Genesis 46-47

Genesis 46

I have to imagine that it was terrifying for Jacob, an old man, to pick up and move everything to a place he didn't know. Thus, God sent him the comforting dream at the perfect time. All Gos had to remind Jake to do was to be not afraid, and trus, and Jacob's fears were diminished. I love that. I love that sometimes we're terrified, and that it chills us to our very souls, so we have to lean on God. If I didn't have that occasional scare or poignant sadness, I think I would be a bit more prone to forget about the one who loves me the most. 

Joseph and his daddy have a glorious renuion, with weeping and hugging and loving words. 

God made their lives so happy, and I love to see him do the same in mine. 

Genesis 47

Pharaoh LOVES Joseph. He gives Joe's family the best land, and offers one of them a position in charge of his very own livestock. This is awesome, because Joseph didn't do all that much to get to this favored and cherished position - he only had to trust God with everything, and God made everything fall together. 

This is probably something I struggle with. Despite how much I work to make it otherwise, I have a real insecurity when it comes to people not liking me. So I try to do things to make myself more appealing to them. I'm not talking like doing drugs, or partying super hard. I more mean that I try to say the right things, or conjure the perfect response. People call me a try-hard, which I hate, though I know that it is true. I try so hard to get people's approval. I even struggle with getting respect and love from my friends sometimes. 

I know if I just trusted God with it, everything would be fine. And I try it all the time. It usually works, for up to a day. But then something happens, or I feel lonely, and I have to reach out and try again. 

Joseph didn't have to do anything except be himself, and trust wholly in his creator for Pharaoh to be totally obsessed with him. I know God will do the same for me. I just have to practice the trust part. 

Much of this chapter talks about how the Egyptians paid for their food. After giving away their livestock in exchange for food, they give away their land and selves. 

They enslave themselves, to pay for their empty bellies. The marvelous thing about this, too, is I think it was the best thing to do at the time. What other choice was there? I think they see this, too. Though they're in a place of total servitude, they're simply eternally grateful to Joe to not be hungry. They're excited to have their needs met. 

There's this saying I like: "take joy in the ordinary." A lot of times, this is challenging to do. But in times of strife, it's easier to look around you and find joy in things that are absolutely incredible. Like a little seed, or a plate of food. That's where the joy was, for the slaves. 

When Jake is getting ready to pass away, he and his son do the weird thigh-promise thing. It still makes me uncomfortable. Joe promises to bury his dad where his predecessors were married - in Canaan, also known as the Promised Land. 

Genesis 44-45

Genesis 44

Joseph did not choose the opportune moment of the feast to reveal himself, much to my dismay. Instead, he sends them on a trip back home, after deceptively hiding more of his silver in their grain sacks. When they're accused of thievery, they sort of trap themselves: 

"If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord’s slaves.” (Genesis 44:9 NIV)

Whoops. 

Needless to say, Ben has the silver, as it was planted there. When they are returned to Joseph, it is with humble hearts. They had already resigned themselves to a life of servitude. 

When Joseph offers to take only Benjamin in recompense for the silver, Judah does a really really brave thing. 

He tells the truth. 

He talks about how his dad loves Ben, and would die without him, and how if his dad died, so would he, and the whole situation would be a whole domino effect of death. Or something to that measure. 

And then, get this: Judah offers to take Ben's place with as Joe's servant. What an absolutely Jesus-like thing to do.

Props to Judah for being the bravest of the brothers. 

Genesis 45

This is totally off-topic, but I feel compelled to write about it anyway tonight. 

I read a book lately called The Shack, which I totally recommend to anyone with an open mind that wants to see God in a refreshing and unheard-of way. In it, the character that represents God said that we don't have to be like Jesus. 

Wait what? 

Yeah, I know. It took me a long time to process that. I've been dealing with some friend stuff lately, and some crazy big doubts in myself and in the relationships I have with others. A lot of times, I'm plagued by this impossibly high standard "What Would Jesus Do?" 

Guys, Jesus wasn't just a human. I mean He was, but his divinity gave him a grace and strength that we as humans can't have just yet. God isn't asking us to be like Jesus, because we are entirely different than Jesus. He has a plan for us that is all our own. And though it's important to try to live in a Jesus-mindset, God isn't asking us to constantly strive to be something that we simply are not. We're all complex, and though Jesus is in all of us, he is in all of us differently. I mean, I see Jesus in people in ways that are by no means supported by anything biblical. It's just Jesus. 

If you hate that idea, you can disregard it. I just had to get it off my chest, and now I'm going to talk about Joseph and his bros a bit more.

I think emotion is a God thing. So I find it a bit beautiful that Joe sent his attendants away and wept, overwhelmed. Drowning in grace. 

When Joseph sends his identifies himself to his brothers, they don't have at all the reunion I was expecting. They're scared of him. I would be, too! Now that he has this much power, it would be well within Joe's reach to execute them all. Their bullying demeanor of past years is abandoned, and this meek and frightened spirit is showing. 

I love in Joe's monologue that he credits everything to God. It's easy to forget that he literally brings us everything, and it's gorgeous to see Joe praising God even for the mistfortunes he went through. He was able to see the good in his challenges. 

And THEN, they have the little reunion I was looking for. Some hugging and crying, and joy all around. Pharaoh gave the brothers some free stuff, in typical Oprah fashion. Ben gets the favorite brother award for some reason, though I still haven't figured out why. And the brothers get ready to retrieve their dad, and bring him to good ol' Egypt. 

