Okay, so what’s with Joseph? Why is
he torturing his brothers and father like this? Why can’t he let
bygones-be-bygones? Well, the simple explanation is that this story is very
human. By that I mean we can’t expect people to behave in a strictly rational
fashion. Emotions are involved, and they get messy, and we’re not just talking
about Joseph’s emotions.
We need to look at this at the
human level, from within a family that is not the Bradys. When we go back and
examine how Joseph got here in the first place, it’s from the very believable
dynamic of family disagreement. Joseph mouthed off to his brothers and parents,
probably in that smug way that only the youngest child can master. Joseph, from
the beginning, was pretty annoying to the rest of the family, but Dad had a
soft spot for him, which probably made it worse.
When the brothers got rid of him,
it created a very real family trauma for all concerned. As we saw, Jacob is
devastated. The brothers are also convinced that “[they] are
paying the penalty for what [they] did to [Joseph]” (Gen 42:21). Reuben even
comes down on them with “Did I not tell you not to wrong the boy? But you would
not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood” (Gen 42:22). This is
telling, especially when paired with Jacob’s anguish, to show that the entire
family has not dealt well with Joseph’s “death.” Even though the entire thing
is the fault of the brothers, it has indelibly affected them.
This is why Judah
is so convincing when he pleads to take Benjamin’s place in chapter 44. Not
only does he give a summary of Jacob’s trauma, he’s able to assert his own
emotions in the telling of the story, which moves Joseph to reveal himself
before he intended to.
However, Joseph had
no way of knowing any of that prior to Judah’s story. He only knows what he’s
been through. His side of the trauma explains why he’s going through this
elaborate and convoluted scheme, and what the ultimate goal is.