by Rev. Dr John Evans
Earlier in the year I made the prediction that the year 2008 would be a significant year in this the early part of the 21st century. It would be the year of economic adjustment, even recession; a year that climate change really became the issue; and with rising oil prices, our profligate lifestyle would be called into question. And there have also been good things this year too – a Sorry was offered to indigenous Australians. Generally, however, it has been a case of bad news. Even the current Olympics have not given the world a lift – they seem to be joyless and lack that spontaneous enthusiasm I certainly remember about the Sydney Games. We have even managed to start a major war during the course of them.
The Age, always on the smart money in following what is said at the Church of All Nations, not long after that bold prediction ran an article on “Bad News – it’s what you make of it” (Peter Munro, Sunday Age, 20 July 2008). The article made the observation we are at the moment facing “relentless doom and gloom”. How do we cope, was the question? Well, ‘not very well’ seemed basically to be the answer. Of course, bad news and a difficult time can bring out the best in people – such as we have seen in previous generations at the time of the Second World War. At the moment the situation seems to be a further spiral into negativity, anxiety and, perhaps worse, aimless hedonism.
So today we have a good story. A tonic. A real ripper: the story of Joseph and his brothers and father. This story has it all. An uppity, full-of-himself young lad, cruelly gets his comeuppance and is sold into slavery into Egypt. He is presumed dead by his devoted father. The brothers anguish over what they have done; it haunts them. The devoted father grieves.
Then, from Joseph’s perspective he amazingly falls on his feet – miraculously, he is the right person at the right time. His career passes through several phases to finally assume a powerful leadership role within Egypt. Along the way there is sex – remember the seducing endeavours of Potiphar’s wife and then the blackmail, office-, or perhaps jailhouse-intrigue, politics and then some. There is even a bit of climate change thrown in. Seven great harvest years followed by a crippling drought for the next seven years. And after all of this, it has a happy ending: an inspirational ending, with tears and hugs all around. A family is reunited, all is forgiven, they are to survive through this terrible drought. No wonder it was made into such a popular musical: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
We need inspirational stories when times are tough, or at least when times are exceedingly complex. However, I think if we dig a little deeper we will find even more to this story of Joseph than just a good, inspiring yarn. In particular, we learn something of God and God’s nature through this story, and secondly, we learn about human relationships.
First to the God part. The whole of the Joseph cycle of stories is set in the context of the great promise made to Abraham that he and his wife Sarah will be the forbears of a mighty nation – they will dwell in the land of Canaan; and there will be many descendents. Abraham, as a result, ups and leaves his homeland in Ur – like we did one Sunday, and he ventured south. There then follows this amazing saga of how this divine promise hangs by the barest thread. Abraham and Sarah are old. They are infertile. When there is eventually a child, Isaac, Abraham is instructed to sacrifice him – only to be stopped short.
Then Isaac and Rebecca have difficulty having children. Eventually, the difficult twins of Esau and Jacob are born. Jacob steals his brother’s birthright – again putting into question this whole divine promise – but after Jacob struggles with God and reconciles with his brother – the divine plan is again back on track. Jacob becomes Israel, and his 12 sons – including Joseph, his second youngest – are born to his various wives. The 12 sons of course become in time the basis of the whole of Jewish cultural and social life – the twelves tribes; the very foundation of the Jewish nation. That was however, in the future. We first have to deal with Joseph. This Joseph story again shows how precarious that future actually was.
From the outset we know it was precarious because his jealous and plotting brothers chose to sell the young Joseph into slavery while they were caring for their flocks and he came along in his fine coat to visit them. But the divine promise, the covenant to Abraham, becomes even more precarious as the story advances to this time of drought and famine – certainly from the perspective of Jacob. So just a brief background to the passage we heard today.
