Section 2 - Potiphar to Pit Two

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CHAPTER 1 - POTIPHAR AND POTIPHAR'S HOUSE

CHAPTER 2 - JOSEPH AND POTIPHAR'S WIFE

CHAPTER 3 - DOWN TO THE PIT AGAIN

CHAPTER 4 - THE SECOND PIT

CHAPTER 5 - ESCAPE FROM THE SECOND PIT

CHAPTER 6 - JOSEPH ARRIVES IN THE ROYAL CITY

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CHAPTER 1

POTIPHAR AND POTIPHAR’S HOUSE

“… and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites”, Genesis 39:1.

FOCUS:

We now return to the Biblical text, and we find that Joseph has been sold into Potiphar’s house. The angel of the Lord is with him still, as we shall see, Genesis 39:1-6.

1. JOSEPH IS PARTED FROM HIS FRIENDS

The last verse of Genesis 37:36 is then repeated in Genesis 39:1, with some extra details, as the story is taken up again. Joseph’s hosts, now called Ishmaelites were previously called Midianites - just different, but legitimate ways of describing these tribal peoples. They have been assumed to be his friends - it is almost unthinkable, that they had been anything other than that in the heartbreaking journey moving further and further away from his loved home.

But now The Midianite/Ishmaelite Trading Company with the wise old man, who had befriended Joseph, had moved on, but the angel, we know, stayed with Joseph.

2. A REGAL EGYPTIAN

The master of this house approached the gate. His servants lined up before him with their foreheads to the ground. The runners panting, shouting in front, preceded the two proud, glossy plumed chestnuts which drew the little, two wheeled car, a sort of gala chariot with pretty, curved rails. It was just large enough for Potiphar and his driver, though Potiphar preferred to drive himself, and so his driver became extra decoration. Behind the little car ran his fan bearers. The Jewish historian, Edersheim, cited by Swindoll, in “Joseph”, page 24, says Potiphar was Pharaoh’s executioner, so no one trifled with him. The wheels of the chariot had bright, sparkling stones let into the spokes and they shone as they twirled and caught the sun. Joseph stood and saw Potiphar, who now owned him, and wished Benjamin could see the little car, which appeared to have fireworks on the wheels, when it was in motion.

Potiphar himself was bejewelled - precious stones and beautiful enamel in his collar and gold bracelets upon his limbs. He may be no more than 40 years old, rather like Reuben in size, but not strong and muscular like brother Reuben, who worked in the fields - more fat, for all Potiphar’s wealth gave ease of living. His hair was short, his head small and balding, his nose hooked, his mouth delicate looking, and a prominent pointed (not ugly) chin and long lashed haughty and proud eyes. An Egyptian. Thomas Mann in “Joseph and His Brothers - Joseph in Egypt” and others describe and paint Potiphar and his chariot, as Joseph first sees him.

Joseph, knowing he was God blessed, and realising God’s wondrous plan for him, wondered how long it would be before, according to his dream, they all bowed down to him. Joseph would wonder about his dream and when people would be bowing down to him. The favoured circumstances seem along way off right now. Perhaps he wondered whether there was a larger presence for the omniscient circumstances that he knew were predicted for him, greater than this large house.

The pit had been an entrance into a grave. There seemed no way out. Joseph thought that God had ended his life of ease and folly. Now it seemed that he was resurrected to a new life. But this life, too, would be full of bitterness and anxiety, before he received a “crown” to stand by Pharaoh. He knew not how God would arrange the favourable circumstances. He knew not yet of another pit, another grave, another resurrection.

So Rachel’s and Jacob’s loved son became the property of Potiphar.

3. THE ROLE OF THE TRAVELLING SALESMAN

The old man merchant had taken the place of Joseph’s parents, right back there at the Dothan pit. He is now unaware that he has become superfluous in God’s heavenly plan for this boy. He was the substitute mother and father, but now he himself is supplanted by Potiphar. He has protected the orphan child, and provided for this foundling, and had kept this second sale until he reached the most prestigious house in Egypt. He wanted this boy to have something special. He certainly knew how to get the best price, and the resident scribe at Potiphar’s house, at a disadvantage, could not gainsay the offer. The old man had been led to understand that this item was very precious. God had put that into his head. If the boy had grown to be precious in his relationship with the old man, as well as just precious cargo, perhaps the sale made the old man miserable.

Joseph was the son of the “well” (to him), this wise and ever learning child, had taught him in turn, gracious and holy things, as well as being of use to him. The old man had been his father really, in place of Jacob. Now Joseph was to be dead to him as well. So he would suffer a grief too. However he pulled himself up quickly, “this was a silly bit of sentiment, just when I need to act to safeguard the business and to disregard my own needs”. He did not suspect that the greater Interest was at work, and his advantage was only peripheral.

Something, not himself, had impelled him to bring this boy so far to this house, over such a long period of time. This boy had advanced his lot to great advantage, and therefore to ask a high price would impress the household with the value of the “gift”. He felt well paid for his trouble, in monetary terms, and he would deal with his grief. We might assume that this trading company would continue to enjoy God’s blessings, as they continued on their way, as a reward for the safe delivery of Joseph into Egypt.

Comment:

God had supervised it all from Dothan to the Upper Nile. It all goes to show that we may be often unaware that God supervises our large and small journeys through life. If we were always aware, we would act less contrary to His will for us.

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Joseph’s arrival in Egypt in good health (instead of India where the Dothan road led in the other direction) is remarkable except for the preservation by God to that end. A tortuous road to China was in existence at this time, so God’s preservation and direction was absolutely necessary in a world so largely and dangerously inhabited, and navigated.

4. JOSEPH IS NOW THE POSSESSION OF POTIPHAR

However, arriving in Potiphar’s house, Joseph brings blessings to the house (Genesis 39:3) and becomes an overseer of all of the compound. He uses his recording skills, and with his writing materials, keeps an account of all the expenses and all the labour done. He was a good person and well liked. He attended to Potiphar in all things save for the preparation of his food.

It is interesting to note that Potiphar is described as an Egyptian, though he may have been of a noble Nubian strain from the south, or of the Hyksos tribes from the north. We may expect either, for it is thought that the Pharaoh’s of this time were of the Hyksos strain, and with Potiphar in Pharaoh’s court, it would not be expedient to employ a pure Egyptian. For a period, Pharaoh’s capital in the south, Thebes, (No) was superseded by Memphis, (Noph) in the north, which suited sensibilities about their origins. They were responsible for introducing the horse into Egypt, and reigned in Egypt during the 13th Dynasty, 1786-1570 BC. They were very careful and punctilious about their Egyptian etiquette (New Bible Dictionary, Intervarsity Press, under “Egypt”).

(See end chapter note for Digression)

But God moves in the kingdoms of men, and so this period of Hyksos rule, was therefore “sympathetic” to the Hebrew milieu of the time of Joseph’s arrival in Egypt. When the Jacob family came into Egypt, that growing multitude became the hated Israelites, and their removal under Moses was a two million mixed multitude.

But before we move on to the stark lesson of purity, which begins in verse 7,

Where Joseph shows us all, that -

The sins of the fathers need not necessarily

Be committed by the children,

When the cycle of pain can be broken,

Where goodness can come from evil,

Where righteousness does prevail,

we can enjoy some background historical detail, that fills out the next eight years or so, that Joseph stayed with Potiphar. It was ten years for Joseph from leaving the Dothan pit, to the Egyptian pit, but because we don’t know how long the journey took, we don’t know how long he was with Potiphar.

The old man, on completing the sale, might say to Joseph,

“Farewell my son,

Thank you for bringing goodness to us.

Show thyself worthy of kindness and honour.

Be tactful and courteous and obliging to all.

Bridle thy tongue and compel it to be still,

When it twitches to criticise,

And to practise itself on injurious circumstances,

Like that between the honoured and the dishonoured.

For destinations such as that,

Bringeth one to the pit,

Fare thee well”

Such advice to a present day western young man or woman, might not be much appreciated, but Joseph used to such Eastern wisdom, over the long journey from his father’s house, must have felt there was a great well of wisdom to draw upon, and so it would continue to support him, and to prepare him for the Egyptian royal court, to ultimately save his people. The old man knew not that Joseph would go to the pit again before long, again through no fault of his own, except that he was comely and good.

5. JOSEPH’S FIRST GLIMPSE OF POTIPHAR’S WIFE

Now alone, Joseph wondered what he would do, until the dwarf whispered, “Throw yourself on your face”. From this prone position Joseph peeped ahead, through his crossed arms, to see a train of peoples passing from the women’s to the master’s quarters. Leading the front of the procession were five servants in aprons and caps. Behind the procession were five maidservants with long and flowing hair. Between them “swaying on the bare shoulders of Nubian slaves”, there was a sort of gilded carrying chair, like that for royalty. The arm rests were adorned with the open mouthed heads of lions. Leaning among the cushions, entirely at ease, with crossed feet, was an Egyptian lady of some class, exquisitely adorned in glittering golden ornaments, in her curled hair, about her neck, and upon her fingers and arms. Her arms were like lilies, “one of which - very white and lovely - hung idly down at the side of the chair”. Beneath the wrought gold, jewelled wreath upon her head Joseph saw her profiled face. “It was peculiar and personal” and quite a “unique and individual profile”. The eyes of this lady were “lengthened towards the temple by enamel cosmetics”. She had a flattened nose upon her shallow cheeks. Her mouth was thin and soft and “sinuous as a snake between its two corners”, page 141, of Thomas Mann - “Joseph and His Brothers - Joseph in Egypt”.

Potiphar’s wife was off to her evening meal. She was the lady of the house, and consort of Potiphar. Unknown to them all, including Joseph, Joseph’s fate was invested in this woman. She would decide what would befall him. Her name, according to the Talmud, was Zelicha.

Joseph began to serve his Laban time, like Jacob his father. He began with nothing, but his God given skills, and built that position into one of trust, so that Potiphar felt it a great advantage to put all of his affairs into Joseph’s hands. No deceit was ever here in Joseph’s mind. Joseph, though, had ten back home who were against him, and deceitful, while his father, Jacob, the deceitful one, had only one brother against him, when he had been at home. However, both Jacob and Joseph were strangers, in an alien land, when they left home. Joseph was sixty years younger than his father had been at his Laban time. For one so young, the twenty years will age him so that the ten do not recognise him when they make obeisance to him - it is not only dignity and rank, but the ageing of a youth that makes him unrecognisable. Jacob at 77 and aging to 97 would not be so unrecognisable to Esau, when Jacob returned from Haran, as Joseph will be to his brothers.

To begin with, the barber cut Joseph’s hair in the Egyptian fashion so that he looked like those wayfarers he had seen along the canals. They were poor slaves and so was Joseph. He was then taken to the wardrobe room where the apron skirts and sandals were kept. The wardrobe chamberlain fitted him with skirt and sandals, the livery of Potiphar - one set for best, and one for common wear.

We would wonder though, why Joseph, an Asian, a Hebrew, was not led to the fields for hard labouring work (for which he was entirely unsuitable and untrained). He would probably be shaved as well, if he was to serve in the private quarters, for they thought of him as young and comely. David and Absalom are described in the same way, “well built and handsome”. This was an unusual situation. Jacob, his father, has not been a field man like his brother Esau, nor was Joseph like his brothers who were field men.

“Something” told the overseer to keep Joseph in the house, even though there would have been contempt for the Asiatic lad indoors. Hebrews were an abomination to the Egyptians. The fields would keep them at a distance from most of the labour force and certainly from the family. They were outdoors people anyway, who lived in tents.

