Plenty, famine, and restoration....

You may be looking at this photo thinking, "What IS that and what does it have to do with the story of Joseph!?" Weeelllll, I have a nephew being born in a week and my brother and sister-in-law are naming him Benjamin. I painted this for him (Thanks, Sylvia for the watercolor pencils!) ....and it has a LOT to do with Joseph because we are approaching the part in Joseph's story where his brothers re-enter his life. Not only that, but the majority of their dealings together are around the youngest brother, Benjamin. AND, I thought it might be fun to put up a picture I did for once. ;p
So here we go.....
We left off with Joseph becoming 2nd in command over all of Egypt! Oh, how the tables have turned!!! God is faithful! And after 7 years of great crops and good weather, saving 1/5 of the crop and setting up storehouses all over Egypt, Joseph is finally opening up the storehouse doors to feed a very hungry Egypt. The seven years of famine have begun--watch how God uses this predicament to further bless Joseph's socks off!
So Joseph's dad, Jacob, is living in the land of Canaan with all the brothers......the famine has cramped their style, too, and so Jacob tells his sons (with the exception of Benjamin) to go to Egypt to buy some food for he had heard that there was an abundance there. (Gen. 42) Upon their arrival, they met a man named Zaphenath-Paneah, a well-dressed Egyptian representing Pharoah at the storehouse door. Can you guess who that was?? Yeah, Joseph. God's so cool. Yeah, so the brothers bowed low to the ground to show respect for Pharoah's second in command and I am sure by this point Joseph had his thirteen year-old dreams flood back to him...and Joseph says to them (recognizing them immediately) "Who are you and where are you from?" (as if he didn't know!) The brothers, not recognizing him, answered that they were from the land of Canaan, but Joseph wanting to know if his brothers had changed their evil ways said, "You are spies coming to see where our land is unprotected!" (Genesis 42:9) Can you imagine? I had to laugh at this! The brothers plead for their lives and claim that they are his servants, the sons of one man, Jacob, honest men with families of their own.....can you say, 'humbling experience'? Joseph says again, "no you are spies" and they say once again, "your servants were 12 brothers.....the youngest is at home in Canaan with our father and one other is no more" (nice cover, boys!) So Joseph once again calls them spies and says to them that the only way that he will believe they are innocent is if they send one of their brothers to go back to Canaan and return with the youngest brother.....the others must go off to prison. A little retribution action going on here, I'd say! But then after three days in prison, Joseph says to the brothers (Gen. 42:18+) that he will let all but one brother go back to Canaan to feed their starving families, but Simeon had to stay in prison until they returned with the youngest. Immediately the brothers (in their native tongue, not Arabic) mumble to each other that this whole situation is God punishing them for their sin 13 years ago with Joseph. Joseph must have been soooo relieved to hear his native tongue let alone these brothers show some remorse for "killing" him. I'll stop there for now. I find it interesting how Joseph tests his brothers to see if they are really honest men or if they still act in selfish self-fulfillment. And what about Benjamin? He is Joseph's flesh and blood, the last son of Jacob's beloved Rachel. Is he well and do the brothers loathe him as they did Joseph because of their father's favoritism? How will the brothers react when Joseph reveals his true identity? Well, that's still to come.....but what can we apply to our lives today....I think the fact that the brothers are FINALLY coming clean about the whole Joseph thing after 13 years just goes to show that God is a God of truth and reconciliation. AND before reconciliation, there must be confession and repentence. This is the journey that the brothers are on. God desire for them to be on this journey because He cares about them so much. He desires for a right relationship with their estranged brother as well as a right relationship with their father who still believes a beast killed Joseph. That should teach us (ME) that God never allows us to get away with sin. The truth will always come out and it DOES set us free if we allow it to. More on that point later. :) Stay tuned! And I have to be honest....if you (if there are people reading this blog) do not comment, then I never know when to write a new entry, so please comment so I know I should move on to the next portion of the story. Thanks for graciously reading my stuff.