About one quarter of Genesis is devoted\nto the story of Joseph, dreamer and diviner, the child of Jacob\u2019s old age, the\nchild Jacob favors over all his sons (Gen. 37:3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His brothers hate him for that. Joseph\nhimself seems to stoke their hatred. At 17, he dreams that he and his brothers are\nsheaves of grain \u2013 and each sheave bows to his. He tells his brothers. In turn,\n\u201cthey hated him even more for his talk about his dreams\u201d (37:8). Joseph dreams\nagain: Now his entire family bows to him, as eleven stars, the sun, and the\nmoon. Even Jacob is shocked: \u201cAre we to come, I and your mother and your\nbrothers, and bow low to you to the ground? So his brothers were wrought up at\nhim and his father kept the matter in mind\u201d (37:10-11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometime soon after, it seems, Jacob sends\nhis favored child to check on his brothers. He is to see how his brothers are\ndoing, how the flocks are faring, and to come back to report to his old father.\nHe goes unaccompanied. Alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His brothers see him coming; their rage takes\nover. They strip him of the special tunic his father had made for him. They throw\nhim in a pit. They debate. Should he die? Should they sell him? Does he, in\nthat dark pit, hear every word? Joseph\u2019s brothers harbor a murderous hatred,\nbut, in the end, they leave Joseph\u2019s life \u2013 or death \u2013 to slaveholders: \u201cCome,\u201d\nhis elder brother Judah says, \u201clet us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us\nnot do away with him ourselves\u201d (37:27). Sold into slavery, carried to a\nforeign land, does he play back each word in his mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At seventeen, Joseph is cast into a dark\npit and sold into slavery. He rises to become the right-hand man of Potiphar.\nHe falls again, accused by Potiphar\u2019s wife. He spends at least two years in\nprison for a crime he did not commit. He rises again, becomes the right-hand\nman of the chief jailor. At thirty, he becomes Pharaoh\u2019s vizier because he is\nnot only a dreamer, but a dream interpreter. Pharaoh even gives him a new name:\nZaphnath-Paaneah, a name which might mean \u201cEgyptian,\u201d though Jewish tradition\nreads it as \u201crevealer of secrets.\u201d Finally, Joseph is given Asenath, the\ndaughter of Potipherah, priest of On, to be his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a position of extraordinary power and\nprestige, his life secure, beloved by the ruler of the most powerful country in\nthe known world, he might, one imagine, send word. He is alive, he is well. But\nhe does nothing. He sends no word to the father who loved him best, the father\nwho coddled him and who relied on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joseph named his first child Manasseh, from\na root that means to forget, to make disappear from the memory. Joseph is\nexplicit: I name him Manasseh, he says, because \u201cGod had made me forget my\nhardship and my parental home\u201d (41:52).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The years go by. And by. Joseph is about\n39 when his brothers appear in Egypt, hoping to buy food in a time of famine. Two\nmore years will pass before Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, and only\nafter repeated manipulations. He will pin crimes on them, he will hold one\nbrother prisoner and threaten to make another his slave. He is 41 years old\nwhen his father, Jacob, finally discovers that his beloved son is still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jacob, aged and broken, revives. \u201cEnough,\u201d\nhe says. \u201cMy son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die!\u201d\n(45:28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We read this story as a quintessential\nnarrative of sibling rivalry, one of so many describing murderous hatred among\nbrothers. Cain kills Abel. Esau wants to kill Jacob. Joseph\u2019s brothers almost murder\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if this story was just about sibling\nrivalry, why does Joseph not let his father, who loved him so, know he is\nalive? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he learns that Joseph is alive Jacob\u2019s\nbreath, his ruach, <\/em>lives in him again (45:27). Believing Joseph dead, Jacob\nhad lived a half-life for twenty-four years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Surely Joseph knew his father loved him\nwith an abiding, consuming love. How could he let his brothers get in the way\nof such a love? How could he leave his father half alive for over two decades?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember the second dream? His whole\nfamily had made obeisance to him. His father was angry, accusatory, he \u201ckept it\nin mind.\u201d And then, he sent his son to his eleven brothers, brothers who hated\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did Joseph believe his father betrayed\nhim to his brothers? Did he decide that a new identity, a new name, a new world\ncould be his only future? Did he think: I will kill the past; everyone in it\ntried to kill me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n His tears gave him back what he could\nnot kill: hope. Joseph cries, often. First, when he overhears his brothers\ntalking about what they had done to him (Gen 42:24), next, when he sees his\nyounger brother, Benjamin (43:30), and again when he reveals himself to his\nbrothers (45:2). He cries and kisses his brothers after the revelation\n(45:14-15), and when he finally sees his father again, he weeps on his father\u2019s\nneck \u201ca good while.\u201d (46:29). Somehow, in all his pain, he could still cry for\nwhat he had lost, cry and thus, hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this broken world, where terror and\nhorror surround us every day, perhaps we can hope that our own tears can heal \u2013\nourselves and others. May it be so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When he learns that Joseph is alive Jacob\u2019s breath, his ruach, lives in him again (45:27). Believing Joseph dead, Jacob had lived a half-life for twenty-four years.
\nSurely Joseph knew his father loved him with an abiding, consuming love. How could he let his brothers get in the way of such a love? How could he leave his father half alive for over two decades?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,528,231,529],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dreams","tag-jacob","tag-joseph","tag-ruach"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adrenalinedrash.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Wheat_sheaves_near_Kings_Somborne_-_geograph.org_.uk_-_890008.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrenalinedrash.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}