Through his dream interpretation and some royal patronage, Joseph has assumed a powerful position within Egypt. There has been the seven good years and adequate provision has been put aside for lean years ahead. Famine strikes Jacob and his family back in Canaan. He sends his sons – but not Benjamin – his youngest, to get supplies from Egypt. Joseph recognises his brothers, they don’t recognise him – and Joseph then seems to play a game with them. He doesn’t let on he knows and he wants to see his younger brother Benjamin, and his father for that matter. There is a bit of argy bargy over the payment of money, and hiding it back in the grain, accusations of the brothers being spies, and also later, of the king’s silverware turning up in their belongings. In the end, it comes down to Joseph holding his brother Simeon in Egypt, sort of as a hostage. He demands to see Benjamin before Simeon is released and more grain is given to the family. Poor Jacob can only see disaster lying ahead. His beloved Joseph he believes to be dead. Now he has another son Simeon, held captive in a foreign land, and if he accedes to the Egyptian request, he will not only lose Simeon, but also his beloved Benjamin and most probably the rest of his sons. Doom and gloom – God’s promise is again under threat. And all this is coloured by the life-threatening drought. It was a desperate situation. However, he sends his sons and Benjamin off.
As we know, Joseph, as the scripture says, “could not control himself any longer” and very emotionally introduces himself to his brothers, and particularly to his younger brother Ben. We can only begin to imagine how such a scene would have been played out. Joseph’s older brothers, who for years had lived with the torment and sense of punishment for their original actions of wanting first to kill Joseph, but then to sell him into slavery. Indeed all of this torment had been rekindled because of the various games that Joseph was playing with them. That had all been reversed. Gone. Then there was the opportunity for Joseph to see all his brothers – and in a sense, not only show off because of his new position, but provide real and practical help in the face of this dreadful drought.
What can we learn? The covenant continued – the promise to Abraham continued. But more importantly for Jewish people, and for us who may feel we face difficulties at the moment, the goodness of God is played out over a very broad canvas. What may seem to be a disaster at the moment – such as how Jacob would have felt when he had to make the decision in the time of severe famine by risking losing all his sons by sending them off to Egypt again. Joseph however, sums up the situation well in this key verse: 45:5
Now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here: for God sent me before you to preserve life.
What may have seemed to be a curse, becomes a blessing. There is here a broad view of history. Yes, God acts in history, but perhaps not immediately, and within our time frame. There is very long view. What may be happening for our church, or family or our own life – might be difficult, as it was for Jacob and his family, but God had not forsake the covenant with Abraham. The promise continues. Imagine how popular this story would have been at the various dark times of Jewish history – like being in exile in Babylon. God would not, in the end, forsake them in their darkest times.
However, there is more – God is about life – the fullness of life, if you want to take the words of Jesus. Joseph says to his brothers, God sent me before you to preserve life. Life. In this Joseph saga, the curse of Joseph being sold off into slavery turned out, amazingly, to be the basis of offering life to his starving family.
How many times do we see difficult, tragic situations turn around to being points of hope and inspiration? It is the two things we affirm as Christians about the life of Jesus – God is with us and God is good – God loves us. As one commentator says,
One of the great obstacles to faith is that, no matter how hard one tries, it simply is not possible to identify grace or redemption in so many human experiences. And it is easy—some would say, compelling—to extrapolate from that that God is never present in human suffering and defeat. But the Joseph stories lead us to a different conclusion, which is that, in spite of the awful tragedies from which God seems irretrievably absent, the Ruler of the universe is a caring friend and will ultimately have a friend’s way.
Joseph however, shows we are not just to sit on our hands and expect God to do it all. This story and the previous story of the fractured relationship between Jacob and Esau could have easily ended in complete disaster if there had been no reconciliation between these respective sets of brothers. From a human perspective, Esau and here Joseph would have every right to hold the grudge. In Esau’s case, he had been diddled of an inheritance; in Joseph’s case, he had virtually been murdered. It is the story the world over, in family squabbles through to the wars between nations and peoples. Even the war that began last week in Georgia has this basis. Where there is no recognition and uttering of ‘sorry’; no contrition and no forgiveness … there is no future except hatred and hostility. The running sores of the past will all spring up to fester and destroy token efforts of peace and the cessation of hostility.
Joseph says to his brothers, “do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here”. This generous act opened the way for a future. His family was reunited, they were able to survive a terrible drought – there literally was a new beginning.
Reconciliation seems so simple – and yet it is the hardest thing we humans can possibly do – and it becomes the central aspect of the Christian faith. Joseph became reconciled with his brothers, but for us we believe we were first reconciled with God through Christ and that we can live that life of reconciliation with others for the sake of the world.
Yes, the present may be dark times. The Story of Joseph brings hope and points to God’s overarching presence. And within that there is our responsibility to be reconcilers for Christ’s sake and our own and others’.
