(Written
by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
For a
long time Israel/Jacob was very stubborn about letting the brothers of Joseph
take Benjamin back to the land of Egypt.
He did not want them to take him away!
But the
grain they brought was beginning to dwindle down, and they soon would be hungry
again. One day Jacob told them to go
back to Egypt and buy more food. Judah
reminded their father that they had been warned that they would not be allowed
to buy any more food unless they brought Benjamin with them. They could not go without him.
Jacob in
all of his sorrow asked the logical question:
“Why did you tell the man you had a younger brother in the first place?”
They
replied: “The man questioned us closely
about ourselves and our family. “Is your
father still living? Do you have another
brother?” We simply answered his
questions. How were we to know he would
say, “Bring your brother down here?”
Then
Judah said to his father, Israel (Jacob) “Send the boy along with us and we
will go at once so that we all can live and not die. I will guarantee the safety of Benjamin. You can hold me personally responsible for
him. If I do not bring him back to you I
will bear the blame before you all of the rest of my life. By now we could have already made the journey
and returned twice. It is not good to
wait any longer."
Finally
Israel agreed. He really had no
choice.
He told
the brothers to put some of the finest products of the land into their sacks to
give to the man. They took balm and
honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds. They took double the amount of silver, one
amount to pay for new food and one amount to repay what had been returned to
them, and they took Benjamin.
Israel
stayed behind and mourned. He prayed for
God to have mercy on all of them.
The
brothers hurried to Egypt and presented themselves before Joseph. When Joseph saw them and that they had
Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his household: “Take these men to my house, slaughter an
animal and prepare a meal, they are to eat with me at noon.”
The
servant did exactly as he was told. The
brothers were very frightened when they were taken to Joseph’s house. They thought, ‘we were brought here because
of the silver that was put into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and
seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.’
They
went up to Joseph’s steward and said “We beg your pardon, our lord; we came
down here the first time to buy food.
But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and
each of us found his silver – the exact weight – in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us. We have also brought additional silver with
us to buy food. We don’t know who put
our silver in our sacks.”
“It is
alright” the servant said. “Do not be
afraid. Your God, the God of your father
has given you treasure in your sacks. I
received your silver.
Then
the servant of Joseph brought Simeon out to them. After they gladly and warmly greeted Simeon
the servant took them into Joseph’s house and gave them water to wash their
feet and provided fodder for their donkeys.
They prepared their gifts for Joseph’s arrival at noon, because they had
heard they were to eat with him.
When
Joseph arrived and greeted them, they presented their gifts and they bowed down
to the ground before him. He asked them
how they were doing and he inquired about the health of their aged father. He asked if the father was still living.
Once
again, they bowed and answered Joseph that the father was alive and well.
Joseph
walked over to Benjamin and asked if he was the youngest brother. They nodded and Joseph said “God be gracious
to you, my son.”
Joseph
was so deeply moved at seeing his brother Benjamin, the only other son of his
own mother, that he had to hurry out of the room and look for a place to
weep. He went into his own private room
and wept. He finally composed himself
again, came back out and said “Serve the food.”
Egyptians
do not eat with Hebrews. That is
detestable to Egyptians. So they served
Joseph by himself in one area of the room, the other Egyptians that were there
in another section of the room, and the brothers of Joseph were separated into
the section of the room with Joseph. Joseph’s brothers were then seated before him
in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest. This astonished them, and they looked
silently at each other in wonder
When
the food came, from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portions were five times as much
as anyone else’s. They did not know what
to make of all this, they simply feasted and drank freely with him.