Potiphar did not accept food from Joseph - though he was happy for all other contact - simply because a Hebrew was an abomination. It was the custom, (Genesis 36:6). Remarkably, Joseph, twenty years later, becoming to all intents and purposes an Egyptian, did not sit at table with his Hebrew brothers (Genesis 43:32). “Asiatic louse-beards” they were called, as Egyptians were clean shaven, except when they were in mourning, for then they did not shave. Joseph would sniff with his thick nostrilled nose, for the Hebrews themselves felt many nations round about them were an abomination. This all goes to show that the conception of uncleanness and abomination was not peculiar to the seed of Abram, the Hebrews. If you could not abide your neighbours, if they were an abomination and unclean and not your brethren, you did not break bread with them. The Egyptians practised that - against the Hebrews. Actually the pig was an abomination to them both.

6. JOSEPH IS FILLED WITH GREAT AMBITION

Whatever the reason, Joseph was not sent to the fields, for he “remained” in Potiphar’s house. He did not ask for favours, they were there, because God willed it.

Of course, later on, he was overseer and administrator. Once more, some prevailing Hand kept him in the house where he learned more of the royal ways and customs than he would have ever learned if he had been sent to the fields. Joseph’s soft hands indicated he’d been in the house and not in the fields with his brothers, when he lived with his father. This had been one of the causes of jealousy among his brothers. Joseph was comfortable with the comfort and wealth found there, and here, with the sense of family and descendants with historical perspective. The near royal status that oiled the machine that ran this house was familiar to him. He knew he could drive this machine and to that end and purpose, with great ambition, he launched into his first career. He would become the driver, like Eliezer had been, for Abraham.

But -

Beware, beware,

It is there, it is there,

In the corridors of fame,

When men smile,

It is there.

Even when all is well,

It is there, it is there.

The ears of the wall listen,

And then the jealous and evil tongues,

Betray, betray.

Expect temptation

In the portals of prosperity

Not in the days of toil

And privation.

Beware, it is there, beware.

Joseph noted the influence of the nations in this house and the evidence of trade. He himself was that, but there were mute evidences as well of Egyptian imports from countries near and far. There were Syrian horses in the stables. Syrian or Babylonian horses were a stronger strain than Egyptian horses. We know that Pharaoh used stallions only, for his war chariots. And a mighty, formidable war weapon they were. In the Song of Songs we read, “she is like a mare among the stallions”, not a mare harnessed in a chariot, rather, “loose among them”, a mare attracting attention among the horse drawn Egyptian chariots of war, Song of Songs 1:9, NIV Study Bible. It is known that the Hittites used mares to turn Pharaoh’s army into disarray when they released them among the horse drawn war chariots as the Egyptians thundered down upon them.

There were lots more imports in Potiphar’s house. Cattle came from the Amorites, though Egyptian cattle with lyre shaped horns were not inferior. Fashion may have dictated what herds one had. Potiphar carried a walking stick from Syria, from whence also came the beer and wine. The jugs, the weapons, the musical instruments, the bejewelled little chariot with its pretty wheels, and the huge ornamented vases almost as high as a man (that stood in the alcoves of the long rooms) were imported through the Delta ports, by sea, or land, as he indeed had come. The vases came from Damascus and Sidon, though there were some eccentric looking ones from Edom (from the place of the Red One, his Uncle Esau). The gold came from the Nubian mines, and from the south, came also, ivory, incense, and ebony black slaves, Moors.

Joseph did not, at once, have work in the house. The bakery provided no work for a non skilled cook. He could not make sandals, or mats, or pottery, or furniture in the craft man’s work rooms. But he could make lists of all the work being done in these work rooms - the bakery, the craft room, the laundry, the granary, etc. He could note the labour hours done, and the equipment that needed repair, the expenditure, and anything else that needed listing. The Egyptians loved lists, and we are discovering so many of them today. Perhaps in looking for ways to be useful, he initiated the very direction in which God wanted him to travel. He lived, ate, drank and chatted (now he could use their language) in the servants’ quarters. Indeed he mixed his Asian wisdom way of speaking with their Egyptian ways and enriched his expression to their delight.

He said, “I am in the greatest joy of the earth" when he was happy.

Describing an overseer he said, “He raged like a leopard of Upper Egypt”.

“He is in the rooms beneath the rooms” was a way of saying “ground floor” - however, the exalted grandparents lived in the upper storey.

“As true as the king liveth”, he also emphasised his truths.

All these he incorporated into his own embroidered speech and told stories of far off lands. His own linguistic sphere and literary influence had not been limited. His tongue was of better use than his hands.

Joseph gained their respect and was soon able to give orders. He had the welfare of the house in his hands, and God had given it to him. He did not deceive to get it like his father. The little man, the dwarf, cared for his sand man and brought him dainty breads and sweet meat to supplement the leeks, onions and plain bread that was the servants’ fare. Grapes, figs, roast beef and goose were aplenty especially on the feast days. Joseph needed an ally to help him maintain his physical and emotional well being and his position in the house. The dwarf always dancing and performing at the tables of the shut in ones, could indicate to Joseph his rising acceptance among the family as well. The shut in ones were old and deaf, and shouted at one another, so it was easy to discern who was popular and who was not. Joseph was grateful to his dwarf friend and as his accreditation continued to improve, he grew more confident.

Consider:

* But there were, naturally enough, jealousies, for what was known of this “son of the well”.

* For “well born” is not well born, so what does it mean?

* Born in bondage?

* Why the well?

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Joseph could hardly explain the jealousies in his own house. Hardly would he be able to understand them in this house. What evil is spawned of jealousy!

Here in this house there was dignity for the position of Potiphar

- So close to Pharaoh,

- Executioner,

- In charge of the guard,

- In charge of the king’s prisons and prisoners,

- His wife one of the first ladies of the land,

But it is probable that their marriage was all a sham.

Joseph thought of his own mother,

Rachel, loved yet barren

(and Bilhah brought in to give birth upon Rachel's knees)

Feeling rejected by God

In her unfruitful womb,

Striving through Bilhah

To gain maternal dignity.

That was a sham,

For it was pretence and only half joy.

Joseph knew of many shams in his family.

CONCLUSION:

Better for dignity to be won by true perseverance in God’s will for us, not by what we think is right and true. We need to examine ourselves continuously to avoid the sham.

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Digression:

We could think of it like the Germanic influence on the throne of England.

1. The House of Windsor is of German extraction and so German/English characteristics are mirrored in that reign, no less so than pre World War II days, when we now know the Duke of Windsor was sympathetic to the Hitler cause and prepared a way for the British royal family to be used in power, if and when Britain was conquered by Germany.

2. Albert, consort of Victoria, when he wished to send Christmas cards to his relatives in Germany had some printed in England with typical snow scenes - mid 19th century. Tellis rex tellis grex, as the king so the people. The British populous followed the custom and Christmas cards with German snow scenes (for Britain hardly ever has a white Christmas) became the custom. Surprisingly, Australia with hot summers at Christmas has followed the custom too. So, also, the Hyksos introduced some new influences to the Egyptian court.

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CHAPTER 2

JOSEPH AND POTIPHAR’S WIFE

“But he refused”, Genesis 39:8

FOCUS;

We need to fill out some of the details about Potiphar’s house and his household, before we begin on the golden story of Joseph refusing Potiphar’s wife, Genesis 39:7-20

1. THE SETTING - POTIPHAR’S HOUSE

Joseph must have impressed Potiphar, for upward mobility, under Potiphar’s blessing, was the only way for Joseph to go. So Potiphar began to reward this pleasing slave of his.

The man Potiphar was tall and fat, and balding, but always elegantly clad. His clothes were of the finest cotton, with lashings of gold braid. He held the Syrian walking stick with a crystal knob in one hand, a fan in the other hand. There was a necklace in the pattern of flowers and leaves around his neck. Leather gaiters protected his shins, laced with leather thongs. Leather, papyrus and bronze comprised the sandals he stood in, with the point running between his great and second toe. From his brow dangled a lotus flower. Many used the lotus flower for decorating their persons.

Potiphar had come from one of the seven doors of beautiful red wood with fine wide bands of decoration above them. Those doors closed off the vestibule from his dwelling. Above these beautiful doors were windows of fine open worked stone slabs, and more stone slabs with decorated bands. The roof was supported by pillars of red wood set in stone bases with green capitals. Outdoor supports were always stone pillars. But there were small obelisks everywhere; they were the carved histories of Potiphar’s noble family tree. There were bowls of pine cones and other pungent smelling aromas meant to stimulate the senses. The stone floor had a beautiful design of the heavens with its constellations, with hundreds of figures of birds and animals to enhance the design.

The little gate in the ring wall, through which Potiphar had moved, led him to the shade of the sycamore trees, date and doum palms, and fig, pomegranate and persea trees. Potiphar’s long brown eye lashes shaded the eyes that gazed at the exotic gardens, filled with so many lush and colourful plants and beautifully plumed birds, that surrounded his house. A strutting peacock swished its tail and snuffled about among the insects that lay exhausted and expired on the paved courtyard. Paths of red pebbles or gravel ran across the grass. Among the trees on a terraced mound stood a gaily painted summer house - “a smiling little pleasure house”. It was open towards a square basin of water, a lush little pool, bordered with papyrus leaves. On the green pond swam some bright feathered ducks among the lotus blossoms.

“Go clean yourself and make yourself ready, for Potiphar has asked for you. Get a silver apron from the store house for your waiter’s service, and a fitting garland for your hair from the gardeners, and stand behind Potiphar’s chair as he dines to night. You will hand the dishes and serve him. After he has eaten, read to him from the book rolls, which you will get from the book house”. A body servant and a reader! Joseph’s career has begun to flourish!

He took the silver apron and service, and a wreath for his hair and ran off to borrow the book from the library. This son of Jacob stood out for brilliance, charm, integrity, honesty, intellect, and business acumen. With all of this, he soon enhanced this family. And God made it so.

The dining room was high and bright, off the vestibule. Reflecting the light, painted friezes ran around the wall near the ceiling. So many of these friezes are still on view in Egypt today, so we do know about them. The wooden beams and supporting pillars here were sky blue. The pillars had larger round white bases. There was delightful decoration on the pillars, and ornaments were wherever they could be. The dining chairs were ebony and ivory and gold, and adorned with gaping lion’s heads and the seats were filled with many coloured, embroidered, down cushions. Lamp stands, bowls of burning incense balancing in tripods, basins, ointment jars, broad handled wine jars in holders - all elegant, glittering, gleaming, and giving off the most pungent perfumes. Roast goose, roast duck, joints of beef, loaves of bread, cakes, vegetables, melons, cucumbers and Syrian fruits were served from the buffet table - and Potiphar was hungry.

Comment:

There is a considerable amount of information about ancient Egypt and the Middle East, and all of it is valuable to understand the customs and culture of the two extremes from slave servant to honoured lord, that was Joseph. He lived and learned and loved within it.

Thomas Mann again helps us understand the setting where Joseph might first have been noticed by Potiphar. There is also an abundance of pictorial and other historical records available to help fill out our understanding. The children’s picture book, “Joseph” by Brian Wildsmith, is also a good resource, beside the general history texts that are now available. In Alan Millard’s “Treasures from Bible Times” there is a lovely picture of a mosaic - a standard from the “Royal Tombs of Ur”, page 46. It is made of shell, red limestone and blue lapis lazuli and it is claimed that it belongs to the period several hundred years before the time of Abraham. It is a work of great beauty and consummate skill. It is amazing that such work is available for us to look at today. Lapis lazuli is still mined in Afghanistan in a slightly less primitive way, and it still comes along the same road to the west, that old Silk Road, on ancient trucks, and is still subject to robbers, and the miners and the middle men must still be heavily guarded, as shown on a recent television documentary. It was mined as early as 4000 BC.

“Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians”, 1857, by John Wilkinson gives us great insight into the times of Joseph in Egypt, and of the Israelites sojourn in Egypt. Their geographical background and history had been linked since the time of Noah, for both Canaan and Egypt are reckoned to be Ham’s descendants in the Genealogical chart of the 64 Generations from Adam to Christ with its accompanying chart, “Distribution of the World’s Races”, and “Repeopling the Earth and the Four Universal Empires”, by John Thomas. However Abraham had descended from Shem, further north, from whence he came south into Ham’s land, following God’s direction.

The Carnarvon Collection of Egyptian Artefacts, on that archaeologist’s death, was bought by the New York Museum. Also in French museums, and in the British Museum, one can see what times were like. In 1923 the Egyptians halted the practice of shifting their history overseas, and so now the Cairo Museum displays their own history. It is possible from all of this to draw a credible word picture of Potiphar, and his house, and it is easier to understand the Joseph story in a setting.

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2. JOSEPH’S PHENOMENAL RISE, AND FALL

Joseph served his master well, and when the master profited well, Joseph took it to be a sign from God that He was with him. As Solomon said, “as he who keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof, so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured”. When he was not needed with Potiphar, he (who had dreamed such dreams) knew that he was born to govern, spent every moment straining for understanding and knowledge to prepare himself for the special plans that God had for him. Still, putting himself in the centre of things, hardworking and working out God’s plan for his people, prepared the jealous and evil tongues, that eventually, with the woman, betrayed him.

There could have been 80 servants in this house, over half of them Asiatic (The Times Concise Atlas of the Bible).

Maybe, if Joseph’s journey and work in Potiphar’s house lasted ten years, the first seven may have resulted in his elevation to Eliezer like status. We read of him being sold and sold again, but never freed, so that perhaps Joseph remained ever, legally a slave, until his death. It is interesting to think about the possibilities, if he was never decommissioned.

There would have been receipts that someone held. That fact might have been embarrassing in Joseph’s later years, if there had not been a release from his slave status. His phenomenal career rise ignored the legal fact of his status, and because of the swift elevation to ruler, perhaps it never came into question, or if it did, it fell foul, into the dust, by God’s design. God made remarkable provision for that possibility, for the seer quality of successful dream interpretation, did not allow his elevation to be questioned. Among his Egyptian dream interpretation peers, he alone was successful. The mathematical story of the ten years in slavery (with perhaps the last three of those years being his trials by Potiphar’s wife culminating in catastrophe) leaves three prison years, before the age of thirty years, when Joseph stood before Pharaoh as successful dream interpreter, (Companion Bible - “Chronological Chart, Appendix 50”).

There is a remarkable coincidence with his three days in the pit at Dothan. There are other obvious coincidences.

3. THE POISON THORN OF JEALOUSY

Jealousy can often, in the end, work against God’s plan, though God will find another way to nurture those who wish to work in His service. It was then, in Potiphar’s house, and it is still in God’s house, - an ungodly thing.

(See end chapter comment for Digression)

Well, the poison here had set in, and so nothing saved Joseph. He again was brought down within another family. He was much loved by his father, and this led to the jealousy poison fermenting in the chalice that held his brothers. He may have been loved by Potiphar, but too much loved by his wife, which later turned to hate, and laced the poison into the chalice. Pleasure and profit was before him, and fidelity was not the custom. The wife in this house was a licentious woman, and lived the common Egyptian woman’s lot of unrestricted activity, never veiled, and not secluded. She had the power to own property, access to her husband’s property and a formidable personage, whose sense of power it may be unwise to offend. In fact rather the same sort of power that women in the western world have today. Those privileges need not be exploited, but Potiphar’s wife did exploit them, and Joseph was the victim.

When a powerful man or woman in a prominent position flaunts the integrity of his or her marriage, before the eyes of the world, values are changed and society adapts, and these things become more commonplace, and expected. It is an ungodly path to tread, and Joseph, with great presence and faith, resists. He was powerfully supported by that grace, which “kept him from falling”.

“A wretched man from the retinue of the desert, a fly by night.

A sand dweller of the Ibrium - a sand man you call him, a foreigner.

Whoever bought him to be a slave here amongst us?

He has far too much power in this house.

A scabby Asiatic living in this house in Egypt.

What work does he do?

Does anyone ever see him work?

Or does he just enjoy the power of his position?

Our levels have dropped.

We were pure, when we were small, and poor.

And the gods looked after us.

Now we are impure, and large, and rich and we are have grown lax.

We should have kept nerved and sinewy, and on guard.

No one would know which god preserves this house.

There is no god to preserve our great wealth, and the awe for our sceptre and crown.

All the gods will look upon us with disfavour if we keep this foreign slave.

What do we know of him?

He is an Asiatic louse beard, and we heard he came from a prison pit.

Potiphar has too much affection for him.

And that affects his affection for all of us.

How can we dispose of him?”

said the servants, on and on, seeking injustices, and were quick to seize any opportunity.

In the days and years before Joseph was consigned to the prison pit, jealousies worked their poison. Now here again is another good set of jealous reasons, to plot to fill a poison chalice, which would force the hand of Potiphar against Joseph. They reasoned, rightly, that Potiphar would have to act to save his personal prestige and honour, whatever the outcome. Other prominent spouses might grit their teeth, and for political prestige and honour bear the humility, and pretend that it is all normal. But there is too much at stake here.

4. JOSEPH’S FAMILY BACK IN CANAAN

Joseph is more than 17 days away from his family. Think of 17 days journey for us, that is a long way. This is further than Jacob was in Haran, from Isaac and Rebekah. However his great grandfather and mother, Abraham and Sarah had lived in Pharaoh’s court, not here, but a little further west. Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, and his wife had come from Egypt, all Shabirites, or Hebrews, with direct Egyptian experiences.

Now in charge of this household, and able to command, Joseph still does not contact Jacob.

There may be several reasons for Joseph’s “neglect” in not contacting Jacob. He would know that, without him, there would be more harmony at home. Jacob’s interference, if he knew Joseph was alive, might wreck, or at least disturb, the smooth path of Joseph’s rising star. Because Joseph loved Jacob dearly, and knew of his expected reaction, he may have steeled himself against contact. It was a double pity pit, for,

First, Jacob thought of his son as dead, and then,

Second, he was not dead.

However, the “security” of the death thought omits the thought of further suffering for his loved son. All Joseph’s brothers kept the secret and allowed Jacob to think that Joseph was dead. So Joseph had a sort of contentment that allowed him to get on with the business in hand: “he had not a crushed spirit, nor did his bones dry up”. The seeming heartlessness of Joseph is really an act of heart, for Jacob does not share Joseph’s trials, he knows him only in his triumph later.

Jacob would not know him now (as he had changed to be a man) except for the quickened, confused, fleeting thought, a scrap of old remembrance, like a broken mirror glass, that comes to us when we say,

“Do I know that person, have I seen him before?”

The thought can flutter and trouble us, but without fruition can fade away.

Jacob’s thought, later, would be brought to fruition, but not yet. Jacob would be hovering between being

1. a doubter, not because he believed nothing (on the contrary he had believed everything was possible for his son, Joseph, to be the vehicle of the promises). He doubted because Joseph was not, and being

2. a realist, “for Joseph is dead”, so the promises may not proceed because of some great obstacle. By now he was probably realistic, but patient, and faithful, for “God would find a way”. His grandfather Abraham had proceeded in faith, and his son, Isaac, would have lain dead, except for God’s intervention.

“If my son Joseph is dead, then God will find a way”, is both realistic and faithful, and Jacob needed to come to that point. We don’t know when that happened in Jacob’s mind, that is, that his self pity had abated. The proof of Joseph’s death lay in Joseph’s silence - so silent (from sending Jacob a message) he was, still.

God had four times now set on course His covenant and it had been decommissioned three times before, with Adam and Eve and the fall, and Noah and the flood, and again at the Babel Tower, each time, when God was rejected, and His mission to witness ignored. At these times men had decided that they could work out their own salvation, without God. If Jacob had thought this through, he could have suspected that this was another decommissioning, of the covenant to Abraham and his seed. However we know that God was very tolerant, and did not decommission His people until long after this time. By then, He had pleaded many times with them, and only then, when their sins had become wholly intolerable. He then passed the mission mandate to others, Malachi 1:11, and the remnant went on to praise and preach in His name, so that “hearts of fathers and children were (and will be) turned to the Lord”, (better translation). His people were, no longer, part of The Great Commission, when God’s worship forms were scandalously perverted, and the prophets were impotent to teach them repentance. God no longer delayed the shaking of the nation, and they were separated from the land, and the house of God was burned and broken to rubble. The Jews of the Great Synagogue, Sydney can hardly be said to have the Covenant of the Fathers and hold the Mission Mandate that was theirs, when they go to their graves believing there is nothing after death, no resurrection, no Kingdom of God on earth, no law going forth from Jerusalem. They proclaim to visitors that all the prophecies are fulfilled. It may be that policy and traditions and beliefs, including the Sadducidic ideas, are decided by the Rabbi, and not necessarily guided by the prophets.

Israel was not, and still is not, the showcase for God’s blessings, as He meant them to be, for they are now “not his sheep”. YHWH had a covenant with them, an understanding made between them, with which He promised them great blessings if they would keep His covenant. They failed to keep their part of the covenant, so the covenant collapsed, and now they are, in this century only a mute witness, with their return to the land of Israel. His “sheep hear” His “voice”, but as He speaks to the Jews, as a nation, they do not “hear”, John 10:26-27. Jerusalem will be the centre of all worship, but they, at this time, with their disregard for Him, have themselves, as a nation, forfeited their right to meet with Him, and to be His active witness to all nations. They were tethered with Him for the culmination of God’s purpose, for His glory to draw all men unto Him, but the prophets could not avert their perversions. He then had to remove them from His national covenantal showcase and He now showcases those that “hear” Him and love Him, and His son. Their shattered glass remains today where individuals show forth His glory, but not the nation. When our Lord Jesus Christ returns and if they accept him, and repent, then they will be His people once more, as will be Gentile believers. They could have looked forward, dying with their faith in Him, expecting resurrection as did these patriarchs, but they would not. So they will be left in their graves, as their spokespersons themselves predict they will.

The prophets had pleaded for them, with God, so that God would not be derided for forsaking His people.

“And He withdrew His hand”, from punishment, Ezekiel 20:5-22, for

“In their sight”, that is, in the sight of the nations, He had

“Brought them forth” from Egypt.

He did not wish the nations to think that He was playing with Israel.

However, in the end, their great wickedness moved God to act, because the nations derided Him, for not acting against them, Ezekiel 36:22, 23. God’s holy name had been profaned in the midst of the nations, so He punished them,

“For then shall they know that I am the Lord”.

This was all so far ahead in history, and the wickedness of such great proportion, that the anomalies, in this family of Jacob, were insignificant. Still Jacob may not have felt them so.

