I-YOUniverse

I like the names of Joseph’s children; they tell us much about his remarkable character.

When they were born, he had plenty to be pissed about:

• Pampered son, hated by his brothers
• Sold into slavery
• Falsely accused of adultery with his master’s wife
• Imprisoned
• Forgotten by Pharaoh’s butler, once restored to office

When he rightly interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and recommends a wise course of action, Pharaoh elevates Joseph to second in the land. He gives him a wife; the couple have two boys.

Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.” The second he named Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortunes.”

Gen 41:51-52 (NRSV)

Forgetful

Joseph attributed his state of mind to God, as he did his ability to interpret dreams.

What did he forget?

• All his hardship
• All his father’s house

Joseph put the past behind him. He didn’t dwell on the hate and injustice he’d experienced. But, perhaps more important, he didn’t dwell on all the things he loved in his father’s house.

Joseph did not cut himself off from his birth family. When they were ready to resume a relationship he was willing to.

In Old English “for” meant “away.” “Get” means to grab. Therefore, “forget” means not to get, not to grab. Forget, forbid, forbear all are similar words. Jesus didn’t consider equality with God as something to be grabbed at, held on to (Phil 2.6).

Perhaps we could say to forget in this sense is to let go.

Joseph didn’t let his past, good or bad, get to him. He put it away, just as Paul did.

this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Phil 3:13-14 (NRSV)

Forgetting past hurts as well as achievements helps you to focus on the present and the future. Maybe in this context forgetting is like pruning the vine, so that it will be more fruitful.

What about the saying “forget and forgive”? That’s another post. Forgetting in this sense simply means putting something away. Joseph is an example of forgiveness. But people often toss off “forget and forgive” as if to say, “Let’s pretend the injustice never occurred.” That’s not at all what Joseph did here. His caution in dealing with the brothers later demonstrates clearly that he had not lost sight of their power to hurt.

Fruitful

Joseph’s second child is named Ephraim, meaning fruitful. Joseph was fruitful in his ability as administrator, fruitful in his willingness to care for his father and his brothers’ families.

He demonstrated the fruits of the Spirit:

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Gal 5:22-23 (NRSV)

But, of course, what he meant primarily by fruitfulness was having children. He is like the woman in Jesus’ parable:

When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.  

John 16:21 (NRSV)

We have many promises in scripture that we will bear fruit, none more beautiful than this:

 Those who go out weeping,
     bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
     carrying their sheaves.

Psalms 126:6 (NRSV)

I love the beautiful song by Blood, Sweat and Tears, “And When I Die,” the chorus of which is:

And when I die, and when I’m gone
there’ll be, one child born, in this world
to carry on, to carry on

Jesus chose us to go and bear “fruit, fruit that will last,” John 15:16 (NRSV), whether that be in character, accomplishments, or new followers of Christ.

To be fruitful we Christians need to be forgetful of position, privilege, past—not in the sense of losing identity, for Joseph never forgot his father and wished to be buried in Canaan. Joseph forgot in the sense of never resting on his laurels. Leaves, even beautiful ones that crown winning athletes, soon wither and fade; records are surpassed.

A New Testament example of this forgetful/fruitful pairing is in the preaching of John the Baptist:

Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matt 3:8-10 (NRSV)

Somewhere I read that C.S. Lewis tended to discard a manuscript as soon as it was written. (I can’t document this at the moment.) By this I don’t mean that he did not revise and rewrite when necessary, but simply that he didn’t look on past writing as a trophy to be displayed prominently and polished every day. Instead, he simply continued writing.

By God’s grace we need to be forgetful and fruitful.

What God can do with open Bibles, open minds, and open hearts sometimes takes my breath away.

Here we are, four people–reading Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and Hebrews 4, 5 and 7. Lisa, her daughter Emily, and Linda, whose son recently returned from Iraq.

(We’re expecting my wife Sandy, Methodist minister, pastoral counselor, who visited a former client now in hospice. Having had a day from hell, she gets there an hour after everyone has left.)

Meet Up with Melchizedek

Melchizedek, king of righteousness, king of peace, blesses Abram, serves bread and wine, receives a tithe from him.

“It’s stupid, I guess,” says Lisa, “but I’m thinking, could this be Christ some way?”

“Many people think Melchizedek is Christ on earth long before his birth in Bethlehem,” I assure her.

We bat that around. I acknowledge others think he was a Canaanite priest, in whom Abram recognized a worthy servant of Yahweh.

My Favorite Four Letter (Hebrew) Word

Which brings us to Psalm 110.1, “The Lord said to my lord…” When you see Lord in small caps like that, it stands for the holy name of God which Jews won’t pronounce.

No one had ever noticed that. Which sparked interest in Exodus 3.13-15, and the holy name YHWH, now thought to be pronounced Yahweh, similar to verb forms of to be like hayah and ehyeh; influenced by German scholars, we used to pronounce it Jehovah.

People are intrigued, gonna take that bit of Bible knowledge home.

How come they don’t know this stuff?

I think, these women have attended Sunday School their whole lives. The last four Tuesdays Linda’s been doing committee work at her church. These are sharp people. Linda’s a nurse. Emily’s a college student. Lisa has a keen eye for people. Whenever Lisa says something about a stupid idea or thick skull, I get ready to jot down what she says because often she’s right on the money.

I’ve taught Sunday School most of my life, followed each week by a sermon. For a decade I wrote Bible study materials for junior highs, and I’m proud of the work the team and I did, grateful for the editors, and pissed at the politics at the top. I also believe the Bible study aids I’m familiar with aren’t doing the job.

®  People don’t know Bible basics.

®  People don’t connect Bible knowledge and a life-changing relationship to Christ.

®  People don’t take what little they know out of the classroom.

  BEFORE and AFTER BSing¹ in SS they’re NO DIFFERENT!

Compare your average SS class with an AA group. What a difference!

I’m a fan of a good study Bible, a systematic plan to cover the whole Bible appropriately in each age group, and teachers with access to commentaries, computer software, and other aids.

I’d be interested to know if anyone’s curriculum includes measuring knowledge and application.

 This Teacher Needs a Little Mercy

Anyway, back to Tuesday. We read

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Heb 4:15-16 (NRSV)

That gives some juice to the potentially dry discussion of the order of Melchizedek in Hebrews, after which we return to psalm 110. Using typology we apply what’s said about Zion to our lives. “What does that mean to you?” I ask lamely.

I was struggling. I can think of many specific ways to apply Psalm 110.5-6:

The Lord is at your right hand;
     he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgment among the nations,
     filling them with corpses;
he will shatter heads
     over the wide earth.

But I don’t.

 Nail Prints N’ All

At the close the women note my wife Sandy’s not home. We get into a discussion of hospice. In the group two had mothers die recently in hospice. We talk about pain management, the patient’s looking forward to death, how relatives cope, how God blesses us when we need it most.

When people in a small group trust each other, and focus on God’s Word in their lives, amazing things occur, despite the group leader’s lame use of typology.

I don’t know for sure if it was Christ way back there with Abram. But, right there Tuesday night in my living room where two or three were gathered, for sure–it was Christ.

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¹That’s “Bible studying.” In higher criticism aka “Bull Geschichte.”