Why was Joseph so hard on his brothers? On meeting them for the first time in twenty two years, for instance, he “spoke harshly to them,” Genesis 42:7, accusing them of being “spies” checking out the strength of the Egyptian defences (9, 12, 14), and bluntly refusing to believe they’d only come to buy grain (10-12).

He then threw them all in prison for three days and on the third day he demands that they prove their honesty by having them go back to Canaan and bring back their “youngest brother, so that your words may be verified, and that you may not die” (20) – spying being punishable by death. So Joseph was really going to town to scare the livers out of them, despite knowing they were his brothers. But why?

Well, his brothers had never imagined anything like this happening to them, but those three days in prison together got them thinking. And thinking about Joseph too, in how Joseph must have felt “when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen, and that’s why this distress has come on us” (21). It was their own conclusion, then, that they were getting a well deserved taste of their own medicine. 

And on several other counts too: Joseph refusing to believe their story, for instance, was reminiscent of them refusing to believe Joseph’s dreams (37:8). And being accused by Joseph of lying and deceit was also reminiscent of the lies and deceit they’d told Jacob about Joseph’s demise (37:31-33). So was this, in fact, all God’s doing as his way of getting through to the brothers what they’d done? 

The brothers certainly thought so, because on discovering that the silver they’d used to pay for their grain was still in their packs – as though they’d stolen it back – they were “trembling,” and their immediate question was: “What is this that God has done to us?” (42:27-28). That’s where their thinking went: it went to God. So had God inspired Joseph to act this way to his brothers to bring them to this point of God becoming real to them? Because that’s what happened here. 

Which is super encouraging to know, because of people we know and lying deceitful leaders we know, who at this point in their lives show no interest in God or any respect for him. But they’ve done things to people in their past life that God can have done to them in return to make himself real to them later on. And not only that; he was also “Making Jesus real through Joseph” too….(next blog) 

The last words we hear from Joseph are in Genesis 50:24: “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I’m about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’” – adding in verse 25, that “you must carry my bones up from this place” when they left for Canaan.

But how could Joseph be so certain that his brothers would end up back in Canaan, especially when they’d “settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen” (47:27) and “acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number”? Why up sticks and move back to Canaan when living in Egypt for seventeen years (28) had given all of them a very comfortable life?

Well, Joseph had experienced for himself the “behind-the-scenes God at work.” It started when he was seventeen years old (37:2). He had a dream about “the sun and moon and eleven stars bowing down to him” (9), which made his Dad ask angrily, “(Now look here my boy), are you saying your mother and I, and your brothers, will actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” (10). How absolutely preposterous; what on earth was the silly boy thinking? 

And what could Joseph say in reply? Here he was, a mere teenager spouting ludicrous sounding predictions about his family’s future. But give Jacob his due, he “kept (what Joseph had predicted) in mind” (11).

And well he should because behind the scenes for the next 22 years God was at work putting all the pieces in place for the time when his brothers left Canaan for Egypt to buy grain in the second year of the seven year famine. And it was on meeting Joseph (but not recognizing him) that “they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground” (42:6), just as Joseph had predicted – which made him remember his dreams too (9). 

So, on revealing who he is to his brothers in Genesis 45:4, he tells them in verse 5, that “it was to save lives (including theirs, verse 7) that God sent me ahead of you,” and “it wasn’t you who sent me here, it was God” (8). It was God all along, behind the scenes, working all this out for them (41:32), proving he was being true to what “he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (50:24). And the same for us, 1 Thessalonians 5:24, “The one who calls you is faithful,” and behind the scenes he’s putting things in place to prove it, just as he did for Joseph – and for his  brothers too, by giving them “A taste of their own medicine”….next blog

Joseph was given what Christians dream of, the chance to be in charge of the whole world and do things God’s way. And I’ve often wondered what I’d do if that chance was given to me. How would I do things “God’s way”?

Well, how did Joseph do things God’s way after Pharaoh told him in Genesis 41:41, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt,” and in verse 44, “without your word, Joseph, no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt”?

Well, what Joseph did next sounds a lot like the communist ideal, in which the abundance of the land and the efforts of those producing it are distributed equally to all. During the seven years of plentiful crops, for instance, “Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain” (49), so when the famine struck and “spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians ” (56). Everyone was taken care of equally. 

So far, so good. But when the Egyptians’ money ran out, Joseph said, “I’ll sell you food in exchange for your livestock” (47:16). Not only, then, did the people’s personal wealth go into Pharaoh’s coffers (14), now all the people’s livestock belonged to the state too (18). And it got worse, because after their livestock the only things people had left to bargain with for food were “our bodies and our land” (18). And Joseph took them too, first of all “buying up all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh” (20), and then “reducing the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other” (21). Are there not echoes here of typical communism, which starts off with what sounds like a great ideal for the benefit of all, but ends up with total state control benefiting just the few? 