5. HIGH LIVING IN POTIPHAR’S HOUSE

Potiphar accepted and trusted Joseph, and enjoyed the blessings God rained down on this house. Joseph in turn was nourished by all things Egyptian, in the food he ate, the water he drank, the sun that brightened his day, the soil beneath his feet, the words he spoke; they all gave him an Egyptian flavour. Egyptians had a fundamental decisive character, a national characteristic, as we can see in national characteristics in people today. It was different to that of his family who had always been gerim, (or guests) in the land where they trod, but the adaptation practised by them, accommodating to their circumstances, allowed for a detachment, as well, from the practices of the Canaanitish Baal. This detachment from Egyptian worship was difficult to maintain here though, for it was so all pervasive.

6. JOSEPH’S DIFFICULTIES WITH BEING PURE AND POPULAR

These abominations, though none of us would advocate the conditions, added stiffening to Joseph’s upbringing and taught him to stand alone, without family, amid the abominations. He remained detached from the godless worship and direction in which he lived. It was not an easy task, for trade, with which he was concerned, functioned in the temple courts, springing eternally around the feast days of the particular gods, carrying him, with the great sea of humanity, from city to city, where his presence was required. It was not only the cat city of per Bastet that held an unedifying mass of jollification and drunkenness, but all up and down the Nile there were pilgrimages, to which hordes thronged, and markets thrived. Anyone to do with trade and extending wealth (as Joseph was entrusted with Potiphar’s goods and money) needed to be involved, yet Joseph kept himself pure and popular in the market place, for he was so successful at the work assigned to him.

Sometimes, the crowd would drink for four feast days, and then for extra days (like the great beer cities of Germany now). They were places of drunkenness, to which there was no shame. There was a goddess of drunkenness.

Joseph hid his lack of sociability behind the demands of business. Joseph would often be present at the gates of the gold palace of Pharaoh when the people would line the route. Pharaoh’s gold chariot, with its gold wheels and gold axles - all covered with gold embossed pictures - was difficult to see, for it glittered so. The dust blown up by the hooves of the horses, reflected in the sun, was like a smoke from a flame, frightful to behold - a yellow light, like we see at bushfire time. Pharaoh had a gold and blue crown head-dress, set with yellow stars, but on the brow above the nose a gold cobra reared glittering with coloured enamel. He came out accompanied by a small eight or nine year old boy, heir to the throne, youthful, but delicate, (there is evidence that this son suffered from a kidney complaint but he did not portray his illness in his visage), in contrast to his sickly looking father, short, stout, puffy. His son travelled in his own chariot.

Comment:

In another chariot rode the Honoured One, his chief wife. Egyptian women were not secluded like Syrian women, nor veiled, though they did not hold high office. They were known for their intense social life and licentious behaviour. Research would probably show that cervical cancer afflicted many of them, and diseases like AIDs, and sexually transmitted diseases, were prevalent. They were married as early as 12 or 13, but marriage did not necessarily constrain them. The lower class women worked as labourers, but that was not viewed favourably. Pharaoh’s wife was chief lady in the land. It is likely that Potiphar’s wife was chief lady in waiting. The queen wore a luxurious silken (silk again, from China or India) gown, weightless, like woven air, white, in the fashion of the day. She was petted and indulged in her palace, carried in the arms of subordinates, like so many of these special ladies were. Strong and tall Nubian slaves were kept in readiness to propel these honoured ladies and gentlemen, wherever they wished to go. The honoured ones were knelt to, loved from all sides, and twisted and turned in the delights of their own desires.

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Potiphar’s wife may well have learned that her desires, in her house, might also be gratified. Potiphar may have been a eunuch, for Pharaoh’s sake. The Hebrew for “captain of the guard” denotes “eunuch”, Speaker’s and Ellicott’s commentaries. Potiphar was in charge of the guard, and it was customary for the guard to guard Pharaoh’s private quarters.

Servants and guards were made eunuchs to stop sexual activity where it should not be. It ensured that the house progeny remained pure, and it enabled women to move about the house/palace freely. In some cases it was thought that to deny a man his sexual propensity, was to subdue his lust for power and wealth, for we know today, that lust for power, wealth and high sexual activity often travel together, in men of high consequence.

So Potiphar, probably made a eunuch as an employment condition, had bought a handsome slave for his house. This may have been a purposeful choice, to please and satisfy his wife in an area where he could not. We cannot tell.

If Potiphar was an eunuch for Pharaoh’s sake, then sexual practises and preferences in his house, would at the very least, be startling, especially as there would have been a women’s house for the concubines, and Potiphar’s marriage would be a sham. However anything went in decadent Egypt, and men and women did not necessarily “drink water” from their “own cisterns”.

There is a marriage lesson here, for the marriage state, important as it is, requires that both parties be satisfied and fulfilled. Potiphar probably neglected his wife, or was not able to satisfy his wife, so that she sought greener fields, perhaps with his knowledge, and maybe with his permission.

7. THERE IS A WINDOW ON THE FUTURE FOR JOSEPH

The future is born from the present. Indeed the future grows out of the present, and the future is fraught with sexual dangers for Joseph. Chaste Joseph is tormented with frightening temptations by Potiphar’s wife. There is no chastity, where there is no capacity, and Joseph was a virile man. Certainly he married later, but he kept his virginity, as long as he associated its surrender with the idea of temptation and fall. Chastity was not due to inexperience, more the opposite, for it was due to a universal love and respect for all about him. He had a window on the future - that led him to keep his faith. He understood the need to bridle his passion and keep his virginity.

The lesson of Joseph for young people is a mighty force and can never be utilised often enough to keep them (and indeed ourselves) chaste and pure, Genesis 39 and Proverbs 7.

Consider:

* Why don’t we talk about the lesson in this story more often?

Surely the embarrassment of the story does not preclude us.

* Or does the new open sex morality make us timid about making the point?

* Or do we think the young people will think we harp?

Potiphar’s wife kept up the temptation for days, and days, and days, and days, so the temptation was not over in a fleeting moment.

* How can we shore up our resolve, and be like Joseph?

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Joseph’s chastity was an expression of:

a. His compliant spirit for righteousness - he knew about suffering and death and forbidden sexual activity; the punishment for pride, jealousy, and deceit. He knew how not to imitate those that had caused the family dysfunction and pain amongst his own kith and kin. He was sensitive to the dignity of others in such matters.

b. His overcoming of the overpowering temptation, like that of Adam and Eve over the fruit of the tree, to know good and evil.

c. Potiphar’s wife may have seen the seduction of Joseph as an accustomed thing but Joseph did not see it as a usual practice.

d. His knowledge of his inferior slave status to Potiphar’s wife, his superior in every way (except in his love for God). He could not have a relationship with a superior, where he would have to be passive, and do her bidding, in a master/slave, power situation, not a loving one.

e. His recognition of his own family’s need to keep racially pure, for he would know of other occasions when the seed line was threatened - he would not wish to be party to that.

f. His knowledge of his father’s hatred for the land of Egypt, in which he found himself - his father loathed Hagar’s land, where they worshipped the dead, and animals. He knew his father, as well, loathed the notion of market sex, where both boy and girl prostitutes practised freely, and daily, and where the gods blessed it all. “He would not go awhoring after the gods of Baal”. Joseph had seen enough of that in Canaan.

g. His wish not to shame the father. Even though Joseph had not contacted his father for so long, his need not to shame him would be a paramount consideration. It was the same for Jacob and his father, Isaac. Noah’s shame by his son, the shame of Lot by his daughters (to raise up seed), the shaming of Jacob by Reuben, with Jacob’s concubine (Bilhah) were known to Joseph. Nakedness and sex, in their right place, are innocent and unsuspect, but when they acquire a transferred significance, as Baal folly, it is sin. Jacob thought Joseph was harmed by the Baal practices, when he took so much interest in the stars, but it was a Godly message, and he was not harmed. So Joseph, knowing that sex has a price tag for the unmarried, is influenced by what shame he might cause his father, or his God.

h. His understanding of sin, “against thee only would I sin”. Joseph, like David, knew that sin, ultimately, is sin against God, and Joseph’s sense of rightness kept him from sin.

i. Joseph saw it as a denial of the promises to Abraham.

j. His knowledge and understanding of the blessings given by God to the fathers. He knew that with the covenant blessings came responsibilities as well, that is, to witness about YHWH to those about Him.

8. JOSEPH’S SECOND PIT

The blessings had hovered over Joseph, he knew and treasured them. He would never throw them away, like a Reuben, sporting with a Bilhah, in this situation, injuring his future prospects.

Perhaps it was impossible for Joseph to avoid the jaws of the next yawning pit. He might have begun to realise the outcome. Some people flirt with danger and the thrill that goes with it, and that is a dangerous place to get into.

Surely Joseph was more responsible, and would not deliberately teeter on a brink. Man, it seems, does sometimes open the door of evil choice, rejoicing in the freedom, enjoying the thrill, “playing with fire”, in a self confident and irresponsible manner, saying, and “I know when to stop”. Well, the best advice for these situations is “don’t ever start; do not be enticed, not even a little way”.

It would be almost impossible, for Joseph to separate himself from the household, and its mistress, for,

- When she called, he ought to go, especially if he had been chosen by Potiphar for such gratification.

- If she was the wife of a eunuch, the temptation would be so intense.

- Joseph’s pedagogue behaviour, as he went about his work, ignoring her designs, would intensify the demand.

- Therefore Joseph’s scorn of the offer would anger the woman,

- But his resistance would accordingly be enhanced.

- Perhaps he unknowingly trifled with her emotions, as he did with his brothers over the dream incident, not understanding how people viewed his behaviour.

- Nor would he realise how young and comely and desirable he would appear to such a woman.

Perhaps she thought his reluctance was caused by his slave position, and that she must make the first move, and the second, and so she keeps up the intensity. Her sin was the bait, and his would have been the bite, but she baited and baited and baited, and he did not bite. He fled, fled the bait. “Run, is the message of the Bible”, says Charles Swindoll in his book “Joseph”, page 30. And we would agree that The Spirit of God forcefully commands “Flee”. In circumstances like this, there is nothing else to do, “you cannot yield to sensuality if you flee from it”. Perhaps Joseph did not mind the inevitable outcome too much, as he knew that God had great gifts in store for him.

“My master hath committed all that he hath to my hand:

And there is none greater in this house than I:

Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee,

Because thou art his wife.

How then can I do this great wickedness?

And sin against God?”, Genesis 39:9.

Noble words from a noble son, and noble slave.

Words for all of us in our desires, for none of us is alone, nor different in our desires. Loyal service to each other is required in all of us that we may not affront, and shame the dignity and sensitivity of another with disloyalty, for, in the end, it is always God that we offend. They were alone in the palace, there would have been no witness, but Joseph knew he could not hide the deed from God, nor could he live with it himself. He may have been forgiven, like David, but also, like David, he would have been unable to forgive himself.

The greatest gift that we can bring to our life partner is purity and fidelity, moral and ethical self control. We need to remember that the persuasion of Mrs Potiphar was all a lie. Yield, or resist, is the only choice, and to resist, you must flee.

Swindoll advises that -

You must not be weakened by your situation.

You must not be deceived by persuasion.

You must not be gentle with your emotions.

You must not be confused with the immediate results.

The great speech of Joseph, Genesis 39:9, should be engraved on our hearts to stiffen our resolve when temptation calls. Deceptive baits are all around us, and especially for the favoured young. It was the greatest moment in the life of Joseph, for he turned all the family dysfunction that had gone before into a muddy back water. The stream ahead flowed crystal clear, free and pure, though the way was rough. When he was stripped of his coat once more, he found again, that he was clothed with “the heavens’ embroidered cloths”, (W. B. Yeats).

Joseph practised “safe sex”. The best safe sex there is. Would that the world would see it that way. We can’t tell our children often enough.

