Again, thank you for being with us as we close out a week and as we finish today our journey
through chapter 43 of Genesis and we continue with the Joseph story.
We’re in verse 26.
We’re about halfway through.
I’m just going to read,
well, we’re well over halfway through actually,
I’m just going to read the rest of this chapter.
Then there’s a lot in here and we’ll pick it out and talk about it as we go.
“When Joseph came home,
they brought him the present that they carried into the house and
they bowed to the ground before him.
He inquired about their welfare and said,
‘Is your father well,
the old man of whom
you spoke?
Is he still alive?’
They said, ‘Your servant, our father is well.
He’s still alive.’
And they bowed their heads and did obeisance.
Then he looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son,
and said, ‘Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me?
God be gracious to you, my son.’
With that, Joseph hurried out because he was overcome with affection for his brother and
he was about to weep.
So he went into a private room and wept there.
Then he washed his face and came out,
then controlling himself said, ‘Serve the meal.’
They served him by himself and them by themselves and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves
because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews,
for that’s an abomination to the Egyptians.
When they were seated before him,
the first born according to his birthright and the youngest
according to his youth,
the men looked at one another in amazement.
Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table,
but Benjamin’s portion was five times
as much as any of theirs.
So they drank and were merry with him.
So there is, in these,
a relatively short passage,
but there is a lot here I think that has substance,
Joseph, remember, has called the brothers back to him and for the first
time in this story,
the 12 brothers are together.
They are in one room.
They of course still don’t know that Joseph is their brother.
He does know.
He asks about his father,
Jacob.
They say, ‘Yes, he’s still alive.’ And then it’s interesting,
the text mentions this twice and you could miss it because it’s
simply part of the story and we know that they’re afraid of Joseph.
We know that they’re trying to be respectful of Joseph.
But two times in just a few verses,
the text tells us they bowed down.
They bowed and did obeisance.
Remember how this started with a dream in which Joseph told his brothers,
‘I dreamt that you all bowed before me.’
We now have that playing out,
probably not in its final form,
but that has now come to
pass as he has authority and as he is in a position of power and they bow before him,
thereby really fulfilling what we saw at the very start of this whole episode.
Yeah, right.
So we see that theme which has been present this whole time now coming really to its fruition.
But even more than that here,
we see that Joseph’s character is beginning to be fleshed
out in some really meaningful ways.
We are beginning to see that the one who has been operating as trickster,
we’ve seen that really played out now since the family’s been reintroduced into the story.
Here we see that that has driven him to the point of almost breaking.
He can’t keep the show anymore.
He has to actually remove himself from the space and we’re told that he wept.
We’ve not had this kind of description of affection or this kind of show of emotion
really lifted out in any meaningful way to this extent yet in the book of Genesis.
So Joseph is in many ways lifted out as a unique character because of this kind of intense
feeling and we’re beginning to see some of the cracks in his steely face,
that harshness he showed before seems to be breaking now with Benjamin introduced into the picture.
And mind you,
the double repetition of how’s your father,
this kind of intense questioning,
it’s clear that Joseph cares.
So as reader now,
we’re caught between these currents really.
On one hand there’s the current of he’s tricking his brothers.
They still don’t know who he is.
They came with a lot of anxiety in our text yesterday.
But now at the sort of presentation of the meal,
they’re enjoying themselves.
So there’s a lot going here and we’re seeing that Joseph has a lot more happening under
the surface than what we might think.
Yeah, I mean, I think the text is really helpful there, Michael.
He is about to break down and he goes into a room and weeps.
You know, this is to some extent,
this is a common male practice, right?
We don’t let people see us
be emotional.
Some of us are guarded with that.
In this case, it also preserves the secrecy that he’s not willing yet to break.
But regardless of his exact motivation and exactly what’s happening within him,
this is an overwhelming moment for him as he lays eyes on his younger brother,
the only one who is his full brother.
The only one who wasn’t guilty,
who wasn’t by association guilty for him being in this situation.
Benjamin wasn’t there that day.
So we have all of these things happening within him as he withdraws to weep.
And then we have kind of a strange little addition to the text here that the men sort
of eat separately.
He eats by himself.
The Egyptians eat by themselves,
which is
possibly respect out of Joseph.
But then there’s this strange line that they don’t eat with the Hebrews,
for that’s an abomination to the Egyptians.
And my study Bible indicates that probably has something to do with dietary restrictions.
Clearly,
they’re not,
well,
unless they wouldn’t know that Joseph is a Hebrew,
but likely they do know that.
They know where he came from.
It’s a strange reference.
It’s not exactly clear what it means.
But there is a separation of sorts.
And Joseph,
separate from both groups,
which is interesting.
