Throughout
my reading of the story I thought it was an interesting point that none of
Joseph’s brothers ever admit to their father what they had done, even though
Joseph (apparently) forgave them. That is such an outrageously awful thing to
have done to anyone, selling Joseph to Egyptians because they were worried
about a dream he had and didn’t want to bow down to him, and he was their
brother! Understandably none of them would have wanted to defer to him with
that reverence…but that’s exactly what ended up happening in the end, with
Joseph being the one in charge of affairs and telling them what to do to
survive. Jacob conveniently dies without ever having to know the real truth,
but I guess at least he was happy and Joseph reconciled with his brothers,
although it’s never explicitly mentioned that they all talk about how they sold
their brother into slavery.
I was also curious about Joseph’s
life in Egypt and him eventually getting to run the household of the Pharaoh.
Normally, one would expect Joseph to be really angry and bitter about being
sold into slavery and probably try to get back at his brothers, or at least
find a way to confront them about it and expose them. Joseph does none of that,
and he doesn’t seem to have any malicious intent—except for a little bit, when
he tells his brothers that to get more grain their youngest brother will have
to come stay with him, which he knows will break Israel’s heart. But throughout
it all, he never seeks revenge, even though he easily could have, being in
charge of handing out food and keeping everything in order. All he wanted was
to have his family be satisfied, and he got that and a reconciliation with his
brothers.
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