There was a severe famine in the land of Canaan. When Jacob learned that food was available in Egypt, 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. Yet 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).

<A brief note about chronology>

What would that have been like, for Joseph? No doubt he felt a certain satisfaction, as they came as hungry supplicants for his favor: all those years earlier he had dreamed a dream about sheaves of grain representing his brothers bowing down before him, and now here they were, doing exactly that – for the sake of grain!

But would he sell them grain, like he might to any other foreigners seeking trade? Or would he reveal himself to them, offering forgiveness for their actions for the sake of family? Or – now that they were completely in his power – would he unleash some severe vengeance upon them? It looks like he was giving that last option serious consideration. We can’t tell what Joseph would choose; and indeed, he himself might not yet have known what he would decide to do.

* * * * *

In the midst of the trials of this world, O Lord, we sometimes face momentous choices. Our stories might go one way or another, depending on what we decide. Fill our hearts with courage and grace, we pray, that we might be bold to choose to act on the basis of your mercy.

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