“And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.” (Ge 50:14 AV)
It has always bothered me why the eleven brothers of Joseph didn’t simply stay in Canaan when they returned to bury their father, Jacob. Outside of the prophesies to Abraham and Joseph, nothing was compelling them to stay in Egypt. The prophecy given to Abraham stated that Israel would be enslaved and then delivered to become a great nation. A prophecy does not determine choices. It includes choices. Joseph's brethren were not forced to choose to stay in Egypt just because Abraham was told they would. They had a choice. The prophecy just revealed what God knew they would choose. Then there were the two dreams of Joseph. He was told his family would bow down to him and honor him as one in authority over them. The thing is, the visions said nothing of duration. The visions did not require Joseph’s brethren to stay in subjection to Joseph. The vision simply said they would be put in a position of subjugation. The famine had long passed. Israel was now residing in the best lands of Egypt. They were experiencing prosperity and security under Joseph. There were no wants nor needs which their Prince of a brother did not supply. Joseph was committed to Egypt. He was second in command in Egypt. His wife was Egyptian. His children were born in Egypt. Even if Joseph wanted to return to Canaan, he more than likely, could not. What is even more puzzling is when the whole clan returned to Egypt, the sons of Jacob were concerned Joseph would exact revenge now that Jacob was dead. If they were concerned, why return? Why take the risk?
There are two reasons which come to mind. First, with the death of Jacob, the family was without a leader. Joseph was the leader they needed. This didn’t mean Judah or Reuben couldn’t step up and fill Jacob’s place. They simply did not. Nothing hindered them from returning to Canaan and setting up a nation with another patriarch as the leader. Judah was told he would eventually be that tribe from which their leader came. Joseph could have sent his two sons along after his death. In short, there was nothing legally or ethically that should have kept them in Egypt. Second, and more realistically, the fact that someone else took care of them without them having to worry about any major problem kept them coming back. Joseph devised means that changed Egypt into a purely socialistic economy. Joseph worried about feeding the masses and in return, they sold him everything. By the end of seven years of famine, Egypt was solely owned by the government. The government, in turn, took care of their most pressing needs. In short, they became dependent on an entity bigger than themselves. For Jacob’s sons, that meant becoming more dependent on human agents than on God. This is a dangerous place to live.
This becomes even more evident when they wander in the wilderness. They constantly murmured against Moses when they should have prayed to the LORD. They constantly complained to Moses to solve all their problems without taking any initiative on their own. When the nation became so dependent on the ability of others, faith became impossible. They had trained themselves out of faith and risk because they placed their trust in human resources more than in God. When Joseph returned to Egypt, that upon which the other eleven came to depend, returned as well. This is a hard trap from which to escape. We trust our employer to supply work and pay us our wages. We trust our healthcare provider to run tests and provide treatments. We trust our insurance company to pay out for our needs or tragedies of life. We trust the grocery store to carry what we need at any given moment of the day. We trust our car to start in the morning. We trust our government to provide garbage removal, snow removal, public transportation, fire protection, police protection, and a host of other services we feel we cannot live without. We trust the power company to provide power so that nothing is ever disrupted. All this dependency on human resources and made us soft. We have a hard time trusting God when human agencies fail because we haven’t had to trust the LORD all that much. Jacob’s family was enslaved for over 400 years. Not even Joseph’s descendants were immune. Why? Because they never learned to trust God first. If we are to be free, it comes as a result of faith. Faith in God first. That is where liberty and joy can be found.
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