Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’”
Jacob's sons come home from Egypt and repeat the ruler's terms to their father. They never guessed that this ruler was their own brother. Everything hangs on one condition — bring the youngest brother down — and on one promise: prove honest, and Joseph will hand back the brother he holds and open the land to them.
A claim that condemns them
The words they report are their own defence thrown back at them. They had insisted they were honest men, and Joseph now takes that claim and builds a test around it.
Hamilton SmithThey have condemned themselves out of their own mouths. They protested that they are honest men, and in the same breath they say, "one is no more." They know full well that if Joseph has passed out of their existence, it is entirely because of their own wickedness. They stand in the presence of the one they had rejected with unrepentant hearts, and yet protest they are honest men.
Another writer explains why Joseph charged them with spying in the first place.
L. M. GrantWhen they asked to buy food, he accused them of being spies. The charge was not true, but Joseph was seeking to awaken concern in their hearts about their past dishonesty. They protest that they are true men, the sons of one man. They must later be brought to confess that they have not been true.
Benjamin: the one condition
Joseph fixes on the one son still at his father's side. Commentators say the whole reconciliation turns on this demand.
William KellyThere can be no restoration and no reconciliation until Joseph and Benjamin are united. There is relief, it is true, but no deliverance for Israel. He who was separated from his brothers, but is now in glory, must have the son of his father's right hand… But the truth is, there was another moral necessity to meet — how to set their hearts and their consciences right all round.
The demand also lands exactly where their old guilt lies. What they once did to one favoured son, they are now asked to risk with the other.
F. B. HoleThe point of this struck home to the brothers. They had robbed their father of Joseph. Now he is to lose the younger son on whom his love was specially set. It stabbed their consciences into action.
Rough words, loving purpose
The harshness the brothers describe to Jacob was never cruelty. It was a deliberate method, and it cost the man who used it.
J. G. BellettThis was taking them up for the good work of restoring their souls, though the process is humbling and painful. Their conscience must be dealt with faithfully, if anything is to be done. Joseph aims at it at once. He makes himself a stranger to them. He speaks to them through an interpreter, and he speaks roughly… He must get their conscience working, whatever it costs him in personal feeling. His love, for the present, must be firm; its hour for melting and tenderness is still ahead.
A brother held, and sacks filled
The terms hold two things together. One brother stays behind in chains, yet Joseph still meets their needs. Both the keeping and the giving serve the same end.
Hamilton SmithSimeon is bound before their eyes. But it is love that binds the cords round Simeon, for even as he does so he turns aside to weep… He does not forget their needs, and so gives them some relief. Even so, Simeon stays a prisoner… If they had eyes to see, they would learn from this that Joseph was a giver. But in their condition, gifts only stir up deeper fear.
Blessing on the far side of the testing
Joseph's promise stands — the brother restored, the land open — but they do not have it yet. It waits until the work in them is finished.
F. B. HoleConscience had only just begun to work in them, and its work leads to repentance. That work needed to go much deeper. This is how God deals with us. He lets His correcting hand lie heavy on us until He carries the work through to completion. Then afterwards the blessing comes.
Famine drives the brothers back to Egypt, and one writer traces where that road ends.
J. N. DarbyHis brothers had rejected him. Famine forces them, and the path of repentance and humiliation brings them to own him at last in glory — the one they had once rejected when he was connected with them. Benjamin is a picture of the power of the Lord on earth among the Jews. He is joined to the one who, unknown, held the power of the throne among the Gentiles… But this brings all the brothers into connection with Joseph.
Summary
- Claim — Their own words, "we are honest men," become the terms of their test. In the end they must confess the opposite.
- Condition — Benjamin must come down. Relief can be had without him, but no restoration and no reconciliation.
- Conscience — The rough treatment they report is love acting firmly. It aims at the conscience, because nothing is done until the conscience is faced.
- Cost — One brother stays bound while the sacks go home full. Severity and generosity work together, but guilty hearts read the kindness as a threat.
- Completion — The promised reunion waits until the work is deepened and finished. Then, and not before, the blessing is reached.