In the midst of the famine, Jacob learned that food was available in Egypt; so he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at one another? I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die” (Genesis 42:1-2).

So the ten oldest sons – Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher – went to Egypt. Jacob kept Benjamin at home, unwilling to risk that anything might happen to him (42:4). And when the ten arrived in Egypt, they came before Joseph to purchase grain, bowing low before him: not realizing, of course, that this was their long-lost brother. But he knew them right away. “When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them” (42:7).

If we’ve read the story before, we know that later on Joseph would be reconciled to his brothers, with much weeping and embracing: he would even see the hand of God working behind the scenes of their actions, in order to preserve the family (45:1-7). But that part of the story comes later. It doesn’t appear that Joseph had that figured out, right at the start.

Instead, it looks like something else was happening, in those first moments when he saw his brothers: and perhaps for some time afterwards. It looks like Joseph was toying with the idea of wreaking a fearsome vengeance on his ten brothers for selling him into slavery. At this point of the story, we can’t tell what Joseph would decide to do. Would he choose to get his revenge on them, paying them back for how they treated him? Or would he decide on forgiveness and restoration and blessing? At this point in the story, he was probably clear on those two possibilities; but he might not yet have made up his mind which one he would choose.

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We often fall back on anger, harshness, and revenge, O Lord, before we have seen your plan. Yet despite our sins and fears, you are always working to establish that plan. Teach us to trust in you, and to give up our bitterness and rage, knowing that somehow you will indeed bring blessing even in the midst of sorrow.