7
¶ And Joseph saw his brethren, and he
knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and
he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to
buy food. 8 And Joseph knew his
brethren, but they knew not him. 9 And
Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye
are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. 10 And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to
buy food are thy servants come. 11 We
are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies. 12 And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the
nakedness of the land ye are come. 13
And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in
the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and
one is not. 14 And Joseph said unto
them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies: 15 Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of
Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
16 Send one of you, and let him fetch
your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved,
whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are
spies. 17 And he put them all together
into ward three days. 18 And Joseph said
unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God: 19 If ye be true men, let one of your brethren
be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your
houses: 20 But bring your youngest
brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And
they did so.
Joseph puts on a good show for his brothers. He
probably has spoken to several envoys from suffering lands around him and has
his speech set by repeated usage. “Where are you from?” is the first thing he
wants to know. There are probably countries that Egypt would be concerned about
possibly sending spies in preparation for an attempted invasion to seize
Egypt’s supplies. Joseph probably was normally wary. But he knows his brothers.
He is successful in keeping them from knowing who he is.
As he speaks roughly to them he remembers the dreams
he had where his family all bow to him.
Genesis
37:5 ¶ And Joseph dreamed a dream, and
he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. 6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this
dream which I have dreamed: 7 For,
behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also
stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance
to my sheaf. 8 And his brethren said to
him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over
us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it
his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the
sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his
brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream
that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to
bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11
And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
Joseph realizes the fulfillment of these prophetic
dreams. Now, notice the prophetic similarity regarding the Jews and Christ at
the end of human history in the following verse.
Revelation
12:1 ¶ And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon
her head a crown of twelve stars:
We can see how the Holy Spirit imparting wisdom to
Moses to write this account of early history uses a metaphor to describe the
tribes of Israel. We can then have a better understanding of prophetic verses
in later parts of the Bible.
In this passage there is then an exchange where the
brothers declare that they came to buy food but Joseph accuses them of being
spies, come to check out the land. The brothers declare their innocence of
this. When they admit that they have a brother that was left behind with their
father Joseph demands that, to prove who that they are speaking the truth, they
bring that brother to him. One of them is to go fetch Benjamin and the rest are
to be hostages. He locks them up for three days, again symbolizing the bondage
that death represents for God’s people until He releases them. Here, in this
passage we see the synonymous comparison between ward and prison.
On the third day Joseph changes his order and demands
that only one of them be a hostage and, in his mercy, the rest can take food
back to their families. But, the younger brother must be brought to him. There
are some interesting prophetic ideas here regarding Israel’s relationship with
Christ, the Messiah whom they rejected and demanded that Rome murder. Who does
Benjamin represent in this relationship? Whatever we think we must remember
that this is regarding the Jews rather than Gentiles.
Joseph wants so badly to see his little brother.
No comments:
Post a Comment