Joseph finds himself face to face with his brothers. He knows who they are, but the years have changed him, and they have no expectation of ever seeing him alive, much less as the prime minister of Egypt. So, despite multiple encounters, they cannot recognize the man right in front of them.
That raises a question. Who is in front of you that you simply do not recognize? The waitress that you just snapped at, she might be the person God wanted you to win to Him. The kid in the car next to yours, with his vulgar music shaking your windows, he may just be the next great evangelist. Your own family member may even be more of world changer than you ever thought possible.
Perhaps it would be good to pray for spiritual eyes. There are people with powerful callings all around you and it may just be your role to help them discover that truth.
-Pastor Conley
Genesis 43–44 (MEV)
1 Now the famine was severe in the land.
2 When they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little food.”
3 Judah spoke to him, saying, “The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.’
4 If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you.
5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down. For the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.’ ”
6 Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?”
7 And they said, “The man asked us directly about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ So we answered his questions. How could we even know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?”
8 And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, so that we may live and not die, both we and you, and also our little ones.
9 I will be a surety for him. You may hold me personally responsible for him. If I fail to bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.
10 For if we had not delayed, we could have returned twice.”
11 Their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, do this. Take some of the best fruits in the land in your bags, and carry down a present for the man: a little balm and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds.
12 Take double the money with you, along with the money that was brought back in the mouths of your sacks. Carry it with you again. Perhaps it was a mistake.
13 Also, take your brother and arise, return to the man.
14 And may God Almighty give you mercy before the man, so that he may send away your other brother, along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
15 The men took the gift, and they took double the money with them, along with Benjamin. Then they went on their way down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.
16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the house steward, “Bring these men home, slaughter an animal and prepare it, for these men will dine with me at noon.”
17 The man did as Joseph ordered, so the man brought the men into Joseph’s house.
18 The men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph’s house. They said, “We have been brought in because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time, so that he may seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for slaves with our donkeys.”
19 They approached the steward of Joseph’s house, and they spoke with him at the entrance of the house.
20 They said, “My lord, we indeed came down the first time to buy food.
21 When we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and realized every man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us.
22 We have also brought additional money with us to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks.”
23 He said, “Be at peace; do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.
24 The man brought the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water to wash their feet and gave feed to their donkeys.
25 Then they made ready the gift for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they heard that they would be eating a meal there.
26 When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed themselves to him to the ground.
27 He asked them about their well-being and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?”
28 And they answered, “Your servant our father is in good health. He is still alive.” And they bowed down their heads and prostrated themselves.
29 He lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me?” And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.”
30 Joseph hurried out, for he was deeply moved over his brother and sought a place to weep. So he entered into his chamber and wept there.
31 Then he washed his face and came out. Controlling himself, he said, “Serve the food.”
32 They served him by himself and them by themselves and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat a meal with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.
33 They sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth, and the men looked at one another in astonishment.
34 He gave them portions from his own table, but Benjamin’s serving was five times more than any of theirs. So they drank and feasted with him.
1 Then he commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s money in the mouth of his sack.
2 Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, along with his grain money.” And he did according to what Joseph had spoken.
3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.
4 When they were gone out of the city, but not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you rewarded evil for good?
5 Is this not the one from which my lord drinks and uses as he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this.’ ”
6 So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words.
7 They said to him, “Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing.
8 Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money that we found in the top of our sacks. Why then would we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?
9 Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.”
10 He said, “Now let it also be according to your words. He with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you will be blameless.”
11 Then every man hurriedly took down his sack to the ground, and every man opened his sack.
12 He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
13 Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey and returned to the city.
14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there; and they fell to the ground before him.
15 Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?”
16 And Judah said, “What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Here we are, my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose possession the cup was found.”
17 But he said, “Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose possession the cup was found shall be my slave; but as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
18 Then Judah approached him and said, “O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh.
19 My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father or a brother?’
20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’
21 “You said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him.’
22 We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
23 You said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.’
24 When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord.
25 “Our father said, ‘Go again and buy us a little food.’
26 We said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down, for we may not see the man’s face, unless our youngest brother is with us.’
27 “Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.
28 And the one went out from me, and I said, “Surely he was torn in pieces,” and I have not seen him since.
29 And if you take this one also from me and he is harmed, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.’
30 “Now therefore when I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life,
31 when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave.
32 For your servant became surety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I fail to bring him to you, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever.’
33 “Now therefore, please let your servant stay as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers.
34 For how can I go up to my father if the boy is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would find my father?”