Not in God's Name by Jonathan Sacks

Author:Jonathan Sacks [Sacks, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-10-12T22:00:00+00:00

This is unexpected. The story is nearing closure. Joseph has become a ruler. His brothers have bowed down to him. All that remains is for Jacob and Joseph’s young brother Benjamin to be brought to Egypt. There they will make their obeisance and the end foretold at the beginning will be complete. We cannot but expect this to happen, given the story thus far.

It does not. Instead Joseph accuses the brothers of being spies. He places them in custody for three days. He then tells them that to verify their story – that they have come to buy food – they must bring him their youngest brother. This is illogical. The existence of another brother has nothing to do with whether or not they are spies. Indeed, were they to bring a child, there would be no way an Egyptian ruler would be able to tell whether he was their brother or not. The strangeness of the request does not, however, raise doubts in the minds of the brothers. They know they are in trouble; that is all. One of their number, Simeon, is put in prison as a hostage against their return. On the journey back, they discover that the silver they have paid for the grain has been returned to them in their sacks. They tremble: ‘What is this that God has done to us?’ (42:28).

They go back and tell Jacob what has happened. There is a sense of foreboding. Jacob has now lost two of his sons, and no longer trusts the brothers. The demand that Benjamin go with them to Egypt touches Jacob’s most sensitive nerve. Benjamin was the other son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel. She had died giving birth to him. How can he let him go and risk losing him? But how can he not let him go when they are facing starvation? Reuben offers to leave his own two sons with Jacob as hostages. It is a pointless offer, and Jacob rejects it. Eventually Judah says that he will personally accept responsibility for Benjamin’s safe return. Jacob agrees.

They arrive in Egypt. Seeing them, Joseph orders one of his men to escort them to his house. They are terrified, suspecting that some evil fate awaits them. Instead, Joseph treats them with lavish hospitality. Simeon is brought out of prison to join them. They eat, buy their grain, and leave. No sooner have they left the city, however, than one of Joseph’s officers overtakes them, accusing them of stealing a goblet (it had been placed there deliberately on Joseph’s instructions). He searches their sacks, one by one, and finds it in the last, Benjamin’s. They return ignominiously to the palace and declare that they are all now the ruler’s slaves. But Joseph tells them: No, you are free. ‘Only the one in whose sack the cup was found must stay as a slave’ (44:17). This is the moment of crisis, and Judah rises to it. In an impassioned, eloquent speech he says he cannot go home without his youngest brother.

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