Genesis 45:2

Now the grace of God has worked genuine repentance in the hearts of the brothers, and in Judah in particular. So Joseph is free to reveal to them His own true identity. He was so deeply affected that he could not restrain himself; and called on all his servants to leave the room.

Joseph could not, and would not, hold out any longer. He gave way at once to his pent-up affection. So that he could do it freely and fully, he ordered every attendant to leave his presence. No stranger must interfere in such a scene… All must be out now. In Genesis 42:30 he looked for a place to weep alone, and held himself back. Now he let his feelings out without measure, so that they would be free from their fears and sure of the love that was always in his heart. For he knew well that the discovery must fill them with dread as much as astonishment. And he gave way to weeping so loud that the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

The skill and power of Joseph's hands had carried him to the top. The future of his brothers and of all Egypt now lay in those hands. Then the tender compassions of his heart came out, and they expressed themselves in his tears. In Genesis 39 to 41 Joseph's hands are prominent. Genesis 42 to 50, Joseph's tears. These later chapters record that Joseph wept no less than eight times.

It is remarkable that there is no mention of Joseph weeping in his earlier years… Even his hard-hearted brothers had to confess it. They said, "we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen" (Genesis 42:21). They saw the distress of his soul, but as far as the record goes they never saw his tears.

He told his brothers to come near and said to them, "I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt." We might have expected that they would be the ones who wept — first at recognising the great wrong they had done him, and second at the grace that overflowed their evil. But no, the tears were his and not theirs. They had had to bow down before him. But he deserved it, for he towered above them in the things that are truly great in the sight of God. A faint foreshadowing of the greatness of Christ.

He wept again as he saw the work of repentance going on in his brothers. In his own way, he longed for them greatly. At last Judah's words were too much for him. Conviction of conscience had then ended in restoration of heart. "The old man" and "the lad," again and again on Judah's lips, had a power that prevailed. Joseph could no longer hold himself back. He sobbed aloud, and the house of Pharaoh heard him. But these were more than the tears of nature. This was the heart of Christ, or the tears of the Father on the neck of the prodigal son.

Joseph's brothers rejected him, and in the land of Egypt he was exalted to the right hand of the throne. There he stood next to the one who set him in the highest place, and his brothers still did not know him. One day the true Joseph will present Himself to the sons of Israel. Will they not grieve in their souls, as Joseph's brothers did while the house of Pharaoh heard it? There was never such genuine mourning as this for the offspring of Jacob.