He [Joseph] put them [the brothers] all together in custody for three days. Genesis 42:17
God often breaks into our lives through unexpected events that are completely beyond our control. That happened here through a famine (41:57). The brothers found themselves in need. This had not happened to them before.
Genesis 42:3 tells us, “So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.” And when they arrived in Egypt, we are told that “Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him” (42: 8).
Joseph recognized his brothers because nothing about them had changed. They were just 20 years older. But Joseph, having been elevated to the highest position in Egypt, would have looked very different from the last time the brothers had seen him.
David Searle says, “Joseph’s head would have been shaved, his scalp oiled and his face and eyebrows painted with cosmetics as befitted his status as an Egyptian aristocrat.” Beyond that, the long flowing robes of an Egyptian governor, and the fact that he was speaking another language, would have made him unrecognizable to his brothers.
Some writers are critical of Joseph for the way he deals with the brothers, but what he does is used by God to bring about a remarkable change. That change begins in verse 17, where we read that “he put them all in custody for three days.”
Things seemed to be going along well and then something unexpected and beyond your control has happened. Some trouble has come to your family, you are moved from your job, a secret is revealed, there is an issue with your health, and everything is changed! Life cannot go on as it did before. Has God disturbed your peace?
