A Family Reunion Brings Blessings to All—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 12A/Proper 15A (Genesis 45)

Genesis 45:1-15 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

45 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ² And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. ³ Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me; do not delay. ¹⁰ You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. ¹¹ I will provide for you there, since there are five more years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have will not come to poverty.’ ¹² And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. ¹³ You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” ¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them, and after that his brothers talked with him.

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                The Genesis story is nearing its close. If we think of God’s call of Abraham inGenesis 12 as the beginning of a story of God’s desire to bless the nations through Abraham’s descendants, a story that moves through several generations that includes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Jacob, with a focus on Joseph, then we’ve reached the climax of the story. We are reminded that Joseph, the eleventh of twelve sons of Jacob, had been sold to traveling merchants who sold him into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 37) and is now a person of great power. The reading from Genesis 45 is not the final word, but it is the great reveal. Joseph’s brothers had come to Egypt looking for food during a time of famine. Joseph, for his part, had been employed by Pharaoh, after God revealed that a famine was coming to Joseph in a dream. That vision, once it was shared with Pharaoh, led to his employment as something of a prime minister in charge of the nation’s grain. It’s that grain that Joseph’s brothers had come to purchase.

                After Joseph had engaged the brothers without revealing himself, asking that his brother Benjamin, who had been born after his departure, be brought to him. Now that Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest, had been brought to Joseph, the brother who had been discarded revealed himself as the savior of the family. He asks that the Egyptian staff leave him alone with his brothers, who still don’t know who this figure is. Now that he is alone, he reveals himself, declaring “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.” Walter Brueggemann notes that this act of revelation “is obviously more than an introduction. It is a self-assertion which serves to reshape and redefine the entire situation. The key fact in the life of this family is that they must live now with the reality of a live, powerful, ruling Joseph” [Genesis, p. 344]. Now, you can only imagine what the brothers were feeling. They had to be fearing for their lives. After all, they had sold him into slavery. But Joseph wasn’t interested in revenge or retribution. Now that he had reunited with his brothers, he understood his purpose in life. Not only was he tasked with providing food for the Egyptian people, but he had also been placed in this position so that he could assist his family in their time of need.  As Joseph said to his brothers: “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.  So it was not you who sent me here but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt” (Gen. 45:7-8). In other words, his sojourn in Egypt was an act of divine providence. So, whether Joseph knew that this was his calling before this moment is undisclosed, though it does not appear that he had advanced warning. Nevertheless, God had been at work in the midst of these events, such that God was caring for and guiding the people of Israel. Brueggemann writes that this was the work of God, such that no one could stop it. So, “although critical data suggest that this is a secular story, a wisdom take or the account of a royal courtier, here the story is claimed for explicit theological purposes. The secular narrative of Israel is a context in which the God of Israel works out his purpose” [Genesis, p. 346].   

                That purpose, however, we understand it, as we read it in light of the previous week’s reading from Genesis 37, which offers us an example of how God might use our wrong choices to further God’s ultimate purposes. What we mean for bad, God means for God. What had started as a possible act of fratricide ended up being the means of the family’s redemption. Interestingly, it was Joseph’s habit of dreaming and then interpreting those dreams, which got him in trouble with his brothers, that led to his advancement to a position of power in Egypt. When his brothers came to Egypt, looking for food, he recognized them, even if they didn’t recognize him (maybe it was the makeup). While Joseph is prepared to give them the food, he puts them through the wringer, until he decided it was time to reveal himself to his brothers.

                The writer of this story makes some assumptions about the way God works in the world that we might not share, especially if we believe that the future is open. Nevertheless, as we read the story, Joseph wants his brothers to understand that he’s not angry with them nor does he mean them harm. He recognizes that his position in Pharaoh’s court is an expression of God’s ultimate purposes. Yes, his brothers had meant to do him harm, or at least get rid of him, but his position in Pharaoh’s court was, in reality, an expression of the Abrahamic calling to bless the nations.

                We’re told that when Joseph reached out to his brothers, tears came to his eyes. He was greatly moved by the reunion, so instead of seeking retribution, he offered them a word of comfort. He told them not to be angry with themselves because God had used their evil deed to accomplish something good. As a result of their actions, whatever the intention, the covenant community would continue on for another generation. Because the famine would last for an additional five years, Joseph invited his extended family, including his father, who remained in Canaan, to join him in Egypt. They would make their home in Goshen and Joseph would care for them. Thus, not only had the family celebrated a reunion but they had experienced reconciliation. Therefore, the promised blessing given to Abraham and Sarah would continue.

                Now the Joseph story will continue for five more chapters, and in the end, we’ll learn of Jacob’s last days, including his last words to his sons. Each of the twelve sons was given a blessing. Jacob charged his sons to bury him with his family in the cave that Abraham had purchased (Gen. 49).  When he died, Joseph obeyed Jacob’s request and asked permission from Pharaoh to go to Canaan to bury his father. Joseph also gives his forgiveness.  Thus, a family is reunited and reconciled. Good has come out of evil. The blessing promised to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 12:1-4) continues through Joseph’s ministry in Egypt. There will come a time when a Pharaoh arises who did not know Joseph, and things will go bad for the people of God, but again God will reach out and change the trajectory so that the covenant community can continue toward the fulfillment of its calling. The story will continue in the Book of Exodus. After briefly recounting the years that followed, such that the family grew in numbers, filling the land. Then in Exodus 1:8, we’re told that “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” That is the next stop in the ongoing story of Abraham’s descendants. However, we’re not there yet. We need to spend more time contemplating Joseph’s reunion with his brothers and his act of reconciliation.  

                As we read this story, it’s important to remember that this account was written centuries after the events occurred (we need not, at this point, debate the historicity of the account). Instead, I’d like us to consider the theology involved. The message is one of divine providence. God made a covenant with Abraham, telling him that God would bless the nations through his descendants. The story of Joseph’s vision and leadership in providing for Egypt and its neighbors during famine is a good example. The question arises, to what degree does God control events in history? In other words, is God responding to situations, raising up Joseph, or did God cause Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery? As we ponder these questions of how God brings good out of bad situations, I find helpful these words from Ron Allen and Clark Williamson:

Because God is omnipresent trying to help each event in life reach the highest potential available, the community can affirm that God is ever at work in events such as those in Genesis 37-44. God tries to help every event reach as much blessing as possible. When good does result from difficulty, we can give thanks for the good without thinking that God orchestrated the difficulties. [Preaching the Old Testament, 74].

As we attend to the words of this story, may we pay attention to those signs of God’s presence, where we see God working at the deepest levels of reality, helping us to participate in the fulfillment of God’s desire that all creation should be blessed through the actions of God’s covenant community who stand the line of Abraham and his descendants? As Christians, we share in that covenant through Jesus, whom we declare to be Lord. Joseph came to understand his calling to be one of preserving life. That is why, he told his brothers, why he had risen to such a high position in Pharaoh’s imperial government. Indeed, God had made him a father even to Pharaoh. All of this was an expression of God’s commitment to the covenant promise. It is a covenant promise that continues to be in place to this day, such that God is at work bringing salvation in all its forms to our world in keeping with the promise first made to Abraham. That is good news for times such as these!  

Image Attribution: Bourgeois, Leon Pierre Urbain. Joseph recognized by his brothers, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55355 [retrieved August 10, 2023]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bourgeois_Joseph_recognized_by_his_brothers.jpg.