Genesis 42:18

How will Joseph use his power? Will he condemn his brothers to hard bondage, just as he had suffered bondage at their hands? Human nature might prompt such a course. Vengeance might delight in it. One might plead justice for it. On the other hand, nature might suggest a very different course. Could not Joseph act with generosity and entirely overlook the sin of his brothers?… Nature can often talk in a breezy way of letting bygones be bygones. It can try to exalt itself by a show of generosity. Joseph, however, will take another way. In the eyes of the natural man such conduct seems highly commendable. But it has no attraction for the man who fears God.

This was the secret of Joseph's life. Through all the ups and downs of his path, from youth to old age, the holy fear of God governed him — not the promptings of nature… Nature leaves God out. It thinks only of self-defence, self-gratification, or self-exaltation. Faith thinks of God and of what is pleasing and due to Him… In the day of his temptation the fear of God kept him from the path of evil. He could say, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" In the day of his exaltation the same fear of God keeps him from taking vengeance on his brothers… He always kept God between himself and his circumstances.

He dropped a few words of great significance to the sons of Jacob. They never expected such words from the great lord of a people as idolatrous as the Egyptians. He spoke them to explain a proposal so just and considerate: "I fear God." They were in a serious position, and relief had just been offered. Who can doubt that such words were sure to work on their conscience?

And so God sometimes seems rough with the awakened soul. Instead of giving salvation, the poor anxious one finds himself in Joseph's prison. But on the third day — for resurrection is the only door out of Joseph's prison — Joseph says, "Do this and you will live." Give a guarantee, and you go free, until you bring your younger brother.

Underneath the governor's frown lay compassion for them all. So on the good evidence of the third day he proposed that only one should stay in prison. The rest would return to the comfort of their families with the food he supplied them freely — though they never suspected it… But if the way of transgressors is hard, the way of grace is beyond anything man, good or bad, could imagine.

Joseph, however, had something more to do for them than simply supply their present need. He had to prepare not only a blessing for them, but them for a blessing. The method he had to take might seem strange in their eyes for a while. But love and wisdom were to direct it all from beginning to end. To bless them with real blessing, as he intended, he had to lead them to repentance.

It is exactly what the Lord from a better glory will do before long with His Jewish brothers… He too will cause the pinch of famine to press upon them. He too will work in their hearts as a result, so that He may be made righteously known to them in due time.