Potiphar’s wife was a woman scorned.

She tempted, he resisted.

Now a “fury worse than hell”,

Overtook her.

She caught his cloak.

She used the cloak to accuse him.

She waited for Potiphar, and with the cloak as evidence.

She told him of the wicked slave who had betrayed his trust.

She told him of her strength in resisting him.

She painted the picture black.

She blamed Potiphar for buying a foreign slave

And putting all the women at risk.

No doubt, if Potiphar indeed had to conform to the job requirements of castration for himself, she would have reminded him of that also.

Potiphar did what he had to do, but not one whit more. Women were so powerful in Egypt, and considering the Gnostic heresies, they felt mighty superior, so much so, that Potiphar had to accept her story, for he may not have wished to offend her. The punishment could, and should have been much worse, but Potiphar’s love for his hard working slave, together with a tiny doubt led him to send Joseph to his prison. We can imagine what that tiny doubt might be. But matrimonial peace was high on Potiphar’s agenda. If indeed Potiphar was castrated, it was a cruel thing for his wife. It is then easier to understand why he would not wish to offend her. Whatever path Joseph had taken would have led to a prison of sorts. He chose a noble path.

Comment:

We need to resolve to read this chapter, Genesis 39, together with Proverbs 7, where the enticing prostitute incident is detailed, “to keep his commandments, and bind them upon” our “fingers, and write them upon the table of” our “heart”, so that we will not be enticed.

Dylan Thomas, in “Poem on His Birthday” in 1949, mourns that - “Tomorrow weeps in a blind cage”, for “dark is a long way”. So it seemed to Joseph, as he went down the second time to the prison and the pit. As well, we might feel in the darkness, that so much more is required of us, than we are prepared to give, but for Joseph, that thought probably never entered his head.

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CONCLUSION:

At the foot of Joseph’s height he dwelt once more, he was down, down, down again, he knows his valleys, and his depths, but he does not know how high the mountain peak will be, when at last he approaches it. We do know.

“Soon Joseph, soon, soon, soon”, is the croon, the voice in the wind, the message from God, as He whispers in Joseph’s ear. “Be patient I am ever near”. It is the still small voice of God. Soon it will be like a thunder clap, and the lightening of His voice shall light his way around Egypt - but “not yet, not yet”, and Joseph doesn’t know when, or what, that “yet” will be.

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Digression:

Jealousy in God’s house, is a difficult emotion to deal with, and can be so destructive, poisonous really. Men and women are easily attracted to the downcast eyes of evil and ill will, and they flourish in the climate of initiative, cleverness and blessing. This peer pressure causes the eyes of the jealous ones, to cast boundary stones further out from them, as they say “you overstepped it”. It poisons initiative, and usefulness and the joy of service. To cut down a tall poppy, (because anyone who works well, shows up mediocrity), is an evil that denies use of a talent in service to God. The comfort zone of mediocrity is not a Godly place to be. Bold for God is. We need to ask for change when mediocrity produces such poor results. We need to ask help to activate change.

If the tall poppy is still bound by his/her motivation to serve, the talent is lost to those who denigrate it, and the poppy turns to another path. If the poison is complete, then may God forgive us the destruction we caused. We need to realise the damage we do to ourselves, and to God, if we crush a spirit, motivated by a love of God.

Discrimination in God’s house is ungodly - and often borne of jealousy. The human being is born with natural survival instincts of self preservation, and to watch a tiny child striking for his own needs to be met, then, changing to being generous and loving to others, is a wonderful lesson in how God feels, when we change and want to serve Him. Self preservation is not an evil in itself, it is a primitive instinct, but goodness has to be learned. Self interest is inherent, but selflessness can be taught in a loving family, where graciousness is extended to all within its ambit.

To discriminate on who will receive grace and favour, and for that ambit to grow smaller as one grows older, is no path to God’s Kingdom. The lesson for the Jews of Paul’s “mystery”, where Gentiles were to be included in the "good news", should teach us that. We cannot love, or like, some of those who God judges as His servant, and despise others, that is, “look down on”, Romans 14:3. We should not cultivate a poison thorn to prick and undermine those for whom we do not care, and destroy their gift to God.

It is amazing that this country, Australia, has moved within fifty years from a wretched (for many people) White Australia policy, to a multicultural one. Right or wrong, it is now against the law to discriminate. Now we have advertisements to encourage everyone, including the elderly, shut in ones, and yes, even the jealous ones, to accept the all embracing policy. We have also been taught to love and respect the first Australians. The church did not teach it, but the state eventually did. We had to be taught, for we were taught otherwise for so long. New ideas can totter on the anvil of criticism, and so they need to be more cleverly enshrined, so that the whole lesson is learned, but they will remain, for they are Godly. Some find it too difficult to learn the lessons, even in our own worshipping community, but that does not change the lesson. Their protests will die with them, and the lessons will be learned.

The human soul can be so difficult. It seems it often cannot be gracious over another’s success, finding it hard to praise and give support, and easy to snort and sniffle and bring down. We often enough say, “Love one another”, but it seems we need to actively teach one another to accept our fellow workers, our brothers and sisters, more graciously. We cannot decide who we will love. God accommodates Himself to the paths He knows we will take, which we tread with free will, so we need to accommodate ourselves to those who wish to introduce change, within the guidelines, without so much resistance (for it is often those who attract the poison thorns).

Resistance and confrontation ultimately saps enthusiasm and energy, and eventually success will falter, and they will leave the poisoning community, and find another place. This is the result most wished for by those who poison, and so they are glad. But it is not the result God wished for. There are lots of techniques we can use to negotiate with one another.

“Please do not speak amongst us like that”. “May we speak again to morrow when we are calmer?” and good discipling is done in an atmosphere of love and respect. Being right does not entitle discipling to be done with aggression.

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CHAPTER 3

DOWN TO THE PIT AGAIN

“The Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison”, Genesis 39:21.

FOCUS:

The disappointment of it all must have been overwhelming for Joseph, but if he looks on the bright side; he will see wonderful opportunities ahead in this prison of his, Genesis 39:21-23.

1. KORAN WISDOM

There is a section on this story of Joseph in THE KORAN, LXXVII, SURA XII - JOSEPH, PEACE BE ON HIM, MECCA, at 20, suggesting judgement on the matter of Potiphar’s wife, that if his garment was torn at the front, there was no doubt that Joseph was involved. If the garment was torn at the back, then he should be proclaimed innocent. This piece of wisdom may not impress us, and would not impress Potiphar, if he was bound, in duty, to resolve the matter in his wife’s favour. Joseph was therefore condemned, no matter where the garment was torn.

2. JOSEPH’S PRISON

Joseph’s chastity and his punishment, over the matter of Potiphar’s wife, shames his brother Reuben (with his lack of chastity over his father’s concubine). And now Joseph is taken (as Psalm 105:18 tells us) “with his feet in fetters and restrained with irons”, to the prison, Genesis 39:21-23. It could be no other time in Joseph’s pit experiences. It could not be the long trip from Canaan to Egypt, for it would hardly have been appropriate to keep a prisoner fettered, especially one as congenial and useful as Joseph.

We can assume, that at first, Joseph’s imprisonment here was without dignity, and that he was brought tethered, (no iron yet), - perhaps to appease Potiphar’s wife. Nelson Mandela’s great quest to be treated with dignity during his long internment, eventually won out. He used many strategies for this. Joseph had God working for him, to improve his conditions, and things changed for him also. Potiphar might have had second thoughts, or all along knew it was a lie, for the prison director could hardly have treated Joseph kindly, imitating God’s “mercy and favour”, if Potiphar did not command it. Prison keepers are not naturally so, they are not known for soft hearts, but they, as well as other men, are in the hands of God. Even so Joseph would know that he was incarcerated just for the sake of matrimonial peace in Potiphar’s house, and that would teach him that confidence in man was a vain thing. Paul was allowed paper and ink, and begat thereby many saints for the Lord. Without this generosity, and the epistles which were produced, we may not be in a relationship with the Lord, about whom he so ardently wrote. Paul and Joseph provide great examples for those who are restrained for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. Joseph used his prison experience for God’s glory in another direction as we shall see.

We cannot tell where this prison was. Speaker’s and Ellicott’s commentaries favour Potiphar’s prison nearby, even attached to his house. Perhaps he was there in the house attachment for a time, but the hatred of Potiphar’s wife for Joseph, would encourage him to send Joseph to the regular prison, where he could more easily avoid her murderous intent. This was the great prison of the Kings on the Lower Nile, favoured by many others. Joseph had seen it before. It was an island prison, past Memphe and Bastet, the city of cats, and retracing that journey ten years before, now down the Nile, he would remember the huge gates of Thel that swung out across the river. The fortress prison island and the customs house were contained here - though Joseph knew in the terms of the well loved hymn, “a mighty fortress is our God” - not man made prisons.

It was seventeen days journey, a distance of 480 kilometres. It was the Lower Egypt district of Djedet an abominable goat district. If we consider that Potiphar’s prison would not have given Joseph the opportunity to display his talents, and would be an unlikely place for the long imprisonment of the “traitors” - butler and baker, for “a season”, probably a year, we would decide it was the larger prison of the Kings.

(See end chapter note for Digression 1)

The hardness of God can be viewed as kinder than the softness of man, and so it was that Joseph resided under God’s care, in the second prison pit.

Comment:

God can soften the pain and dull the grief but if He does not, it is because He wants us to look forward out of the shadowlands of C. S. Lewis, and to the glory that is to come.

That is the secret of grief and sorrow and trouble, for God, as the sculptor, brings great pain with the chisel, but it does produce a lovely piece. The lamp and light of our feet and path (of Psalm 119:105) is the dream (nightmare often) ended, and, a known way, longed for, prayed about, is always ours either in this life, or the next, whatever God decides. It is always light after shadow. We must not begrudge the shadowlands for it foreshadows the light. The setting sun, (on the grief laden, loved of God, the left behinds), will indeed soon rise for them too, in time, in God’s time. We sing “the sun that bids us rest is waking our brethren ’neath the western sky”, and we understand the wisdom of God in the turning of the earth. Neither “The voice of prayer”, nor “the strains of praise”, then, is ever “silent”, and his children continue so to bless Him, because of this wondrous Heavenly phenomenon. That continuum must be a blessing for God, and for us, for even when we are asleep the prayers to Him, and the praise for Him continues by others who are waking and walking in the western sky. So in the spiritual life of His children, the shadow becomes light. Often our greatest fear is our greatest victory and God never means us to waste the shadowlands, or the suffering that comes with it.

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There is a symmetry between verses 1 to 6, and verses 20 to 23 of Genesis Chapter 39, for in each situation Joseph is praised for good work, for the Lord was with him, wherever. Surely Joseph’s perseverance, even with this shattering reverse, is instructive to us. He would not sin against God, wherever.

Joseph’s misery (whether he went to a nearby, or far away prison) would be touched with his sense of destiny, for, at 28 years, he is the son of Jacob, of Jacob’s best loved, and only treasured, and now dead, wife. His state was hideously familiar to that other pit state of his, where he lay in a hole in the earth with worms about him. Each pit had been the result of domestic intrigue. Each time his “Technicolour (dream) coat” had been torn from him, and from a position of great privilege. He now had on another prison/slave garment and his privilege garment in both cases had been evidence against him, by those who had torn it from him. He wore no more the privilege, coloured, Jacob coat, and now again no more the slaves’ hip apron, and the curled wig, enamelled collar, armbands and necklace of red and gold, of the steward of Potiphar - no more “a walking work of art” as Andrew Lloyd Webber described him - only “fetters”.

