Author’s Note: Some months ago, I wrote about Joseph, and in some respects, I think I may have been too harsh concerning his becoming “Egyptian.” After some more study and reflection, it prompted me to consider something I had not before: that, of course, Joseph would embrace Egyptianization given how good Pharaoh had been to him, especially in light of how poorly his brothers had treated him. For me, this was a humanizing realization and another reminder of the richness of the scriptures that are indeed filled with ancient wisdom.
I’ve written elsewhere about Joseph. However, for some time, I intended to return to his story but with more of an eye on Moses. As I explained previously, we know the story of Joseph well; heck, it’s even a Broadway musical. In many regards, it’s a great story of tragedy and triumph, one that resonates with many of us and for good reason. Ultimately, I think it’s because we seemingly witness the hand of God bringing about good amid grave tragedy, which is a source of comfort for many of us. Knowing that God can bring good out of anything, including our own foibles and the ugliest aspects of the human condition, provides hope in a world that can sometimes be dark and grueling. It is for good reason that many of us are familiar with Joseph’s words to his brothers at the end of Genesis, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve numerous people, as he is doing today.” These are usually connected to Paul’s words to the Romans in chapter 8 of that epistle, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
While Paul’s words seem to validate Joseph’s words (usually given as a cross-reference in our study bibles) we must not overlook the fact that these words are the interpretation of Joseph. This doesn’t mean that Joseph is wrong, it just means that Moses may have done this to provide an “open-endedness” to how we understand this story. After all, the writer of Genesis does say that God was with Joseph and granted him success (Gen. 39:2, 21, 23). The challenge for us is holding onto the tension that while God was with Joseph, Joseph had never actually heard from God directly. Moreover, throughout the story, he becomes an Egyptian forsaking the way of his fathers, but understandably so. Why wouldn’t he? After all, he was rejected and sold into slavery by his brothers and eventually embraced by Pharaoh and given a whole new life that came with a signet ring, power, a wife, fine linens, and many other great things (Genesis 41:37-46). But such came at a cost to the Egyptians, whom Joseph treated unjustly, and then his people, the Hebrews, later on. In part, one of the big questions Joseph’s story puts before us is the challenge of compromise and conformity to the surrounding dominant powers, be it government, culture, religions, etc. How far is too far? And one can strongly argue from the text that Joseph is an example of someone going too far. Interestingly, the trajectory of Moses’ life proves as much.
If we look attentively, God calls Moses to undo Joseph’s mistakes. The early years of Moses’ life are in Pharaoh’s house, steeped in the Egyptian way of life. However, years later, Moses, a Hebrew, ends up having to flee Egypt because he killed an Egyptian taskmaster who was mistreating his people. He goes away from Egypt into the land of Midian and finds refuge in the house of a priest named Jethro. A shepherd people, he ends up marrying Jethro’s daughter (contrast this with Joseph, who married the daughter of the Egyptian priest of On) and takes up shepherding, the vocation of his ancestors. Thus began Moses’ detoxification from Egypt. Just as Joseph went from shepherding to Pharaoh’s chief of administration, Moses went from Pharaoh’s house to shepherding. And then it happens: while shepherding, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and speaks to him directly, something which God never does to Joseph. Whereas Joseph interprets dreams and interprets God’s role in his life, God never speaks directly to Joseph in the text.
Yet, we must remember that much time passed between Moses’ departure from Egypt and God’s appearance to him. Forty years had passed (Acts 7:30). That’s a long time to detoxify from one way of life and learn a new way of life. However, habits and new neuropathways are not formed overnight; they take time. Re-learning and learning take time. Over that period, while shepherding, Moses would have had a lot of time to reflect upon his past but also in light of his new way of life, which was vastly different from Pharoah’s house, which would have been the height of civility and privilege. Instead, in shepherding, Moses would have come to understand the vastness and wildness of creation. He would have also come in touch with his creatureliness and his dependency on creation being out in the wilderness regularly with his sheep.
This would have been a far cry from the household of Pharaoh and the world of Joseph, where everything was engineered according to human needs and where Pharaoh was the center of the world. Consider Joseph’s role as chief administrator of Pharaoh, collecting and storing grain, and then enriching the house of Pharaoh. Consider also what the new Pharaoh had the Hebrew slaves build – supply cities in Pithom and Ramses (Exodus 1:11). The effort to store and collect was to maintain security and invulnerability amid a constant sense of insecurity and vulnerability (Luke 12:29-30). These were the core issues of Cain, the first murderer and the founder of first city and civilization (Genesis 4). Unable to bear the anxiety wrought by these dynamics he sought more of these things, but these were never assuaged. I think we can all relate to this, can we not? It’s a paradox. In an effort to rid ourselves of anxiety we only become more anxious. Go figure!
Alas, if we are going to recover from these things, we need time to deconstruct and then reconstruct a new way of being and seeing. We need to not only reconnect with our “essential selves” away from the cacophony of our anxious culture, but we also need to reconnect with the God in whom we move and have our being. Moses does so over those forty years and thereafter. Something for us to consider in contradistinction to the culture in which we find ourselves is that we are, first and foremost, loved by this very God, and we are his images on earth. Rather than listen to the culture in which we are in with its constant barrage of “you are not enough, so buy this,” “you are lacking here, so fill yourself up there,” or “only if you work hard and present yourself in this way will you gain love and security” we can begin in the reality that we have a God who created us out of love only to be loved by Him. As simple as this sounds, it can be challenging to believe and to take in amid a culture that consistently tells us otherwise and is driven by constantly telling us what we lack and what to fear. Such a challenge can be hard work for many of us because we are going up against an ever-pervasive, deathly spiritual force. The life-giving Spirit of this loving God is always needed and given.
In closing if I can go back to Moses. After encountering Yahweh, Moses heads back to Egypt to get his people out of Egypt. The task before him will be to detoxify his people from Egypt. It will be no easy feat. One challenge for Moses was to get the people to live trustingly daily, to only take what they need for the day rather than store up (like Pharaoh) bread from heaven (Exodus 16). Bread that, unlike in Egypt, is free and not sold according to market demands as Joseph had done. What is more, Moses gave a whole host of instructions concerning debts and economic jubilee/forgiveness so that among Israel, things would not get out of hand as they had in Egypt under Joseph, eventually leading to their enslavement. Indeed, what we witness here are the fruits of Moses’ detoxification from Egypt. In his many years of shepherding in the wilderness, Moses came to see the world very differently than when he was in the household of Pharaoh. And then Yahweh called him to lead his people out of Egypt and to undo what his ancestor Joseph had done.
Until next time…
A Foolish Way 