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.