Joseph Reveals Himself

Judah has just offered to stay as a slave in Benjamin's place (44:33). Now Joseph cannot keep his secret any longer. Joseph cannot hold back. “Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him” (45:1). Twice before he had turned away to cry in secret (42:24; 43:30). This time he sends every Egyptian out of the room, so that “no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.” What happens next is for the family alone. He weeps out loud. “He wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it” (45:2). More than twenty years of grief and longing come out at once. “I am Joseph.” Three words, and the disguise is gone. His very next question is about his father: “does my father still live?” (45:3). Judah had just spent his whole speech talking about their old father. Joseph wants to hear it again from them as his brother. The brothers are terrified. “His brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence” (45:3). Dismayed means shocked and frightened. They must have remembered the pit, the coat dipped in blood, the slave traders. The brother they wronged now rules Egypt. If he wants revenge, nothing can stop him. What would Joseph do with all that power over the brothers who sold him?

45:1-3 is the turning point of the whole Joseph story. Restraint ends (45:1). “Joseph could not restrain himself” (lehitappek, say: leh-hit-ap-PEK, to hold oneself in check). The same verb described him at the feast: “he restrained himself” (43:31). Judah's speech had shown Joseph that his brothers had changed, and the self-control he had kept up since 42:7 finally gave way. A private moment, a loud cry (45:1-2). Joseph cleared the room so that only his brothers would hear who he was. Yet he wept so loudly that “the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh” heard it. The family's healing happened in private, but no one could miss how deep Joseph's love and grief were. “I am Joseph” (45:3). Ani Yosef (say: ah-NEE yoh-SEF). The disguise of 42:7, “he acted as a stranger to them,” was gone in two words. His first question, “does my father still live?”, answered Judah's plea, which had been all about their father's life (44:30-31). Dismay (45:3). The brothers “could not answer him, for they were dismayed (nivhalu, say: niv-hah-LOO, terrified) in his presence.” The word describes panic before someone far more powerful. They knew exactly why they should be afraid. They had said it themselves: “We are truly guilty concerning our brother” (42:21). The question of power. Now the brother they wronged held all the power. Revenge would have been easy, and the world around them would have expected it. Joseph's tears had already shown his heart, and the next verses show what he did with his power.

Judah has just offered to stay as a slave for Benjamin. Joseph has seen enough. His brothers have changed! He cannot hold his feelings in any longer. He sends all his servants out of the room. Then he cries so loudly that people outside hear him. “I am Joseph!” he says. “Is my father still alive?” The brothers must have been so shocked. The great ruler of Egypt is the brother they sold! They are so frightened they cannot answer. The last time they saw Joseph, he was in a pit. Now he holds their lives in his hands. Nobody in the room says a word.

Joseph could not keep his secret any longer. He cried, “I am Joseph!” His brothers were too scared to say a word.

Joseph sees his brothers shrinking back, and his first words after “I am Joseph” are an invitation. “Please come near to me” (45:4). The brothers are frozen with fear, and Joseph asks them to come closer. “So they came near.” Forgiveness begins by closing the distance. He names the wrong. “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt” (45:4). Joseph does not pretend nothing happened. Real forgiveness is not saying, “It didn't matter.” It says, “It happened, and I forgive you.” Then he lifts the weight. “But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life” (45:5). Joseph does not want them crushed by guilt. He wants them to see what God has done. How could Joseph say that? He had suffered as a slave and spent years in prison. But in all that time, “the Lord was with Joseph” (39:2, 21). Joseph had learned to see God's hand in his story. Psalm 105 says the same thing: God “sent a man before them” (Psalm 105:17). Joseph had every reason and every chance to get even. Instead he forgave. Paul tells Christians to do the same: “forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

45:4-5 gives the first words of peace between Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37–50. The invitation (45:4). Geshu-na elai (say: geh-SHOO-nah eh-LAI), “Please come near to me.” The little word na, please, turns a command into a request. The powerful man asked the frightened men to come close. The first thing Joseph removed was the distance between them. Truth before comfort (45:4). “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.” In one sentence he called himself their brother and named what they had done. Real peace does not start by pretending the wrong never happened. Comfort (45:5). “Do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves.” Joseph spoke to their guilt directly, not to excuse it, but to keep it from turning into despair. His reason pointed to God: “God sent me before you to preserve life” (lemichyah, say: leh-mikh-YAH, for the keeping alive). God sent me. The verb “sent” (shalach, say: shah-LAKH) is used three times in 45:5-8, and each time God is the one who sends. In 45:8 Joseph puts it strongly: “not you… but God.” Psalm 105:17 says the same: “He sent a man before them.” In Acts 7:9-10 Stephen tells it this way: “the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him.” Forgiveness without revenge. Joseph had the power to punish, and he used it to protect. Romans 12:19 teaches what Joseph lived out: “do not avenge yourselves… ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” And Ephesians 4:32 tells us why Christians forgive: “even as God in Christ forgave you.”

Joseph sees how afraid his brothers are. So he says, “Please come close to me.” He wants them near, not far away. Then he tells the truth. “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.” Joseph does not pretend it never happened. Then he says something surprising. “Don't be upset or angry with yourselves.” “God sent me here ahead of you to save lives.” Joseph is not looking for revenge. He has forgiven them. He can see that God was working all along. He wants them to see God's hand, not just their sin. That is what forgiveness looks like.

Joseph said, “Come close to me.” He told them the truth about what they did. But he was not angry.

