Reading the Bible 38 Genesis 44 – The Test

Joseph again puts his brothers to the test.  He has his servants plant his cup in Benjamin’s belongings and then pursues and catches them red handed with the proof of their apparent dishonesty.  As a result of this the thing that the Jacob and the brothers feared most comes to fruition.  Benjamin will be kept in Egypt as Joseph’s slave.  Judah now steps up to the plate and pleads that Benjamin be allowed to return home.  If he does not return with the brothers he is afraid that it will kill Jacob. 

This action seems unnecessarily cruel on the part of Joseph.  A kind-hearted reader might think that Joseph has put his brothers through enough to pay them back for their treachery towards him.  After all he is aware that they apparently were actors in enabling God’s grand plan for Joseph and his chosen people to fulfill the covenant he made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  However, this test was to determine once and for all if his brothers had been transformed in the years since they betrayed him.  If Joseph had not gone through the transformative experience in Egypt it might have been reasonable to expect that at least a small part of him would have been pleased to put his brothers through a bit more torment as pay back.  However, I believe that Joseph, being the person he is now, had only pure motives in this act.  Sometimes been soft-hearted is not what is required.  Sometimes we all need a bit of iron in our souls to travel the journey that God calls us to. 

Reading the Bible 35 Genesis 42: 1-25 – The Intricacies of Forgiveness

The events that had been foretold in Joseph’s dreams of stars and moons and sheaves of wheat are now coming to fruition.  The prophecy is not yet complete as only his ten brothers are there to bow down to him.  This fulfills the prophecy of the first dream in which the wheat sheaves of his brothers bow to his.  However, the dream of the sun and moon and eleven stars bow down to him remains to be fulfilled.

In reading this account I wonder if Joseph might not have shown compassion to his brothers and immediately revealed himself to them.  After all their actions in selling him into slavery lead to his ultimate triumph that was foretold in the dreams.  He might have realized that their actions were part of God’s plan for not only Joseph but all of his chosen people.  However, we can hardly blame him for wanting some payback and make his brothers suffer for their evil deeds.  But were his actions just the acting out of his natural desire for revenge or did he have a greater purpose in his actions?

First, Joseph must have known the distress his action in demanding Benjamin be brought to Egypt would have caused his father.  So why did he take this action?  I believe that his actions were necessary for there to be true reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers and his father.  If Joseph had immediately identified himself and welcomed them with open arms there would have always been a barrier between the brother and him and perhaps the brothers and their father.  They would have always wondered if Joseph had truly forgiven them and human nature being what it is they might eventually have secretly or not so secretly resented his good fortune in Egypt just as they had resented the dreams that foretold these events.  

True forgiveness and reconciliation for even minor offenses much less major injury done to a person’s body and spirit is a process which cannot be taken lightly or avoided.  It is very easy to say that you forgive someone – even if you believe it in your head but to find forgiveness for others and for yourself in your heart does not come easily.  It is not a questions of just saying I forgive which can come early in the process for the sake of wanting to move on.  However, the resentment can and does remain on a deeper level and can come bubbling to the surface when we least expect it.  If we are truly to forgive it requires a conversion of the heart which comes from God and not from our will.  Through the grace of God true forgiveness is possible.  Thanks be to God.

Reading the Bible 34 Genesis 41: 37-57 – The Stuff of Dreams

And it came to pass (as will be said later in this same book) that Joseph’s interpretation of the Pharaoh’s dreams were realized.  The seven years of plenty were followed by the seven years of famine.  The Pharaoh’s discernment that Joseph was the one to lead the country through this time of trial was confirmed.   All seemed to be well – at least in Egypt.  However, there are two points which are almost throw away lines at the end of the chapter that should not be overlooked.  

First we are told that Joseph sold to the Egyptians the wheat that had been stored up in the good years.  Apparently there was no free lunch in Egypt in those days.  The wheat that had I’m sure been taken by the Pharaoh was not given back to the people.  They had to buy it back from their ruler through the auspices of Joseph.  There does not seem to be any question that this is just how things were.  It is not a case of the welfare state.  Joseph, the man who had been looked on with favour because of the gifts that God had given him was quite willing to participate in this act of government control which could be interpreted as being ordained by God.  I’m not sure how this would be viewed by those Christians – usually of the fundamentalist bent al la the Tea Party – who call for less government and fewer taxes.  Would they hold that this was necessary for God’s plan to be fulfilled for the Israelites – God chosen people - at least until the United States was established?  Therefore this inconvenient biblical passage can be overlooked.  Of course I am using historical relativism to judge the situation and of course we have to see that God truth is not the same for all people in all times.  God’s truth is being revealed in new ways in an ongoing revelation.  

