What Seekest Thou?

After describing how Joseph’s brothers were envious of him, the account in Genesis relates how the brothers were feeding their father’s flocks in Shechem when Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. We read, “And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.” But Joseph was unable to find them at first and seems to have been somewhat lost. The next verse relates, “And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?” Joseph described to this man how he was looking for his brothers, and he replied, “They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan” (Genesis 37:13-17). Joseph then went to Dothan as he was directed by this man. Once Joseph found his brethren there, they conspired against him and ultimately sold him into Egypt. So, who was this “certain man” who found Joseph just wandering and pointed him the way he needed to go? At first we might be tempted to think that this was a bad thing that the man sent Joseph to find his brothers, for if he hadn’t been there Joseph would not have been captured by his brothers and perhaps never sold into Egypt. But ultimately we know that it was the Lord’s will for Joseph to go to Egypt for the salvation of his family, and I have to wonder if Joseph wasn’t thinking about this “certain man” when he said twenty years later, “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:5). Joseph perhaps saw in that man an inspired, if not heavenly, messenger who was there at just the right place and time—apparently looking for Joseph because the text says that he “found” him—in order to set things in motion as they needed to be.

               The brief exchange between Joseph and this man also seems very symbolic if we consider that the man represented the Lord. He asked Joseph this important question: “What seekest thou?” The Savior Himself asked the same question to two of the disciples of John the Baptist: “What seek ye?” (John 1:38) The Spirit posed a similar question to Nephi when he requested to see the things that his father had seen: “And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou?” The angel who subsequently came asked the same question, “What desirest thou?” (1 Nephi 11:2, 10). And so perhaps we can see this question from the man to Joseph as one symbolic of what the Lord or His messengers would say to each of us: “What seekest thou?” Joseph’s answer was this: “I seek my brethren.” Of course, at face value the words meant simply that he wanted to find his brothers, but perhaps there is a deeper meaning: he wanted to bless his brethren. And that is exactly what he was able to do as the Lord sent him forth to first be captured but ultimately to rise up as a mighty figure in Egypt to save his family. And so for us, if our desire is to be a blessing to others and help fulfill the Abrahamic covenant—that “all the kindreds of the earth be blessed”—then the Lord may very well grant us that desire as He did for Joseph. But perhaps it may not be in the way that we expect, and it may take many years like Joseph to see how His hand will orchestrate His work as Paul described: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Mormon expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote, “And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will” (Words of Mormon 1:7). We can strive like Paul and Mormon to be an instrument in His hands, saying with Joseph to the Lord, “Here am I… I seek my brethren.” And going wherever the Lord sends us, we can trust in His hand to guide us to the work He has for us to do.