Genesis 42:9 says, And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. Joseph remembered his dreams about his brothers when he recognized them and they did not recognize him. Joseph then accused them of being spies sent to see if Egypt was suffering from the draught as other nations were. I personally don't believe that Joseph did this as a way to make the dream come true, since God would be the One Who would cause the dream to be fulfilled if it was really a revelation from God. We cannot force God's revelations to happen, but I believe that we sometimes try to, especially in relationship to the second coming of Christ. Verse ten states, And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. His brothers said that they weren't spies, but had only come to buy bread. Of course, they weren't noted for speaking and dealing honestly with Joseph. If someone has dealt dishonestly with us in the past, we may question their honesty when we deal with them again. Verse eleven adds, We are all one man’s sons; we are true men, thy servants are no spies. Joseph's brothers told a partial truth. They were the sons of one man, but Joseph knew this. It was the second part, that the were true, or truthful, men that was not entirely correct as far as Joseph was concerned. Verse twelve declares, And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. Joseph again accused them of being spies. I don't believe that Joseph was doing this simply to enjoy his position of power over them, and we cannot treat the lost of the world today as if we are better than them simply because of our position in the world, or really even because of our relationship to Christ. We are all simply sinners saved by grace. Verse fifteen says, And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. The brothers told Joseph what they thought was the truth. Though they did not know if Joseph was dead, which he obviously wasn't, as far as they were concerned, he no longer existed. Verse fourteen states, And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies: Then verse fifteen adds, Hereby ye shall be proved: By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Joseph said that in order to prove that they weren't spies, they had to bring their younger brother there. I believe that the fact that Benjamin wasn't there showed that he was being treated as special by Jacob, and this was Joseph's way to see if his brothers would treat Benjamin as they had treated him. Verse sixteen continues, Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies. Joseph proposed sending one of the brothers to bring Benjamin back while the others remained in prison there. Again, I believe that this was to test the character of the brothers and not simply so Joseph could show his power over them. When someone professes to accept Christ as their Savior, if they have harmed us in the past we may question their sincerity. Still, we can never hold their past against them, even if we feel the need to check the sincerity of their declaration of faith, but I don't believe that we should continually look for ways to disprove their faith. Verse seventeen states, And he put them all together into ward three days. Then verse eighteen adds, And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God: Joseph gave them three days together before he spoke to them again. This would have given them time to plan how to deal with the situation. Joseph then told them what they needed to do, and he said that this was because he feared God. As followers of Christ, when we deal with other people, it must be with a fear, or awesome respect, for God. I don't believe that fear of God means that we believe that He is just waiting to crush us at any moment. Verse nineteen adds, If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses: Joseph said that they could leave one brother bound, or imprisoned there while the others took corn for their families. This was basically a test to see if they would value the one brother enough to return. Verse twenty concludes, But bring your youngest brother unto me; so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. Joseph said that if they did this and brought their youngest brother back that it would prove that they were telling the truth. Though we cannot demand a test of some else's faith, I believe that when we come to Christ in faith that we cannot attempt to hold back anything that we feel is too valuable to us to surrender to God.
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