Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies and locks them in the pit of prison for three days. Joseph had spent some years in that prison pit because of these ten brothers, and now they would experience the pit themselves but only for three days. I’m not sure it was vengeance as much as it was putting the brothers in a situation where they had to think about what they had done. That’s precisely what they did. Joseph heard them repenting of what they had done to him, and the text in Genesis 42:24 tells us that he had to turn away and cry. He did not let them see that. Then we read that the Egyptian Ruler, Joseph, “took Simeon and bound him before their eyes.” We don’t know for sure, but Reuben and Judah were mentioned by name in the episode of Joseph’s life being threatened and sold as a slave to Egypt. I’m trying to understand why Joseph chose Simeon to be the one bound, and I can’t come up with a good reason. None of the brothers could be called “innocent,” but the two instigators seem to be Reuben and Judah. Maybe he was less involved than some others.
The fact that Joseph bound him in full view of the others could have been Joseph’s way of showing that what goes around comes around! They all saw Joseph being bound up years earlier, and now they saw another brother being bound up. They did not step up to rescue Joseph at that time. Maybe Joseph wanted to know if they would step up and save Simeon at this time. During this story, the brothers confess their guilt and believe God is punishing them. When they discover their money has been returned in their sacks of grain on their way home, they ask, “What is this that God has done to us.”
Joseph took Simeon as a substitute for the others. By taking Simeon, Joseph declared that the others could go free. They took money from the traders for their brother Joseph and now Joseph makes sure they have money in their bags as they leave Simeon behind. I’m not saying that Simeon was innocent, but he was singled out to pay the penalty for the sins of the whole family. The other brothers could just return home and leave Simeon to rot in the pit, take their money, and go home. So Simeon, in a sense, became the substitute who would pay for the sins of the whole family. This is a “type” of Christ. He died the death that we deserve. The death of Christ as the Substitute for sinners is the great truth from which all other truth flows. Our hope, that of restoration, freedom, forgiveness, and eternal life in paradise rests upon the work that Jesus did, that of giving Himself for our sins. Without that, our faith would be meaningless. We might as well place our hope and trust in a statue of a fish. Salvation comes only through the blood, the blood of Christ.