Joseph: A Gateway to the Lord

Joseph

A Gateway to the Lord

Merrell M. Peters

Joseph

A Gateway to the Lord

Copyright © 2018 Merrell M. Peters. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved worldwide. Portions reprinted by permission.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Three Breaches

Chapter 1: Joseph Betrayed

Chapter 2: Tamar Betrayed

Chapter 3: Joseph Betrayed Again

Three Restorations

Chapter 4: Joseph Elevated

Chapter 5: The Brothers Restored

Chapter 6: Family Reunion

Three Deaths

Chapter 7: The Death of Egyptian Freedom

Chapter 8: The Death of Jacob

Chapter 9: The Death of Joseph

Dedication

For Anne C. Russell, my wife

When her glance, . . . sparkled o’er aught that was bright in my story,/ I knew it was love and felt it was glory.

Acknowledgements

I first heard the story of Joseph and his brothers read to me as a young child by my mother, Elizabeth Peters, out of Hurlburt’s Story of the Bible. My mother died at age 102 while this book was being prepared. Even as she became increasingly frail, her encouragement for my studies never flagged.

My Hebrew studies started when I was age 63 with the Hebrew Reading Crash Course, a project of the National Jewish Outreach Center. The course was offered at the Jewish Community Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, whose tagline is: You belong here. The tag is true, I always feel welcome at the J.

The reading course was taught by Rabbi David Fredman, Aish Minnesota’s Executive Director. He made the difficult task of recognizing and pronouncing Hebrew words most pleasant. I would encourage anyone interested in the Hebrew language to start with the crash course. Rabbi Fredman was very disciplined in focusing on Hebrew letters. He did not discuss Hebrew grammar. Once, however, he deviated from this principle and pointed out how the same Hebrew word was translated differently in two verses. Understanding both concepts expanded the meaning of the verses.

I had never heard an argument like this where the Hebrew language shifted the meaning of Scripture verses. I decided to pursue my study of Hebrew further. Most Lutheran pastors are required to take Hebrew in order to qualify for ordination. This fact led me to the website of Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, but I had difficulty navigating it. I wrote to the Help Desk at the seminary asking whether I could take a beginning Hebrew class. My past experience with other help desks suggested little hope that I would receive an answer.

But lo and behold, a seminary student sitting in a small office in the basement of the Seminary’s oldest building responded and passed my request forward. This led to my email correspondence with Ms Sandy Hammerlind, Associate in Ministry for Admissions. Semester after semester, Ms Hammerlind guided me through the registration process. Truly, but for the kindness of the Help Desk personnel and Ms Hammerlind, I would have surrendered any hope of studying Hebrew.

In the summer of 2014, I took a concentrated course in Basic Hebrew, three hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks. The course was taught by Dr. Mark A Throntveit, Elsa B Lovell Professor of Old Testament. I knew nothing of Dr. Throntveit until he charged into the classroom full of enthusiasm for the Hebrew language. Luther Seminary turned out to be a wonderful place to study Hebrew. The courses were taught by Dr. Throntveit, the head of the Old Testament Department. This beginner got to work directly with the expert. Over four semesters, I took courses, did the homework, took the tests, and wrote the papers. I decided even if I was just auditing the classes, I would do the work Dr. Throntveit requested. Any facility I have with Hebrew, which I admit is most limited, is the result of Dr. Throntveit’s generous teaching and encouragement. He has been teaching Basic Hebrew for over 30 years. It takes real commitment to have enthusiasm for beginning language students after hearing the same mistakes repeated year after year. Dr Throntveit opened a whole world of Hebrew studies to me and I remain most grateful for his generosity.

Finally, I must acknowledge the administration, students and faculty, especially Marj Havlick, at Le Collège Évangélique de Libamba, where I taught from 1973 to1980. They kindly accepted me into their community, where I learned many more important lessons than any knowledge I imparted to my students. Many of the lessons I learned in Africa are reflected in this book.

Introduction

The story of Joseph and his brothers may be one of the best-known of the Bible stories. It is, however, intended as more than the tale of a handsome young man unjustly wronged by his brothers who nevertheless overcomes incredible odds to become the savior of his family. Though rarely referenced by name, the major presence in the story is God. The adventures of Joseph and his brothers, the sons of Jacob, are intended to give us very important information about the nature of God and his relationship with humanity. When God is considered, the story is truly awesome.

I use the metaphor of a gateway to explain the function of the story in our understanding of God. A gateway is an entrance that has a closure. It is the means by which you get from one area to another. I think of it as an archway in a wall. When the gate is closed, no one can pass. But when the gate is opened, the passageway leads into the new area.

The world of the twenty-first century has few closed gateways that function as true barriers. We can easily find the means to go around a blocked gate. But gateway has a secondary meaning. In our present internet age, a gateway is the device, or software, that connects two different networks. I am working at my computer. The computer is connected to a router that serves as a gateway to the internet. Without the router, my computer, on its own, cannot connect with the internet. I need the gateway to pass from one area, my computer, to another area, the vast expanses of the internet.

