This year I switched from using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible reading to the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net”.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 42-44.

    I have heard many explanations as to why Joseph recognized his brothers but they did not recognize him. I really think it comes down to two things. First, and probably most important, Joseph saw all ten of them together, interacting as they always had. They only saw Joseph by himself, with no reason to connect him with any of themselves. Second, when Joseph was sold into slavery his brothers were grown men. However, at that time, he was barely more than a boy. People go through a lot of changes between the age Joseph was when he was sold into slavery and later adulthood. His brothers had already gone through that transition.

    The fact that Joseph’s brothers were fully adult when they sold him into slavery makes their change of hearts all the more significant. First, their mistreatment of their brother was not a “youthful indiscretion”. It cannot be passed of as them being too young to realize the consequences of their actions. On the other hand, all too many of us would have developed a justification for our actions to the point that, if we were one of the brothers, by the time we met Joseph we would have justified our actions thoroughly. Not Joseph’s brothers, they had come to regret their actions and to wish they had not done them.