After 13 years as a slave in Egypt, Joseph was placed in charge of Egypt's "grain management and famine relief" program. He supervised the stockpiling of grain during 7 years of plenty. When the subsequent years of famine began, he supervised the distribution of grain to those who needed it.
After his promtion to leadership, Joseph does not seem to have attempted to contact his family, although he would have been concerned about how they were doing. He also surely wondered why they had not contacted him. Jacob would have had the means to buy Joseph back, if only Jacob had known Joseph was a slave in Egypt.
Having heard nothing from his family, Joseph may well have felt rejected by them. Had he been sent away for some reason, as Ishmael and Esau had in previous generations? In naming his oldest son Manasseh, he expressed a desire to put the past behind him (Gen 41:51). Certainly he had plenty of responsibilities to keep him busy.
Then, after over 20 years, 10 of his brothers showed up in Egypt, seeking grain during the famine. When they "came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground" (Gen 42:6), we are reminded of Joseph's dream about the sheaves in Gen 37:7. Joseph thought of it too (Gen 42:9).
At this dramatic moment "Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him" (v 8). The word for "recognize" (nakar) is an important one in this account. Earlier his brothers had asked their father if they recognized Joseph's bloody coat (37:32), and Judah had been asked whether he recognized the items that he had given Tamar as a pledge (Gen 38:25).
In the failure of his brothers to recongize him, we see another way in which Joseph is a type of Jesus, since many in Israel did not recognize Jesus as Messiah when he came. "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him," we read in John 1:11.
In his sermon at Church of the Messiah on Jan 2, 2021, Rob Wilson emphasized the importance of our recognizing God's presence in the world and in our lives.
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