Gen. 43-45 - "I love them, I love them not..."

The readings - Day 15 - Genesis 43-45.

I've got two sons, and they're currently 3 years old and 4 months old. I wouldn't say that I necessarily lose track of them, but then again, I wouldn't say that I have a particularly large family either.

I can, however, see how letting kids outnumber parents is a risky endeavour at best, and that chaos can't help but ensue at some level, particularly when you get into the double digits.

Jacob had 12 sons. Sons. Daughters didn't count for as much back then, but they definitely would have been there... All this is to say that I have no doubt that the household of Jacob was likely incredibly complex and chaotic, with people running here and there, descendants and ancestors everywhere you look, and I'm sure that  if I were in his position, I'd have a lot of trouble keeping everything straight, too.

However...


This chapter (43) begins with a brief reminder that the famine was severe, and then goes on to give a time for this next stage of the story:

2 So it came about when they had finished eating the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, "Go back, buy us a little food."

This may sound innocent enough, but then you remember that the condition Joseph-in-disguise laid down to allow the rest of his brothers to bring food back in the first place was the Simeon needed to be locked up in Egypt until they'd brought Benjamin back to him(42:24).


So there Simeon is, locked up in some Egyptian prison, his father having given him up for dead (or at least, we really hope that that's what he's done and that he doesn't just not really care that one of his boys is still being held hostage)...

Kinda fitting, isn't it?

No, that's mean... I guess...

Anyway, this particular chunk of scripture really underscores just how conflicted Joseph seems about his new life, forged out of the crap-heap shovelled upon him by his miscreant brothers. On the one hand, he clearly longs to be back home, or at least reunited with his family, but on the other, the man is (understandably) pissed.

This is the only explanation I can see for the mixed messages that Joseph keeps sending out here.

Here, take this food and go back to your family...


Wait! Leave one of you here...


I should give them their money back...


They came back! Don't worry about the money - here take more food!


I'll frame them for robbery! That's the ticket!


Hey, remember that "robbery framing" thing? It was a just a joke, bros! It's me!


I'm thinking Willem Dafoe for the role of psychologically tortured Joseph in the gritty Christopher Nolan reboot of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour I Can't Believe They Sold Me Into Slavery (Scarlett Johansson plays Potiphar's wife, for the record)...