Day 23: Joseph's brothers travel to Egypt

You can see why Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd-Webber wrote a musical about it. It's a brilliant story. Rags to riches, powerful personalities clashing, and I'm looking forward to reading the wonderful denouement today.

Joseph marries Asenath
Genesis 41:45
The seven years of plenty
Genesis 41:46-9
Joseph's sons born
Genesis 41:50-52
Judah and Tamar
Genesis 38:6-26
Birth of Perez and Zerah
Genesis 38:27-30, 1 Chronicles 2:4
The seven years of famine
Genesis 41:53-57
Joseph's brothers' first journey to Egypt
Genesis 42:1-28
Their report to Jacob
Genesis 42:29-38
Jacob sends them to Egypt again
Genesis 43:1-14

Oh what a wonderful line Jacob's got in chapter 42! "Why do you just keep looking at each other?" This is something new for the patriarch's family - they've never experienced poverty before. Jacob was already doing well with Uncle Laban when his children began to be born, and they've always had enough of everything. But now that the food is running out they can't look beyond their rivalries and think about what needs to be done. Old Jacob has to rouse himself and kick them into action.
When they meet Joseph, he sets about playing on their guilty consciences. It isn't hard. And that's good news. For all their jealousy and hatred, they are sorry for what they did. There is a good chance that this might all end happily.
The story is interrupted as we pick up the story of Judah and his family, as a sideline. This is the disadvantage of the reading scheme I am following, which aims to be chronological. I'm sure there is a reason why the writer of Genesis put this story of deception and mistaken identity where he did, rather than telling the events in the order they happened. We need to know that the Judah who soothes his father's fears for Benjamin by offering to look after Jacob's youngest, is the man who has lost a son of his own, struggled to provide for his daughter in law and ended up wronging her profoundly. Judah is older and wiser, and as such, he understand better how Jacob feels in this time of crisis.