Till Shiloh Comes (33 page)

Joseph finally calmed down under Rashidi's pleading and began to dress himself for the meeting. “I don't want them to recognize me,” he said. “I don't think much of the men who paint their faces, but this time I'm making an exception.” Indeed, it was the habit of many Egyptian men to wear makeup, especially around the eyes to make them look larger. Joseph called in a servant to apply his makeup and sat quietly while the servant prepared him. Finally he dressed and dismissed the servant. “Do you think they'll recognize me?” he asked Rashidi.

“After all this time? No, not possible. You were a mere stripling then. Seventeen, weren't you? Now you're a full-grown man, and they no doubt think you're dead.”

“Well, I must tell you that I'm nervous, my friend. I don't want them to know who I am. It must come gradually. I don't know how I will do it, but somehow I will. Oh, Rashidi, I'm a perfect muddle of joy and dread and suspense! I've never felt like this in my whole life!”

“What do you mean to do with them?”

“I don't know at this point, but God will give me instructions. Come. We must go meet them.”

“Why did you want to have them go to your office and not to your house?”

“I thought it would be better that way. More official. Come, we must go!”

****

The sons of Jacob either stood still with fear or moved about nervously. All of them felt that something was dreadfully wrong, and it was Dan who voiced their fear. “We're in trouble,” he whispered so that the guard would not hear. “Have you noticed the guards from the reception station haven't left us? We're more like prisoners than buyers of grain.”

“Maybe it's the way they treat everybody,” Gad said. He was one to hope for the best, but now he looked as glum as his brothers. They were waiting in an outer hall of an enormous building, bigger than any they had ever seen, and the guards, with their spears and swords and knives, were very much in evidence. If there had been none, it was entirely possible all ten of them would have rushed back to their animals and made a wild ride to get away from the place.

After what seemed like a long wait, a tall, broad-shouldered man entered, and by his stern manner they knew he was a man of authority.

“You are from the land of Canaan?”

“Yes, master,” Reuben said, bowing humbly. “We have come to buy grain, sir.”

Rashidi stared at them. He had heard much of Joseph's brothers, and he studied each one carefully. There was little family resemblance between Joseph and his brothers, but Rashidi knew Joseph's mother had been a beauty, while the other wife and concubines had not been. “Come this way and bow down low when you come before the Provider.”

As Judah marched beside Reuben, he looked quickly around the magnificent room to which they had been brought. Two double lines of orange columns covered with ornamental inscriptions on white bases ran the length of the room. There were tables with wild flowers and slender water jugs, and the gods of the Egyptians were painted on the walls in flowing lines and bright colors. Some of the scenes were of sowing and threshing, and all was beautiful, but it was the man seated on a raised dais that drew every eye. Over him were white ostrich feather fans thrust into gold shields held by pages with bobbed hair. About him were scribes and ministrants and lance bearers of his household guards all in a row.

The man seated on the raised platform was tall and powerful. He wore a gold chain signifying his office. He also wore a breast piece with falcons, sun beetles, and life crosses arranged with beautiful art. He sat with a ceremonial hatchet in his belt, his headcloth wound in the manner of the country with stiff lappets falling on his shoulders.

As Joseph looked out over his brothers, it was all he could do to keep his face still. He focused on one of the men who was as tall as a tower. Another had a leonine head, while another was solid and marrowy. His eyes went over all of them, and he said, “Do you men understand Egyptian?”

One of them spoke up, a man with a narrow face. “Very little, master. You will forgive your servants for their ignorance.”

As Joseph listened to this translated through an interpreter, for such was what he had proposed to keep them from knowing he spoke their language, he had no trouble eventually identifying each of his brothers. His eyes went from man to man, and he could not help thinking about how they had dragged him to the pit, shouting and cursing him, and had sold him as a criminal to the Midianites. There were the red-eyed ones, all six of them, and the four Sons of the Maids. He felt tense, for his brother Benjamin was not there. He would have known him at once, and his father—what about his father, Jacob? Was he yet alive?

