Last time we saw Joseph, he had been promoted from prisoner to prime minister. I think it’s interesting that Joseph rises to become a political figure and win great success by the world’s standards. It can be easy to think that worldly success and Godly success are mutually exclusive, but Joseph shows us that this is not always the case – sometimes the two coincide. God gave us this world to look after, so if we are going to steward it effectively for him, we are going to have to get involved in worldly affairs. We don’t have to be doing something obviously spiritual in order to serve God – He calls people to all sorts of roles, including positions of power. We shouldn’t shy away from it if that is what we are called to – we just need to learn to guard our hearts and keep God above all else.
From his position of power, Joseph has a huge impact. First off, by interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams and organising the storing of food, he saves thousands from starvation. We may not all save a country from devastation, though it would be nice, but it does go to show that God can use us in magnificent ways, no matter who we are or where we come from. If Joseph could go from shepherd boy to slave to prisoner to governor of Egypt, anything is possible. Secondly, Joseph brings God into a country where He was previously unknown. Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph, and Pharaoh appointed him to be his second-in-command because he was full of the spirit of God. There’s no indication that Potiphar or Pharaoh came to worship God, but Joseph still managed to sow a seed there. He was the sole believer in a country stacked full of false gods, and I guess we can all feel the same at times. Osiris may be gone, but we still have the false gods of hero worship and materialism to contend with, and it can fell like an uphill struggle. Joseph shows us that there is hope though – just by living the way God wants us to, we can bring people to see God, even in the unlikeliest of circumstances.
But onto today’s reading. Everything has worked out the way Joseph said it would and seven years of plenty have been followed by seven years of famine, and so the people go to Joseph for food. The famine spreads to other countries too, including the land where Joseph’s family still lives. When Jacob hears that there is food in Egypt he sends his sons to buy some, although he keeps the youngest, Benjamin, back for fear of losing him. And so Joseph’s brothers travel to Egypt and find themselves standing in front of the brother they sold into slavery, asking him for food. They do not recognise him, but he recognises them. He accuses them of being spies and questions them about their family. They tell him they are twelve brothers, but one is at home and one is no more. Joseph says he will not believe them unless they bring their youngest brother to him, and so he sends them away with sacks of grain but keeps Simeon in prison until they return with Benjamin. When the brothers open their sacks, they find the silver they used to pay for the grain – even after all they did to him, Joseph is looking after them.
The brothers return home and tell Jacob everything that happened. Even though it means leaving Simeon in prison in a foreign land, Jacob refuses to let Benjamin travel to Egypt. It seems that having lost Joseph, he has transferred his affections to Benjamin, and he is now the favoured son. This doesn't seem to cause a problem between Benjamin and his brothers, perhaps because they have learnt and perhaps because Benjamin is a little more sensitive, but it does show that the brothers' actions have not solved their problem. They're right back at square one because it was Jacob that was the problem, not Joseph. That doesn't mean they should have sold Jacob into slavery instead, but maybe if they talked to him in the first place, they could have sorted things out for good.
When the grain they bought in Egypt runs out, Jacob tells his sons to go and buy some more, but they fear Joseph and will not return without Benjamin. Eventually they convince Jacob to let them take him with them, and the ten of them set off for Egypt. They present themselves to Joseph and he brings Simeon to them, then invites them to stay and eat. Once they have eaten, he gives instructions to his men to fill his brothers' sacks with grain, then put the silver they have brought as payment in the sacks, and finally place his own silver cup in Benjamin's sack.
When when his brothers have left, Joseph sends men out after them, claiming one of them has stolen his cup. They all protest their innocence, saying that if they find the cup, the one who has it will die and the rest of them will become slaves. Joseph's men search their sacks and of course they find the cup in Benjamin's. They return to the palace, and Joseph says that he will release all of the brothers but the one who had the cup will remain as his slave. Judah knows it will break Jacob's heart to lose Benjamin and so he offers to stay in his place, and without even knowing it, he passes the test. When we know we are being tested, it's all too easy to cheat or second guess the examiner in order to give the right answer, but what does that say about us? That we are good at passing tests. It is those times when we pass without realising that we've even been tested that really show our character.