Twice disrobed,

Twice disgraced,

Two slave garments,

Two pits

Joseph might have been thinking of the corn and planting time, for it was festival time. He had been left alone at Potiphar’s house, verse 11, probably because of a feast festival attended by the rest of the household. The “dead” corn buried in its pit, would soon burst forth in newness of life - Joseph knew that glory was to come. The glorious dream and the interpretation was enough to keep him from wavering. Truly dreams are the forgotten language of God - how precious were the dreams that God gave these patriarchs and Joseph. How precious (to the beneficiaries) were the cow and corn dreams of Pharaoh.

However, the glory to come does not prevent the weeping, nor should it. Incarceration, or illness, or the shadow of death, are all good reasons to mourn. They are all honourable estates, and part of the development towards the glory. It is the future glory that helps us steer the course, like the ancient mariners used the stars. We need not wish away the unpleasant present, though, as we look forward to the future joy. To wish the present away dishonours it and the learning processes that God has given us. The philosophers tell us that we live in the past and the future, and only 5% in the present. If we stopped to savour the present it might intensify the happiness and enhance the future (to help us to deal with coming trials). We are children of the moment, hurtling forward; everyone is “busy” - too busy? “What’s next”, we cry, in our culture of impatience, and consult our diaries. “Slow me down Lord”, please, “there is more to life than increasing its speed”.

3. JOSEPH’S HINDSIGHT AND FORESIGHT

Joseph now had to learn to savour this moment in his life. At least, he is released from the pressure of the woman. Surely it was becoming unbearable, surely now he could rest for awhile, and not struggle against his temptress, or his bonds.

Noah had been wise, because he built an ark to save his family from the flood to come - anticipation, or foresight it’s called. Joseph had not lost his far sight, not lost sight of God, nor cast himself away, but ensnared in the immediate situation, his foresight had been lacking.

He must have chided himself, for this situation had led him perilously close to losing all - into the jaws of death, for that could have been the penalty. Similarly, lack of foresight had led him almost to death, once before, when his seeming superiority ignited his brothers’ resentment. Still,

Useless regretting for old things

Embitter the new,

And to whip oneself with hindsight

Is useless,

Better to equip oneself with foresight.

And Joseph learns the lesson.

Still Joseph is in the pit again, and by the greatest of good fortune (God’s provision) - not dead.

Consider:

* Had Joseph been too long in Potiphar’s house?

* Had it all made him a little careless?

* Had Joseph become complacent in the outer garments of ease to which he had become accustomed?

* Had the technicolour of all around him, blinded him?

* Or was there nothing Joseph could have done better?

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The Egyptians never cared about the future for themselves. Their Book of the Dead was a collection of spells and utterances to assist in the afterlife. Anxious about the course of their lives, and their afterlife, they employed priests and wonder workers and soothsayers and magicians and they made endless provision for misfortune both for known and unknown calamities. Every chink in their armour was covered - just in case, - by magic, charm and divination of every kind. Thus they never had to have concern or foresight about the future, for they had the future covered. No wonder they loved Joseph and his prediction of plenty and famine, and his solution. Ah, the fickleness of these children of Ham.

Comment:

Lack of foresight is not a sin, and Joseph did no sin, but it’s a good common sense life awareness skill to nurture. We teach our children foresight, though they say we worry too much, and we smile when we see them trying to teach their children the same skill. We wanted them to see the pitfalls, before they fall into the pit.

Lot flirted with temptation by living with the people of Sodom, though Abraham moved away. We don’t want our children to go so close, like Lot, that they must be snatched from the fire. It is a difficult skill to teach, without appearing anxious. Oh may He enlighten the darkness (Psalm 18:18) and teach us to be wise and understanding parents, anticipating and preventing the pitfalls with foresight, never neglectful, yet never over anxious. There is an achievable balance between anticipation and over concern, and it takes maturity to develop the skill.

Anticipation is one of the great motivates for little children that a mother can employ. If there has been a bad day yesterday, it is so easy to start the next day, with plenty of love, and talks about what good things will happen today, “how everyone will be sooooo good today, and what a happy day we will have together”, with reminders throughout the day, about how well we are managing, not mentioning the sad day, and never threatening, - with plenty of quiet, quick prayers for God to help you, is a the best strategy. Positive reinforcement is far better, and discipline worked out with love, (rather than violence for punishment, which breeds fear), will prove to have better results. God wants His children to learn -

1. To take the consequences for their actions,

2. That malpractice brings with it justice, and

3. That self discipline brings its rewards.

He would rather have His children be well behaved because of love, than behave well because of fear, and threats.

Deliberate acts of discipline, without violence, may be in order in some cases, but the lessons of consequences (now in place in our schools) are very effective. The effect of a child having to take home a pink slip (or whatever colour) to disappointed parents is such a deterrent, and helps parents and teachers work together for better behaviour.

God did threaten justice, but he laced the management of His Israelite children with love and mercy. The justice turned out to be consequences following their wicked deeds. He retrieved them repeatedly, but in the end He did not save them. “If you will I will”, or “if you will not, I will”, God promised them, over and over again, and gave them so many chances, but they were eventually rejected, for their consequences could not be reversed.

The New Testament positive messages of love and support, for our efforts to overcome our sins, are so welcome.

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Joseph never did fear the Lord in that sense, but walked aright for love of Him. He trusted that He would deliver him. Still his lack of foresight, or lack of anticipation, caused him abasement, in two disrobes and two pitfalls.

Still not dead though, as we keep reminding ourselves.

4. CONTEMPORARY EVENTS IN THE FAMILY OF JACOB

Sometime while Joseph is in prison, Isaac died. It would be comforting to know that Jacob and Isaac were together, that they loved one another, and in the circumstances of their later lives when they were widowed of their treasured wives, they loved one another well.

The deceitfulness of Jacob’s earlier time with Isaac (when Jacob was 77 years old) seems to have been paid for over and over. The two mighty incidents, when God spoke to Jacob, at the going to Haran (at Bethel) and the coming from Haran (at Peniel), were two purging incidents, or dreams, that helped Jacob to cope with the vicissitudes of his family life until now. We are not told, but Isaac and Jacob may have truly cemented the breach after Rebekah’s and Rachel’s and Joseph’s death. We truly hope that it was so. Joseph’s “death”, for Jacob, still remains, and wisely so.

Esau came at the death of their father, Isaac, (140 years), and the twins buried him, (Genesis 35:29), and divided the inheritance. Esau would take goods away home with him, and Jacob would keep the land on which he dwelt. Jacob’s breach with Esau had been healed at Peniel seventeen years earlier, it seems. We assume that Esau hears, on this family occasion, of the “death” of Joseph as well. When he later hears of the “revival” of Jacob’s son, and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance, he will surely be astounded. Maybe he would think his more “normal” life is more preferable, and after all the drama in the family home over the blessings, his family life has been more settled and fulfilling, away from them all. Jacob’s family life certainly had not been one of contentment.

5. JOSEPH - SECOND TIME SLAVE

Joseph could equivocate that he has added to his status, not now Potiphar’s slave, but Pharaoh’s slave. He knows he will still gain his freedom, and they in this prison don’t know that. Not for Joseph the philosophical reflections of the Ecclesiastical man when he speaks, at the beginning of chapter 4, of the evil that is done under the sun, the dead who had already died, are happier than the living who are still alive, but better than both, is he who had not yet been. Jacob thinking, maybe, not Joseph. Although for Joseph the sun had clouded over, the midnight moon was there. God’s smile was not withdrawn from him. That midnight moon was slowly, silently walking “the night, in her silver shoon” - but Joseph would not see “the silver fruit upon silver trees”, that Walter De La Mare did in “Silver”, but only her beams, catching on the casement of his prison windows.

(See end chapter note for Digression 2)

6. EGYPT’S PRISON AND STONE QUARRIES

The prison wherever it was, would not have been a place of “ease”, but one of intense slave labour.

Comment:

The Times Concise Atlas of the Bible informs us of a prison register of the time, now available, from Egypt’s past. Still more finds are becoming available from fruitful Egyptian digs. It is exciting that so much of both Testaments can be illuminated by these recent discoveries, so well preserved in the dry sand, and easily found, when the sand blows away.

# The prison system worked quite methodically with

- A director, or captain of the guard, and

- Keepers, like warders.

They filed inmates under seven entries from

- Name and sex, through to a final discharge tick, equivalent to a case closed.

# Also, manuals have been discovered which give instruction in the important practice of dream interpretation, which skill, God given in Joseph’s case, is the overlaying factor in the detailed story of Genesis 40 and 41.

The prison consisted of

- Cubicles (cells) and

- Barracks (for soldiers),

- Garages (for carts and chariots),

- Stables (for horses),

- Storehouses,

- Passages and connecting corridors,

- Courts (for trials).

A high wall surrounded it all, and at one end was a Migdol tower and the residence of the director, or governor of the prison.

This prison residence was too far away from Pharaoh to house Potiphar, and so could not have been Potiphar’s prison. There is a delightful picture of a huge prison in Brian Wildsmith’s children’s book “Joseph”, a building with millions of plain bricks, two pillars and few decorations, austere and scary.

Languishing in the prison in Djedet meant the stone quarries. Thomas Mann gives us some information about this. Eight kilometres away, inland, “languishing” was a metaphor for slaving in Pharaoh’s stone mine, hewing, mining, cutting and hauling. Jacob had taught Joseph a hatred of the bondage of Egypt and Joseph now saw it first hand. He’d seen enough of it (in Genesis 39:3, 4) when he was in Potiphar’s house, and done what he could to alleviate it. Here in prison it was that softness and loving care, that brought about his elevation once more (verse 22). Of course, he could manage lists and records, but he also continued his care of his fellow man.

The records that went off to the capital not only recorded, accurately, the business of the place but, in his honest, trustworthy and sympathetic manner, Joseph helped establish a model prison, even, say, to the hospital where a man may be shamming but given the benefit of the doubt.

- Eye salve from Byblos (a seaport of Lebanon) helped to soothe the inflamed eyes (from stone dust);

- soothing poultices for belly fever;

- Insect bites (gnats and other insects) with the resulting infected discharge, were treated with goose grease mixed with an emollient powdered herb;

- And for bloated abdomen, a chewing of castor oil plant berries mixed with beer.

- For rubbing and moisturising, vegetable oils and fats were used extensively.

These were all treatments used at the time, and probably effective. Mixed in were many magic spells and weird practices. And if you drank warm beer by mistake, it meant that you were about to undergo a period of suffering.

In Jeremiah 46:11, the prophet speaks of Egypt’s multiplying remedies in vain. Egypt had a reputation for expertise in the healing arts, but there was no healing for them in God’s plan, spoken of in this chapter, verses 2-26.

Of course, Joseph had made himself full of knowledge and could tell how much bread, beer, fish, and grain was needed to sustain each builder.

He also knew

- The number of bricks needed to build a ramp.

- And he knew 50 sacks of wheat could be held in a vat and

- That cat grease smeared around the openings of the granaries was enough to keep the rats and mice away.

Cat grease - that means dead cats. They worshipped the cat in per Bastet, - perhaps they were offered as well, and the resulting grease collected. In any case good clean, mouse free granaries were essential in Egypt - good for selling corn and enslaving starving peoples.

Joseph knew

- It would take 12 oxen and 50 asses to carry food to 500 stoneworkers, officers and overseers.

- knew how many men were needed to move a large block of stone;

- How deep to dig the hole for the stone;

- How to clear a path and make the tracks;

- How strong to make the ropes;

- How to tie and plait them;

- How to make the wooden A frames to support and guide the ropes.

