Genesis 45 · The Lantern

Joseph Reveals His Identity

Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph; does my father yet live? And his brothers could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

And Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

For these two years has the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So now it was not you that sent me here, but God: and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Joseph Sends for His Father

Haste you, and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt: come down to me, do not delay:

And you shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you, and your children, and your children’s children, and your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have:

And there will I nourish you; for yet there are five years of famine; lest you, and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty.

And indeed, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall haste and bring down my father here.

And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

Moreover he kissed all his brothers, and wept upon them: and after that his brothers talked with him.

Pharaoh Invites Jacob to Egypt

And its fame was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brothers have come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, This do you; lade your beasts, and go, get you to the land of Canaan;

And take your father and your households, and come to me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.

Now you are commanded, this do you; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.

And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

To all of them he gave each man changes of apparel; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of apparel.

And to his father he sent after this manner; ten donkeys laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she donkeys laden with grain and bread and food for his father by the way.

So he sent his brothers away, and they departed: and he said to them, See that you fall not out by the way.

Joseph commanded them not to quarrel on the way. The quarrel which he forbade them was that one say to another, "It was you who counseled us to throw him into the pit," while another would contend with his brother, saying, "It was you who urged us to sell him naked and in chains to the Arabs." "As I have forgiven all of you, you forgive each other."

Now "he sent away his brothers, and they departed. And Joseph said to them, 'Be not angry on the way.' " How well he teaches us to guard against anger, for that can separate even brothers who love one another.… Is this not what our Lord Jesus said when he was about to depart from this body, when he was sending away his disciples, that they should not be angry on the way?

Hence to allay their ill feeling and hostility to one another, Joseph said, "Don't squabble on the way," but rather remember that I hold no grudge against you for what was done to me, and be kindly disposed to one another. Who could adequately admire the virtue of this good man who fulfilled in generous measure the moral values of the New Testament?

The Revival of Jacob

And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan to Jacob their father,

And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not.

I do not understand these words to have been said in the usual sense. For if, for example, we should assume that he could have been overcome with lust and sinned with his master's wife, I do not think that this would have been announced about him by the patriarchs to his father Jacob: "Your son Joseph is living." For if he had done this, without doubt he would not be living.

We surely notice how the Scripture says that he is alive and ruler of the whole land, for he opened his storehouses of spiritual grace and gave the abundance to all people. But when the apostles spoke this way, the Jews did not believe them; rather, they laid hands on them and thrust the preachers of salvation into prison.

Who could describe the joy he experienced then on learning that Joseph was alive and in fact enjoyed such wonderful fame? You know, of course, that it is unexpected blessings that give rise to the keenest surge of enjoyment.

And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:

What Latin expresses by saying: "his spirit was revived," is written in Greek anezōpyrēsen. This means not so much to revive as to rekindle, so to speak, and reignite.

When they told Jacob about the honor of Joseph, about the wisdom with which he administered his affairs and about how their last judgment was more bitter than the first, their father asked them and said, "Did you not ask Joseph how or why he went down to Egypt?" Then, when they all looked at each other and did not know what to say, Judah opened his mouth and said to his father,…

Despite these words and the fact that they brought what he had sent, the carts and the gifts sent by Joseph, only with difficulty did they succeed in convincing their father that what they had told him was a lie. In fact, when Jacob saw the carts that had been sent to carry him down to Egypt, "he gained new life," the text says.

And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

But because occasionally the divine fire can be extinguished even in the saints and faithful, hear the apostle Paul warning these who were worthy to receive gifts of the Spirit and grace, and saying, "Do not extinguish the Spirit." The Scripture says of Jacob, therefore, "And Jacob rekindled his spirit, and Israel said, 'It is a great thing for me if my son Joseph is still livi…

"So let us hasten now so that I may savor something of our meeting before I die. I mean, already the news has dumbfounded me, has banished an old man's weakness and invigorated my resolve; so once I have the good fortune to meet him and enjoy the consummation of joy, I shall then bring my life to a close." Without delay the good man took to the road, showing all haste and anxie…