There seems no better word to describe Joseph’s life than “saga.” No wonder Andrew Lloyd Weber made a musical
out of it. Most of the time when reading
the narratives of the Bible, we can relate to the human weaknesses of the
people we read about (with the exception of Jesus as he lived a perfect life). Yet Joseph appears to lack those weaknesses. He does appear egotistical as a young man
pronouncing his interpretive dreams of one day ruling over his family. Yet if
we believe his dreams and their interpretations were God given and, as
scripture reveals, accurate, we can’t really fault him for his ego.
In chapter 39, Joseph shows incredible self-discipline as he
constantly fights off the come ons of Potiphar’s wife. We also see evidence of his discipline as
Joseph ran an efficient and productive home for Potiphar. Then, even when dealt another setback of
falsely being accused of taking advantage of Potiphar’s wife, we see him
gaining favor in the prison with the warden.
Joseph’s positive attitude and stick-to-it-iveness must have been
relentless. I find this very admirable
but difficult to relate to. I would
imagine you can relate that discipline is something that I struggle with but
something I know I need more of. We
should also note that Joseph’s constant success is always credited toward God
which is a good reminder to us that discipline, especially in matters of faith
and life choices, isn’t done alone.
In Chapters 40 and 41, Joseph’s model of faithfulness to God
continues. We also see a continued model
of telling the truth without hesitation.
Joseph, in interpreting the cupbearer and baker’s dreams, gives full
credit to God but also holds nothing back from the baker by telling him the dream
means he will meet his end soon. We do
see, for the first time, Joseph asking for help by asking the cup bearer to
remember him in hopes he would use his position with Pharaoh to get Joseph out
of prison. But, to no avail, Joseph’s
predicament remains unchanged for another two years until the cup bearer
remembers his friend Joseph when the Pharaoh needs a dream interpreter. Once again Joseph credits God as the true
interpreter of dreams. Joseph must have
been confidently persuasive in his interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dream and
proposed strategy to deal with the famine he predicted, because the Pharaoh
does not hesitate to give him the keys to the kingdom as it were. Joseph’s words cause this superstitious polytheistic
Pharaoh to believe and trust in Joseph’s God.
Joseph’s plan was evidently so convincing that he as a foreigner was
able to convince the farmers of Egypt to turn over a fifth of their crop for
safe keeping and for the prophet of the kingdom of Egypt. In the process, Joseph is also given a wife
who bears him two sons who give him much pleasure. Their names represent how far he has come from
the days of strife brought on by his brothers.
He names his first born Manasseh sounding much like the Hebrew name for”
forget” suggesting Joseph’s son is a reminder how God has helped him to forget all
his past trials. He names his second
Ephraim meaning “twice fruitful.”
In Chapters 42-45, everything comes full circle for Joseph
and his brothers. Rereading the story of
Joseph reuniting with his brothers has been fascinating to me and I could be
tempted to dwell on many of the details but will try to paint with broader
strokes.
We get a sense back home that Joseph’s brothers lack a true
leader in Joseph’s absence. As Jacob
considers how they should deal with their plight, says to them “Why do you just
keep looking at each other? Go get us some grain in Egypt so we don’t die
already.” (D. Doles Paraphrase) Unbeknownst to them, they come face to face
with their long lost brother once they arrive in Egypt. Joseph treats them harshly and accuses them of
being spies. Did he do this out of
revenge or was it part of a master plan?
The Faithweaver notes suggest it was a test and I would agree. It appears to be a part he was playing in
order to gain a true response from his brothers. When a person fears for their life and
wellbeing, we discover what’s really in their heart.
After a brief imprisonment, Joseph sends them home but one
of them must remain and Simeon is chosen.
Joseph also commanded that if they return for more grain, it must be
with Benjamin to verify their story.
Here we see Joseph having to leave their presence because he is overcome
with emotion and doesn’t want to blow his cover. Later when they return, Joseph loses control
of his emotions two more times. I have a
theory behind this but will save that for later.
When they do return, it’s been nearly two years. It took near starvation again for them to
convince Jacob to let them take Benjamin back with them. Don’t forget, Simeon is imprisoned in Egypt
during this time. This again shows that
the brothers continued to be leaderless and no one had the gumption to step up
for the sake of the family. It feels as though a cloud of guilt hung over
the brothers and Jacob remained bitter about the loss of his favorite son,
Joseph. Thus, the reason he is so
protective of Benjamin after losing Joseph and Rachel. One source even suggested that Jacob had a
sense that his sons were behind what he thought was Joseph’s demise. This would’ve added to the ongoing cloud that
hung over their family heightened by the ongoing famine.
Upon the brothers’ return, with Benjamin, we see Joseph
again testing his brothers by making it appear as though Benjamin stole
Joseph’s divinity cup. Also we see
Joseph get emotional upon seeing his little brother Benjamin and again having
to leave the room for fear of blowing his cover. Joseph, though, continues his charade and
threatens to have Benjamin imprisoned. Finally,
upon hearing Judah’s plea to trade places with Benjamin, Joseph can no longer
hold back and reveals his true identity.
I believe Joseph’s test of his brothers was to see if they had changed
their hearts. Were they truly sorry for
what they had done to him? This is why
Joseph gets emotional during the brothers’ first visit when he hears them,
especially Reuben, expressing regret for what they had done. Now Judah, the one who led his brothers in
the plot to sell Joseph for financial gain, kneels before him begging to trade
places with Benjamin for the sake of his father. Joseph saw true repentance in their heart and
he could not withhold his tears of joy any longer. When Joseph revealed himself and forgave
them, the burden his brothers had been carrying was lifted and Joseph helped
them to see God was with them all the time.
Genesis 45:5 Joseph says “…do not be angry with yourselves for selling
me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”
In some ways, I see Joseph’s story as a foreshadowing of the
greatest story ever told, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Joseph, a special man touched by
God is betrayed by the family of Israel.
He is dead to his father and good as dead to his brothers. But through his trials and tribulations, he
rises up to a position where he is given the opportunity to save the family of
Israel and allow them to experience God’s forgiveness and redemption. Sound familiar?
What is the family application here? Again the themes are many, but what sticks out
to me is God calling us to never give up on people having a change of heart,
especially those closest to us. Joseph
came to the realization that all he had been through was in order to put him in
a place to be able to save his family from starvation. He saw the bigger picture. We need to see the bigger picture in those we
are close to. We may get discouraged
when those we love don’t appear to move towards a deeper faith, or any faith at
all. Our frustration deepens because we
are constantly with them and we fail to step back and see how far they have
come. Or sometimes we presume after many
attempts to encourage them in a certain direction, we decide “they will never
change.” The greatest gift we can give
our loved ones is when we show them patience and grace. Perhaps when they decide to turn over a new
leaf for the first time or the umpteenth time we need to decide to not dismiss
it, but do our best to believe in God’s power to change them.
Two of our
ends in mind for our young people are:
-
God chooses me, every day, to show His love to the World.
-
God has made
me unique and has plans to use me to help others know him.
In a nutshell we want our young
people to help reconcile others to God through Jesus Christ. We need to model that in our lives. Sometimes being people of reconciliation
takes time. It took Joseph about 15
years to bring reconciliation to his family.
We must remain faithful and constant in our passion for those who need
reconciled to God and in the words of Jim Valvano, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”
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