Genesis 45:1-15

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on August 20, 2017.

By the events of Genesis 45, Joseph had lived in Egypt for most of his life. During his time there, he has experienced the highest of highs (see: reward for interpreting dreams) and the lowest of lows (see: wife, Potiphar’s). Once Joseph had risen to power in Egypt, the dream he interpreted for Pharaoh about years of abundance followed by years of famine had become a reality. Throughout Egypt’s seven fruitful years, Joseph oversaw the storage of food. And once famine struck the land, families from all around came to Egypt for help, including Joseph’s brothers—the same brothers who had sent him to Egypt in the first place.

After following Joseph throughout his life, from his earliest days as his father’s favorite son to the leadership position he now holds in Egypt, the climax of Joseph’s story arrives at this moment. How does Joseph react to his brothers’ plea for help? The tables have turned completely since they were last together. Where Joseph was once weak, he is now in a place of power. His life is no longer at the mercy of his family, but quite the opposite: they stand now at his mercy and have come to him so that they might live. The content of Joseph’s first dreams—the dreams in which his brothers bowed down before him—had finally come to pass.

Joseph understands the significance of this meeting and cannot contain himself—he sends his attendants away, asking to be left alone with his brothers. The scene that followed must have been astonishing: Joseph, weeping, revealing his true identity to his stunned, speechless brothers. Joseph begins baring his soul to his brothers completely. This is the third instance in Joseph’s story in which he is overcome with emotion and brought to tears. However, it is the first time he weeps openly, in front of others. Joseph begins to speak to his brothers—not through an interpreter, but in their shared, native language—“do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life” (Genesis 45:5). He absolves them of the pain they inflicted on him so many years ago and agrees to provide for them during the famine.

While Joseph is telling his brothers this, he is careful to note that the provision he is offering them is possible as a result of his powerful position in Egypt. He even asks them to share this news with Jacob: “You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen” (Genesis 45:13). The first-time reader of this story could be forgiven for fearing the perceived narcissism of Joseph’s adolescence had reemerged. After all, it is just as easy today to offer God lip service—thanking him for his providence while playing up our role in the good we experience in life—as it would have been for Joseph. He could have asserted himself as the sole provider for his brothers.

Karl Barth acknowledges the role humanity plays in establishing its course. He says that while God certainly works in the world, God also acknowledges the work of his creatures. Joseph worked his way to the top in Egypt. His rise, however, would be little more than a footnote in the annals of history if God had not used Joseph’s work to achieve a greater purpose. Joseph could not have known the full extent of how God would use him to achieve so much, but he was quick to attribute God’s providence in his life and his work—as well as God’s providence for his brothers—once he recognized it.

Throughout Joseph’s story, the dream of famine and deliverance grows from a simple vision into something greater. It is a dream come true, but it is also deliverance from suffering; it is life from death. Joseph himself personifies this, in that he was the brother once cast out and presumed dead who has returned to life. This is no mere act of re-creation, but of creation—of God actively working in our world to give new life to that which is dead.

In this way, Joseph’s story also foreshadows the gospel. Christ, who was both cast out and presumed dead, returned to life in even more spectacular fashion. Christ’s resurrection is the ultimate defeat of death. Christ’s defeat of death also invites all of humanity to resurrected life—and Joseph offered his brothers a kind of resurrected life, as well. Joseph presented his brothers with a new future. Two years into the seven-year famine, Joseph reversed his brothers’ fate and gave them new life. This passage ends with reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph weeps with them, and they talk with him. What had once seemed like death for Jacob’s sons was now God’s way to life—not just for Joseph or his brothers, but eventually for all of Israel.

 

 

Jonathan Higdon
Minister of Youth and Education
Ball Camp Baptist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee
jonathan@ballcampchurch.org

 

 

 

 

Tags:  Joseph, Dream, Brothers, Resurrection, Providence