Joseph, still in disguise, is all
too happy to sell the brothers food, although he does ask for a ransom of
sorts. In order to know if the brothers are truly spies, he holds one back
(Simeon volunteers) and asks that they return with their youngest brother
Benjamin. He’s not heartless, though, as he returns the brothers’ money in with
their sacks of grain.
The brothers return home, and
explain everything to Jacob, along with a minor freakout over the returned
money. Jacob is not fairing so well when the brothers return. He still laments
Joseph’s death, and is now worried that Simeon will be gone, or, worse, that
Benjamin will be taken from him.
This is quite a change from the
Jacob who snookered Esau out of his birthright. This is even a change from the
Jacob who was concerned more about status than about Dinah’s rape. I think we
can attribute this partly to age as Jacob has seen his family grow, and he is
approaching the end of his own life. Joseph will later question the brothers
whether or not Jacob is even still alive. Joseph, at the time, was the
youngest, and now has children who were born before the seven years of plenty
were up, and Jacob himself had twelve sons, so for the youngest to be married
and having children in ancient times makes Jacob, well, ancient.
While we did spend quite a bit of
time with Abraham, this is the first time in the Bible that a character has
been allowed to age so thoroughly. Yes, we had Isaac, but all we have of him is
potential human sacrifice, and then he’s blind and dying. We’ve actually been
with Jacob his entire life, watching him from his adventures over the course of
a lifetime. The changes are interesting to look at, too, as the priorities
seemingly shift, but the reality is that Jacob has always been putting family
first.
This was true when he acquired
Esau’s birthright so that he could look after his father’s lands and take care
of his mother. He labored for the hands of Leah and Rachel so that he might
have his own family. While he may have shown callousness in the treatment of
Dinah’s rape, he was concerned about the welfare of his entire family, fearing
retribution that would destroy them all. So it’s not surprising to see Jacob’s
concern, here. It is surprising to see him so traumatized by Joseph’s death, as
if that one loss was the loss of the entire family.