I was at my men’s group from church
this evening. We are looking at ten
different men from the Bible this semester in the hopes of becoming more Godly
men. This week we were looking at the
life of Joseph.
Each week our group begins with 5
minutes of silence, something much needed in the fast-paced environment of
Washington DC. Then we sing a few
songs. We are a large group—as many as
30 people on a large night. Following
our singing we will have discussion in a large group setting and then breakout
into smaller groups. During this evening’s
smaller group we honed on one quote from Joseph to his brothers that really
resonated with me.
When Joseph was in his teens, he
was, well, a bit arrogant and he happened to be his father’s favorite. When he was seventeen Joseph has a dream that
he shares with his brothers which make it sound like his brothers, all eleven of
them, will worship Joseph. Sibling
rivalry is not something new that has come about—this dream truly pisses Joseph’s
brothers off. So much so, that they decide to kill him. However, a debate over this approach ensues and they decide to sell him into slavery instead.
Twenty-two years would pass between
the time that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and when Joseph is reunited
with his brothers. Genesis 37-44 captures this story—Joseph has gone through a
lot during those twenty-two years—some good, some really bad. Chapters 44-50 focus on Joseph’s
reunification with his family.
Back to tonight’s group. We had a question for tonight of whether or
not God guides or directs our path. When
we broke into our smaller groups someone mentioned Genesis 50:20 quoting Joseph,
who is now a man of great wealth and power, responding to his brother’s request
for forgiveness while expecting revenge.
Joseph says to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but
God meant it for good…” For a bit our
conversation centered around whether or not God was complicit with the brother’s
selling of Joseph into slavery. The
question was asked in our group, does not God permit or actually advocate for
evil activity to show his goodness?—Joseph does state that “God meant it for
good.”
Reading Genesis 50:15-17: "When
Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘It may be that
Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil we did to him.’ So they sent a message to Joseph saying, ‘Your
father, [not their father but his father’] gave this command before he died, ‘Say
to Joseph, Please forgive the transgressions of your brothers and their sins,
because they did evil to you.”
This led me to question did Joseph
really believe that God actually predestined all these events—was God part of
the evil? Or is Joseph here a
foreshadowing of Jesus? Is Joseph in
essence stating, yes of course I can forgive you, but what is that worth? Is it
possible that perhaps Joseph’s brothers are so afraid of Joseph that they are
forgetting God. Are we, close to 4000
years removed from this story, oblivious to the rivalrous character of the
pagan gods that were a part of Joseph and Israel’s culture that we are missing
the prophetic message that Joseph is attempting to share with his
brothers?
If I am one of those 11 brothers I
know damn well that there is no pagan god responsible and certainly not Yahweh
that is responsible for the actions I took with my jealousy at my younger
brother who I betrayed—it was all about my sibling rivalry. When Joseph says God meant it for good, this
is not Joseph saying that God had a hand in this evil action, it is stating that
God, Yahweh, can redeem it. Yes, I,
Joseph can forgive you for your evil, but you know what, there is no angry god
holding this against you either, Yahweh forgives you as well. It is strikingly familiar to Jesus statement
on the Cross: “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
