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Mike-regarding your question asking if Joseph was playing “mind games” with his brothers, no, I don’t think so and here is why.

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and asked him, "We are not blind too, are we?" Jesus replied, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now because you claim that you can see, your guilt remains."
(John 9:40-41 NET.)

Joseph was trying to get them to admit they were blind; they had to confess to their sin(s). First of all one cannot come to God, to Christ, without first admitting one is sinful, Joseph could not bestow on his brothers the honor of being his brothers in Egypt, with all the honor that would entail, unless they faced their sin. There are two kids of sorrow, a worldly sorrow (a sorrow that says, I’m sorry because I got caught), and a godly sorrow (a sorrow that is truly repentant of one’s behavior. Without godly sorrow, the brothers would not be able to exist in Egypt without becoming a further stench in the nostrils of the Egyptians, who didn’t like Hebrews anyway.

It’s all about character. We can mentally assent and verbally confess we are something that our behavior shows we are not; but unless there is a character change our words will never match our behavior or vice versa. No mind games with Joseph, he was just trying to get his brothers to admit they were “blind.”

Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. For sadness as intended by God produces a repentance that leads to salvation, leaving no regret, but worldly sadness brings about death.
(2 Corinthians 7:9-10 NET.)

Grace and peace,
Ramona

This is my absolute favorite Bible story ~ Jospeh and his brothers! Talk about restoration! Any of you dealing with separation of family ~ this is for you!
It’s all Gods timing and God turned thus for good. It was almost 20 years separated from his family. So his tears show me how much emotion he had. T there wasn’t a day behind closed doors that he didn’t weep for his family or atleast feel a sense of Loss.
For him to make sure his brothers sweated a little bit without revealing himself shows discipline! He wanted to see if they had repentant hearts!
Praise God for the outcome and Gods glory was revealed!
This gives up hope for restored relationships and I speak from experience!

Interesting thoughts about Joseph's motivations and what God had in mind. Meanwhile, God had already preordained (to Abraham) that all the tribes (including Joseph's) would become slaves for 400+ years in that same place. Don't really understand it, but I'll wait till we get to Exodus!

On Joseph playing the mind games by placing the cup so that he[Joseph] would have a reason to detain them. His brothers could not be trusted when he was young, now that he[Joseph] was older AND ALIVE, could he trust them now to bring his father down if he had told them the truth?Life had already proven to him that he could not take that risk.

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