For many years,Jacob believed Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.Meanwhile,the latter was in Egypt.
Afterwards,there was no written documentation from God to Jacob about Joseph!
Why?Jacob’s mindset had foreclosed ever seeing Joseph alive:
“And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.”-Gen 37:35
However,something great happened when it came to Jacob’s consciousness that Joseph was alive,he got an assurance from God through a vision:
“Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.” So He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.””-Gen 46:2-4
The information about Joseph in Egypt opened up Jacob’s mindset to a revelation that had been there all along.
How?
God,who spoke to Jacob in the passage above,knew all along that Joseph was in Egypt but Jacob’s consciousness wouldn’t have entertained such belief not with the physical ‘reality’ of Joseph’s cloth soaked with blood!