Genesis 45

        Joseph can restrain himself no longer, and he orders all his servants to leave the room. When he is alone with his brothers, he finally reveals to them the truth. (Acts 7:13) His emotions so overcome him that even those of Pharaoh’s household hear his weeping. (Joseph’s residence must have been near to the palace, or possibly part of the palace complex itself.) “I am Joseph,” he tells his brothers. “Doth my father yet live?” (v.3) But his brothers are too terrified and dismayed to answer. Perhaps his appearance has been so changed in the intervening years that they still can’t be sure, or perhaps they think this is still some kind of trick or another test. Whatever the case, Joseph implores them again. “Come near to me, I pray you.” (v.4) The brothers reluctantly obey. “I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.” He goes on to explain that they shouldn’t feel any more guilt or be angry with themselves, for this was all part of God’s plan. “God did send me before you to preserve life.” (v.5)
       Joseph had realized God’s plan the first time he saw his brothers before him. But, as noted in the previous chapters, he needed to know first if their hearts had been changed, or if they were still the same resentful, greedy and selfish men that had sold him into slavery. It is very likely that Joseph’s faith and trust in God wouldn’t have prevented him from inviting his whole family down to Egypt anyway, even if his brothers had had no change of heart. But it’s clear from this passage that God had also been working in the hearts and lives of Joseph’s brothers as well as that of Pharaoh himself. (v.17-20)
          Joseph tells his brothers that there is still five more years of famine (v.6) and emphasizes once more that it wasn’t them that sent him into Egypt. (v.7) It was God, in his divine providence, that “…made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” (v.8) (Note from my study Bible: “The phrase ‘father to Pharaoh’ is an expression applied to Egyptian viziers as far back as the third millennium B.C.”) Joseph then exhorts his brothers to go back to Canaan and bring his father and all his house and all of their houses back to Egypt where they can make a new home for themselves in the land of Goshen. (v.10-11) According to the explanatory note in my study Bible, this “…was an Egyptian region (Genesis 47:6, 27) in the eastern delta area (Genesis 47:11), not far from the court at Memphis. It was in the area around the Wadi Tumilat, a valley that was about 40 miles long. It was highly suitable for cattle, but hated by the Egyptians (Genesis 46:34). Thus, it provided good seclusion. This isolation would provide for Israel’s distinctive cultural preservation under conditions favorable to their growth and unity.”
         As confirmation of his true identity, Joseph asks them to look at Benjamin, to compare his eyes and Joseph’s since they had the same mother. He has also been speaking to them in their native Hebrew ever since he first ordered all his servants to leave the room. (v.13) (Genesis 42:23) Joseph offers all these things as proof that he really is their brother whom they thought was long lost or dead. He then embraces Benjamin and weeps again for joy, and Benjamin does likewise. (v.14) This act finally convinces the brothers that Joseph is not only who he claims to be, but that he also is not seeking revenge for their original sin against him twenty-two years earlier. Joseph embraces all his brothers in turn, still weeping, and then they have true fellowship and reunion for some time afterward.
 
       As noted earlier, God had also been working in the heart of Pharaoh. When he hears of Joseph’s reunion with his family, he invites Joseph to bring his father and brothers and all their households down to Egypt where “…I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.” (v.18) He also tells Joseph to take wagons of gifts and provisions for his father and the families of his brothers, and Joseph gladly obeys. He gives each of his brothers new clothes, but to Benjamin he also gives three hundred pieces of silver and extra clothing. (v.22) (Again, there is no record of jealousy or resentment on the part of his brothers for this preferential treatment.) For his father, Joseph provides additional gifts as well as extra food for the return trip to Egypt. (v.23) He then bids his brothers farewell, telling them once again to not be troubled with guilt or fear. (v.24)
 
         The brothers tell their father the good news that Joseph is alive and well and that he’s now governor over all of Egypt, but Jacob doesn’t believe them at first. (v.26) But when his sons show him all the donkeys and carts laden with gifts and food, and tell him all that has transpired in Egypt, Jacob’s spirit revives. (v.27) “It is enough,” he rejoices. “Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.” (v.28)