It is kind of fun to go back to all these stories that I used to know so well in childhood picturebook form. Sure, I've read this part of the Bible directly before, and I've heard countless sermons about the patriarch's and such, but this may be the first time that I've gone back to these stories since I returned to faith a few years ago. Age, spiritual experiences, and literary theory are enabling me to notice things I never noticed before. Or maybe I just remember the kid's book versions of things. Anyway, there are several things that have caught my attention in the past few weeks:
Joseph:
For most of the story of Joseph, I actually relate more to Reuben than to his more famous younger brother. Joseph is the classic example of an arrogant spoiled brat for most of his story and I can only imagine how much of a jerk he must have been to drive his brothers to the point of throwing him down a well and then selling him off to be done with him. Being a teacher, I can relate to that level of annoyance. Ha. In this account, Joseph seems one dimensional and his brothers almost as much. All except Reuben who seems torn and he tries to mediate and placate the anger around him. He tries to lead, but fails. Jacob slowly learns humility over the course of the story, which earns him some more sympathy on my part, but that doesn't come until much later.
The place where the characters become wonderfully rich is when Joseph is reunited with his brothers. The biblical writer does a fantastic job of showing how emotionally brutal the encounter must have been for both Joseph and his brothers. Reuben especially shows all the signs of a man that has been wracked with guilt for decades and decades. Joseph shows all the signs of a man torn between revenge and the desire to forgive. Seriously, even if you don't have any interest in the Bible as a religious book, Genesis 42-45 are absolute dynamite literature. So much subtext. Just imagine how the brothers felt on their long trip home, knowing the truth about Joseph and knowing that they would have to tell their father what they did to him. Brutal.
Moses:
There is a lot to say aboutGandalf, Obi Wan, Dumbledore, Moses. Hopefully I will get to more later on. What I want to talk about today is the signs and miracles he does for Pharaoh. Years ago, when I was wrestling with finding sense in faith, I struggled with what to do with the miracles that the Bible talks so often describes. By miracles, I mean supernatural interventions done on an individual, personal basis, the accounts of God doing things through and for people. After thinking about these things for a while, and being confounded by them, I came to a happy revelation: miracles are only a problem if you don't believe in the idea of: a) the supernatural; b) an omnipotent deity. Once you accept the concept of "God," then the concept of the miraculous does not come into conflict with your worldview at all. If there is a being that is outside of the limitations of scientific principles, it can do whatever it wants. So, when God tells Moses to perform feats of miraculous wonders, my brain is like, "sure, an omnipotent being can do those things easy."
The weird part about this story is that the Pharaoh's court magicians could also replicate many of those miracles: turning a piece of wood into a snake, water into blood, call frogs up from the Nile. This is curious to me for two reasons. The first, and more pragmatic, is that I wonder how they replicated the "Nile-to-Blood" miracle if the Nile was already turned to blood, and I wonder how they could tell that they were calling frogs up from the Nile when it sounds like all of Egypt was already filled with frogs to begin with. The second, and more spiritual, reason is that I am curious by what power the magicians did their works. The Bible never specifies and is oddly quiet about these "other powers" that also inhabit the supernatural realm. We get the idea that they are bad (sorcery is outlawed later on), but we also get the idea that they are real and effective. The New Testament makes more references to "the devil" and his powers, but the Old Testament is oddly vague about these things.
Joseph:
For most of the story of Joseph, I actually relate more to Reuben than to his more famous younger brother. Joseph is the classic example of an arrogant spoiled brat for most of his story and I can only imagine how much of a jerk he must have been to drive his brothers to the point of throwing him down a well and then selling him off to be done with him. Being a teacher, I can relate to that level of annoyance. Ha. In this account, Joseph seems one dimensional and his brothers almost as much. All except Reuben who seems torn and he tries to mediate and placate the anger around him. He tries to lead, but fails. Jacob slowly learns humility over the course of the story, which earns him some more sympathy on my part, but that doesn't come until much later.
The place where the characters become wonderfully rich is when Joseph is reunited with his brothers. The biblical writer does a fantastic job of showing how emotionally brutal the encounter must have been for both Joseph and his brothers. Reuben especially shows all the signs of a man that has been wracked with guilt for decades and decades. Joseph shows all the signs of a man torn between revenge and the desire to forgive. Seriously, even if you don't have any interest in the Bible as a religious book, Genesis 42-45 are absolute dynamite literature. So much subtext. Just imagine how the brothers felt on their long trip home, knowing the truth about Joseph and knowing that they would have to tell their father what they did to him. Brutal.
Moses:
There is a lot to say about
The weird part about this story is that the Pharaoh's court magicians could also replicate many of those miracles: turning a piece of wood into a snake, water into blood, call frogs up from the Nile. This is curious to me for two reasons. The first, and more pragmatic, is that I wonder how they replicated the "Nile-to-Blood" miracle if the Nile was already turned to blood, and I wonder how they could tell that they were calling frogs up from the Nile when it sounds like all of Egypt was already filled with frogs to begin with. The second, and more spiritual, reason is that I am curious by what power the magicians did their works. The Bible never specifies and is oddly quiet about these "other powers" that also inhabit the supernatural realm. We get the idea that they are bad (sorcery is outlawed later on), but we also get the idea that they are real and effective. The New Testament makes more references to "the devil" and his powers, but the Old Testament is oddly vague about these things.
4 comments:
That is really interesting: the lack of explicit references to evil/Satan in the OT.. would be interesting research topic.
I think it's interesting that you go to the relationship between Joseph and his brothers and think of Joseph as a jerk. Yeah, he totally was, but (I'm reading through that part right now) I'm more baffled by the way that family dynamics plays out from generation to generation. Abraham loves Isaac MUCH more than Ishmael. Isaac loves Esau more and Rebekah loves Jacob more (even though Jacob was HORRIBLE to his brother) and she helps him screw over her own son, and then Jacob carries on the tradition and loves Joseph more than all his other brothers. There is some seriously messed up family dynamics going on that are having pretty serious consequences, i.e. Joseph's brothers plotting to kill him. It makes my own family look so quaint!
I know, Jen. Crazy. There is a verse in there somewhere that states something like "While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it." and then the story is never mentioned again... random. Though I think in think the purpose of these kinds of stories is twofold:
a) to perhaps give some context to how revolutionarily just the laws of moses were in comparison to the morals of the day (despite our perception of them now)
b) Feed into the overall biblical arc of the divine plan to redeem that which is broken
Eef, yes and no. The OT does mention Satan, and quite a bit, but it in ways that are certainly up for interpretation and study. A lack of continuity in the way he is treated (Isaiah speaks of Lucifer, in other places "the son of man" is interpreted as the devil, the book of Job has God's "adversary" making bets with him, the garden of Eden has the snake... etc). So there seems to be a definite idea of an opposing force, a spiritual evil, that is so tangible that it seems to have a will of its own. And we see people "tapping into" that force somehow, such as these court magicians. It is just curious that the OT doesn't delve into this idea more clearly.
Ryan, check out Gen 49:3-4 for the follow up on Reuben's story: the blessing he receives is messed up because of it.
To add my bit to what Jenn and Ryan are discussing, I'd suggest that maybe the explicit messed up family accounts are written to point us to God and how he gets his promises fulfilled despite them. Also, in the "loved more" stuff, surely there is some election theme going on, a kind of shadow of how non-merit based the choice of God for Abraham was and how he reverses circumstances (the younger reigns over the older, etc.). It's helped me a lot to study deeper into the underlying direction and themes that are developed throughout the Pentateuch and the rest of the OT that lead to Christ eventually. The stories acquire a whole new level.
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