- How often to wet it under the sledges;

- When to use the grease;

- That rollers would need to be brought to supplement the sledges in the difficult spots.

(It is only recently that mathematicians, with computers, have been able to work out how the great stones were moved into position.)

Some people are made like computers and Joseph must have been one of those. It was always recognised in Joseph, and always led from the pit to the keeper of the books, first with the hairy Ishmaelites, then with Potiphar, and now in prison. Of course, the fetters were soon removed as Joseph was such a useful chap. But with all of this, it could not become a model prison, without sympathetic justice to his fellow prisoners, and Joseph added that as well. He was active, positive and led an individual mission for God.

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(See end chapter note for Digression 3)

7. JOSEPH’S SHINING LIGHTS

For Joseph

It was not all dark,

For the stars were there.

Their tiny lights had given him courage.

His shining true was the star’s reflection.

This little glowing light in the earth,

Down in the pit,

Shone true,

Waiting for the next brilliant robe,

Still to come,

Third one now.

So Joseph waited for God to guide him further into Egypt.

Joseph was now like a caged bird;

It was as if he had fallen from another nest,

Overbalanced really,

Having been pushed out once more.

But as he sniffed the air,

And looked around,

He knew God was there.

Only Joseph was pure and clear - he learned that, as he learned about God. Many would have a hand in his education - men and women - ungodly men and women - God guided.

The prison keeper, “paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph, and gave him success in whatever he did”, Genesis 39:23

CONCLUSION:

God had often, in our story of the patriarch’s, adapted, or accommodated Himself to man’s will, - using Plan B, instead of Plan A - for man had proved himself unable to follow Plan A. Joseph was remarkable in that “he let go and let God” - use Plan A.

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Digression 1:

Abou-Saif in 1990 wrote in A Middle East Journal (an American Christian woman’s journey into the heart of the Arab world - formerly an Egyptian national) and talks of the cities of Egypt along the Nile, on page 6, as - “beige and grey sand cities”. She says that the people’s faces are the same beige colour - “as if they have been sculptured from the intervening desert”. Over 90% of Egypt is now arid desert with most of its population living on the Nile Valley. The sand pervades it all, the building the roads the people and even the refuse and garbage are covered with sand. The trees are beige and all the plants are layered with sand dust. The River Nile splits Egypt and its cities into two and its width keeps the noise and poverty of the poor away from the rich.

The sand would have no less effect in 1717 BC, (if that is a reasonable date to place this story) and the river (with dredging) still winds round and round towards the sea, and the buildings appear now, as they did then, as mounds of cooking biscuit mixture, the little craft with its melancholy and brooding prisoner aboard takes that same course. Joseph must like all men “endure their going hence”, of Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, - but perhaps Joseph will see that every situation, however wretched it seems, has some sort of comfort attending it. Schoolgirls used to call it - “being Pollyanna” (being “glad” - The Glad Books, we used to call them) always finding good, a ray of hope, a silver lining to every cloud.

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Digression 2:

It is the same sun and the same moon for us. When we look, we know he saw them too, and felt the wind, his wind, our wind, upon his face. Joseph has been where we go, he saw what we see, he felt like we feel, and God was with him, as He is with us. Actually it may be, or may not be, the same stars that we see that Joseph saw, for the star pattern slowly changes over the centuries. New stars are created and old ones explode and disappear, but we would like to think the general star pattern is common to us all. The star pattern is uncertain, for several reasons, for example, what we call The Southern Cross as recorded by the Romans, disappeared from the Northern Hemisphere before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and was only noted again by Banks, in the night skies above Australia, when he arrived here with Captain Cook, just over 200 years ago. It had been thought it might be viewed from the great south land, and so that was one of his commissions. It is not known for how long the Southern Cross could be viewed from Australia before that. Astronomers predict that the Earth will continue to turn so that “we” will no longer be able to see that Southern Cross. So, of course, the stars do not change their station so much as our earth revolves, and it may be that the southern cross is there for parts of the northern hemisphere to see, but it is daytime for them, when they pass so they cannot see it.

But it was A. B. Patterson, who told us of the well known Australian “Clancy” (of the Overflow), who saw -

“The vision splendid”, when he viewed “the sunlit plains extended”, but at night “the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars”, as Joseph did. They were everlasting, and a joy to him.

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Digression 3

Caroline Chisholm, in the early part of Australia’s development, led a crusade for colonial women to work as “God’s police” in civilising the men who were misusing convict women. Not all men would have then been uncivilised, and yet this presupposed they were. It was an unnecessary burden to put on women, and let the men off the hook too easily; it’s everybody’s work (not to be God’s police), but to encourage everybody, by example, towards a caring community. Moral behaviour is for all.

Anne Summers in her thesis on the “The Colonisation of Women in Australia”, pages 21 and 22, explains why this crusade did not work. It was the children who needed education. The children of the poor convicts were working, as little adults, on the farms, and in the factories. This impaired their health and intellectual development. The refined women in the community, employed nannies to rear their children, and so the children learned from the uneducated nannies. Compulsory education and parenting skills are comparatively recent innovations in Western society. The necessary education towards unselfishness and high moral values began in the second half of the nineteenth century. Even today human rights groups are trying to prevent the carpet manufacturers in India, from using children for long hours in their factories. Education is a key factor towards better conditions for children in India as well, and those who establish schools as well as factories, can use the Rugaid tag for their carpets, and are viewed in a better light.

The family is the place where children learn to be unselfish. They are certainly not born that way. Watch any 18 month old child, with self purpose in mind. There is no thought of others, yet. It is a joy to develop that in a child, and we would be remiss if we did not do so. Unselfishness in families is so common it’s almost the general rule - we might wonder what happens to change that. David learned the lesson of consequences - even though God forgave him for the Bathsheba incident; he lived with the consequences all his life. However he was impotent to discipline his children because of it (sin and its consequences); Jacob was also impotent (over deceit) with his children.

Arthur Boyd, a twentieth century Australian artist, in his Biblical paintings of the late 1940’s, portrayed humanity as moving endlessly from

- The spiritual, to the bestial, and back again.

He painted

- Love and despair;

- Desire and guilt;

- Life and death;

- Cruelty and passion;

- Hopelessness and the hoping.

He painted

- The tragic, yet magnificent spectacle of humanity with great compassion and sympathy, and then with angry and urgent brush marks, he portrays the evil in us all. His war paintings are magnificent, portraying disappointment in the continuing bestiality of man. There is often a little white dog in his paintings, quite out of context, symbolising hope, and light, so longed for by the tortured souls in his paintings.

But we are not all black and despairing like this, and there is always light and hope.

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CHAPTER 4

THE SECOND PIT

“And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers... and he put them in the house of the captain of the guard, the place where Joseph was bound”, Genesis 40:2, 3.

FOCUS:

There is now a remarkable story that paves the way for Joseph to enter Pharaoh’s house, Genesis 40.

This is a story of a butler and a baker.

The two men had been sent down from on high.

They had been on high looking down.

Like any of us “on high”,

They had a long way to fall.

Better for us all to look up

- Rather than down.

1. PHARAOH’S BAKER AND BUTLER

The baker, a supervisor of Pharaoh’s sweet meats (lists of 57 varieties of bread, and 38 varieties of cakes, are on record). The art of confectionery was carried to great perfection.

We will assume that this man was Bata the baker of Mempi, whom Joseph met ten years before when he first entered Egypt.

And the butler was an overseer of Pharaoh’s wines, - the poor people drank beer - the butler was the highest serving position to a sovereign in the East. Plutarch erroneously suggested that there were no vines in Egypt, but this has now been abundantly disproved with the discovery of engravings depicting them - from the commentary of Ellicott).

The baker and the butler were both implicated, rightly or wrongly, as traitors. Perhaps they were less sympathetic to the Hyksos, than to the indigenous Egyptians, who wished to take the throne. They now found themselves stripped of their hitherto lofty positions, and they were offended at being thought of as traitors to the king.

Comment:

Again there is plenty of information about the baker and butler Egyptian occupations, and these two were the premier servants of Pharaoh.

Although Egypt has not been a great producer of wine, there were grape vines from one end of the country to another. The tomb pictures show that the vines were not festooned as in Italy, for there were fewer trees. There is every process of vintage depicted, grapes in baskets, men trampling grapes, various forms of presses for squeezing out the juice, jars for storing it, and of the various processes of fermentation.

It has now been discovered that there was a productive wine industry in Georgia, (known to us as formerly part of Russia), 4 millenniums ago, at the time of Abraham, which they are now successfully reviving. It is amazing how peoples can now trace their forebears and their activities so far back in history.

Baker and cupbearer, that is, bread and wine, there is no strength in making anything of that, except that the it was a conduit for Joseph’s rising. It would be blasphemous to do more than note it. But it is interesting.

A palace coup has been recorded at this time, when a concubine and her son, attempted to dispose of the aged king, and his sickly son. The formerly well loved concubine (perhaps an indigenous Egyptian rather than an Hyksos sympathiser) believed her son Noferka-Ptah should be king. (We need to recall that the Saul and David dynasties behaved rather much the same). They hatched a plot to poison those in the way, perhaps a serpent bite. A traitor to the concubine quickly raised the alarm, and revealed the plan, and the pretender was banished to the southern Nubian states, (like Russia’s Siberia, or England’s Australia in the eighteenth century). His mother was strangled by eunuchs. Nubians are still serviles in Egypt, today.

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These two men, Pharaoh’s baker and butler, cried out in their pain and anguish, for the charges laid against them.

No crime or name is recorded in Scripture, but it could easily be, chalk in the bread, and flies in the wine - or poison

On page 65, of Thomas Mann’s, “Joseph and His Brothers - Joseph the Provider” there is a word picture of the butler and the baker “coming down” from the palace on a prison float. They were pale with fear “ashen, corpse colour”, fearing for their families, for they had always had the best of care, until now. Fluttering beside Pharaoh’s royal ensign was the little “flag of suspicion”, that told anyone who watched the boat glide by, that suspected traitors were on board. They disembarked and were marched forward and were delivered to the holding outer prison, the vulture hut, and secured to the back wall, and locked in, in disgrace, “under the ridgepole, adorned by the outstretched winged vulture”. Others picture the suspects as arriving at the prison gate, in the company of soldiers, having carried on their backs, for a long distance, along the roads, heavy portrayals of the gods whom they betrayed.

The baker of bakers and the butler of butlers, found themselves also, like Joseph, at the bottom of the greasy pole.

2. THE BUTLER AND THE BAKER IN JOSEPH’S PRISON

Joseph, now in charge of the butler and the baker, was kind to them and allowed them little privileges. They were used to having their feet and their backs scratched, and their necks massaged, and their hands manicured, and many other little luxuries. They called in the chief dream interpreters when their sleep was troubled back in Pharaoh’s court. They had lived in great luxury and comfort, and now they worried themselves sick, how would they manage. They dreamed dreams that troubled them, and Joseph enquired of their health, when they looked so sad. The day of their trial drew near. It was soon to be Pharaoh’s birthday and the birthday honours list would soon be produced. Alas, also, the list of executions.

Egyptians made careful preservations for their dead and had elaborate and large graves (believing it prepared the dead for their after life). As well, they placed their material wealth in with their bodies. The destiny of an execution, therefore, would be horrific, especially for families as these two had, for they had been such noble personages. (A later birthday celebration, that we know well, Herod’s, also brought an execution, for John Baptist’s head was lifted from his shoulders. But John’s after life was assured for him, with God - eternal life.)

