Just a couple "Huh. Interesting" comments for today's reading:
-Genesis 41:46 tells us Joseph was 30 when his true life's work began, just like Jesus later on in history.
-Genesis 42 seems to indicate that Joseph's brothers must have not liked him a great deal. True, it had been fifteen years since they had last seen him, but to not recognize him AT ALL?! Genesis 43 shows that Joseph recognized his brother, Benjamin, even though he disguised it. How much would you have to avoid a family member not to recognize them AT ALL?!
-Genesis 48 gives an account of generational blessing styles. Jacob had been the second-born, yet he received the blessing of his father and of his people. When passing the blessing on, Jacob chose Joseph's sons to receive it. Not only that, but Jacob purposefully blessed the younger of Joseph's two sons.
-Genesis 50:2 states Jacob was embalmed at Joseph's command even though it seemed to me that Jacob didn't really want anything to do with Egypt; he wanted to be buried in the land of Canaan. I wonder if Jacob was feeling badly for how he had treated Leah during her life because he asked to be buried with her, not Rachel.
I find it further interesting that the triad of patriarchs were all buried in the same place with their first wives: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah.
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I think Joseph's brothers didn't recognize him because he was garbed as an Egyptian ... and perhaps he wasn't as physically close as we might think. He was basically treated as a king by the Pharaoh - perhaps with sufficient courtiers, servants, and the like, the outfit, and maybe the outlay of the room didn't present a clean means of directly viewing Joseph.
It is also possible that Joseph's brothers were all adorned with beards and Joseph might have been clean shaven. All the movies and hieroglyphics I've seen suggest this. This, by itself, might have made it harder to recognize Joseph.
I completely didn't catch that Jacob wanted to be buried with Leah - ouch!
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