But there is more in the type than that we have just seen. The brethren that remained with Israel have yet to be accounted for; and the pressure of the famine is upon them. It is so with Israel now, – a famine indeed, and in the deepest sense.
But ten of the brethren come down to buy corn in Egypt; and there it is that God works marvelously by Joseph. He recognizes his brethren. His heart is towards them when they are altogether ignorant who he was that enjoyed the glory of Egypt. The result is that Joseph puts in execution a most solemn searching of the heart and conscience of his brethren.
It is exactly what the Lord from a better glory will do before long with His Jewish brethren. He is now outside in a new position quite unlooked for by them: they know Him not. But He too will cause the pinch of famine to press upon them. He too will work in their hearts in consequence, that He may be made righteously known to them in due time (Genesis 42). Until he come to Shiloh, at first of all one of the brethren is taken, Simeon; and the charge is given that, above all, Benjamin should be brought down. There can be no restoration, no reconciliation, relief it is true, but no deliverance for Israel until Joseph and Benjamin are united. He that was separated from his brethren, but now in glory, must have the son of his father’s right hand.
It is Christ rejected but exalted on high, and taking the character also of the man of power for dealing with the earth. Such is the meaning of the combined types of Jacob’s sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Christ has nothing to do with the latter yet; He admirably answers to the type of Joseph, but not yet of Benjamin. As long as He is simply filling up the type of Joseph, there is no knowledge of Himself on the part of his brethren. Hence, therefore, this became the great question how to bring down Benjamin – how to put him into connection with Joseph. But the truth is, there was another moral necessity which must be met – how to get their hearts and their consciences set right all round.
This part of the beautiful tale is typical of the dealings of the Lord Jesus, long severed and exalted in another sphere, – first with the remnant, and then with the whole house of Israel. There are various portions. We have Reuben and Simeon; and then others come forward, – Judah more particularly at the close, and Benjamin.
The famine still pressing, Genesis 43, Jacob sorely against his will is obliged to part with Benjamin; and here it is that we find affections altogether unheard of before in the brethren of Joseph. We might have thought them incapable of anything that was good; and it is very evident that their hearts were now shown to be under a most mighty power which forced them anew, as far as, of course, the type was concerned. More particularly we see how the very ones who had so shamefully failed are now distinctly brought into communion with God’s mind about their ways. Reuben is quick to feel, recalls the truth as far as he knew it about Joseph, and shows right feelings towards his father. Yet we know what he had been. Judah is even more prominent, and clearly knew yet deeper searchings of the heart, and particularly too in the way of right affections about both their father and their brother.
These, as is plain, were just the points in which they had broken down before. On these they must be divinely corrected now; and so they were.