Joseph's Reconciliation with his Brothers

Why did Joseph did what he did?

Why didn't he just revealed himself, in some appropriate private location, the first time he saw his brothers in Egypt?

Why didn't he then declared himself, "Dear brothers, it is I, Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery. You have intended evil towards me, but it merely fulfills God intent for good, for you and for me. Now all Egypt is under my command, and God has given me this power to save you and not to harm you."

But we never will know what might happened if he did so.

Perhaps then his brothers will not repent and will still resent him 'lording' over them. And maybe they will try to get Joseph back under their thumbs and to try to make Joseph do what they want. And then of course the prophetic dream will not be completely fulfilled, because Benjamin and Jacob have not bow down before Joseph.

But was Joseph thinking all these when he schemed up the tortuous process to reveal himself? Or was he inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit at the instance to do what he did? And even so, why was such a plan of God?

What we do know is that his brothers come to repent of what they did to Joseph, in that they acknowledged their evil did to Joseph. Also they come to know of a power that can truly destroy, totally arbitarily and at a whim, and from which there is no escape.

Joseph demonstrated a power able to accuse falsely, to trap and to imprison, and such is power, the same power that Joseph himself was subjected to before.

Jacob also suffered in this process. He had to let go of Benjamin, and in a sense died all over again, the first when Joseph was lost.

So it seems like it was a necessary process to lead Jacob and his sons to repentance, namely to acknowledge and accept God's revealed will, and thereafter to reform them, and to accept Joseph's authority over them, and to know that the authority is of God and not of man.

But it seems highly implausible that Joseph could have foreseen and planned all these, and to kow what was necessary and good for Jacob and his sons, and to know the outcome of his scheme.

Or perhaps he does, for such is the wisdom given to him by God.

But I am more of the view that Joseph was prompted to do what he did, and that he was moved by the Spirit, consciously or otherwise. And he himself may not be sure what and how the ends will be, the only thing he knew being the dreams he had.

This narrative also illustrate the process of repair, restoration and reconciliation is not a seemingly straightforward process from the human point of view. The tortuous way may indeed be the right, perfect and only way. For such is the nature of human wickedness, pride, and its hardened heart, that it must be matched by appropriate cunning, scheming and deviousness, before it will humbled itself before God.

A jagged edge must be matched by another edge equally jagged. Only then can such a fracture be restored to its perfect seamlessness.