The Judeo-Christian faith community has long acknowledged that the biblical text authoritatively tells us about God. If we want to know what God is like, how he relates to humanity and how humanity can relate to him, we look to the biblical text. For millennia, believers have found the biblical text to be a trustworthy exposition of humanity’s experience of God. It is a gateway between the infinite Supreme Being and the finite life of humanity.

The Bible contains many different sections that are called books, with each book having its own name. The story of Jacob’s family is found in the last thirteen chapters of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Genesis is a carefully crafted introduction to God. It gives the reader a basic understanding of who God is and how he relates to humanity. The book is neither a full understanding, nor a complete exposition; rather, it is a gateway to the other books of Scripture. If the reader understands what Genesis tells us about God, then the reader gets pointed in the right direction as she reads further in the Bible.

Genesis starts with the story of creation and the stately language used shows the enormous care the writer took in telling this story. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). All of creation is described in relationship to its Creator but also in harmony with each part. There is light separated from the darkness (1:4); the sky is separated from the earth (1:6–7); and the waters are separated from the dry land (1: 9–10). What was formless takes shape.

Then the creation is filled. The dry land has vegetation (1:11–13); the sky has lights (1:14–19); the air has birds and the waters have fish (1:20–23); the land has every kind of living creation. (1:24–25). Finally, humankind is created (1:26–27). What was void has been filled. Order has been established; everything is in perfect harmony. There is no chaos in God’s creation; there is a structure.

But this ideal world, while very beautiful and appealing, is not the world we know. Certainly, by the time a child enters kindergarten, she knows that there is much to fear in the world. There is no attempt by the writer of Genesis to hide this reality. By chapter three of the book of Genesis, disorder enters the human condition. Adam and Eve are exiled from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). There then follows increasing human acts of disorder, leading God to destroy almost all of his creation by means of a flood (Gen. 6:5—8:19) Even the subsequent do-over starting with Noah (Gen. 8:21–22) did not lead to a return to the original state of perfect harmony. Disorder continued until God destroyed the human attempt to build its own abiding structure, the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9). After creation, the Bible’s introductory book does not tell a story of comfort and joy.

The Genesis text then shifts in its emphasis. God speaks directly to one specific person, Abraham, who listens and with his family enters into a relationship with God (Gen. 12:1–4). God promises blessing to Abraham in the form of descendants and land, (Gen. 17:3–8) two essentials for life to continue. God keeps his promise of descendants, in spite of Abraham’s failings and those of his son, Isaac, and those of his grandson, Jacob. The promise of land in Genesis remains a future hope.

The book of Genesis concludes with the text we will explore in this book— Genesis 37–50. Just as the creation story and stories of Israel’s first ancestors are well-organized, so the story of Jacob’s family, Joseph, and his brothers brings a very carefully structured conclusion to the Genesis narrative. The story is set out in thirteen chapters, an usually large amount of Scripture for one continuous narrative. The story’s placement as a conclusion to Genesis, along with its length and the care with which it is told, reflect its importance in the Bible’s opening book.

I think of the structure of the book of Genesis as an arched gateway. My image is a gateway built of stone. The story of Jacob’s family is, in my opinion, the keystone to the book of Genesis. The creation stories are the foundation of the arch; the various events that follow are well-hewn stones that build up the sides of the arch. The reader then comes to the conclusion, and here the writer sets out his teaching on the meaning of what has transpired. It is this story of Jacob’s family that holds the two sides of the arch together. It is the top most stone that bears the weight of the two sides. It allows the gateway to stand, points the reader in the right direction and gives the reader admission to the fuller revelation of God contained in the remaining books of Scripture.

A Lawyer’s Approach

It is very hard for the adult reader to consider the story of Jacob’s family unencumbered by others’ ideas. I have known the story since my childhood, have heard many sermons on these verses, probably preached on this passage, and taught the story to a seventh grade Sunday school class. The relevance of any Bible passage and the effectiveness of any teacher is well tested in the crucible of the adolescent mind. Before starting this project, I had little new to say about Joseph.

My fresh start began when I undertook the study of biblical Hebrew after practicing law for over thirty years. Reading a text in Hebrew is a labor-intensive job for the beginning Hebrew student. The effort requires the student to focus on each word, jot, and tittle. I started out thinking these chapters in the book of Genesis made up the saga of Joseph, a story relating how a resourceful, young Hebrew man learned how to succeed in business. Then in the second verse, the writer explains This is the story of the family of Jacob (Gen 37:2a). It is not the saga of Joseph but rather the story of an entire family. The title puts the emphasis on the relationships that bind Jacob’s sons into a family. When you have to re-think even the title of the text, you realize there is more to the story than the adventures of Joseph.

I came to this text asking the same questions I would ask of a legal text. I have two basic questions. First, how do I determine what is happening? I look for the answer to the question, who did what to whom? This requires a careful reading of the text so that all the facts are clear. Second, how do I determine why the reader is being told these facts? The writer of a legal text is always advancing a point of view, not merely setting out a narrative. Her perspective may not be succinctly stated but is apparent when the reader follows the writer’s reasoning.

Lawyers spend a lot of time interpreting texts. Law school is a crash course in how to read. The law student reads a mountain of legal opinions, the written decision a judge issues in each case that comes before her. A good opinion begins by setting out the central point of contention between the