I LOVE VERSE 24. Joe sounds like a concerned mother. 

"Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!” (Genesis 45:24 NIV)

Such a precious young lad. 

When the bros get back to their dad, he doesn't believe them. After a bit of wheedling and convincing, however, he gets it. And they prepare to go reunite with their long-lost Joe. 

I love that. 

Genesis 43

Honestly, it comes as no surprise to me that the brothers were so easily fooled. Think of how we behave with a guilty conscience. 

One time, when I was about 8, my brother and I were sharing the passenger seat in my dad's convertible. A police car pulled up behind us, and my dad, brother, and I simultaneously had a panic attack. Colton and I, at my dad's urging, oozed onto the floor of the car in a puddle of tears, in vain hope that the cop wouldn't see us. My dad, after engaging in a short-lived police chase, pulled over and nearly started hyperventilating. The policeman got out of his SUV, and walked over to our convertible. 

So of course it was no wonder that Joe's brothers were unsuspicious of all the questions Joe asked. They had sold their brother into slavery - their guilty conscience made them susceptible to attacks, and got them into even more trouble. Guilt is the worst. I don't know if there's anything that separates us from God in a more effective way. Well, I'll speak for myself. I feel the farthest from Jesus when I spend any time at all feeling guilty. He didn't die so I could feel bad about the mistakes I make every single day.

Thankfully, Judah swears to take good care of Benjamin on their excursion back to Egypt. He points out again that it's necessary, seeing as their families are starving, and offers to be held accountable. That's admirable. 

So Jacob gives them some bribes to pass along, as well as his good wishes and their baby brother. 

When they get to Egypt, Joe sees them. He gets so excited. (This reminds me of the father in the prodigal son.) Joe tells the steward of the house to prep a meal for his brothers and himself to celebrate at noon. 

Joe's brothers have the same fear I did when the cop walked up to the car window. They assumed they were going to get in trouble for something, whether they did it or not. Their consciences were wrecking them. 

The brothers begin to apologize to Joseph, and offer up their bribes and meek attitudes. Joseph forgives all,and brings out their brother Simeon to them, whom he took captive previously. Joe's mer y doesn't stop there. He has his steward provide for all of their various needs, and all their donkeys' needs. Then, when he finally sees Benjamin, he is moved to tears. Remember, Joe loved his brothers more than anyone on the planet. Even though they broke his heart and sent them away, Joe treated them with a loving kindness that moves me. I want to be like that. 

Lastly, because food is one of my favorite gifts that God has given us, they feast. They bond and laugh and I imagine they drink a touch too much wine. And Joseph's brothers, without even realizing it, realize that they got two brothers back that night. The wounds of the past were mended. 

When the police officer came to the car door, he laughed at the sight of us with a laugh that was beyond familiar to me. Tears streaming from my eyes still, he apologized for scaring us, and smiled at us warmly. 

It was my friend's dad. He wasn't there to give us a ticket, or to take my daddy to jail - he was there to tell us hello, and to make the world a little brighter. 

Genesis 42

I do not believe that we serve a vengeful God. I don't think He's the sort of being that even thinks "I'm going to make sure they are punished, or even have a penance for the wrong they do to others." So when Joseph's brothers were in need of Joe's help, it wasn't God working through a karma of sorts - He was simply using their misfortune of the time to bring them all back together. 

Let that sink in for a moment, because it's a weighty statement.

God

Uses 

Our 

Misfortunes

To 

Bring 

Us 

Back 

Together.

His brothers, who once banded together to stand against Joseph, now banded together in the midst of their hunger to go humbly to ask for food. 

Joseph, though such an incredible instrument of God, is still completely human. I feel that in the way he reacts to his brothers - if he wasn't human, surely he would have the excitement and love of God and embrace them immediately. Instead, Joe's reaction is cold and calculated. He makes a plan, like we so often do, and doesn't get that immediate joy of reuniting with his brothers. 

But ohmygoodness, how the tables are turned.

Do you remember when Joe's brothers put him in a pit, and then sold him to a passerby? Joseph just locked his bros in PRISON, and they didn't even recognize him. God stayed with Joe every step of the way. Even when he didn't realize it, and even when he forgot about it. God was there, walking with hi all the way to the head of Pharaoh's household. 

The guilt Joseph's brothers feel is overwhelming. 

They said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us.” (Genesis 42:21 NIV)

They credit all of this trouble as payback for what they did to their brother so many years ago. They take it with a heart full of feeling like they deserve the misfortune and prejudice from Pharoah's employee. But God surely doesn't see it that way. He doesn't look at them with eyes of anger, or even eyes of disappointment. He looks at them with eyes of love, and excitement that they're getting closer to having this burden of guilt off their chests. He saw them like he saw us. 

Beautifully broken. 

When parts of Joe's plan start to come together, the brothers get scared. The silver in their sacks of grain unnerves them. They come home to daddy Jacob and tell him everything that happened in Egypt, hoping for a word of consolation or protection. Their father, however, is angry. Who wouldn't be? That's two sons that the brothers have lost, now. Jacob must have felt like he was seriously struggling, and felt a bit hopeless as well. 

Reuben, the leader, takes some credit. He promises to bring back one of the two brothers he lost. 

And he ends up getting more than he bargained for.