On the other hand, losing everything and being provided for by the state was better than starving to death. Wise state control by Joseph had saved the whole country from disaster (25), and when it was all over Joseph made sure that everyone in future had enough seed to provide all the food their families needed (24). Joseph’s aim in all that he did was to save lives and in difficult times see that everyone’s need was met. And on that point Joseph met the ideal of communism, unlike the communism of today that so often ends up leaving people destitute.

But that’s not all that’s going on in this story, because there’s also the bigger picture of “The behind-the-scenes God at work” too….(next blog) 

The quote above was an extraordinary question asked by an Egyptian Pharaoh in Genesis 41:38, when told his country would be hit with a seven year famine that would “ravage the land” (30). 

But before the famine there’d be seven years of massively good harvests, so Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh was to “look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt” to organize sufficient storage of grain during the seven good years to tide them over the seven famine years (33-36). Pharaoh liked the idea, which stirred his question: “Can we find such a man, in whom is the spirit of God?”  

And isn’t that the question to ask in any difficult situation? Whether it be a touchy political decision affecting the future of a country and its citizens, or an upset between any two people, or opposing groups with very different ideas and agendas? What’s needed most is those in whom is the spirit of God. And to think that even a pagan chap like Pharaoh acknowledged that too.

Which makes this story highly relevant for us today, because we’re facing all sorts of global problems that could “ravage our land” too. And maybe, like the seven good and seven bad years in Egypt, this has also “been firmly decided by God” (32). Because Paul did say in Romans 1:18, that “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth.” So are we in such a time today?

“Suppressing the truth,” for instance, has become a global sport. Censoring and shaming people for even daring to suggest an alternative view to the prevailing narratives on science, climate change, vaccines, Palestine, sexual and gender ideologies, Islam and migrants, etc., has reached pandemic proportions. Hiding and covering up the truth on what really happened in residential schools and dozens of other outrageous lies and scandals has also become a terrible virus ripping through governments and their media flunkies.  

No wonder Christians and Jews are being picked on, who make God their source of truth, because God and truth are being dismissed as irrelevant in the frenzied drive for global state control. Please, then, “Is there anyone in whom is the spirit of God” to help us through our famine of truth – someone “discerning and wise” like Joseph that even our pagan “pharaohs” would accept? But, hang on, “Wasn’t Joseph being a communist?”….(next blog)  

Joseph does what he believes is right in God’s eyes and gets clobbered for it. He loses his job, his reputation, and he’s even flung in jail, Genesis 39:20, and all because of trumped up charges against him by his employer’s wife (verses 14-18).

Potiphar was no help either. He didn’t even bother to question his wife’s wild story, nor did he give Joseph a chance to defend himself, despite trusting Joseph so completely up to this point (6). Joseph was completely powerless, much like we are today as our political leaders lie and chuck blame in all directions to cover for their scandals and corruption. 

But Joseph didn’t get angry, demand justice, camp out on Potiphar’s lawn, or wave a sign accusing Potiphar’s wife of a hate crime against men. He didn’t even try to defend himself. So off to prison he went, branded as a convicted criminal with no hope of parole. 

So where was God while all this was happening? Verses 20 and 21 tell us that “while Joseph was in prison, the Lord was with him, showing him kindness and granting him favour in the eyes of the prison warden.” Joseph even ended up “in charge of all those held in the prison” (22), and the warden simply left Joseph to it (23). Imagine the temptation for Joseph to make his escape. But he stayed. So what was going through his mind that enabled him to do that? 

There’s a clue in Hebrews 11:22, that “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.” Joseph knew what God had promised to his great-grandfather Abraham, that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:8), which meant that the Israelites, Abraham’s descendants, would one day have to exit Egypt for that to happen. What held Joseph steady, therefore, was knowing God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants, because Joseph – being a descendant of Abraham too – meant that God was fitting in what was happening to him personally with that promise as well. 

Well here we are now as the present day descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). We too, then, can experience God’s kindness and favour, and in the same way Joseph experienced it, in confidence and peace that what’s happening to us fits in with God’s promise to Abraham – of blessing the whole world in Genesis 12:3 – as well. How God does that is his business. Our business is to be the answer to Pharaoh’s question in Genesis 41:38: “Is there anyone in whom is the spirit of God?”.…(next blog)

Joseph’s integrity was sorely tested when his boss’s wife got the hots for him. And Joseph being “well built and handsome,” Genesis 39:6, didn’t make the situation any easier for him either, nor that Potiphar’s wife was probably the pick of the beauties in Egypt that had netted her such a high official in the Egyptian government.

