After Yosef was successful in his mastering of the brothers, he finally revealed himself and consoled them: Do not be sad, and let it not trouble you that you sold me here, for it was to preserve the life that Hashem sent me before you. For already two years of famine have passed, and for another five years, there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And now, you did not send me here, but Hashem, and He made me a father to Pharaoh, a lord over all his household, and a ruler over the entire land of Egypt.
Therefore, Hasten and go up to my father, and say to him, 'So said your son, Yosef: "Hashem has made me a lord over all the Egyptians. Come down to me, do not tarry." (45:5-9) The brothers come to Yaakov and they told him, saying, "Yosef is still alive," and that he ruled over the entire land of Egypt, and his heart changed, for he did not believe them. (26).
There are some difficulties in the Pesukim, with discrepancies in the language used in the dialogue. First in Posuk 8 Yosef tells the brothers to say to Yaakov “Hashem made me 'a father to Pharaoh', 'a lord over all his household', and 'a ruler over the entire land of Egypt.' Now in Posuk 26 the brothers told Yaakov "Yosef is still alive," and that he ruled over the entire land of Egypt. Here they omit Yosef was a 'lord over all his household', and they only mention that Yosef was a 'ruler over the entire land of Egypt'? The other difficulty is: It says "and his heart changed, for he did not believe them." Why didn’t Yaakov believe them?
To answer this, we must clarify the difference between a 'lord' and a 'ruler': the latter is the supreme and doesn’t have to answer his actions to anyone, whereas a lord is powerful, but has to answer to a superior. The Torah states that kings of the Jewish nation lived under a very different set of norms than their colleagues in the surrounding nations. Our Torah mandated Jewish kings to maintain a sense of humility and spirituality despite the glory and the trappings of royalty. They were instructed to limit their conspicuous consumption (Devorim 17:16-17) “lest their hearts stray from Hashem,” and were reminded to regularly read from the Torah (Devorim 17:19-20) “so that their hearts do not become haughty.” However, kings of other nations had unlimited power. The meaning of a 'ruler' really applies to the king of nations, who doesn’t have to answer to a superior, whereas a 'lord' has someone above him, meaning Hashem.
Therefore, Yosef was precise in his speech and in Posuk 9 he ordered the brothers to tell Yaakov 'So said your son, Yosef: "Hashem has made me a lord over all the Egyptians." For he knew that Yaakov would not be happy Yosef was a ruler. However, the brothers, in their haste to make Yaakov happy took the words of Yosef for granted and simply said that Yosef was a ruler over Egypt. This was a shock to Yaakov and therefore “his heart changed, for he did not believe them.” He was sure that Yosef had humility and spirituality despite the glory.
The brothers quickly realized their mistake and the Torah states Posuk 26 “And they told Yaakov all of Yosef's words that he had said to them, and he saw the wagons that Yosef had sent to carry him, and the spirit of their father Yaakov was revived. And Yisrael said, "Enough! My son Yosef is still alive, he is a Tzaddik and didn’t fall from his level since he left me. I will go and see him."
The Meforshim say that Yaakov was satisfied to hear that Yosef was still a Tzaddik, yet Yaakov wanted to see the face of Yosef, as the face of a person tells a lot about the inner self. Therefore, we see it states later on "And Yisrael said to Yosef, 'I will die this time, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.'" Yaakov looked on Yosef’s face, and saw the high level of Yosef, this gave life to Yaakov and energized him for the next seventeen years in Egypt, as the Torah attests to this in Parshas Vayechi "was full of life." (Yehuda Z. Klitnick)
