Read Genesis 42. What happened here, and how does it reveal the providence of God, even despite human evil and malfeasance?

 The famine obliges Jacob to send his sons to Egypt to buy grain. Ironically, it is Jacob who initiates the project (Gen 42:1). The unfortunate old man, a victim of circumstances beyond his control, unknowingly sets in motion an amazing chain of events that will lead to him being reunited with the son for whom he had mourned so long.

 The providential nature of this meeting is highlighted through two fundamental characters. First, it is seen as a fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams. The event — predicted in Joseph’s prophetic dreams: “your sheaves ... bowed down to my sheaf” (Gen. 37:7, NKJV) — is now taking place. Joseph is identified as the “governor over the land” (Gen. 42:6) and “the lord of the land” (Gen. 42:30, 33). Joseph’s powerful position contrasts with that of his needy brothers, who “bowed down before him with their faces to the earth” (Gen. 42:6, NKJV) — the same 10 brothers who mocked Joseph about his dream and doubted its fulfillment (Gen. 37:8).

 Second, this providential meeting is described as a response. The linguistic and thematic echoes between the two events underline the character of just retribution. The phrase “they said to one another” (Gen. 42:21, NKJV) was also used when they began to plot against Joseph (Gen. 37:19). The brothers’ sojourn in prison (Gen. 42:17) echoes Joseph’s sojourn in prison (Gen. 40:3, 4). In fact, Joseph’s brothers relate what is currently happening to them to what they did to their brother perhaps 20 years ago. “Then they said to one another, ‘We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us’” (Gen. 42:21, NKJV).

 Reuben’s words, “his blood is now required of us” (Gen. 42:22, NKJV), which echo his past warning to “shed no blood” (Gen. 37:22, NKJV), reinforce the link between what they were now facing and what they had done.