The brothers returned home and told their father all that had happened. When they emptied their sacks they found the silver and were afraid. Joseph blamed them for the loss of his children, Joseph then Simeon and now Benjamin! Joseph couldn't stand the idea of losing Benjamin too, but he said that if his sons didn't bring him back that he would die of sorrow.
Eventually they ran out of grain and needed more food. Jacob told them to go get more. When they reminded him about Benjamin he was unhappy thinking of the trouble they had brought to him. Finally Jacob got over his emotional outburst and began to think more clearly. He told the boys to bring gifts from their homeland. I can just see this old man ordering the contents of a very large gift basket; some of this and some of that..."a little balm, and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds." Sounds nice. So they went to Egypt and brought Ben with them plus extra silver. Joseph had his steward take them to his house and make them comfortable. He brought Simeon out to them. When Joseph got there they presented their gifts to him. But still they didn't recognize him. He saw Ben and almost lost it, but got to a private room to cry. He washed his face and went back out to them. He served them all and to Ben he served 5 times what everyone else got.
Joseph tells his servant to fill their sacks with grain and return the silver they had brought and also to put his silver cup into Ben's sack. So they left. Then Joseph sent his servant after them to find the one with Joseph's silver cup inside their grain sack and bring him back to be his slave. So they all returned to Joseph's place. They bowed down to Joseph and told him how their father would die without Benjamin. Judah tried to bargain with Joseph to take Benjamin's place. It was Judah who had the bright idea to sell Joseph to the Midianites in the first place and he was dealing his daughter-in-law a raw deal too.
Finally, Joseph could contain himself no more and cleared everyone out of his house except for his brothers. He revealed who he was to them but they were still afraid because they didn't recognize him. Eventually he convinced them. He laid out a plan to have them bring their father and all their households come and live in Egypt. He also told them that it wasn't their fault that he was brought to Egypt, rather, it was God's will.
Tomorrow read Genesis 45:16-48:7
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