So here was this rivetingly beautiful and highly desirable woman offering herself and all her female charms to a red blooded male in his prime (7). And think of the added excitement getting away with a secret love affair too, and the little teasing winks to each other when in company with others on official business. Such fun it could have been. 

But faced with such fun and excitement, Joseph “refused” to give in to it (8). He tried reasoning with Potiphar’s wife to begin with, explaining his predicament, that her husband had entrusted “everything he owns to my care “ (8), and “he’s withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife” (9). 

And then we see what Joseph was really made of, because in what sounds like exasperation he cries out to her: “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (9). Or “How on earth can I go along with what you’re asking for when I know how God would feel about it?” 

But how did Joseph know it was “a wicked thing” in God’s sight to have sex with another man’s wife? The ten commandments didn’t exist yet, so there was no law against adultery. And yet Joseph knew adultery was horribly wrong.

It tells me that God equipped us with a moral compass, so we know in our heart of hearts what’s right and wrong, or good and bad. Paul spoke of it in Romans 2:15, that “God’s law is not something imposed on us; it’s woven into the very fabric of our creation. It’s something that God put deep within us so we know what’s right and wrong.” And Joseph responded to that, whereas Potiphar’s wife didn’t.

And what a lesson for today as our Western society seems bent on destroying our moral compass, so we – and especially the young – have no idea what’s right and wrong. No wonder the Christian message is so full of  hope for those who take God seriously, for “glory, honour and peace await everyone who does good” (10). Which is what happened to Joseph, who again and again experienced “God’s kindness and favour”….(next blog)

When Genesis 39:2 says, “The Lord was with Joseph,” what obvious signs, fruits or evidence began to show up in Joseph’s life, that also show what God values too? 

Well, first of all, whatever “the Lord being with Joseph” did for him, it was noticeable to the Egyptian “captain of the guard” who bought him (1). Verse 3 even states that Potiphar (the Egyptian captain) “saw that the Lord was with Joseph,” and so obviously did he see it that he “put Joseph in charge of his household, and entrusted everything he owned to Joseph’s care” (4) – to the point that there was “no one in Potiphar’s household greater than Joseph” (9). 

So what the Lord being with Joseph did was make him utterly trustworthy, which was exactly what was needed in serving a man of Potiphar’s stature as “one of Pharaoh’s officials” (1). Joseph had to be a man of exceptional integrity – utterly reliable, honest, principled,“without spot and blameless” – as Peter would say (2 Peter 3:14).

But what was God’s point in telling this story about Joseph, and in such detail too? Well in Genesis 45:8 it was also in God’s plan to make Joseph “father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.” So God was training Joseph up to be a top ranking government official, or in our terms, a skilled and highly respected politician. And clearly the quality God values for such a position is integrity. 

Which gives us a clue as to what he values in those he’s training for his own government and kingdom, the politicians of the future. And judging by what God did in Joseph’s life to get him to that point, it’s going to involve two things: some serious testing, but God “showing his kindness and granting his favour” too, Genesis 39:21.

The result being verse 3, “the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in everything he did.” Which ties in nicely with 1 Corinthians 1:5, that “in Jesus we (too) have been enriched in every way – in all our speaking and in all our knowledge,” so that our training to become skilled and highly respected members of God’s government will be successful too. It will involve some serious testing of our integrity, just as it did for King David, but “David shepherded Israel with integrity of heart: with skillful hands he led them,” Psalm 78:72. So did Joseph in Egypt – as we see when his integrity was sorely tested and his response was: “How could I do such a wicked thing” against God?….(next blog)

Horribly unfair things happened to Joseph, but he survived them all without seeking revenge or feeling sorry for himself. He never played the victim card, nor did he shame and blame anyone for what they’d done to him. He didn’t harbour any ill will, or use his success to humiliate those who’d wanted him dead, nor did he seek compensation for being sold into slavery (Genesis 37:28), or for being thrown into prison (39:13-20).

He was so different to his brothers, who wanted to kill him and lie about how he died (37:20), but he was able to navigate the swamp of injustice and the influence of his siblings, and not get sucked into their depths. 

Imagine being able to do that today, in a world where the slightest hint of discrimination or inequity or lack of diversity and inclusion, has people screaming “hate” and “racism” and protesting in mobs, and destroying the lives and reputations of anyone who disagrees with their sensitivities.

How Joseph survived such lunacy, hate and injustice in his life has relevance for us today then, doesn’t it? And fortunately, Scripture explains how he did it in Genesis 39:2, which simply says, “The Lord was with Joseph,” repeated twice more in the same chapter (verses 21 and 23), which drops a rather strong hint that we humans cannot survive injustice without the Lord being with us.

