R.C. Sproul

to be more distressed with us than he actually is for a redemptive purpose.

to bring us to repentance, just as the parent scolds the child, in order to bring that child to an awakening and to an awareness of what is wrong and what is right.

And this is the way Luther describes the game that Joseph is playing here, and that Joseph has several things that he's concerned about.

One, he wants to find out the state of his father.

Two, he wants to find out the state of his blood brother, Benjamin.

Thirdly, he wants his brothers to come to a knowledge of truth and of godliness.

And so, exercising his authority as the prime minister, he does not immediately reveal himself to his brothers, but enters into this calculated deception, which becomes all the more complicated, as we will see.

Now, notice what happens here initially.

It's fascinating.

We're told that Joseph recognized them, but he acted.

as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them.

Now we know he still loves them from subsequent passages where his heart melts and he goes into another room and he weeps over his brothers and over his family, but he deliberately speaks harshly to them, acting as a stranger.

And he said to them, where do you come from?

He knew where they came from.

Doesn't God himself say to Adam, Adam, where are you?

Did God know where Adam was?

Was God acting as if he didn't know for his own divine purposes of reproof for chastisement and the sanctification of Adam and Eve?

But so Joseph acts in this manner.

Where do you come from?

And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food.