The second point is that famine was severe throughout the world. Here we have a chicken and egg situation.  God foretold the coming famine through dreams sent to the Pharaoh.  He also gave Joseph the gift of the interpretation of that message.  Was the famine part of God’s plan?  Was it necessary for God to send a famine on the world to enable His plan for Joseph and the Israelites to unfold?  Or did God just use his omniscience to use the events that were destines to happen?  Was the suffering that was inevitable with a world-wide famine necessary for God to fulfil His intention?  It is easy to read into events our understanding of God’s will when they fit our understanding of how God works in the world and how people who we believe deserve God’s punishment receive it with natural events – AIDS as punishment for Gays comes to mind and even the reaction by some to the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina as punishment for the wickedness of that sinful city a la Sodom and Gomorrah.  It is very easy for people of all stripes to relish when bad things happen to those who we consider bad people.  It is always dangerous to believe that God is on our side and should meet out punishment to those we believe deserve it.  We don’t like to leave punishment in the hands of God as God says elsewhere. 

Reading the Bible 32, Genesis 40 - Dreams, God’s Forgotten Language

Reading the Bible 32 Genesis 40 - Dreams, God’s Forgotten Language

After Joseph’s good deed is punished he finds himself in prison.  However, God had not forgotten him and he had not forgotten God.  Joseph’s God-given gift of dream interpretation was with him still.  Previously the rashly shared prophetic dreams of his predominance in his family had set in motion the events which were still unfolding.  However, that same gift now opens a way to release him from his current prison.  He is able to interpret the dreams of his cell mates – the Pharos’s cupbearer and baker

Now the baker and the cup-bearer are in a difficult situation.  They have had what could be called today, big dreams.  However, they believed there was no one there to interpret them.  They held the common understanding that not everyone could interpret dreams.  That was the special purview of priests, magicians and other assorted wise men.  Joseph rebuts this piece of orthodoxy by assuring them that interpretations belong to God.  He goes on to correctly interpret the prophetic dreams of the two men to the joy of the cupbearer and the sorrow of the baker.

Today our culture has generally dismissed the understanding that dreams come from God.  This understanding was the norm in biblical times and continued in the life of the early church being upheld by such church fathers as Tertullian and St. Augustine.  The language of dreams that Joseph was able to understand through God’s grace, is something that our world has generally lost.  However, it is something that can and is being rediscovered and relearned.  Today it is not the secret purview of the magicians and wise-men self-proclaimed or otherwise. 

Dream interpretation and understanding can be taught and learned.  However, it is art as well as skill and it is a useful reminder to treat them as sacred object and that they are in the hands of the divine source of all wisdom as Joseph noted.  It is important to be open to the inspiration that can come when trying to understand dreams. 

May your dreams be fruitful and may you be open to the wisdom contained in them. 

 

Reading the Bible 31: Genesis 39 – Joseph’s Good Deed Does Not Go Unpunished

I question that comes to mind reading the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is, why do bad things happen to good people?  We are told that God was with Joseph and he prospered despite the challenging circumstances he found himself in.  He came to Egypt in the poorest of poor circumstances - as a foreign slave.  Yet he succeeds against all odds.  The talents that God has blessed him with enable him to rise to a position of prominence in his master’s house.  He is a loyal and faithful servant and does not yield to temptation when his master’s wife tried to seduce him.  He ends up in even a worse situation than when he arrived in Egypt – in prison for his trouble. 

People have struggled with that question throughout history and many books have been written on the subject including books of the Bible.  With some trepidation here are a few of my thought on that eternal question.  Joseph seems to be beyond blame for the misfortune that befalls him in this episode of his story. Unlike his earlier treatment by his brothers which could be blamed in part on his hubris, he appears to be faultless when fate turns against him this time.  So apparently being in God’s favour does not guarantee that your life will be without problems and challenges and even misfortunes or the most serious kind.  

Everything does turn out for the best for Joseph as we will see in later episodes and there does seem to be God’s hand guiding Joseph through all that happens to him.  However, when we consider all the twists and turn in his story we can’t help be filled with wonder at how easily it could have turned to disaster and God’s plan would have gone unfulfilled.    

I don’t believe that God's caused Potiphar’s wife to attempt to seduce Joseph or to lead Potiphar to have him thrown into prison.  I do believe that God can be with us and we will still suffer the slings and arrows or life fortunes.  People will act in ways that God does not intend for us to act because of free will and evil.  Unlike Joseph’s experience in many cases the ends does not turn out as God intends for us.  However, we have the guarantee that God will be with us in our journey wherever that many take us through all its twists and turns. 

