Week 9

11/10/2024

Fall 2024

Central Passage: Genesis 37-50

Many of us tend to read Joseph’s story as if he is a helpless, innocent victim throughout, with the lesson being that God cares for the oppressed. As with every other character in Genesis, God continues to work through imperfect people to demonstrate His grace. Joseph and Jacob were also not without faultless in these chapters. A better understanding of the cultural norms may assist in understanding this point.

First, note Jacob’s gift to Joseph. At the very least, we ought to be able to look at this as unwise favoritism. Jacob, known for eschewing cultural values for his personal gain/preference (see last week), bestowed upon a Joseph a gift that indicated Joseph to be the heir/patron caretaker of the family. Just as Jacob dishonored Leah by first asking Laban for the younger sister Rachel as his bride, Jacob chose the oldest son of Rachel, instead of the oldest son of Leah (Reuben, the firstborn). Instead of correcting Joseph’s arrogance and reconciling his bickering children, Jacob perpetuated the conflict by naming Joseph as his heir. It would not be uncharitable to say that Jacob’s gift was the conflict initiator and perpetuator (cf. Genesis 37:12-14—note that Jacob did not send Joseph to pasture with his brothers).

Joseph also arrogantly alienated himself from others throughout the story. Genesis 37:5-8 shows Joseph’s expectant arrogance toward the inheritance before Jacob gave him the coat of many colors. Also note that the passage does not indicate that God gave him this dream—it seems to primarily display Joseph’s arrogance, the character trait that led his brothers to not trusting Joseph as the next family patriarch. For this reason, they sold him to the caravan of Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:18-28) so that Reuben would receive the inheritance and provide for the whole family as its patriarch. Joseph’s superiority complex resurfaced again with Potiphar’s wife, and it’s easy to miss without careful study. Though he refused her advances, he displayed his arrogance when he said, “he [Potiphar] has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am” (Genesis 39:8-9). Joseph manufactured his own superiority to display and lord over Potiphar’s wife and all other servants in his house, just as he did with his brothers. When Potiphar mercifully refused to execute Joseph, placing him in prison, Joseph for once did not alienate those around him with arrogance.

Though his brothers were unjust in selling Joseph, by the time Joseph re-ascended to prominence during his imprisonment, God had prepared him to be the heir and provider his family needed. At the beginning, Joseph alienated himself from his family with his arrogance, but by the end, he became their merciful caretaker and patron. As E. Randolph Richards and Richard James said,

When Joseph needs his community’s help, it often doesn’t come. The plights of Joseph were the obvious consequences for someone who cut himself off from his community. Thankfully, salvation is a family matter in the story. God has promised much to Abraham and his descendants (Gen 12:1-4). Despite the broken family and failings, God is faithful. He is the star of the story” (Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes, 17).