Joseph and God
February 20, 2022
Sometimes it’s difficult to know what God is doing. So you have these wonderful dreams, dreams where you’re finally on top of the world, and you tell others these dreams, and it causes them to turn against you. “We’re going to bow to you? Only ever in your dreams, cause it ain’t happening in real life ever!” I don’t know, maybe it doesn’t really mean anything. Maybe it’s just a fancy.
Then one day, your dad (who’s supposed to bow to you, and doesn’t seem too keen on the idea) sends you to your brothers (who’re supposed to bow to you, and clearly aren’t keen on the idea) in the middle of nowhere. Is anyone really surprised by how that turns out? It’s basically Cain and Abel over again.
So is it any wonder Joseph didn’t reach out to Jacob when he was in Egypt? Surely he could have, either as the chief servant in an Egyptian nobleman’s household, or as the second only to Pharaoh. No, Joseph did his best to forget his family and start a new life in Egypt. He married the daughter of a priest and had two sons—“God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house,” and “God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortunes.”
Joseph is under the distinct impression his father and brothers all had it out for him. Historically it makes good sense. In all the generations from Terah’s children on, God bestows promises and blessings on one and rejects the others. God chooses Abram, rejecting the others. God chooses Isaac and rejects Ishmael and the others, chooses Jacob and rejects Esau. Joseph, sold into slavery by his spiteful brothers, surely thought it was a sign that he was one of the rejected.
Joseph’s initial interactions with his brothers make a lot of sense when seen in that light. They’re his brothers, but he’s harsh with them, cold and uncaring. These are the people who hated him and rejected him. It’s only after clear signs of their regret that Joseph is moved to tears (Gen. 42.24), and only after he hears that his father thinks he was killed by an animal that he loses control of his emotions and entrusts his identity to them (Gen. 45.1).
For generations, one child has been chosen by God and the other children move away and forget about the Lord. Joseph is the first of them who, when he thinks he is rejected, maintains his faith and faithfulness to God. Joseph could have embraced the Egyptian lifestyle, but even in his rejection, and at great personal cost, he remembered the Godly values he had been taught. He is the paradigm for faithfulness even in the midst of God’s rejection.
Surely God doesn’t completely reject anyone (Cain, Ishmael, Esau, or anyone else), even if he does bestow special favor on some (Abel, Isaac, Jacob, etc.). But it may feel like God rejects us, or seem like we’ve been rejected in favor of others. But as God shows with Joseph, faithfulness in the face of apparent rejection provides space for God to do wonderful things.
—John Coffey
