Strange Story: Why Did Joseph’s Brothers Allow Themselves to Be Duped a Second Time?

A summary of the story

The story of the two trips to Egypt by Joseph’s half-brothers (whom I will refer to simply as his brothers) is recorded in Genesis chapters 42 through 45. Here is a very brief summary of that story (if you know the story you can skip to the next section).

Their father sent Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to buy grain because they were experiencing a famine in their own land, while Egypt had enough to sell to people from surrounding nations. The brothers did not know that Joseph, whom they had sold into slavery to a person going to Egypt, was now the second-most powerful man in Egypt and the world. It was because of Joseph that Egypt had grain to sell.

When Joseph saw his brothers among the travelers he decided to test them, knowing they would not recognize him because he looked just like the Egyptians around him. He interrogated them and threw them into prison for three days, finally allowing them to buy grain and leave on the promise that they would bring their only remaining brother back with them next time. That brother was Joseph’s only full brother, Benjamin, whom their father had not wanted to send on such a long journey. On this first trip to Egypt, Joseph ordered that their money be put back in their grain sacks. They discovered this when they stopped to sleep on the first night of their return trip. But they were already later than they wanted to be in starting their return trip home to take grain to their families, so they proceeded home.

Some time later, they ran out of grain and needed to go back to Egypt, but they could only buy m ore grain if they took Benjamin with them. After considerable delay, their father finally allowed them to take Benjamin and go back to Egypt. On this occasion, Joseph ordered that their money be put back in their sacks again and that his special silver cup be placed in the sack of the youngest brother, Benjamin. Shortly after his brothers had left the city, Joseph sent soldiers after them to ask them why they had stolen money and a silver cup from the Egyptian official. Joseph’s brothers did not yet know that those items were in their possession.

The Question We Want to Ask

Here is where many modern readers of the Bible want to ask, “Why did Joseph’s brothers allow themselves to be duped a second time? Why didn’t they check their grain sacks right away?”

Here Is What I Think Was Going on in This Story

In that part of the world both then and now, causing offense is a terrible evil. Causing shame or being shamed are things to be avoided at all costs.
Joseph’s brothers did not want to offend the Egyptian officials and the stewards overseeing the filling and tying of their grain sacks. If they had opened those grain sacks in the presence of the stewards it would have communicated that they did not trust the Egyptians and suspected foul play. It would have been a slap in the face for those to whom they had come seeking help.
They also knew that they were being watched carefully. Due to what had happened the first time, they were under careful surveillance. They also knew that there were Egyptian officials, spies and informers everywhere.
The safest thing to do was to act normal and not draw any more attention to themselves.
If one of us had been there with them and suggested that they check their sacks right away to avoid being duped a second time, it is likely that all of them would have responded something like this: “Are you crazy? Even if you don’t value your life, I value mine, so keep quiet. Do you want to offend the Egyptians in whose land we find ourselves? Don’t you know we’re being watched? We don’t dare offend them by showing we don’t trust them. Our best choice is to act normally.”
Even stopping early to check their grain sacks was a risk because of so many informers in the area.
The most natural thing to do would be to travel a full day and check their bags that evening when they stopped.
But they did not even get that far because Joseph sent soldiers to pursue them.

I trust you see that Joseph’s brothers did have good reason to not check their bags right away, even if it does not make sense to us in our situation. They knew the cultures of their day; we do not.

Be Careful to Not Judge What You Read in the Bible Based on What You Can See From Your Vantage Point

Our vantage point is not always helpful in understanding the Bible because we live so far removed from the cultures of the Bible.

I figured there was probably a good reason why they did not check their bags right away, even if I could not see it immediately. Actually, every time I have not known what to do with a passage of Scripture or found something strange or unpalatable in the Bible and I have later come to see it more like they would have seen it back then, I have realized that I was wrong to make an assumption based on what I could see from my perspective.

Dear reader, I want to challenge you to learn a different way to respond when you see something in the Bible that does not seem right to you. Our modern tendency is to think that, since it does not make sense to us, it does not make sense at all. Instead of assuming there was no good reason for the actions of the people (or the actions of God), we should assume that there is part of the picture that we are not yet seeing. When you or I say, “If it were me, I would have done things differently. I would have checked my grain sacks right away and not allowed myself to be duped again,” we are really saying, “Based on the things in my own culture that have influenced me, on how I was raised, on how I perceive the world, and on what I have experienced in my life, I would have done things differently.” But we were not there. We must remember that they experienced many different things, their era and culture were different, and their perspective was different.

May this story be a reminder to us to not jump to conclusions but rather to try to place ourselves in the shoes of the people in the story, instead of making the story bend to our perspective. Here is something else I have written that is relevant here: Just Because You Can’t Understand Something Does Not Make it wrong