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As mentioned in the previous essay, we may divide this section into: (1) Joseph's Self-Revelation; (2) Joseph's Interpretation of Events; (3) Reconciliation among the Brothers.

Revealing Himself (vv. 1-3)

After Judah has told the heartbreaking narrative in ch. 44 about the situation "back home," he ends it with a plea that shows that he has lost all control of the situation. "For how can I go back to my father if the boy (i.e., Benjamin) is not with me? I fear to see the suffering that would come upon my father" (44:34). It is as if that final word "my father" (abi in Hebrew) resounds deeply in Joseph's heart, kindling a longing for the life that he once knew, the youngest brother whom he loved, and the father who presided over the life of the family. When Judah says "my father," Joseph thinks, 'This is my father too, and my continued 'toying' with my brothers may lead to my father's death of a broken heart.' With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Joseph requires all the people except for his brothers to leave the room. Then, he bursts out in tears, tears that had been welling up in him for years, tears that mingle the sadness, anger and bitterness of his experience of being sold into slavery; tears that ripened into tears of longing for news of his family; tears that now cannot be held back any further, especially as he sees his youngest brother, the apple of his father's eye, Benjamin, standing vulnerably before him. Life for Joseph is simply too bad and too good to be true, at the same time. Aristotle told us that a contradictory assertions cannot both simultaneously be true, but Joseph's heart belies Aristotle's head, for he feels the most overwhelmingly contradictory feelings. So loud is his weeping (even though the Hebrew text only mentions that "he wept") that it or, more likely, the report of it spread to all of Egypt. It is like the explosion of contained grief and happiness when it must burst the container which tries to hold it in check.

But notice how Joseph's words tumble over themselves: "I am Joseph; does my father still live?" It is not "I am Joseph; how are you?" His heart had been pining for home, for his father, for the more peaceful and pleasant rhythms of his youth, whether real or imagined, which the analgetic memory had preserved for him. The floods of memory overwhelm him, and all he can do is to identify himself and ask about his father. Of course his father still lives; Judah has told him that repeatedly. But when the heart longs for home and for the deep connections of family, it needs to be directly assured. "Is my father still alive?" The brothers, understandably, are not simply perplexed or even amazed or dismayed, as the NRSV has it. The Hebrew verb here means "to be terrified." It appears 3X in Ps. 6 to express the absolute terror felt by the one who is surrounded by the enemy. That is how the brothers feel. A scene of deep passion, and potential grace, confronts us. I would love to film it or see it skillfully filmed.

Joseph's Interpretation of What Happened (4-11)

Revelations hardly ever come in the Bible without interpretations to follow. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), but the entire Gospel of John then followed to try to explain him to us. We starve for revelation, but we crave the hermeneutical explanation. In fact, the deep background to this scene is that people are starving--especially the family of Joseph back in Palestine. This sets the context well for the interpretive famine which now confronts Joseph's brothers. How do we move from terror to love? From absolute fear to a scene of hugging, kissing, and weeping over each other (v. 15)? Well, repetition is the key. Revelation might come in one brief shining moment, but interpretation requires repetition. It may be that we are slow to "pick up" on things; it might be that our wall of incredulity is only gradually eroded by the acids of clear interpretation. In any case, Joseph interprets the unique situation in which they find themselves four times in as many verses. He says "for God sent me before you to preserve life" (v. 5); "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant" (v. 7); "So it is not you who sent me here, but God" (v. 8); "thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt" (v. 9). When Joseph was abandoned by his brothers in the pit, the text made no reference to God. The only thing apparent on the surface, and even the depth of the narrative, was that Midionites and Ishmaelites entered in to purchase the discarded Joseph. But while a theological explanation of an event such as this would have looked strange while it was happening, such a construal from the distance of time begins to have a ring of truth to it. It was God who was superintending Joseph's being cast into the pit; God who oversaw the sale, the delivery to Pharoah, Joseph's meteoric rise in the Pharaonic administration, God who brought the brothers back together. Are we able or willing to construe our lives in such a fashion? The brothers may have meant it for evil, but God, who controls the destinies of humans, meant it for good. That is the interpretation which Joseph places on events.

Reconciliation/Restoration (v. 15)

After Joseph's repeated words of self-revelation and interpretaton, the scene ends with an unforgettable scene, first of Joseph and Benjamin exchanging tears and kisses, and then Joseph and the brothers reuniting. The brothers still hadn't said a word--hence the verse closes with "after that his brothers talked with him." The joy of reunion is so strong, so unlikely, so utterly beyond what one could even ask or think, that tears and kisses are the only appropriate response. The experience of the brothers is caught nicely in the great benediction in Ephesians 3:20-21:

"Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

The reunion will not "solve" all their problems, but it brings to a fitting "interim" conclusion a narrative of bitterness, favoritism, jealousy and revenge. What a word for a cold winter day.

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