“We have come to buy grain, O Mighty Provider,” the one who spoke a little Egyptian said.

Joseph forced himself to frown sternly. “To buy grain? That is what you claim?” His voice intimated that he believed not a word of it.

“There are ten of you. Who are you? Tell me about yourselves.”

This time it was Dan who spoke. “We come from the land of Canaan to buy food in Egypt.”

Joseph's eyes scanned the brothers and paused on Reuben. “You there, tall one, why can you not speak for these other men? Tell me who you are.”

For all his size, Reuben was not the best speaker. Judah would be the appropriate spokesman, but he had been commanded, and so he said, “We are the ten sons of one man—”

“Stop!” Joseph commanded sternly. “That cannot be. You look nothing alike.”

“That, Majesty, is because we do not have the same mothers. We are six from one, two from another and two from a third. But we are the sons of one man named Jacob, who has sent us here to buy food.”

“I am surprised at your words. You do not look like people whose father is still alive.”

“Oh, Lord, our father is really not so old for our tribe. Our ancestor was one hundred years old when he begot the true and right son, our father's father.”

Joseph's voice seemed to break as he attempted to speak. “How was your journey?” he said, and he listened as Reuben described the journey, but his heart was rejoicing and singing.
My father is alive! He lives! Praise to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—my father lives!

Joseph stared at the men, making his face as fierce as possible. “And now. How do you like Egypt?”

The question troubled all of the men. None of them in truth liked it in the least! Judah said, “It is a land of marvels, O Great Provider. It is splendid indeed … that which our eyes have seen.”

“I am sure you watched it well, for that is why you came to this place.”

Judah stared at the man on the throne. “We came to buy grain, O Provider.”

“That is your excuse, but do you not think I know why you have really come? You are spies!” Joseph cried out.

The ten brothers were shocked into silence for a moment as the interpreter repeated what Joseph had said. “Spies you are!” Joseph repeated, allowing anger to run through his speech. “You have come to search out the land so that you may bring an army back here to invade us. If this is not true, I pray you refute it!”

Judah was speechless. “My lord, your suspicion is false. We are honest men. We came to buy food. We must have food for our women and children. Please, Your Majesty, your servants have never been spies.”

“Spies, I say!” Joseph answered roughly. “The kings of the east have hired you to search out the land, and merely to say it isn't so will not satisfy me. Am I to take your bare word that you are not spies when I know full well you are?”

Judah desperately looked around and caught Reuben's eyes. Reuben was utterly speechless, and Judah knew it was up to him. “Please, if you will allow me to speak. We are honest men, O Mighty Provider. Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one father—”

Joseph jumped up and pointed his hand at Judah. “So now you are
twelve
men! Then you were lying when you said you were ten!”

Judah listened to the interpretation, then said, “We tell the truth, lord. My father, Jacob, is the father of twelve sons. We never said that all of us were here. One of my brothers has been dead for many years, and the other is at home with our father.”

Joseph stared at Judah and said, “So … your father is alive.”

“Yes. You have asked that before. What do you want from us?”

“Don't question me!” Joseph snapped. “I will ask the questions here.”

“Yes, my lord,” Judah answered meekly.

Joseph stared hard at Judah. “Well, lion head,” he said, “go on. Convince me that you are not spies.”

Judah shrugged his shoulders slightly. “I know not how to convince you, sir. There are more than seventy in our tribe. All of us are married.”

“The youngest, he is married too?”

“Yes. And he has many children.”

Joseph was shocked. He was still thinking, he discovered, of Benjamin as a little fellow with the ruddy face and curly hair, as he had seen him before he left on his ill-fated trip to Shechem. Now he had to adjust to the idea that Benjamin was grown and married with children even as he himself was.

