Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, why the elaborate ruse? Genesis chapter 42 - 45 recount story of Joseph tricking his brothers who are in Egypt to buy grain, into going back and forth several times from Canaan to Egypt in an attempt exonerate themselves in the (feigned) accusation from Joseph of being a spy. Eventually Joesph reveals himself as their brother, and Jacob and his family move to Egypt as a result.

Why did Joseph trick them in this way? I can think of only a few reasons:


He wanted to get all of his brothers and father back to Egypt before he revealed himself.
He distrusted his brothers, since they had tried to kill him, and sold him into slavery years prior to this event, he was trying to ascertain if his younger brother and father were in fact still alive.
He was punishing his brothers by making them suffer this way in an act of revenge.


In any event the author of Genesis spends a lot of precipitous time and space recounting this deception, is there some cultural aspect to this that I am missing? Is there some context to the story that would reveal more about the characters involved or the nature of God or their relationship to him?
I am six months late answering this, but this same question, particularly, the "elaborate ruse", have been nagging me a long time; and this was the reason for me googling the topic, again, and this time stumbling to this site.

For if I imagined myself in Joseph's shoes, it seems only natural and human to declare who you are to your brothers the moment you realise who they are; but this was precisely not what Joseph did, and thus the BIG question, WHY? And then did Joseph schemed the entire elaborate ruse from the onset or was he led by the Spirit to do what he did?

My view at this moment is that Joseph did not scheme the ruse, in that he did not plan nor forsee every action and their chain of consequences to eventually lead to his brothers' repentance and his father coming to Egypt, but rather each step he was led by the Spirit, not entirely sure what the outcome would be.

In other words the ruse was designed by God for a purpose.

(And there are implications here for what it means to be led by the Spirit.)

And this purpose seems to be to demonstrate to the brothers the meaning of power, absolute power. For Joseph has the power to do anything he wants to his brothers, even to falsely accuse them and to concoct false evidence to prove such accusations. Joseph is literally life or death for his father and brothers: he can give them grain, or not, or put them to death on any whim or fancy.

For absolute power is completely arbitrary, and God wants the brothers, and Jacob too, to understand that. And such absolute and arbitrary power, that Joseph is, is but a mere reflection of the authority of God, and who God is. And in bowing to Joseph, Jacob and his brothers are, truly, worshiping God.

But it is this very same power that is for, and not against, the people of Israel.

And this same lesson, to know God, was played out again when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.