Chapter 42

Jacob sends ten of his sons to buy grain in Egypt.  They bow before Joseph, but do not recognize him.  Joseph calls them spies and then says he will imprison 9 of them while the tenth goes to fetch the 11th.  They believe this is all their punishment for what they did to Joseph in the first place.  Joseph changes his mind, and says he will only keep one imprisoned while the 9 go home and get the 11th.  He even puts the money for the grain back in their bags.  Simeon is bound in their sight, and kept prisoner in Egypt. 

2024 - This verse:

‭‭Genesis 42:22 NASB1995‬‬

[22] Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Now comes the reckoning for his blood.”  Joseph overhears this.  So Joseph knows at this point that only Rueben wanted to spare his life.  Likely also knows that Rueben had no part in selling Joseph to the Midianites.  Quite a character change in the man who slept with his father's concubine and will lose half his inheritance over it.

When they talk to Jacob, he is reluctant to trust them with Benjamin, because Benjamin is the only one left of the two Rachel bore him.

Many things in these two chapters.  Joseph remained in that pit that Potiphar threw him into for two full years.  A long time in a horrid place with horrid men for a crime he never committed.  Of course, Joseph did end up in charge of that pit.  Two years though...a long time to serve for a crime that didn't even happen.

Because God favors Joseph, even from such a lowly place, he rises to power almost instantaneously, from the lowest low to the second place in the land with practically unlimited power.  This is just as antichrist will arise suddenly.  Joseph was a foreigner in Egypt, and rose to power.  Joseph was betrayed by his own.  Joseph was falsely accused of crime and served time for it.  Joseph was given "inside information" that allowed him to rise to power.  There is no mention of any revenge on the part of Joseph.  But it could be that Asenath is in fact Potiphar's daughter, though the names are not quite the same.  Potiphar's wife would have been very aware of her suddenly tenuous hold on her own position. 

Joseph also does not choose to avenge himself on his brothers.  He certainly had a grievance.

Joseph is still a bit of a schemer.  Accusing them falsely, and blackmailing them into bringing Benjamin.

And last but not least, despite all his own problems, Jacob was deeply in love with Rachel, to the exclusion of all else in the world, and because of his love for her, he loved her sons above the other ten.  He played favorites.  It caused problems, but it was how he felt and he could not hide it.  He did things that we see as unfair, but he didn't apologize for it.  God is the same.  He loves whomever he loves, he blesses them even when we see them as deceitful and scheming (though most are not that way), he prospers them, he takes them from low to high, and so on.