Why Judah?
God chose to trace the
scarlet thread through Judah, Jacob and Leah’s fourth son. The reasons are not directly
provided in scripture.
It could just be that
God looked ahead and saw David arising from Judah and, in him, God found the
most worthy of all royal seeds.
However, Jacob’s
firstborn, Reuben, lost his birthright in Genesis 49: 3-4,
when he defiled his father’s bed, by laying with Bilhah. He just followed his father's example, when Jacob lay with his wife's maid to sire Dan and Naphtali. Beware fathers what example you leave your sons.
The next two in line,
Simeon and Levi, were the chief protagonists in the brutal prosecution of
Shechem over Dinah. Jacob deemed them as instruments of cruelty in Genesis
49:5.
That surrendered the
mantle to Judah. Notably, Jesus, in descending from Judah forced a change in
the priestly line of Levi (Hebrews 7-8).
However, whilst that
technically selected Judah as the next in line, only one son in the entire
lineage of Jacob had the character to remain righteous in Pharaoh’s court.
A prince among equals
Joseph was bought as a
slave, by Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh’s guard. I suppose that is as close to a
right-hand man as the chief security ministers of nations like Iraq or Syria
were in contemporary history. They were the dark lords that watched the king’s
back.
Yet, whatever the man’s
disposition, Joseph behaved with great virtue and dignity. From the
outset he proved to be the best man for the job. He may have provoked jealously
with his dreams, but never confuse a man’s response to a divine call, with
arrogance.
Indeed, I see such a
holy response as quintessentially humble. He was not ashamed of his calling,
nor was Paul centuries later, not because they boasted in what they had, but
because they had the grace to rise to the moment and honor the call of God in
their lives.
Unfortunately, Joseph
caught the eye of Potiphar’s wife. She dogged him daily, yet he remained
righteous. That is astonishing. He had no woman of his own or rights to one, yet
with all the needs of a man and the affections of a beautiful woman, he
remained upright.
Well, one thing led to
another and she covered the embarrassment of his rejection by making him the
scapegoat. That took him even lower than the pit where his journey started,
lower than the slave train to which he was tethered and lower than the slave
market where Potiphar bought him.
The parallels to
Jesus, born of a surpassing lineage, dignified in all his bearing, virtuous in
all his ways, saw his years of popularity regress to infamy, as God led him
beyond the slave markets of Israel to the place of slaughter, so that one could
die that all might live.
Down, down, down
Joseph slumped into
the dark depths of Potiphar’s dungeon, where who knows what things were done in
the expedience normally attached to a job like that.
A long time later
Pharaoh’s two servants fell into disfavor. Already Joseph was a light in the
dark, showing his character in contrast to a culture of expedient justice and a
kingly whim that would later restore one servant and hang the other, because he
could.
Such was his righteous
disposition that the keeper of the prison protected Joseph and set all the
prisoners under his care. A similar thing happened to a deaf friend who was
incarcerated in a Thai prison, for life, but gained the king’s favor for
reforming the prison.
In the brief exchange
with the Butler and Baker, Jacob gained a lifeline.
He interpreted their
dreams, which accurately foretold the restoration of the butler and the demise
of the baker. Yet the butler forget him until Pharaoh had a dream that no one
in the realm could interpret. It marked the turning point in Joseph’s grim
journey.
Then suddenly he rose from the lowest place to
the highest
The door to his prison
opened, light flooded in, hope rose and yet he left with unchanged dignity to
serve as he had always done.
Before Pharaoh he
predicted 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of dearth. Pharaoh did what all
should do in anointing leaders: he tied the man’s vision to his leadership
ability.
Hence Joseph was
anointed as the Viceroy of Egypt and given the king’s seal to decide all
matters relating to the preparations Egypt needed to make for the advancing
famine.
In the years of plenty
he stored up all surpluses in the granaries of Egypt. I have seen a region
enjoy a bountiful harvest and watched them store the surplus on the fields, in
heavy plastic bags, until the granaries could absorb the backlog. It was like
that.
Then came the dearth
and it was profoundly dry, exacerbated by a once-in-century cycle of searing
heat and dryness. I witnessed the likes, in the wake of a severe El Nino
affect.
The cool, subterranean granaries near the Pyramid Sakkar, had a hall above it for trading grain. The granaries were interconnected to a common collection point, from which workers carried bags to the trading floor, as recorded in manuscripts and hieroglyphics.
Antiquities attribute that the Imhotep (meaning "he comes in peace"), whose bones were never found, but who served as the first minister of Pharaoh Djoser. Could he and Joseph have been one and the same and are his bones somewhere in Canaan?
The cool, subterranean granaries near the Pyramid Sakkar, had a hall above it for trading grain. The granaries were interconnected to a common collection point, from which workers carried bags to the trading floor, as recorded in manuscripts and hieroglyphics.
Antiquities attribute that the Imhotep (meaning "he comes in peace"), whose bones were never found, but who served as the first minister of Pharaoh Djoser. Could he and Joseph have been one and the same and are his bones somewhere in Canaan?
The drought elevated
Egypt politically, as peoples from all over came to Egypt to find respite. They
all bowed to Joseph, who dealt kindly and righteously with them all.
Rudyard Kipling said,
“if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors the
same, if you can talk with crowd and keep your virtue or walk with kings and
not lose the common touch … you will be a man, my son”. Joseph was like that.
Truly he deserved to
be honored and he was indeed honored, for his bones would ultimately be carried
to the Promised Land more than 430 years later.
Aspire to serve with
honor and dignity wherever you are and look to God for the vision and wisdom
to touch your world and your culture, as you “dream without ever making
such dreams your master or think without making thoughts your aim” (Rudyard
Kipling).
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.gmail.com
(Image) Mariano-Barbasan-Joseph-son-of-Jacob-in-jail
