Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 83
44:24–45:11
G enesis
71
“So we returned to your servant, our father, and told him what you had
said. Later, when he said, ‘Go back again and buy us more food,’ we replied,
‘We can’t go unless you let our youngest brother go with us. We’ll never get
to see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’
“Then my father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife had two sons, and one
of them went away and never returned. Doubtless he was torn to pieces by
some wild animal. I have never seen him since. Now if you take his brother
away from me, and any harm comes to him, you will send this grieving,
white-haired man to his grave.’
“And now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our
father’s life is bound up in the boy’s life. If he sees that the boy is not with
us, our father will die. We, your servants, will indeed be responsible for
sending that grieving, w
hite-haired man to his grave. My lord, I guaranteed
to my father that I would take care of the boy. I told him, ‘If I don’t bring
him back to you, I will bear the blame forever.’
“So please, my lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let
the boy return with his brothers. For how can I return to my father if the
boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see the anguish this would cause
my father!”
Joseph could stand it no longer. There were many people in the room,
and he said to his attendants, “Out, all of you!” So he was alone with his
brothers when he told them who he was. Then he broke down and wept.
He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly
carried to Pharaoh’s palace.
“I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his
brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was
standing there in front of them. “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So
they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom
you sold into slavery in Egypt. But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with
yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead
of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for
two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor
harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families
alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not
you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager
of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.
“Now hurry back to my father and tell him, ‘This is what your son
Joseph says: God has made me master over all the land of Egypt. So come
down to me immediately! You can live in the region of Goshen, where you
can be near me with all your children and grandchildren, your flocks and
herds, and everything you own. I will take care of you there, for there are