Judah made the best plea he could, but it all amounted to his word alone that they were not spies. Finally Joseph said, “You cannot deceive a man like me. As for your innocence, we will see about that. You say you are honest. Good! Bring your youngest brother of whom you speak here. If you will bring him and put him before my face, then I will believe what you have said.”

“You mean,” Judah whispered, “that we have to make the long trip home and then come back again with our youngest brother?”

Joseph said, “Not all of you. You are prisoners. I will keep you here. Choose one among you to go back to your home. Let him bring the youngest brother you speak of back, and then we will see.”

Reuben spoke up. “My lord, my father will never let our youngest brother come to Egypt.”

“And why not?” Joseph demanded.

“Our youngest brother is the last remaining son of our father's True Wife, the one he loved above all else. He loved our dead brother, and his youngest son is all he has left.”

Joseph's throat seemed suddenly full when he heard this, but he concealed it by saying, “Nonsense! He would not let you ten die before he would send the other.”

“Yes, my lord, he would,” Reuben said simply and offered no more.

“Take them away!” Joseph shouted as if terribly angry. “I will deal with this matter later.”

****

For the next three days the sons of Jacob were kept in a separate part of the palace. It was a fine room with benches running around it and grated apertures to allow in the sunlight. But for shepherds used to the open hills and the sky overhead, it was a prison indeed!

When they talked at all it was about which one of them should go back, but none of them were ready to undertake that. They were well fed and given pads to sleep on, but as the hours passed, they grew more and more despondent.

“We will all die in this place,” Levi said in despair.

“I'm afraid you are right,” Simeon agreed. “This Provider is a hard man.”

Judah said nothing at all while the others were arguing about who should go back. Finally late one night when the argument had died down, he said, “This calamity has come upon us because of our sin.” A deathly silence fell on the room, and he said, “God does not forget, and He has not forgotten what we did to our brother. We are guilty. We heard his cries, and we refused to have mercy.”

Reuben lifted his head. “Yes, you are right, Judah. I told you so, and I begged you all not to lay your hands on the boy. Now his blood is on our heads!”

****

The time passed until finally the man called Rashidi came to summon them before the Provider. When they stood before the Ruler of Egypt, ten hearts were trembling and everyone expected the worst.

“I have considered what you have said, and I have decided to show myself a merciful man,” the Great Provider told them.

Judah felt a rush of relief flow through him. It weakened his knees, but he stiffened them and listened to the words of the Provider.

Joseph stared at them for a moment, then said, “One of you will remain here as a hostage. That one there.” He pointed at Simeon, and immediately two guards came forward, took Simeon by the arm, and pulled him out. “He will live until you prove faithful or unfaithful. The other nine of you return to your home. The food you came to buy will be provided.”

Judah spoke for them all when he said, “We are grateful to you, O Mighty Provider.”

“Do not be so grateful yet. If you do not return, I will know that you are spies indeed, and your brother's life will be forfeit. Go now.”

The brothers stared at him, and Reuben could not help saying, “Did I not tell you how it would be when our brother cried to us? But you would not listen. Therefore his blood is on our head.” His voice was broken, and tears ran down his cheeks.

Joseph quickly rose and left the room, for he could not contain himself. As soon as he was alone behind the closed doors, he began to weep. “Good Reuben! He still remembers and grieves! He still loves his little brother Joseph!”

Joseph seemed to be walking on air as he entered the inner room of his office.

Rashidi smiled and said, “You put on a good act, Joseph. They're convinced that you hate them.”

“I did do a good job, didn't I?” Joseph's eyes were sparkling, and he came over and gave Rashidi such a hard hug it made the other man gasp. “I can barely contain my joy! My father is still alive. And my brother Benjamin is alive too. Oh, how I thank God for His blessing!”

“Well, you don't have to squeeze the life out of me!”

“Oh, I'm sorry, Rashidi,” he said, dropping his arms. “It's just that I'm so happy.”

“You're the only man in the world who can be happy greeting a bunch of men who tried to kill you.”