What Does Genesis 45:28 Mean?

And Israel said, "It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die." "It is enough": the patriarch's first words after the revival of his spirit are the words of a man who has everything he needs. Not "I want more evidence" or "tell me exactly how this happened." Just: it is enough. Joseph is alive. That is all. The twenty-two years of mourning, the grief, the "if I am bereaved, I am bereaved," the gray hairs descending in sorrow: all of it collapses into "it is enough." Joseph lives. Nothing else matters at this moment for the father who lost him.

"Joseph my son": the possessive is immediate and instinctive: my son. Not "your brother Joseph" or "the prime minister Joseph." The first thing the name produces in Jacob's revived spirit is the relationship: my son. The man who will rule Egypt in a foreign name is "my son" to the father who is receiving the news of his life. The relationship precedes the position; the son precedes the ruler. Jacob is going to see his son, not to meet an official.

"I will go and see him before I die": the urgency of the father's decision mirrors Joseph's "hurry" from verse 9. Jacob's one remaining desire is to see Joseph: to see the living face of the son he mourned as dead, before his own death takes away the possibility. "Before I die" is the old man's temporal awareness: he is elderly; he does not know how much time remains; he will not waste it. The decision is made in a moment: I will go. Everything in Genesis 45 has been moving toward this decision: from Joseph's "hurry and go" through the brothers' report through Jacob's numb disbelief through the wagons through the spirit's revival: and now the patriarch has made the decision: I will go and see him before I die.