Today’s Scripture Reading (August 5, 2018): Genesis 45
Have you ever had a
secret that was too good to keep? On the day after our wedding, my wife and I
planned to crash a party our families were having at my in-law’s house. The
only one who knew that we were coming was my father-in-law. He kept the secret,
but just barely. Everyone seemed to know that something was up, but not exactly
what. From the stories we heard afterward, he couldn’t seem to sit very long,
kept on going to doors and windows to “look” at whatever it was that was
happening on the street. He was probably relieved when he finally saw us pull
up. He no longer had to keep the secret.
Joseph’s motives in
keeping his brothers in the dark about his identity are clear. In forming a plan of action, he had some
questions that needed answering. And the first question was whether the events
of his sale years ago still described the character of his brothers – or had
they changed. Benjamin became an important pawn in the masquerade. Joseph
believed that if his brother's character
had remained the same as on the day he was sold,
then they would gladly sell his only full brother into captivity as well, to
save themselves. And if that were so, then Joseph had a chance to save his
younger brother from the consequences that he had suffered.
But that was not
the case. Over the time that Joseph had dealt with his brothers, he was convinced that they are not the same people
who had sold him into slavery. Time had passed, and
they truly regretted the action that they had taken so many years earlier. Maybe
they had matured a little bit. And Joseph had matured as well. The events of
his life, as terrible as some of them had been, had shaped him, molding him
into the respectable government official who now stood in front of them. He was
no longer the annoying little brother that he had once been.
And as Joseph comes
to the conclusion that his brothers have changed, the desire to reveal himself
to them, and to find a way to reconnect with his aging father, overwhelms him.
And he begins to break down in a way that he did not want to in front of his
servants. It must have been a scary moment for his brothers. Here, this
Egyptian official was ordering his staff out of the room, leaving the sons of
Jacob alone with the official. For whatever was coming next, there would be no
witnesses. After all that they had suffered, from silver mysteriously returning
to them to a missing cup that was found
in young Benjamin’s sack, they must have felt that someone was out to get them.
And now the Egyptian could do and say whatever he wanted. At least a small part
of them must have wondered if they would get out of the room alive, or whether
soldiers would march in and dispose of them without anyone knowing that they
had been there.
They would leave
the room alive, but they would be changed.
In a moment, the brother they had betrayed would be returned to them. And
life would continue but in a very
different manner.
Tomorrow’s Scripture
Reading: Genesis 46
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