Today as I listened through part of Genesis as I drove I realized more than before how twisted Joseph was when he was dealing with his brothers.
But what hits me more now is that Joseph’s father, Jacob (Israel), had done a real poor job raising his sons.
He did such a hum-dinger of a job showing his children how to love (his wives
being two sisters who were pretty embittered towards one another because
of their father’s trickery and their husband’s love for one more than the
other).
His oldest sons faked the murder of their younger brother, Joseph, who was
later somewhat replaced by his brother Benjamin.
Joseph was not raised with that same level of corruption by his own father
because of his separation.

Later Joseph, being second in command in all of Egypt tricked his brothers,
after of course having God move him into a position of authority.
God works him into a powerful place by blessing his actions and Joseph
returns the favor with trickery, psychological trauma, and weird emotional
games.
Kinda sounds crazy, but at one point in time, to get to spend more time with
Benjamin he has Benjamin arrested for stealing something Joseph had
planted in his grain bag (the grain possibly being kamut).
As second in command he could have simply just said, “Leave Benji here and go
get dad,” to his brothers, but instead he had to be deceitful.
What a guy.
May this be a lesson to us all!

Resting in Him,

Randy “Liar, Liar, pants on fire” Peterman