Till Shiloh Comes

by Gilbert, Morris

  “Yes, sir.”

  Rashidi did not watch the messenger go but turned to watch the second-most powerful man in the world crying like a baby. Well, he thought to himself, I’ve often wondered what it would take to shake Joseph up—and now I know!

  Chapter 27

  The journey from Canaan to Egypt had been difficult, for although the ten sons of Jacob were naturally hearty men, they’d been severely weakened by the famine. Day after day they trudged southward, following the trade route that ran through the arid southland of Canaan all the way to Egypt. At first there were settlements, some large and some no more than a few huts, but as the journey wore on, they passed through long stretches where they saw almost no life.

  From time to time they would arrive at a protected desert spring, precious oases in the desert where they actually had to buy their water and store up all they could carry in water bags. The journey to the borders of Egypt took twenty days, and they were all exhausted and not a little apprehensive.

  On the night after they crossed the place that one traveler told them was the border of Egypt, they made camp. Their fire was a solitary source of light in the utter darkness, and they huddled around it as if trying to find some comfort in its cheerful blaze. Earlier they had supped on the last of the dried meat they had brought with them, but it had done little to satisfy their hunger.

  Levi stared out into the darkness and shook his head. “This is a troubled land,” he said. “I don’t like it.” He looked around the circle at the bearded faces of his brothers, their eyes caught by the flickering flames of the fire. “I wish we hadn’t come.”

  “Hadn’t come!” Simeon said heatedly. “We had to come. We had no other choice.”

  “That’s right,” Dan said. “There’s no point in talking like that, Simeon.”

  A murmur went around the campfire, and Reuben, who was sitting back from the fire, his arms wrapped around his knees, studied the faces of his brothers. They all had a strange, pinched look, as if they had come almost to the end of their strength. As strong as he was, Reuben too felt weakened by the journey, and he could understand what Simeon had said. This place already seemed to be a strange land, and they were only on the border of it. He listened as they spoke in whispers, as if spies and robbers were gathering in around them. Indeed, such a thing was possible!

  “One of these days I’m going to be out of the cursed desert.” Zebulun picked up a piece of wood, stuck it into the fire, waited until the tip of it caught, then held it up and stared into the flame. “I’m going to be on a ship,” he said dreamily, “with water all about.”

  “And when the ship goes down, you drown!” Issachar snapped. “No, no ships for me.”

  Always the practical one, Levi said thoughtfully, “I wonder where we go to buy the food.”

  “Why, Egypt, of course!” Naphtali retorted. “That’s why we’re here!”

  “No,” Levi answered crossly, “I mean the exact place! There’s got to be a central food supply somewhere. We don’t know a soul in Egypt.”

  “There’ll be someone to help us, I’m sure,” Judah said. He had been silent day after day, and now he stretched and said, “I’m going to sleep. We might still have a long journey ahead of us.”

  They all lay down, except for Reuben, who sat up for another hour, keeping the fire going. He stared into the flames blankly, then finally sighed, crawled into his blanket, and fell into a fitful sleep.

  ****

  “Look,” Issachar said, “there comes a train of donkeys.”

  Judah had already seen them. “It looks like they’re loaded down with bags of grain. Maybe they will tell us where they bought it.”

  The train was a group of fierce-looking dark-faced tribesmen. When Judah asked them where they had bought their food, the leader, a tall man with a wicked scar running down his face, said, “You’d better have money. They’re not giving anything away.”

  Judah smiled. “I didn’t think they would, but tell us, do we buy grain from the pharaoh?”

  “The pharaoh?” The tribesman laughed loudly. “You’ll never see him, not the likes of you. You have to buy it from the Great Provider.”

  “I’ve heard of him,” Judah said. “Where do we find him?” He listened as the man gave instructions, and then the tribesman said, “Watch out for the Provider. He’s the one who runs everything.”

  “That doesn’t sound too promising, does it?” Judah said to Reuben, who had listened to the conversation.