He doesn’t sit with his brothers to maintain the illusion.
He also, for some reason,
probably because of his position less than his ethnicity,
he’s separate from those who are with him.
But if you think that through,
that’s a very strange eating arrangement and I think a very odd situation.
Yeah.
So this might be a detail that you would just read past,
but think about the implication
of that for a minute.
So you have
the Hebrews, Joseph’s brothers.
They’re at a separate seating place where they’ve been served.
You’ve got the Egyptians who are separate from them.
And then Joseph, who lives in this in between space,
is served in his own spot.
Now,
I agree that probably is a function of his leadership, but symbolically,
metaphorically,
Joseph is in between these cultures.
I mean, he literally lives in a leadership role for the Egyptians,
but he is a brother
of those who have now come seeking aid.
And so there’s a real sense here,
Clint, where he’s sitting in between these two different, very different groups.
And I don’t know if it’s foreshadowing,
Michael, but in the next book,
we’re going to find
the man named Moses living his entire life
in that sort of dichotomy of not being one
thing or the other completely.
And so, yeah, I think that’s true.
Yeah.
I think just another note here is very quickly,
Joseph turns to the same kind of favoritism
we’ve seen in the family all along.
And you’ll see that Benjamin receives not just one here.
I’ll put up the text here,
not just one verse 34,
but Benjamin’s portion was five times
as much as any of the other brothers.
So what’s fascinating here,
Clint, is there’s clearly no attempt to push back on the kind
of favoritism that has existed in the family before.
I mean, Benjamin is the first character introduced here as the brothers came before.
Joseph was able to compose himself.
He spoke to them harshly even.
When Benjamin comes,
Joseph can’t control his emotion.
He goes to another room to weep.
When the table is set,
Benjamin has been given five times more the portion of all the brothers.
I mean,
it’s striking to us, I think,
certainly as 21st century readers separated from the culture.
That kind of favoritism,
I would think, makes most of us uncomfortable,
but yet it’s just
clearly assumed as part of the text.
It’s not said that it’s bad,
not said that it’s good.
It’s not really given any kind of moral judgment,
Clint.
But the very presence of it,
I think, would make most of us uncomfortable.
And I do think we should notice it,
Michael, in a book where we have consistently seen
this younger over the older kind of tension in Rachel and Leah,
in Jacob and Esau.
I think,
again, the Bible’s clearly not trying to make it.
It’s not ringing that bell clearly.
But I think as you hear echoes of it,
it does bring it to mind.
I did want to point out one other kind of quirky detail in the text that is easy to read over.
This is verse 33.
When they were seated before him,
the firstborn according to birthright and the youngest according to youth,
the men looked at each other in amazement.
So practically what that says is he sat them in birth order.
He sat them oldest to youngest.
And their amazement is that he gets it right.
Somehow, they believe this man,
Joseph,
an Egyptian,
or whatever he is in Egypt,
has discerned the proper order.
Now,
maybe that’s by age,
but if you’ll remember back to their birth story,
some of that happens pretty close together.
So it adds a sort of mystery to the text.
It adds a sense of suspense.
They’re looking at each other going,
“How is it that we’re seated in order?
How would they know to do this,
and how would they be able to do this?”
And it does sort of work in the story to kind of heighten
the tension a little bit.
Yeah, so Clint,
I just wanted to also point out the very different place that the text
leaves us at the end of this selection here.
Look at verse 34,
“After Benjamin received this five-time portion,
they drank and were
merry with him.” How different that is from the anxiety and legitimate fear that they came into Joseph’s house with.
Now, it’s clear that they’ve relaxed somewhat.
They’ve allowed themselves to enjoy this hospitality.
And I think what makes this a little bit more brutal,
we’re not going to jump into tomorrow,
so I’m not going to spoil it.
But what makes this a little bit brutal is just the ups and downs,
the kind of terrain
of this text, because we had this negativity.
Now we have some positivity back.
And if you’re an astute reader,
our previous pattern would suggest that that’s going to change again,
and that would be an accurate assumption.
So it’s amazing here how there’s some positivity and there’s some merriment happening,
but that isn’t going to last forever.
At best, this is a wonderful moment where the heightened sense of uneasiness drops a little bit.
At worst,
this is Joseph setting them up because he’s going to continue to mess with them.
And this is either a genuine moment where the gloves come off a little bit,
or it’s intended to make them feel comfortable so that the rug pull next time can land with even more weight.
I’m not sure which we can think about that next week as we continue with this story.
But grateful that you’re with us today.
Hope you all have a great weekend,
and we hope to see you Monday,
if not before.
That’s a good word.
Thanks, everybody.
See you next week.