Posts Tagged ‘Joseph’

Joseph, God’s Man for All Seasons

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

josephs-coat1

Diego Velasquez, Joseph’s Bloody Coat, 1630

 

 

 

 

What 

A summary of the Biblical story

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Gen 37:3-4 (NRSV)

 Joseph, age 17, had some flaws. He was his father’s pet. The long-sleeved coat (also worn by David’s ill-fated daughter Tamar 2 Sam 13.18) represented a privileged status which divided Joseph from his siblings.

Genesis began with tragic sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel.

Joseph snitched on his brothers, and told them his dreams of being superior even to his father. All these actions endeared him to the ten rambunctious older brothers.

When Jacob sent Joseph to check on them, they took their revenge, throwing him into a dry pit and selling him into slavery.

Thirteen Years in Slavery

In the house of Potiphar (chief “slaughterer”) Joseph prospered, blessed by God. But when the official’s wife cast her eye on him, he refused her advances and she accused him of making them.

I’ve always wondered if Potiphar’s rage erupted partly because he knew his wife well enough to know the real story.

In Pharaoh’s prison, the pattern is repeated of Joseph’s integrity and God’s blessing. When Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker end up there, they are troubled by dreams which Joseph interprets accurately.

Restored to his position, the cupbearer forgets Joseph for two years.

Second in the Land

Troubled by his dreams, Pharaoh turns to Joseph, whom the cupbearer remembers at last.

Joseph again interprets accurately, and deftly suggests that Pharaoh seek out a man much like himself to administer the grain supplies during the coming years of plenty and famine.

Pharaoh elevates Joseph on the spot. The young man is 30, far different from the boy who was his father’s pet.

Joseph names his children Manasseh “Forgetful” and Ephraim “Fruitful,” a great strategy for handling a chequered past.

His Brothers in his Grip

Starving in Canaan, Joseph’s ten brothers show up to buy food.

They don’t recognize in this powerful lord the little brother who pleaded for mercy.

Joseph begins an elaborate ruse to find out the fate of his father, bring Benjamin to Egypt, and test the brothers’ character.

When they plead for their father’s welfare, Joseph has evidence that their character has changed. He reveals himself to them, and is reconciled.

The Last Act

Joseph brings his aged father and the entire clan to Egypt, where he secures Goshen in the Nile Delta,  the best grazing land for their flocks.

He assures his brothers:

 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.  So it was not you who sent me here, but God

Gen 45:7-8 (NRSV)

Joseph is Christ-like in his forgiveness.

When the clan returned to Canaan, he insisted that his bones go with them.

So What

Reflections on what this story means today

Is Joseph a “real” historical person?

To date archaeologists cannot corroborate the story of Joseph or any of its major features in Egyptian history. Although archaeology enlightens biblical study, it doesn’t destroy the value of the story not to have such corroboration. Who knows what future discoveries there will be!

Joseph resembles the ideal government official in Egyptian and other Ancient Near Eastern texts.

But the Hebrew scriptures took material from the culture and transformed it by orienting it toward God.

A man of God for all seasons

Joseph was nothing if not God’s man.

By the time he appears at age 17, his religious education had been completed. His identity had been securely formed, even though the family had rocky relations.

Joseph’s steadfast confidence in God, and his growing awareness of how God’s purpose might be achieved in his life, enabled him to endure.

Yet, it also gave him the ability to lay aside the trappings of Egyptian wealth and power at the end of his life, and remain after all a Hebrew, son of Israel, whose destiny belonged with his own people in Canaan.

Did he fail in success?

Some question whether Joseph navigated the waters of success as faithfully as he had before weathered those of suffering. Was his use of a divining cup an infraction?

  1. We don’t know if it was at this time in history. The prohibitions of Torah come later.
  2. We don’t know how much divining he actually did, or whether this was a pose.

Joseph’s insight into the providence of God, his willingness to forgive and to provide for his brothers’ families, and his integrity in all circumstances make him today, as he has been for 3000 or more years, an excellent role model for Christ followers.

 

[Note: This meditation grows out of our summer Neighborhood Bible Study "Great Chapters"---Genesis 45 or 50. Notes based on New Interpreter's Study Bible.]

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Forgetful and fruitful

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

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.

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