“Joseph…said to them, ‘You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land!’…So he put them (Jacob’s sons) all together in prison three days. Now Joseph said to them the third day, ‘Do this and live, for I fear God’” (Gen 42:9, 17-19)Genesis 42:1-22
The drama of Joseph’s confrontation with his brothers, who had come to Egypt seeking bread in a time of famine, is filled with gospel themes. Joseph imprisoned the patriarchs of Israel on the formal charge of espionage. But as Reuben said, their imprisonment was just because of their bloodguilt (Gen 42:22). Joseph, however, intended their imprisonment to test their hearts.
The incarceration of the sons of Israel was ordered by Joseph, who had been betrayed by these, his own brothers. They had sold him for silver and given him over to the Gentiles (Gen 37:23-28) as though giving him up to death (Gen 42:22). The brothers did not yet know that Joseph had been delivered from the death they intended for him and raised to the right hand of the King to rule over all Egypt. They did not yet recognize that God had appointed him to give bread for the famine of all the earth to preserve life (Gen 41:57). They did not understand that God had ordained the evil they intended to become good for them, for Joseph had been sent ahead to prepare a place for them, even in the best parts of the land, that they might live and not die (Gen 45:4-8). They could not conceive that Joseph intended no revenge upon them, but only longed to pour out his affections upon them, if only they would truly repent of their enmity which they had shown against their brother (Gen 45:1-5; 50:20-21).
So Joseph put his brothers in prison under the charges of a capital crime in order to test their hearts. But on the third day he released them and assured them that he feared God, and they might live and not die. But he tested them to know whether they would prove themselves to be men who had learned to love their brothers, according to the covenant promise of the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In the days of Jesus, the sons of Israel would repeat the crime of the patriarchs. They would reject the Lord Christ, who was their kinsman (John 1:11). They sold the Lord for silver (Matt 26:15) and delivered him up to the Gentiles (Acts 3:13) to be put to death (Acts 3:14-15).
In spite of all of this, Jesus was delivered from death on the third day and raised to the throne of God (Acts 2:32-36) to rule over all the earth (Matt 28:18) and to give the Bread of Life to all who asked him (John 6:33-35). His brothers did not understand that God had ordained their disobedience to accomplish such good for the world. For Jesus had been sent ahead to prepare a place for them, even in the house of his Father, a place for all who would come to him in repentance (John 14:2-3). They could not imagine that the one they had intended to put to death with wicked hands could intend no revenge upon them, but only longed to gather them to himself in love if only they would repent of their enmity which they had shown against their Christ (Luke 13:34).
Jesus, like Joseph before him, longed to pour out his love on his brothers according to the flesh. He sought only the sign of their repentance, that they had learned to love their brothers (1 John 1:9-10).