“Now the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph’s house; (so great is their perplexity in fact that they cannot seem to fathom even the possibility of there being any conceivably favourable reason as to why they would be invited into the very inner chamber of this Most High Ruler. Once again a beautiful picture is painted here for us of The Most High God – as represented here in Joseph – welcoming those who are wholly unworthy, even actively deserving of His wrath, into His inner chamber, His very Presence: the Holiest of Holies, through a righteousness not their own, but wholly as a result of His own Merciful, Loving-Kind Nature and the consequent marvellous plan [of salvation] He wrought in order to make it so. In like manner, the brothers here also display the appropriately wise response to one that inspires such reverential awe i.e. “the Fear of the Lord” in that in their humility they are acutely aware of their own unworthiness and dependency upon the Mercy of this great man and are consequently “afraid”) and they said, “It is because of the money, which was returned in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may make a case against us and seize us, to take us as slaves with our donkeys.” (Let us not forget that these brothers are not unfamiliar with the concept of “making a case against” someone by fraudulent means, one could argue that they falsely “made a case against” a wild animal [😂] when they smeared Joseph’s coat with blood to make it appear as if he had been mauled to death all that many years ago. The same deceptive tactic was of course also used by Potiphar’s wife when she sought to have Joseph imprisoned under false pretences. There is a great deal of irony apparent here in that the brothers are essentially projecting their own sinful bent towards dishonest scheming onto Joseph and those he commands; and yet being falsely accused is precisely the type of offense committed against him time and time again, and not the offense his character would allow him to commit  to another: his inherent Godly character aside, this is perhaps even more true in light of the fact that he knows better than anyone what a devastating effect such a deception can have in the life of an innocent. It is also interesting to note here how the brothers instinctively assume that others would act as deceptively as they would, unable even to conceive of a selfless act of kindness being the motivating force behind that which they see unfolding around them. It is precisely this type of thinking that often goes hand in hand with pride and self-seeking: not only assuming that others think and act as one oneself does, but also that one features in the mind of another so prominently that they would go to such great lengths to see one fall. Finally, I would like to invite the reader to make a mental note of the brothers’ specific mention of- and fears concerning- their donkeys; more will be revealed on the significance thereof shortly.) When they drew near to the steward of Joseph’s house, they talked with him at the door of the house, (here we see a very interesting image of one who has been appointed to guard the entrance to the Holiest of Holies, God’s inner chamber, the very Presence of God: this steward that guards the door can be compared to the archangel Uriel with the flaming sword at the Gate of Eden, or even the Apostle Peter that holds the keys and guards the Gates of Heaven; another lovely truth to be reminded of here is the fact that the honoured vocation of stewarding the house of a lord, was once the privilege of Joseph when he was appointed over Potiphar’s household; this young Egyptian man presumably doesn’t cause “everything he touches to turn to gold” like Joseph did – being an anointed one of God – but I am sure that Joseph would have taken it upon himself to mentor this young man, teaching him all that he himself has learnt, just as the Lord Jesus goes before us to illustrate for us the Perfect way of being human, so too do all the True Children of God invite others to learn from and imitate their Godly conduct; I am certain that even as a slave, Joseph was leading by example as to how to be the Perfect bondservant) and said, “O sir, (again, let us be reminded that this is a position of great honour, as one effectively becomes representative and proxy of one’s master when appointed to oversee his household as the brothers well know, hence their addressing the young steward as “sir”) we indeed came down the first time to buy food; (here one can clearly see that defensiveness and fear is colouring their speech, for they proceed to offer up an explanation where none was commanded, re-asserting their innocence in the phrase “indeed” even though it hadn’t been called into question) but it happened, when we came to the encampment, that we opened our sacks, and there, each man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight; (here we see yet another instance of their attempts at “controlling the narrative”, for even though they are providing a truthful account of all the events that transpired, they are doing so upon the presumption that the money they discovered is incriminatory and will result in their being condemned; this in turn proves why it is unwise to volunteer superfluous information from a place of defensiveness and fear, for there is a very good chance that the steward was not even made aware of the money that was placed in their sacks, but following their confession, he might now start viewing these men as being guilty of something for the very fact that they are presenting themselves as such; the added inconvenience of suspicion and speculative talk amongst the members of staff is furthermore now also potentially added to their lot, which in turn might make their lives more difficult once they have been revealed as Joseph brothers, for the household will have already entertained the first impression notion that they might not be trustworthy – a concept that will only gain momentum every time this initial account might be discussed by members of staff until Joseph himself has clarified the situation) so we have brought it back in our hand. (Again, note the desperation with which they are trying to prove themselves honest to a man who previously never considered them not to be but might now begin to wonder at their motives.) And we have brought down other money in our hands to buy food. (At this juncture the identity of the brothers are only that of foreigners seeking to buy food from the only nation who currently have a surplus during the worldwide famine. The question on everybody’s lips is “who will they be?” for their invitation into the house of Joseph changes everything, but yet no one knows how or why. They themselves have concluded that it is a setup and have almost succeeded in convincing the steward that indeed they do need to explain themselves, but at this point in time nobody can say for certain . . .) We do not know who put our money in our sacks (this too remains a mystery at present, not only the identity of the one who is responsible for this discovery, but perhaps most importantly, “what is his motive . . . ?”).”

“¹⁸Now the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph’s house; and they said, “It is because of the money, which was returned in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may make a case against us and seize us, to take us as slaves with our donkeys.”

¹⁹When they drew near to the steward of Joseph’s house, they talked with him at the door of the house, ²⁰and said, “O sir, we indeed came down the first time to buy food; ²¹but it happened, when we came to the encampment, that we opened our sacks, and there, each man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight; so we have brought it back in our hand. ²²And we have brought down other money in our hands to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.”

– Genesis 43:18-22 (NKJV)