gENESIS 42-45

Rev. Adam Tierney-Eliot

Scripture Reading: Genesis 42-45
 
Focusing Quote: “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt” Genesis 45:4

Meditation:
Have you ever experienced the sort of shock or the kind of surprise where you thought that maybe you would never recover?  Have you ever been in a situation where what you had held in your mind and heart as irrefutable fact has, in fact, been refuted and that whatever happens after that moment will forever be influenced by that moment?  Maybe you have.  Such times are rare but are never forgotten.

Sometimes these events seem beyond our control.  Their catalysts occur on the national or international scene.  The events of September 11, 2001 or the current economic crisis are examples of situations that are sort of thrust upon us.  Still, even then we make choices and decisions about how to react.  This is true in personal, private moments as well.  Events don’t have to be of national import to be shocking!  Perhaps a long lost relative re-enters your life.  Perhaps someone leaves by death or divorce.  Decisions to marry or to have children (or not to marry or not to have children) are momentous in their implications for the future.  The fact of the matter is that we sometimes make choices that forever change our lives.  It is also true that sometimes the choices we make surprise even us.

In Genesis Joseph and his brothers find themselves in just such a life-changing event. It is hard to imagine that they find it at all pleasant!  Joseph comes face to face with his family, those who he last saw walking away, abandoning him after selling him into slavery. And his brothers find themselves confronted by their own failure.   Their plan to be rid of him, to deliver him into either death or obscurity obviously had developed different results than expected.  In fact at the point of the story that our reading describes, Joseph was the one with the power.   This is a reversal, a not-so-subtle shift in the balance, a looming fact whose significance is not lost on the characters in this story or on us.

Now, this situation alone is cause for suspense.  However we, the readers, certainly the brothers, and even perhaps Joseph himself, were surprised by what happened next.  After all, he no doubt was justifiably angry about how he had been treated.  He had every reason to exact revenge.  In fact, he did take some time toying with them.  What is supposed to happen, after all, in the last chapter of a story like this one—just as in the last reel of an action film or the climax of a mystery novel or a Saturday morning cartoon—is that the bad guys get their just deserts.  They are punished!  Revenge is taken!  That has been the rule and convention since before Joseph’s time on through the time when the Genesis story was written down and on up to today.

But this story has a surprise and the surprise is this:  it didn’t turn out that way!  As we know, Joseph didn’t take his revenge.  Sure, he held one of his brothers hostage.  Perhaps he even wrestled or struggled within himself to decide what course of action he should ultimately take.  Finally, however, he took the leap of faith and chose to forgive.  He placed his trust in God.  “Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, for you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life” (45:5)

That is where the shock comes.  That is how the arc of their life stories change.  From this point they move forward, once antagonists and now family once again.  Joseph returns to the family and they return to him.

This is a story of transformation, of good coming from evil as the result of both a faithful act and a careful difficult decision being made.  It is amazing how rarely we are able to make that kind of decision in our lives today.  It is amazing how rarely we see others, both on a personal and corporate level step back to consider the possibilities of the harder path toward peace on both a personal, corporate, and national level.  Jesus tells us that “The gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it.” (Matt. 7:14)  The fact is, however, that most of us know what it takes to find that road, we just have trouble paying the toll.

How do we find ways to keep on that path?  If (and when) we stray, how do we find it again?  Each of us probably has different techniques and tools to cope with these situations.  It is important that we know what and where they are, to practice our faith in the way we live and love every day.

Prayer: Dear God, please help me to be the best person I can be.  Help me to see the Divine in the hearts of others, even in those I do not like!  Help me to think of others when I act and to help those who are in need, even if it seems difficult or inconvenient.  Holy God I am trying to live a good life.  Help me stay on your path and when I stumble, please help me to find it again. Amen

“So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.  And they told him, ‘Joseph is still alive!  He is even ruler of all of Egypt” Genesis 45:25

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