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Daily Bible - Reunited by Famine

Today's Reading is found in Genesis 42:1 to Genesis 45:15.

I left off yesterday saying that the entire world was affected by the famine. This included Joseph's family, who hadn't seen him in 20+ years. They were starving, so Joseph's ten older brothers were sent to Egypt to buy grain for the family. Joseph treated them harshly and accused them of being spies. He wanted to test them before revealing his identity to them so he called on them to go home and return with his youngest brother to prove their story that he was still alive.

Jacob didn't want to send Benjamin, his youngest son, to Egypt for fear of losing him as he did Joseph, but hunger prevailed. The brothers were on their way back to Egypt, this time with Benjamin, bring double the silver as before, since their money had been returned to them originally. Joseph immediately had a feast prepared for them and released the brother who had stayed in prison as a retainer for the others. I wonder what was going through their minds by this time!

When the time came for the brothers to leave, Joseph had their bags packed with as much food as they could carry and returned their money yet again. He also had his cup included with Benjamin's sack, so he would have a reason for his final test of his brothers. They were chased down and returned to Egypt when the 'stolen' cup was found. The brothers were to be slaves to Joseph for this crime. The test was far from over. Joseph allowed the brothers to go, leaving Benjamin in Egypt. Like true brothers, they pleaded for Benjamin's release. Judah went so far as to volunteer to take the punishment for Benjamin to save their father the grief of a second loss.

I named this post appropriately, but would like to add that the famine was engineered by God for the sole purpose of this reunion. His strong right hand can use any event, great and small to his purposes!