  “I guess we don’t have any choice,” Reuben said. “Come on and let’s get this over with. I’m anxious to get away from this place. I agree with Simeon. I don’t like it here at all.”

  “Maybe Father was right,” Judah said doubtfully. “It does feel like an evil place.”

  “Evil or not, they’ve got the food. So let’s get started.”

  Two days later the brothers were stopped by an official wearing an emblem on a cord around his neck. He was a short, muscular man with slate-colored skin and an irate manner. “Where do you come from?” he demanded.

  “We are of the tribe of Jacob. Hebrews from Canaan,” Reuben said, staring down at the man.

  The official peppered them with questions, then ordered, “Wait here until further notice.”

  “Why can’t we just buy the food and leave?” Judah said almost desperately. He was quite anxious now to get back to his homeland as quickly as possible.

  “If you want food, you’ll do as you are told!” the official snapped. “Now, I’ll get to you as soon as I can. Get your animals out of the way. There are others coming.”

  The delay brought a sense of despondency to the brothers, and it did not help that it lasted for two whole days. The brothers began to complain among themselves, and Zebulun said, “Let’s forget it and go home. There’s something wrong.”

  “We can’t go home again without any food,” Reuben said firmly. “We have to humble ourselves, so just make the best of it.”

  ****

  The official, whose name was Hyrim, had an odd look in his eyes as he scurried into the room where the brothers had been told to wait. “All right. I have some orders for you men.”

  “Are you going to sell us food?” Judah asked quickly.

  “That’s not up to me. It’s up to the Provider. You must go to the central authority.”

  Simeon said quickly, “But there have been others who have gone right over to the storage facility to get their food. We talked with them.”

  “Well, you’re not going there,” Hyrim snapped. “You’re going to the central authority, or you’ll get nothing.”

  “But why?” Judah pleaded. “Give us some word.”

  “I have my orders. You can go to the central authority or not. That’s up to you.”

  Reuben sighed heavily. “All right, sir. Tell us where it is, and we will go there.”

  Hyrim ran off a series of instructions, and soon the weary travelers were on their way. There was grumbling and not a little fear in the faces of the men as they moved along.

  “There’s something wrong with all this,” Issachar said, stroking the head of his donkey that plodded along beside him. “I don’t like it.”

  “We’ve got to do it.” Zebulun shrugged. He looked ahead and said, “I wish we could go as far as the sea. I don’t think I’d ever come back here if I could just get on a ship.”

  ****

  Rashidi had never seen Joseph in such a state. The two of them were in Joseph’s favorite room. It had a gold-colored ceiling, green malachite lintels over the doors, and colorful friezes along the walls. It served Joseph as a library and lay between his sleeping chamber and the great reception hall. All around were the finest of Egyptian treasures, including lion-footed chairs with rush seats and backs of stamped and gilded leather. Plant stands bore potted flowers that had been carefully grown with precious water brought from the Nile, and there was an inlaid daybed covered with skins and cushions, as well as carved chests on curved legs inlaid with moth
er-of-pearl and inscribed in gold leaf.

  Joseph was walking back and forth in constant motion, his eyes bright. “They’re here. They’ve passed the fortress. I knew it! I knew it! I’m so happy I don’t know what to say.”

  “My dear friend, you must calm yourself,” Rashidi said. “I’ve never seen you like this before.”

  “I’ve never had such an opportunity. They’re my brothers, Rashidi, my own brothers!”

  “Yes, I understand that, but I can’t understand why you’re so happy to see them.”

  “What do you mean? Of course I’m glad to see my brothers!”

  Rashidi stared at Joseph, cocking his head. “And these are the same men who beat you and threw you in a pit to die and finally sold you into slavery? I don’t think I’d be quite so anxious to see them.”

  “Yes, but look how it’s turned out. God has been in all of it. Don’t you see, Rashidi?” Joseph cried. “If I hadn’t been thrown into the pit and sold into slavery, I would never have been here. I would never have had the glory I’ve found in Egypt. I owe everything to my brothers!”