And King David took that hint when he struggled with injustice in his life. He admits in Psalm 73 that it really got to him seeing “fat cats who have everything their hearts could ever wish for, who scoff and speak only evil, and in their arrogance crush others, who boast against the very heavens” (7-9) while “enjoying a life of ease and only getting richer” (12). 

What’s the point, then, he asks, of “keeping my heart pure, and keeping myself innocent when I get nothing but trouble all day long?” (13-14). We could ask too: “Why bother being a good person when bad people can do whatever they like and get away with it?” But “Then,” David says in verse 17, “I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I understood the destiny of the wicked,” that God would deal with them in due time (18-20). 

In the meantime he looked to God to be “the strength of my heart” (26) to keep him from becoming bitter (21). And the Lord was with him, just as he was with Joseph, to show us this is how we survive the injustices against us. And also from Joseph’s story to show us: “The importance of integrity” too….(next blog)

Through his early years, Joseph had no control over his life. It wasn’t his fault that his Dad (Jacob, now Israel) “loved him more than his other sons,” Genesis 37:3, or that his Dad “made a richly ornamented robe for him,” or that his brothers “hated him for it and couldn’t speak a kind word to him” (4).

Already by age seventeen, then, Joseph was learning that life isn’t fair. It wasn’t fair for his brothers that he was their Dad’s favourite, but neither was it fair that they made life miserable for him. 

But that’s life as much now as it was in Joseph’s day. “Equity” is the great cry being demanded today by those who also feel life is unfair. They hate the notion of some being more privileged because of their race, or their gender, their looks, or because they grew up in a rich family that opened the doors to the best schools that led to lucrative careers. “Justice,” they believe therefore, demands a more level playing field, and the imbalances corrected – which if not corrected justify protest and violence, especially when the privileged don’t listen or care.

We live in such a world, where anger and frustration against the unfairness of it all is increasing. Which in the light of what happened to Joseph is frightening, because his brothers felt justified in killing him (20) – especially after he told them about his two dreams, one of which had his brothers bowing in submission to him (3-9).

They were incensed, just as people are today when those in power flaunt their untouchable status and their entitled position to justify their superiority. 

But God allowed Jacob to play favourites and Joseph to be the privileged one. He allowed the unfairness to happen, and the hate, rage and jealousy it created. Because that’s our history. It’s always been this way, with the privileged few ruling over the many, and the violent reaction it creates against them. It’s been a long and hard lesson for us to learn, that equity, justice and fairness are beyond our ability to create.

But, Psalm 96:10, “The Lord reigns,” and “he will judge the peoples with equity” (also Psalm 9:8). So we have his promise that one day there will be justice and fairness for all, but meanwhile, “How do we survive injustice now?”….(next blog) 

After Jacob got rid of all “the foreign gods” from his home and he and his family returned to Canaan, “God appeared to him again and blessed him,” Genesis 35:9. 

The “blessing” God had for Jacob was officially changing his unfortunate name of ‘deceptive heel grabber’ to the name Israel – ‘he struggles with God’ (10) – in recognition of Jacob’s long struggle with trusting him. So many times in the past Jacob had resorted to his own cleverness to get what he wanted, or to get out of a sticky situation. Trust in himself had been his god, but now, looking back over his life, he realized it was God who’d got him through and been with him all along (3). At long last, Jacob, now Israel the struggler with God, understood that the long struggle in life he’d been through was to teach him to trust. 

Being able to trust God was a wonderful revelation for him – like entering a whole new world – and he built an altar to commemorate it (3, 7).

And that’s when, a little later, God promised Jacob that “A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you” (11-12). God just needed Jacob’s trust to pass on to him the great promise to Abraham.

And that would set the pattern for all those who would carry the name of Israel in the future too, either as a direct descendant of Jacob, or as “the Israel of God” in the New Testament – referring to the Church (Galatians 6:16). Trust in any age would define a true Israelite, because it’s in trusting Israelites – past and present – that God’s promise to create a new world through Abraham’s descendants would continue.

The author of Hebrews made that clear when he wrote, “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they (the Israelites) had it preached to them” (Hebrews 4:2). So it’s the same message all through Scripture, same promise to Abraham being fulfilled, and the same people it’s being fulfilled through. And that included Jesus himself, because it was through him, a perfectly true and trusting Israelite, that threw open the doors to entering this new world God was creating, that he’d promised to Abraham back in Genesis 12:3. 

And Jacob got a taste of this new world that God gifts to those who trust him, as did his son Joseph, when he was faced with “When life isn’t fair”….(next blog)