Drama of hope

Genesis 42-43 is a powerful buildup to the tear jerking reconciliation of brothers and the long orphaned Joseph with his embittered father.

The depth of guilt that haunts the brothers are revealed here. Surfacing, as it were, in the most appropriate time and place!

Jacob's unquenchable sorrow is also provoked here. As though to heighten the immensity of the coming moment.

This is stuff no soap opera can reproduce. A drama of whole generations coming to glorious climax.

Amid the mind-snapping tensions, Joseph flees to weep. To tremble on the vast pain and hope in his life now colliding on the ground of his already ravaged history. Pain on one hand (for his numerous betrayals, and separation from family), and hope on the other (for reunion and to take a step forward to the Promised Nation.)

Joseph, it isn't hard to extrapolate, is a powerful metaphor of Jesus and the Cross. And it isn't a stretch to identify with this man when in many trying episodes of our own lives - we are barely coping with the pain, but by God's grace it yields to hope which emboldens us to take a step forward.