Our part in this is to be intentional in understanding God’s will for us and where the Holy Spirit is leading us.  The vagaries of life may intercede and work to oppose that plan just as we can make the wrong decisions in life; however, God will be with us on that journey.  Thanks be to God.

 

Reading the Bible 30: Genesis 38 – What is displeasing in the Sight of the Lord?

The account of Judah and Tamar (as the passage in my bible is headed) has been inserted into the story of Joseph.  We have left Joseph being sold as a slave to Potiphar one of the Pharaoh’s officials with Jacob is mourning his apparent death.    This passage could have been introduced with the phrase, ’meanwhile back at the ranch’.  We are now introduced to a new branch of the family.  Judah has married a Adulamite woman (who doesn’t happen to be named – not important in the narrator’s eyes apparently) and they have started a family.  We now have an example of family values of a different kind indeed. 

Reading the account of Judah and Tamar I must wonder how anyone could question that the bible must be put into context to be understood.  Here we have an account of a widow - Tamar being required by custom/law to have intercourse with her brothers-in-law - Onan; of a father (Judah) ‘going into’ h is daughter-in-law (Tamara)  through deception – Judah only thought she was a temple prostitute so no harm done; the practice of Onanism being established as a form of birth control (again with a sister-in-law).  Judah also righteously is going to condemn Tamara to death because she has ‘played the whore’ and become pregnant outside the bounds of holy matrimony (as they existed them) – no hypocrisy or double standard there. 

And what is God doing while all this is happening?  We hear that Er, Judah’s first born is put to death by God because he was evil in God’s sight.  We have to wonder what terrible thing he did to bring down God’s wrath on him.  I would hazard a guess it wasn’t something such as not upholding the family values of today judging by the fact that God doesn’t seem concerned by all the carryings-on in the story.  Soory, I spoke too soon.  God did also strike down Onan for his terrible act of not impregnating his sister-in-law so perhaps all was not well with Judah and his family.

Apparently cultural context does matter when we are considering how we relate to others and how God views what is good in his sight. 

 

Reading the Bible 30: Genesis 37 – Joseph the Tattler

The tale of Joseph has so much that is important – parents having favourites, those of us of a certain age can hear the echo to Tommy Smothers plaintive cry, ‘mom always liked you best’ – joseph and the technicolour dream coat – Joseph the dreamer – Joseph’s chickens coming home to roost and being sold into slavery.

For me the beginning of the story of Joseph is important - as it is with all well-told tales – as it gives a clue to what will follow.  In effect Joseph is a spoiled brat.  He is his father’s favourite and he knows it.  He lords it over them with his coat of many colours and his dreams surprisingly seem to confirm his favoured status.  His brothers bow down to him symbolically in his dreams.  There is a hint in the fall to come as one dream presents his father bowing down to him as well which does not please Jacob and his indulgence is stretched somewhat but is still intact.  How many of us who have siblings long for place of the favourite in our parent’s eyes?  Of course we often secretly believe that we hold that position but don’t give voice to it.

Joseph’s problem is that he truly is his father’s favourite and throws it in his brothers’ faces.  Well the inevitable happens.  Sometimes bad things do happen to good people but seemingly here there is no question in our minds that Joseph deserved what he got.  Well the reaction of the brothers is rather severe and even being sold into slavery is extreme no to mention being left to die in a dark pit.  However, it is easy to understand the motivation of the brothers. 

We are faced with the question and mystery of evil.  The other side of all this is the question about how do we judge what happens to others and ourselves.  What seems to be bad or even evil may not in the end turn out that way.  This is certainly the case with Joseph which we will see in the later parts of the story.  However, there is no question that no matter what perspective will have on some events there is no way to see the good intended.  Good may be a byproduct as with heroic acts of people who risk all to save others form evil al la Raoul Wallenberg but we fail to see that these acts heroic as they are can be a reason for the holocaust.  As I have just been reading in Religion and the Unconscious by Ann and Barry   Ulinov we need to stop treating evil as a problem to be solved and treat it as a mystery which is destined to remain as such no matter how we try to solve it. 

However, in the case of Joseph God’s hand seems to be guiding all the events including the dreams that Joseph is sent and even the way Joseph seems to misunderstand them.  In the end they turn out to be prophetic and part of God’s plan for all concerned – at least for God’s chosen ones.  But that too is not the view the Egyptians would take, is it?