Genesis 42:1-11 - There is grain for sale in Egypt

42:1-5

We now enter the final stages of these events, with Joseph’s brothers, and then his parents, moving to Egypt. We see his dreams being fulfilled. We also see that the “trickster” characteristic that was in Jacob is alive and well in Joseph.  Jacob and the rest of the family were experiencing the famine like everyone else, and they too had heard that there was grain in Egypt. So Jacob send his sons to Egypt to buy some grain. All his remaining sons went. He kept Benjamin back because Benjamin was his favourite. Like Joseph, Benjamin was born of Rachel. It seems that Jacob was prepared to lose his other sons, but not another of Rachel’s. 

42:6-11

It has been about 20 years since the brothers got rid of Joseph. They did not know that Joseph was the one in charge of selling the grain. So the brothers came to Egypt and bowed down before the governor, little knowing that they were fulfilling the first dream. They did not know who Joseph was, but Joseph recognised his brothers. He treated them harshly, accusing them of being spies who had come to see where Egypt’s weak points were, so that they could then attack the land. The brothers, of course, vehemently deny this.