Having revealed himself, Joseph embraces his brothers and tells them to return to Canaan to collect their father and their families, and then come back and settle in Egypt where they will be given good land and will be protected from the worst of the famine. And that's exactly what they do. After many years of separation, Joseph's family are finally reunited in Egypt. Sometimes reconciliation takes time, but that doesn't mean it won't come. We don't know how Joseph's brothers reacted to him, but I should imagine that mixed in with whatever other emotions was a great deal of relief. Relief that he was safe, relief that they no longer had to keep up a pretence about what had happened to him, and relief that he had treated them so generously. Guilt and regret are heavy burdens to carry, and the brothers must have been glad to get rid of them at last. Do we carry similar burdens? Are there people we need to make amends with, apologise to, seek forgiveness from? If so, there's not time like the present.
All the while, the famine continues and people keep coming to Joseph to buy grain. Eventually they run out of money, so he tells them to bring him their livestock instead. They do, but eventually that runs out too. Desperate, they offer themselves and their land as payment and Joseph accepts, making them slaves to Pharaoh in exchange for food. The first time I read this I was both shocked and confused. How could Joseph enslave the whole of Egypt? Why couldn't he just give them the grain? After all, they grew it in the first place. But then it occurred to me that as important as he was, Joseph was still only second in command. If Pharaoh demanded payment then payment there must be. Maybe this is Joseph doing everything he can to help the people, finding alternative solutions once their money has run out. Maybe it was this or let the people starve. The people certainly seem grateful, declaring that Joseph has saved their lives. I'm a little less shocked now, but still confused. Was it acceptable for Joseph to enslave the people because it was better than the alternative? Do the circumstances excuse the crime? Do we sometimes have to choose the lesser of two evils? Or is that just another way of excusing sin? Is our choice ever as simple as one evil or another? Or does God always provide another way?
We're almost at the end of Joseph's story now. Jacob is an old old man, and he knows he will die soon, so he makes Joseph promise to bury him with his ancestors. He then blesses Joseph's sons, and despite Joseph's protests, he puts the younger son ahead of the elder. It's an echo of him and his own brother, but this time the younger son receives the first blessing through deliberate choice, not trickery. Jacob recognises that even though he is Manesseh is the firstborn, it s Ephraim who will be greater. Similarly, when Jacob blesses his own sons, he makes it clear that it is Judah who will be the greatest even though he is only the fourth born. And he is proved right as it is from the tribe of Judah that first David and then Jesus come. God chooses us according to His own plan, not social convention. After Jacob dies and is buried in Canaan, the brothers begin to fear that Joseph will turn on them and seek revenge for their actions, but he reassures them that what happened was God's will and they have no need to be afraid. And so Joseph's brothers remain with him in Egypt, and they are with him when he dies at the age of one hundred and ten.
The thing that strikes me most about the story of Joseph is that all the way through, we see that he was looked after by God. Time and again we are told that God was with Joseph, and Joseph himself tells his brothers that it was God that brought him to Egypt. I went to see the musical, ‘Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ a few years ago, and I was shocked to realise that there wasn’t a single mention of God in the entire production. Even worse, I didn’t notice until half way through the second act, and that showed me just how easy it can be to focus on the human stories in the Bible and forget about God. It’s easy to forget His presence in our own lives too, but we should never forget that God was with Joseph even in the pit, and He’s with us too. Free will means that God can’t stop bad things happening to us, just as He couldn’t stop bad things happening to Joseph; but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care, and that doesn’t mean that he isn’t there. When things go wrong, God wants to be the one to pick us up, dust us off, and give us the strength we need to get through whatever it is we’re going through. We just have to stop being stubborn or faithless, and stop trying to struggle through on our own, and allow Him to help.
On a personal note, I suffered from a major depressive episode seven years ago. During that time it felt like I’d lost everything – I knew no joy or peace or hope, my relationships with God and my family were badly affected, I lost friends on a permanent basis, and I lost the chance to say a proper goodbye to someone who meant a lot to me – but when I finally came through it, with more than a little help from God, I realised that I’d gained so much more. I experienced first hand God’s healing power and grew so much in my faith, I came out of it a stronger and happier person, and I became much closer to my family. It can be so easy to lose faith when we feel like we’re losing everything else, but we have so much to gain if we can hold on. I’m living proof of that, and Joseph’s...well he’s proof too, if not so lively.
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