They Wouldn't see him

It is taught that Joseph looked like his father Jacob, yet his brothers did not recognize him. He was interested in hearing about his father. He wanted to know about Benjamin. The brothers knew that he could have landed in Egypt. He took an abnormal amount of interest in them, giving them grain for nothing. He invited them to a banquet and seated them in order of birth.
He did not look like an Egyptian and yet they didn't recognize him. (I should note here that Jewish sages believe Joseph remained very much like his father and was not Egyptian in appearance). The Bible merely says he disguised his voice and spoke roughly.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. John 1:10
Here is a picture of Israel's blindness.
Joseph being the picture of the salvation of Israel and the children of Israel knew him not.
There are so many Messianic pictures and they were hidden. Hidden like a gold cup in a sack of grain.
Here are the children of Israel that have gone astray and will some day be reunited with Messiah.
Rabbi Rosenblatt says this, "The Sages tell us that if we do not wish to face reality, it can stare us in the face and we will not see it. If we desire something not to be so, it will not be so. And all the evidence in the world will not change our minds. That is the nature of human beings. We have a frightening propensity to rationalize and convince ourselves that we are honestly seeing reality, when deep down we know we are not."
Joseph dreamed and his brothers thought he was delusional. Jesus was treated the same way.
Those dreams became reality just as sure as Jesus is coming again.
It was too painful for the brothers too accept that it was Joseph. Likewise it was too painful too accept the God robed Himself in flesh for the Jews.
They knew but could not bring themselves to accept that He is Messiah.
It happens to us, too. How often do we convince ourselves that things are true because we want them to be, or not true because we do not?
Reality always stares us in the face. We do not need to be able to see it. We need to be willing to see it.