To My Genesis Readers! (Some Penultimate Thoughts)
I’m sorry I’ve been so bad at posting my weekday Genesis commentaries since all this virus craziness began. Please forgive me! It’s been nice hearing from you folks that you actually read them. Who knew?
It’s been hard for me to get into a new writing routine that works with the rhythms of life in quarantine. But, we start Psalms next week, and I’ll do better—scout’s honor!
Below I’ve included some bullet points about Genesis from the last few weeks of readings.
Tomorrow at 4:00 AM I’ll email out my final post on Genesis, to go with our last day’s reading.
This is a long post, so if you are having trouble sleeping at night these days, this is just what the doctor ordered.
(However, if you skip the ending of this post, you’ll miss reading what is one of the greatest and most moving images in the entire Bible….)
The Plan for Psalms
Speaking of Psalms, we start our Psalms schedule this coming Monday, April 13; we’ll read 1 psalm a day until September. I’ll write a daily commentary, and if you’re receiving this email, you’ll keep getting the Psalms emails.
My Video on Genesis
I know I’ve missed lots of days of commentary. Remember, though, that I did a whole hour talk on the Joseph story on March 4. Seems like forever ago!
Quick Bullets on the Joseph Story
I think the Bible wants us to have an ambivalent opinion on Joseph: on the one hand, he is obviously a genius, but on the other hand he becomes totally Egyptianized, which is not good because it means he’s forgotten that he is a child of Israel.
The Bible makes it clear that the Lord was with Joseph when he was enslaved and imprisoned, but we aren’t told that the Lord is with Joseph when he is raised to power in Egypt. Why? I think it’s because it seems that Joseph forgets the Lord when he is delivered from prison and raised to power. As I mentioned above, he becomes so totally acculturated in Egypt that he doesn’t even live with his family when they settle in Goshen!
I think Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s two sons is fascinating. Jacob is blind, but he can still “see” and he deliberately blesses the younger—Ephraim—over the elder—Manasseh. He even crosses his hands to do so. An amazing scene.
Hundreds and hundreds of years later, Daniel is an Israelite who finds himself serving a foreign king—in this case, the Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel, however, never gives up on his Israelite identity, and God still uses him and he still retains his high position.
I wonder if Joseph’s problem was thinking that there is no way he could have kept his high position apart from turning his back on his heritage. Of course, if the Lord wanted Joseph to be Pharoah’s right hand, then it would have happened. It is almost as if Joseph stops trusting in the Lord at the very moment when things begin to turn around for him.
I think Joseph’s economic measures are morally questionable. He saves Egypt and the Middle East from starvation through his prudent planning, but he also enriches Pharaoh and strengthens Pharoah’s grip over all of Egypt, thereby turning the people into little more than indentured servants to Pharaoh. Could not he have saved the people another way?
All throughout the story of Joseph the central question has been, Who will lead the family after Jacob is gone? Jacob’s final blessings of his sons tell us the answer (though we’ve already figured it out): Judah, the fourth son, will be the leader! Read the blessings carefully and see how Jacob hasn’t missed anything. He remembers, e.g., how Reuben slept with his wife/concubine so many years before, and how Simeon and Levi led the brutal slaughter at Shechem. By the way, Judah is the tribe from which David comes, and later Jesus. Do you know that praise song “Lion and the Lamb”? This is why the songwriter describes the Lord as “the lion of Judah”.
Thoughts on the Death of Jacob, our Penultimate Reading
I have a bit more to say tomorrow about our final day’s reading, but I want to leave you with what is one of the most powerful images in all of the Bible: the burial of Jacob.
Remember, Joseph has forgiven his brothers, but they are not really reconciled with each other. Joseph, the right hand of Pharaoh himself— is living like an Egyptian, whereas Israel and his sons are living as shepherds in Goshen, sojourning in a foreign land. Joseph has settled the family there, but for all intents and purposes he is not one of them any more.
Jacob’s death, however, unites the brothers for one last time.
Jacob makes his 12 sons swear a deathbed oath (the same oath, by the way, that Joseph will subsequently make his descendants swear to him):
29 Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. 31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.”
33 When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people. [Genesis 49-29-33]
Jacob, whose life’s journey has been long and winding, knows that his place is in the Promised Land, and so he will be buried with his fathers.
Joseph gets the necessary permission from Pharaoh and then joins the whole company as they make the long sad trek back to the land that the Lord promised Abraham.
And then we get what is one of the most moving images in the entire Bible:
12 So Jacob’s sons did as he had commanded them: 13 They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. [Genesis 50:12-13]
Jacob’s 12 sons, erstwhile enemies in life, united in the death of their father:
The twelve sons of Jacob carry their father on their shoulders as they lay him to rest with his fathers in the land of Promise.
Wow.
Today’s Scripture
P.S.
Today is Winston Churchill day, and in remembrance of Mr. Churchill, I’ve included below an image from his funeral procession. May we take on some of his stubborn courage today.