Genesis 50:15 Commentary and Bible Study

But this strikes quite a different note. ‘When Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.’ Moses doesn't tell us when they thought this, but presumably at the time their father died, and it had been on their minds as they returned home. They felt strongly that they were guilty men. They had repented, but they felt they were guilty, and they seem to have expected that Joseph would take some sort of revenge. He been so pleasant to them, so agreeable. Why did they think that his civility and kindness and warmth would change? It is hard for us to imagine, but it was equally hard for them to imagine that Joseph would behave any differently from anyone else in those days. Well, it was the culture, sadly, of Israel as well as of Egypt. This is what you did you. You paid people back, and why should not Joseph now find some way of enslaving or eliminating his brothers? Now they must have been in some conflict of mind over it. They could see perfectly well how agreeable Joseph was, and yet it concerns them, probably because of their deep sense of guilt. They have been away from the Lord. We have seen how Joseph brought them to a kind of place of repentance and sorrow and regret. But if they were truly the Lord's and converted – which they claim to be now – they were but infants in sanctification and progressive sanctification. They didn't know people with new lives and new hearts who had been long-term the Lord's like Joseph. They didn't know that a profound work had been done in the heart and life of their brother, from childhood probably. He wasn't going to turn against them. It wasn't possible. They naturally thought he had be a child of his age and his culture and he would turn against them. So there was much for them to learn, and they make a very humble approach. But it appears that Jacob had truly given instructions about this, and he had urged the other sons to repent before Jacob, and to request forgiveness. It wasn’t that Jacob thought Joseph will take reprisals; it was that this big sin needs confession before the Lord, and apologies to Joseph. They don’t do it immediately, personally, as soon as they get home, but they do it by proxy. They send a messenger to Joseph, saying, ‘Thy father did command before he died.’ Now to do it by proxy is an act of humility; that was the culture of the time. They do not go directly to Joseph and say, ‘Our father commanded us to repent, and you to forgive us.’ Instead, they behave as servants, who dare not approach the one to whom they owe so much and who they have wronged so deeply. So who was the person they sent? That is a subject of debate. Some people say it was one of their wives; other say it was Benjamin, because of course, as the youngest son, he had had nothing to do with the crimes against Joseph. But equally he would presumably have been present when Jacob had said to all the sons: ‘Go and repent’, formally and properly and fully before Joseph. So Benjamin could authenticate that it was indeed Jacob’s desire and instruction, and he would be a suitable person, not having been involved in the deed. So Benjamin is probably the favourite. They sent a messenger, but it is not important for us to know, so we are not told.