Joseph explains what he has come to understand about the last twenty years. The famine is not over. “For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting” (45:6). Without help, Jacob's family would not survive. God's purpose. “God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (45:7). Posterity means descendants, the family line that comes after you. God had promised Abraham a family as many as the stars (15:5). If Jacob's family died in the famine, that promise would die with them. God sent Joseph ahead to keep it alive. “Not you… but God” (45:8). “So now it was not you who sent me here, but God.” This does not mean the brothers were innocent. Joseph has just said, “you sold me” (45:4), and at the end of Genesis he will say it plainly: “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (50:20). Both are true. The brothers did a wicked thing, and God was at work in it to save many lives. A father to Pharaoh. God has made Joseph “a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt” (45:8). “Father” here is usually explained as a title for the king's chief adviser. The brothers meant to get rid of a dreamer. God used it to save the family of promise.

45:6-8 is one of the Bible's clearest pictures of God working through human sin. The famine (45:6). Two years had passed and five remained, just as Pharaoh's dreams had said (41:29-30). Joseph's timetable was the one God gave Pharaoh. Remnant and deliverance (45:7). “To preserve a posterity (she'erit, say: sheh-ay-REET, a remnant) for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance (peletah gedolah, say: peh-lay-TAH geh-doh-LAH).” Both words become important later in the Bible. The prophets speak of a “remnant” God keeps safe through judgment, and a deliverance is a rescue from destruction. God's promise in 12:2 and 15:5 depended on this family staying alive. Two plans in one event (45:8). Lo attem… ki ha'Elohim (say: loh at-TEM… kee hah-eh-loh-HEEM), “not you… but God.” Joseph was not saying his brothers were innocent. He had just said “you sold me” (45:4), and in 50:20 he puts both together: “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” The brothers really planned evil, and God really planned good, in the very same event. The cross. Acts 2:23-24 shows the same thing at the death of Jesus. He was “delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God,” and yet “you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.” God's plan does not make the sin any less sinful, and the sin cannot stop God's plan. Proverbs 19:21 says it simply: “There are many plans in a man's heart, Nevertheless the Lord's counsel—that will stand.” Titles (45:8). “A father to Pharaoh” is usually explained as a title for the king's chief counselor. Joseph had great authority, and he gave God the credit for all of it.

Joseph explains why God sent him to Egypt. There have been two years of famine. Five more hungry years are still coming. Without Joseph, Jacob's family might have starved. But God sent Joseph ahead to keep them alive. “It was not you who sent me here, but God.” Does that mean the brothers did nothing wrong? No! Selling Joseph was a terrible sin. But God used even that for good. God made Joseph a ruler over all Egypt. Now Joseph could save his whole family. The famine could have ended God's promise to Abraham's family. God would not let that happen. God can bring good out of the worst things.

Joseph said, “God sent me here.” God had a good plan all along. God used Joseph to save many people.

Joseph's forgiveness turns quickly into care. “Come down to me, do not tarry” (45:9). Joseph sends a message to his father: God has made him lord of all Egypt, and the family must come. Tarry means wait or delay. A place to live. “You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me” (45:10). Goshen was good grazing land in Egypt. Joseph promises, “There I will provide for you” (45:11). The brother they sold now feeds them. “It is my mouth that speaks to you” (45:12). Joseph wants them to be sure. He has been speaking through an interpreter (42:23); now he speaks to them himself. Tears and kisses. “He fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept over them” (45:14-15). All of them, including the ones who had wanted to kill him. “After that his brothers talked with him” (45:15). Those few words mean so much. In Genesis 37 the brothers “hated him and could not speak peaceably to him” (37:4). Now, at last, they talk. Forgiveness has opened their mouths. Pharaoh is pleased. When the news reaches the palace, “it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well” (45:16). What God was doing for one family brought joy even to the king of Egypt.

In 45:9-16 forgiveness turns into care. The message (45:9-11). Joseph's message to Jacob repeats what he had just said about God (“God has made me lord of all Egypt”) and then shows what it means in daily life: Goshen, nearness and provision (kilkalti, say: kil-KAL-tee, I will sustain you), with protection from poverty during the five years left. Joseph's forgiveness came with food and a home. Proof (45:12). “Your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you.” The interpreter of 42:23 was gone. Joseph spoke to them himself in their own language. Benjamin, Rachel's other son, was named as a witness. “All my glory” (45:13). Kevodi (say: keh-voh-DEE, my honor) means the weight and greatness of Joseph's position. The brothers were to tell Jacob about it so that he would believe and come. Embrace (45:14-15). First Joseph hugged Benjamin, who had no part in the sale. Then he kissed “all his brothers,” the ones who did. He wept over each one. A kiss was a sign of peace restored, as when Esau ran to embrace Jacob (33:4). Speech restored (45:15). “After that his brothers talked (dibberu, say: dib-beh-ROO) with him.” Back in 37:4 they “could not speak peaceably to him” (dabbero leshalom, say: dab-beh-ROH leh-shah-LOHM, to speak to him in peace). The silence that started all the trouble was finally over. The court (45:16). Pharaoh was pleased, and next he would invite the whole family to come and live in Egypt (45:17-20).

Joseph has big plans for his family. “Go and get my father,” he says. “You can all live near me in Goshen.” “I will take care of you.” Then Joseph hugs Benjamin, and they both cry. He kisses all his brothers and cries over them. And then something wonderful happens. “After that his brothers talked with him.” Remember how they once hated Joseph? They could not even speak kindly to him. Now they are talking together like brothers. Even the king of Egypt is happy! Forgiveness brought their family back together.

Joseph hugged his brother Benjamin. He kissed all his brothers. Then they talked together like a real family.

Joseph Reveals Himself

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