  Rashidi laughed, his eyes almost hidden as his face crinkled. “That’s the most fantastic thing I’ve ever heard, sir.”

  “No, it’s true!” Joseph insisted. He could not be still but snapped his fingers nervously and paced back and forth, looking frequently toward the door. “It’s all been God’s doing. I’m convinced of it. All the years I’ve been in Egypt have been at His direction, for His purpose. When I was a servant in Potiphar’s house, and when I was in your prison, I thought about my family. And now they’re here to buy grain…. But there’s ten of them. That bothers me a little.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because I had eleven brothers. What if one of them is dead? I don’t think I could bear it.”

  “Life is uncertain, Joseph, but perhaps they are all well.”

  Joseph finally calmed down under Rashidi’s pleading and began to dress himself for the meeting. “I don’t want them to recognize me,” he said. “I don’t think much of the men who paint their faces, but this time I’m making an exception.” Indeed, it was the habit of many Egyptian men to wear makeup, especially around the eyes to make them look larger. Joseph called in a servant to apply his makeup and sat quietly while the servant prepared him. Finally he dressed and dismissed the servant. “Do you think they’ll recognize me?” he asked Rashidi.

  “After all this time? No, not possible. You were a mere stripling then. Seventeen, weren’t you? Now you’re a full-grown man, and they no doubt think you’re dead.”

  “Well, I must tell you that I’m nervous, my friend. I don’t want them to know who I am. It must come gradually. I don’t know how I will do it, but somehow I will. Oh, Rashidi, I’m a perfect muddle of joy and dread and suspense! I’ve never felt like this in my whole life!”

  “What do you mean to do with them?”

  “I don’t know at this point, but God will give me instructions. Come. We must go meet them.”

  “Why did you want to have them go to your office and not to your house?”

  “I thought it would be better that way. More official. Come, we must go!”

  ****

  The sons of Jacob either stood still with fear or moved about nervously. All of them felt that something was dreadfully wrong, and it was Dan who voiced their fear. “We’re in trouble,” he whispered so that the guard would not hear. “Have you noticed the guards from the reception station haven’t left us? We’re more like prisoners than buyers of grain.”

  “Maybe it’s the way they treat everybody,” Gad said. He was one to hope for the best, but now he looked as glum as his brothers. They were waiting in an outer hall of an enormous building, bigger than any they had ever seen, and the guards, with their spears and swords and knives, were very much in evidence. If there had been none, it was entirely possible all ten of them would have rushed back to their animals and made a wild ride to get away from the place.

  After what seemed like a long wait, a tall, broad-shouldered man entered, and by his stern manner they knew he was a man of authority.

  “You are from the land of Canaan?”

  “Yes, master,” Reuben said, bowing humbly. “We have come to buy grain, sir.”

  Rashidi stared at them. He had heard much of Joseph’s brothers, and he studied each one carefully. There was little family resemblance between Joseph and his brothers, but Rashidi knew Joseph’s mother had been a beauty, while the other wife and concubines had not been. “Come this way and bow down low when you come before the Provider.”

  As Judah marched beside Reuben, he looked quickly around the magnificent room to which they had been brought. Two double lines of orange columns covered with ornamental inscriptions on white bases ran the length of the room. There were tables with wild flowers and slender water jugs, and the gods of the Egyptians were painted on the walls in flowing lines and bright colors. Some of the scenes were of sowing and threshing, and all was beautiful, but it was the man seated on a raised dais that drew every eye. Over him were white ostrich feather fans thrust into gold shields held by pages with bobbed hair. About him were scribes and ministrants and lance bearers of his household guards all in a row.

  The man seated on the raised platform was tall and powerful. He wore a gold chain signifying his office. He also wore a breast piece with falcons, sun beetles, and life crosses arranged with beautiful art. He sat with a ceremonial hatchet in his belt, his headcloth wound in the manner of the country with stiff lappets falling on his shoulders.

