Joseph, son of Jacob – Not Such a Swell Guy After All

We all love a good story. And there are good stories that are impressed upon us very early in our lives. One such story is that of Joseph, son of Jacob. Or, as Broadway entitled it, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” It’s a story of family dynamics involving loss, revenge, injustice, dishonesty, change, vindication, reconciliation, and the wonderful hindsight of God’s providence, or so we have been led to believe.

It’s a story that has been used to encourage many of us, and it is one that we have used to encourage others. In the beginning, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, and by the end, he is Pharaoh’s chief of staff, having just saved his family from the famine. How can we forget Joseph’s line to his brothers at the end of the story, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). There it is, a story of forgiveness, grace, and God’s purposes, such is the stuff that makes bleeding heart Christians and really Americans of all stripes swoon with delight and comfort (maybe just maybe some break out into a rendition of “Our God is an Awesome God”). Similarly, we also will recall another great verse from the Apostle Paul that is often associated with this line of Joseph. Here it is: “And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Ahh, yes, scripture interprets scripture; it’s all right there, so plain it would seem. Paul had the story of Joseph in mind when he wrote that verse, and clearly, this is all great grace-centered theology that if the world just encountered once, the sleeping giant would awake! But alas, familiarity doesn’t so much breed contempt as it breeds laziness, and once we think we have the answers, we tend to move on or look patronizingly at those who would ask questions about those things that are so clearly obvious to us.

Yet the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, is far darker than we have been given to believe. For his part, Joseph would betray the shepherd ethic of his people, and his actions as Pharaoh’s chief of staff would even make Larry Fink (Blackstone) and Jaime Dimon (JPMorgan and Chase) blush. Joseph is the kind of guy who would be called upon to speak at the next gathering of private equity firms on how to consolidate wealth and extract more wealth from existing investments. I know, I am being hyperbolic, but I hope you get my point. And it’s not as if this insight comes from the original Hebrew or Greek so that I might wax intellectual and superior. No, it’s all right there, plain as day if we go slowly.

For starters, unlike Abraham, Noah, Jacob, and Moses (more on that one in a bit), God never appears or speaks directly to Joseph. Sure, he interprets dreams, but not once has he had a direct encounter with God. Instead, he presumes to speak for God (see above). Mind you, we are told that the Lord is with Joseph, and we also see that his interpretation of dreams is accurate, but still, this is a distinctive difference that should be kept in mind. More problematic is when Joseph does finally get out of prison, not only is he given Pharaoh’s signet ring, hebut is also given a completely new identity that is Egyptian. He gets Egyptian clothes, an Egyptian chariot, an Egyptian name, and an Egyptian wife who just so happens to be the daughter of the priest of On (Genesis 41:37-45). Alas, Joseph begins his new gig with great energy and collects the produce of the land during the plenteous seven years. But then came the years of famine, and this is when Joseph proved that he was more Egyptian than anyone in Egypt. This is also where the story becomes particularly dark.

We learn that the famine was incredibly severe, and rather than sell at a decent price or even give back the grain that they took from the people (remember that whole 1/5 idea proposed by Joseph), Joseph used it as an opportunity to amass great wealth for the house of Pharaoh. While this may have been for good Pharaoh, to make a huge profit according to market demands, it was terrible for most Egyptians. Because food was in such great demand and the people were desperate to have it at any cost, Joseph was able to amass all their money, then he was able to amass all their livestock, then he was able to amass all their land, and then they all became slaves of Pharaoh. Ironically, only the priests held onto their land (Genesis 47:13-26). In essence, the son of a shepherd, whose way of life stood diametrically opposed to that of empire and its rulers, Pharaoh, has consolidated the Egyptian monarch’s power. By doing so, he destroyed the lives of many Egyptians. Is it any wonder then that later when a Pharoah who does not remember Joseph would have no problem enslaving his people, the Hebrews? Is it any wonder then that the Egyptians would be resentful of the Hebrews and have no problem mistreating them some generations later?  After all, while they sold everything they had for food, Joseph’s people were up in Goshen, shepherding and living just fine.

Because we have been so steeped in interpreting such stories through a particular lens (see the beginning), we often overlook and don’t even notice these other aspects. For example, in our modern capitalist culture, where we reflexively look up to the rich and the powerful, we are less likely to see anything wrong with Joseph’s behavior during the hard years of famine. Instead, amid the presuppositions of a market-driven capitalism/corporatism, we are more inclined to think that what Joseph did was entrepreneurial, shrewd, and brilliant. He simply operated according to the law of supply and demand, letting the market dictate terms rather than his God. For this, he should be lauded, right? While this may be fine according to a particular economic framework. These things are included in the story of Genesis for good reasons. According to Moses and, by extension, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph’s behavior was not a good thing at all and had dire consequences. Thus, part of the call of Moses is to undue the mess of Joseph. Interestingly enough, unlike Joseph, God speaks directly to Moses. Better still, God gives the Torah through Moses where economic justice is of paramount concern (please see Leviticus 25 and Luke 4:16-30).

It is not accidental that Moses would come out of the house of Pharaoh and spend years as a shepherd only to be directly called by God while shepherding. Moses needed plenty of time detoxing from the trappings of the Egyptian way of life that had proven disastrous for many including his own people. He needed that time to get back to his roots; that is the way of the shepherd, the way of Abel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He needed to regain what Joseph had lost to his Egyptian identity. While Joseph may have saved his people from famine, his Egyptian ways ensured a problematic future for his people. Nonetheless, it would be Moses’ job to get them out of Egypt and then get the Egypt out of the Hebrews, no easy feat.

Until next time.

P.S. Please note there are so many more aspects to this wonderful story that I did not touch upon (Like Jacob’s disapproval of Joseph after they are reunited). Hopefully, I’ll get to those at some point.