Reading: Genesis 43-45, Psalm 14
I heartily enjoy stories with well engineered plot twists. Movies, books, television shows, even video games- no matter what the medium, the unexpected revelation that tells the audience that the story is different than they thought it was is one of my favorite storytelling techniques. I would share with you my favorite examples, but one of the unique properties of a really good plot twist is that sharing it spoils it.
Yesterday we left the sons of Israel back in the land of Canaan, having succeeded in their mission to buy food from Egypt, but at the cost of the imprisonment of one of them, Simeon, who was held by Joseph until such time as they returned with Benjamin. Today’s reading picks up an indeterminate amount of time later- all we know is that the family is again running short of food and Egypt is again the only place selling. And here our other major player, Judah, returns to the fore. If you recall, up to this point Judah has pretty much been a scoundrel. Here he volunteers to be the responsible party and carry the blame if anything happens to Benjamin on the journey- a noble offer, but having seen Judah’s track record, one we have reason to doubt. After much emotional distress, Jacob finally agrees to send Benjamin.
The brother’s second visit to Egypt, while perhaps less anxiety inducing than the first, seems no less bizarre. They are not just received and Simeon returned to them, they are honored and given a feast. Benjamin in particular is given an outrageous amount of food. Then they are sent on their way, but once again Joseph behaves in an extremely odd fashion. He not only returns their money as before, but puts his silver cup, by which he claims to practice divination, into Benjamin’s bag. Then he sends the guards after them to bring back the “thief” who stole the cup.
It is chancy to guess at motives in stories we are so far separated from. What exactly Joseph intended to happen we do not know, but his words suggest a plan to keep Benjamin with him in Egypt and allow his other brothers to pack it back to Canaan. What actually happened is, considering the stories we’ve heard so far, an astonishing turn of events. Upon Benjamin effectively being arrested for theft, all ten of his brothers come back to face Joseph with him. Then, when given the opportunity to go and leave Benjamin behind, Judah steps up and volunteers to take Benjamin’s place as Joseph’s slave. What has happened to the scoundrel from chapters 37 and 38? Something about Judah is different. Once he sold his own brother into slavery, but now he freely confesses his own guilt, and has become willing to accept the punishment for another’s crime.
Judah’s plea overwhelms Joseph, and he finally reveals who he is to his brothers. In response to their terror at this information, Joseph tells them that this was all part of God’s plan. You meant this for evil, but God meant it for good. Once again, all the missteps, mistakes, and outright evil acts carried out by God’s chosen people have been dragged into God’s promise and co-opted. Humans made the story worse, God made the story better. Another step has been revealed in God’s subversive plan to restore the human heart.
Joseph sends a wagon train to bring his father and all their family to Egypt. Jacob has a hard time believing the wild story, but when he sees the parade of animals and wagons, he agrees to go down to Egypt. Tomorrow, we will see how the family of Israel manages to maintain it’s identity in a foreign land where there would be every motivation to acculturate, and how God sets up a future return to the land he promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.