Text
Genesis 41-50
Observations
Midrash about reeds
Genesis 41:18 (LEB)
18and behold, seven cows, well built and fat, were coming up from the Nile, and they grazed among the reeds.
reeds is a hard word to translate - there is a Jewish teaching (midrash) that it means "brothers"
dreams
When Joseph is in prison and the cup-bearer and baker have dreams it is said that "no one was there to interpret" meaning that there's no magicians or anything around who can listen to them to interpret - makes sense because they're in jail. This story is different in that Pharaoh has access to every resource in Egypt but it's said that "there is none to interpret it" (Gen 41:15).
How does Joseph just jump in right away and start interpreting - seemingly without even prayer?
According to the midrash about reeds being brothers, the number seven immediately signifies years. Pharaoh's dream is actually very similar to the Rachel and Leah story - and it's like when Pharaoh says his dream what Joseph hears is God talking to him about his life...
- Jacob worked 7 years for the "ugly" wife and 7 more for the beautiful wife
- This plays backwards - there will be 7 beautiful years and then 7 years of famine.
After interpretation
Joseph tells Pharaoh to find a wise man (is this Jacob-ish behavior? Is Joseph hinting that he should be chosen because he's looking out for himself and doesn't want to go back to the dungeons)... Is Joseph demonstrating some hutz-pah here? Is this the reason God chose this family?
There hasn't been a lot of trusting the story from Jacob and Joseph, not like Abraham and Issac, but the Tanakh teaches that this family is "stubborn and stiff" a lot, which is like their hutz-pah, their drive and desire, and that this is why God chose them
Parallels
Joseph
In the narrative about Jacob and Joseph
- Joseph gets a cloak from his dad
- Joseph has dreams and tells them to his brothers
- His coat is stripped
- He's then thrown into a pit
In the narrative of Joseph and Potiphar/Potiphar's wife
- Joseph gets gifts from Potiphar, he's elevated in his household just like he was by Jacob
- Potiphar's wife has "dreams" - this word is too literal, really she has "aspirations" which are to sleep with Joseph
- His cloak is stripped by Potiphar's wife
- He's then thrown into a dungeon (but the same word is used as in the Jacob narrative, pit, which is never translated dungeon... shame on English)
In the Pharaoh and Joseph narrative
- Jacob is brought up from the pit
- A coat is put on Jacob by Pharaoh
- He interprets dreams
- He's given gifts by Pharaoh
Judah
These stories sit in between the narratives above
Judah and Tamar
- Clothes and gifts are given to Tamar
- Judah actually says very similar words to Tamar as Potiphar's wife to Joseph
- Dreams?
Cup-bearer and Baker
- Gifts are given to Joseph by the head guard
- There's dreams and Joseph listens
- Cup-bearer is pulled from the pit
- Cup-bearer restored with clothes
Not sure what to do with all these parallels yet
Where is the pit with Judah and Tamar?
So at this point in the story Joseph is probably forced to really wrestle with his identity.... he's under Pharaoh in Egypt now and his dad never came for him so he needs to reckon with who he really is now
Joseph in command
text: Genesis 42
observations
- The emphasis Joseph puts on the "nakedness of the land" feels like a callback to a lot things
- Creation
- Noah
- Joseph puts his brothers in prison (pit? the word is different but the symbolism is certainly there)
- Reuben rebukes his brothers by recounting their guilt regarding Joseph, but the text says Joseph understood them because "the interpreter was between them"... Why would Joseph need an interpreter?
- Joseph then gives his brothers gifts of grain and returns their money (we are seeing parallels just like above)
Joseph's brothers come to Egypt to get food to prepare for the famine but Benjamin is not with them. Now Joseph was probably closest to Benjamin as the 2 youngest, as the son of Rachel, etc. So Joseph starts to come up with kind of a sneaky plan of his own and coerces his brothers to bring Benjamin to him. Joseph keeps Simeon as a type of collateral.
text: Genesis 43
- We're definitely a while from Genesis 42 as they've eaten all the grain they originally brought back... so Simeon has just been in prison this whole time
- Reuben guarantees Benjamin's safety by offering to replace Jacob's 2 lost sons with his 2 own sons but Jacob refuses
- Judah guarantees Benjamin's safety as they go to Egypt and puts his own life on the line and Jacob agrees?
- When Judah starts the conversation the text switches from calling Jacob "Jacob" to "Israel"
- In Genesis 38 Judah leaves the family, after the brothers come back and Joseph is not with them, and this is where the Judah and Tamar story happens
- Judah learned a unique lesson about justice... after Tamar reveals the truth to him he says "She is more righteous than I"
- Judah takes this newfound knowledge and offers justice to Jacob which gets Jacob to become "Israel" (now he's acting like the one God chose, not the self-interested heel grabber Jacob)
Full circle
The family of God brings the story full circle with Joseph (honestly, Marty's points here were not well-summarized and on one listen it was hard to put the pieces together)
It's that with Joseph the family learns forgiveness and gives up the Cain and Abel narrative and retributive justice, but they choose forgiveness and trusting the story
- Theme of Judah and Benjamin saving each other repeated over and over
- Judah puts his life on the line here for Benjamin
- Go forward to David (a descendant of Judah) and Jonathan (a descendant of Benjamin) and Jonathan saves David - Benjamin saves Judah