what to do. Most of our contradictions and confusions are because some options may hurt the interests we do not want to touch, so we pretend that we do not Understand what to do...
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In this world, people are constantly asking God:
Why do you let us go through such and such things? What?
If there is a chance to talk, when we ask such a question, God will definitely ask us:
Think about what you have done?