BIG PICTURE: in Genesis 42–43, Joseph has a brilliant plan to see if his brothers have been humbled, or if they’re still as wicked as they were when they threw him into a well and sold him into slavery. On arrival in Egypt Joseph’s brothers meet him, seeking to buy food. He immediately recognizes them—presumably he has anticipated the possibility of their arrival at some point—but they remain in the dark about his identity. Joseph could immediately identify himself to them and either execute them for their crimes or else pursue reconciliation with them. Instead, Joseph chooses a complex strategy designed to determine whether his brothers have changed at all over the intervening twenty years, or are the same hardened, unfeeling men as before. Genesis 43 is the first part of a three-chapter narrative that provides the resolution of the brothers’ broken relationship. (Duguid)

This sermon is indebted to Sam Emadi’s “From Prisoner to Prince”; D.A. Carson’s “Love In Hard Places; Ian Duguid’s “Genesis”; Alex Duke’s “From Eden to Egypt”; and “Bible Talk” with Jim Hamilton and Sam Emadi.