Word that the Lord Governor was coming sent the household into a whirlwind of activity. When it was rumored that the King would be accompanying him, the men agonized in fear and sought out their father. Without waiting to wash the dust of the road and sheepfold from their garments, they hurried to his tent. Squatting in the midst of the fertile Delta lands, the Hebrew tents seemed strangely out of place so near the pyramids, the white washed towns, and shipping lanes of the Lower Nile.

“Father, what can be the reason for this visit?”

“My sons, have no fear; your brother is coming to visit me. I have here his words.” The old man held up a papyrus scroll. “At my request, he comes to tell me all that God has done in his life.”

“But is the Great One, King of Egypt, coming also?”

“Yes, he too desires to hear the story.”

“What shall we do? We have but poor hospitality for such as the Lord Governor much less the King of all the land!” The brothers looked wildly at one another, the same thought racing through their minds. “And, our father will hear of our treachery.”

“Silence!” the patriarch angrily commanded, as he struggled to his feet. “The hospitality of the tent of Israel is known from Haran to the Great Sea!”

…

 “All is ready and my heart rejoices that at last the time has come to hear of your brother’s adventures.”

With murmurs of “Yes, father,” the eleven men drifted away to form small groups.

“What will our father say when he learns what we did thirty years ago?”

“Surely now our brother will ask the King for vengeance on our lives.”

“If not the King, then our father will curse us.”

“Hasn’t our brother said many times that God used the evil you planned for good?” The youngest spoke up but his brothers ignored the words as they tried to predict what would happen when the King and their Father, Jacob, heard of their actions. Haunted by guilt, the brothers talked long into the night...