  As Joseph looked out over his brothers, it was all he could do to keep his face still. He focused on one of the men who was as tall as a tower. Another had a leonine head, while another was solid and marrowy. His eyes went over all of them, and he said, “Do you men understand Egyptian?”

  One of them spoke up, a man with a narrow face. “Very little, master. You will forgive your servants for their ignorance.”

  As Joseph listened to this translated through an interpreter, for such was what he had proposed to keep them from knowing he spoke their language, he had no trouble eventually identifying each of his brothers. His eyes went from man to man, and he could not help thinking about how they had dragged him to the pit, shouting and cursing him, and had sold him as a criminal to the Midianites. There were the red-eyed ones, all six of them, and the four Sons of the Maids. He felt tense, for his brother Benjamin was not there. He would have known him at once, and his father—what about his father, Jacob? Was he yet alive?

  “We have come to buy grain, O Mighty Provider,” the one who spoke a little Egyptian said.

  Joseph forced himself to frown sternly. “To buy grain? That is what you claim?” His voice intimated that he believed not a word of it.

  “There are ten of you. Who are you? Tell me about yourselves.”

  This time it was Dan who spoke. “We come from the land of Canaan to buy food in Egypt.”

  Joseph’s eyes scanned the brothers and paused on Reuben. “You there, tall one, why can you not speak for these other men? Tell me who you are.”

  For all his size, Reuben was not the best speaker. Judah would be the appropriate spokesman, but he had been commanded, and so he said, “We are the ten sons of one man—”

  “Stop!” Joseph commanded sternly. “That cannot be. You look nothing alike.”

  “That, Majesty, is because we do not have the same mothers. We are six from one, two from another and two from a third. But we are the sons of one man named Jacob, who has sent us here to buy food.”

  “I am surprised at your words. You do not look like people whose father is still alive.”

  “Oh, Lord, our father is really not so old for our tribe. Our ancestor was one hundred years old when he begot the true and right son, our father’s father.”

  Joseph’s voice seemed to break as he attempted to speak. “How was your journey?” he said, and he listened as Reuben described the journey, but his heart was rejoicing and singing.
My father is alive! He lives! Praise to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—my father lives!

  Joseph stared at the men, making his face as fierce as possible. “And now. How do you like Egypt?”

  The question troubled all of the men. None of them in truth liked it in the least! Judah said, “It is a land of marvels, O Great Provider. It is splendid indeed … that which our eyes have seen.”

  “I am sure you watched it well, for that is why you came to this place.”

  Judah stared at the man on the throne. “We came to buy grain, O Provider.”

  “That is your excuse, but do you not think I know why you have really come? You are spies!” Joseph cried out.

  The ten brothers were shocked into silence for a moment as the interpreter repeated what Joseph had said. “Spies you are!” Joseph repeated, allowing anger to run through his speech. “You have come to search out the land so that you may bring an army back here to invade us. If this is not true, I pray you refute it!”

  Judah was speechless. “My lord, your suspicion is false. We are honest men. We came to buy food. We must have food for our women and children. Please, Your Majesty, your servants have never been spies.”

  “Spies, I say!” Joseph answered roughly. “The kings of the east have hired you to search out the land, and merely to say it isn’t so will not satisfy me. Am I to take your bare word that you are not spies when I know full well you are?”

  Judah desperately looked around and caught Reuben’s eyes. Reuben was utterly speechless, and Judah knew it was up to him. “Please, if you will allow me to speak. We are honest men, O Mighty Provider. Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one father—”

  Joseph jumped up and pointed his hand at Judah. “So now you are twelve men! Then you were lying when you said you were ten!”

  Judah listened to the interpretation, then said, “We tell the truth, lord. My father, Jacob, is the father of twelve sons. We never said that all of us were here. One of my brothers has been dead for many years, and the other is at home with our father.”