Appeal (vv. 16-17). Afraid to approach Joseph personally, they sent a message to him, hoping to convince him. Did Jacob actually speak the words they quoted? Probably not. If Jacob had wanted to intercede for the guilty sons, he could easily have done it when he was alone with Joseph. And he had seventeen years in which to do it! It’s likely that the brothers concocted this story, hoping that Joseph’s love for his father would give him a greater love for his brothers.

How did Joseph respond to their message? “When their message came to him, Joseph wept” (v. 17 niv). He was deeply hurt that his own brothers didn’t believe his words or accept his kind deeds at face value as true expressions of his love and forgiveness. What more could he have done to convince them? Charles Wesley may have had Joseph and his brothers in mind when he wrote his hymn “Depth of Mercy”:

Depth of mercy! Can there be

Mercy still reserved for me?

Can my God His wrath forbear–

Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

Now incline me to repent;

Let me now my sins lament;

Now my foul revolt deplore,

Weep, believe and sin no more.

There for me the Saviour stands,

Holding forth His wounded hands;

God is love! I know, I feel,

Jesus weeps and loves me still.