3. BUTLER AND BAKER DREAMS

Joseph hears that these two had dreamed, and have no interpreter. Joseph explains

- That significant dreams come from God,

- And that He has the interpretations.

However

- God has given Joseph this gift.

- In fact, his brothers called him a dream expert.

Joseph explained also

- That he was a dream man, of a dream man,

- For his father had two portentous dreams

- When God had spoken to him and

- Those moments with God had given his father great credibility and great integrity.

4. THE BUTLER’S DREAM

The butler came eagerly forward - what joy now.

“In my dream”, he told Joseph, “I saw a vine. Pharaoh sat under the vine. It had three branches, among the others, that before my eyes grew and grew, the great leaves like hands, multiplied on the branch, it budded and blossomed and their clusters of grapes hung upon that vine, purple, bouncing, bulging vessels of juice. I took Pharaoh’s cup (no stemmed glasses at this time, but flat cups or saucers to fit in a cupped hand) and filled it with grape juice from the vine. (There may have been honey or cool water in the cup, as the juice was often used before fermentation and mixed with substances, like a sherbet, or sharbat, as served in Egypt today.) I then gave it to Pharaoh to drink”.

The dream was ordinary enough, the dream for the dearest wish of the butler, but Joseph recognised that it was no ordinary dream, and thanking God for the interpretation, he explains.

Joseph was pleased to tell the butler that the three branches represented three days, (very specific, and here not indicating ordinariness) within which time: “Pharaoh will lift up your head of shame, and restore you to his palace. You will again offer him his wine, as you did before”. Literally, “Pharaoh will lift up, promote, elevate”.

Now a delightful piece of humanity takes place.

Joseph had a request to make of the butler: “When it shall be well with you, when you are restored, please remember my kindness and do not forget me. Show me kindness. Tell Pharaoh about me that I may be brought from this prison. I was stolen from my home with the Hebrews, (the land and settlements of the Hebrews in the land of Canaan) and have been twice put in the pit for nothing”. The Hebrews were known in Egypt, distinct from the Canaanites. Abraham was known in Egypt as well.

Noble men do not discredit their relatives or disclose family feuds and Joseph did not. Nor do noble men blacken the name of their tormentors (Potiphar’s wife) and Joseph says no more. Sexual sins were sins against God - Psalm 51:4, “Against thee only have I sinned” (David).

Joseph is neither a sinner

Not against God, nor Potiphar, nor his wife,

Nor was he an accuser, it seems.

A noble and preferred attitude,

considering -

He resisted the sexual sin in the first place.

He did not believe in,

Nor practise “free love”

As all those about him did

- we can emphasise it to our children.

5. THE BAKER’S DREAM

Encouraged, Bata, the baker, comes forward to tell his dream. He was the chief baker, and never stuck his head in the oven to cook, nor delivered the goods like an apprentice, but in his dream he was carrying bread.

Three baskets full, wicker baskets, white. They may have been perforated or loosely woven wicker baskets with holes, through which the white cloth showed. He carried quite a luxurious selection. In this improbable situation (so are all dreams) he holds the three full baskets: “The topmost basket with crescents, rolls and buns attracts the birds. They come in flocks wheeling, screeching, swooping (just as they do today if we put bread out), picking, pecking, bob bobbity bobbing their little round heads, grateful for such a supply. Of course, unknowing of the trouble they cause me, for I have no hand to brush them away, why, oh why, did I lift up the basket and carry it uncovered? How could I take those messy baskets now to Pharaoh’s table? With no shooing away they flapped, and fouled the bread, and the basket smelt bird smell not bread smell, and they spoiled the freshness of it all. Of course, those birds only behaved as birds, and thought I meant to feed them.”

Joseph was loathe to tell him that his dream meant that in three days (the three baskets), Pharaoh would have his head lifted from off his shoulders and that his body would be hung on a tree for the birds to eat. But he did not shrink from the unpleasant task. He could have lied. Literally, “Pharaoh will lift up, execute”. Joseph was bound by his honesty to tell the bad news, as he had promised, and the so the baker died three days before he really did die, for his heart was dead for three days before his body was dead, for he could think of nothing else. In fact, the interpretation of the dreams was true and the butler returned to Pharaoh, but the baker was executed. Both of their heads were lifted up “one to honour again, and one to shame”. The baker of Memphe had the shameful end, for all his trouble and skill. “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man”, (Jeremiah 17:5). Later Joseph became Zaphnath-paaneah, the “revealer of secrets”, but it was important for Joseph to testify even now, that it was God who interpreted for him. If he had not told the interpretation, he could not have given God the glory. Whether the baker was hardened in wickedness, or used those three days to learn about God from Joseph, we cannot tell. It is also inconsequential to wonder why one is favoured and one is outcast. Those judgments are not ours to make, God may decide. There is a need to strive to be favoured by God.

So the cupbearer was the divinely appointed agent for Joseph’s introduction to Pharaoh, but it didn’t happen at once. However the restoration to Pharaoh in three days, was a mighty Divine testimony to Joseph, and to the butler, had he paused to consider it. It is a melancholy truth, and often a great disappointment, that fortunate people do not always feel compassion for those less fortunate. Joseph’s disappointments with his jealous brethren, those unjust in Potiphar’s house, and now the neglectful butler would be enough to depress him. However, knowing not of his own release time, but sure in this testimony from the Lord, he kept his faith.

The butler suffered from “forgettery”, and it wasn’t until two years later, when Pharaoh had a need, that he stubbed his toe on the memory of Joseph. Pharaoh had a dream and found it difficult to find an interpretation, and that prompted the cupbearer’s memory of Joseph.

However the gift of interpretation from God, (for it all happened just so), sustained Joseph during those two years. The fulfilment of his own dream had so far taken ten years - two more to go.

God has used other butlers to work out his plan for his people, Esther 5:3, Nehemiah 2:1-3.

Consider:

* Did Joseph pray for wisdom as Solomon did at the beginning of his reign?

As the events turned out in Solomon’s reign, his God given wisdom could not have been overall, but rather of a specific kind, say for judgement of his people.

* What sort of wisdom did Joseph pray for?

* Did Joseph know that the butler would forget his request?

* Did he pray for patience, as his request was such a long time coming?

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6. HONOUR FOR ONE AND DISHONOUR FOR THE OTHER

With the pronouncement of honour for one, and dishonour for the other, the one would be elated, and the other downcast, each making comparisons with the other. It was probably inevitable that it would be so and here again, Joseph’s wisdom would be needed to deal with this situation in this prison, for he was in charge. They had come together, this butler and baker, under the same cloud, now one had broken into the glorious sunshine, and the other went deeper, into a black cloud - depressed and without hope.

Comment:

Although the world is round, there is always an “upside” and a “downside”, allowing for this, none is better or worse than another, and the argument of the friends in the book of Job, that ill befalls us because of past sins, is just not so. We all sin; some are caught in the deceitful web they weave while others are not. We all come short, but some take the long shot, and that succeeds for them, for a time. We need not have any pride in our better place, for it is only in a manner of speaking (this side of the kingdom). Perhaps we are only “good” because the persuasion of “evil” was not so intense for us. Perhaps not so much was expected of us, and therefore we were spared. Our perception of ourselves and our great strengths may be quite contorted - we may be sure God has not a distorted view of us.

The weak are those who are tempted and succumb, but we need not feel smug about them. It is God’s grace that lifts us out of that path, not our own strength: “There but for the GRACE of GOD go I”.

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It was not Joseph’s grace, it was God’s grace, that the prisoners enjoyed, GOD’S GRACE that pervaded the whole prison, and here these two stand before Joseph, one for honour and one for dishonour. God’s grace again for the cupbearer, as has been said, was divinely appointed, to return Joseph to Pharaoh’s court, not because of his own merit. Perhaps grace comes upon us, not because we merit it, as we may erroneously suppose, but because we are needed to fulfil some function that God wishes of us. In any case we know grace does not come upon us in abundance, because of our continuing in sin.

See end chapter mote for Digression 1)

7. THE POETIC STRUCTURE OF THE SCRIPTURE STORY

In Genesis 40:9-23 (Companion Bible) we find another poetic structure.

1. The Butler’s Dream

2. The Interpretation

3. Request Made by Joseph

and

1. The Baker's Dream

2. The Interpretation

3. Joseph’s Request Forgotten

It is helpful to be aware of the Hebrew structures of the record of these stories, which the newer versions do give us. We do find generally, that the recording of the events of Joseph’s life, are more detailed than those of Abraham, and especially Isaac. For our benefit, God has chosen what should be revealed, but the imbalance of the recording is interesting, and may be seen by some as an imbalance in these books on the patriarchs. If that is so, then Moses would stand accused of the same.

Again, interestingly, it appears that God speaks to Abraham continually, yet to Jacob only twice, although we know that could not be so. It surely is only in the style of telling, not in the actuality.

The style develops over the telling like a novel. If it came by telling to Moses, then it is interesting to note how many generations the story would have to pass through by word of mouth - not many, if indeed he used an amanuensis, which is, literally recording, under inspiration. Time/Age Charts are available. God’s inspiration is overriding the recording by Moses, of course. Again, the remarkable events in Joseph’s life are mirrored in the remarkable events of his children’s march out of Egypt.

Jacob/Joseph

and Moses/Israelites

1. Canaan, where God sent Abraham,

4. The safety of Goshen,

2. The pit and drought in Canaan,

3. The escape from Egypt,

3. The entrance into Egypt,

2. The sin and trials in the wilderness,

4. The safety of Goshen,

1. The settling into Canaan.

The national anthems of Psalms 135 and 136 - twin Psalms - echo Israel’s feelings about their remarkable history.

Joseph, already numbered among the dead in his own country, is again being numbered among the dead in his adopted country, that is, imprisoned, dead to life. All that time, beneath his graves, is a gold mine, for God is there, God is with him, God interprets dreams for him, and enhances his progress towards Pharaoh’s palace. In the two years that remain, he does not need to listen to his own singing, for he hears the urging voice songs of God, God’s whispers, God’s wisdom, God’s care, God’s love in this dungeon. Joseph might have ranged along the land of Canaan, and never touched royalty as he had now, (the king’s butler and baker).

8. JACOB’S PRECIOUS SON

For a moment, once more, it is helpful to think of Jacob, unknowing of Joseph’s life, since Joseph has been long since “dead”, and that Jacob was accustomed now to his “death” (knowing the future story as we do). Perhaps God thought it was the best way for Jacob to deal with the thought of his lost son.

Charles Swindoll talks about Jacob as having a horizontal viewpoint, rather than a vertical one. The vertical one takes in God’s viewpoint as well, with every vicissitude of life. Jacob’s fear maintained a cold resisting point of view, and his thoughts were horizontal. We understand, that it is difficult in the most trying circumstances to “Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy” (a book by Barbara Johnson), and Jacob did not.

The momentous circumstances of Joseph’s birth, led Jacob to be a man who walked with “his heart outside his body”. That heart smiled, when Joseph was with him, but when Joseph was “killed” the flowers of laughter and joy were replaced with the weeds of sadness and depression. Grief became like a mobile, pieces flying everywhere in the wind, and tangling. Whether Jacob could have possibly developed a sense of thankfulness for his surviving children and their families, or not, we don’t know. It would be a great difficulty for Jacob to feel thankful for those whom he secretly, and suspiciously, blamed for the “death” of his loved child.

Comment:

It points us, does it not, to the reality of being limited in controlling the destiny of our own children. For all our training of them, doing our very best, they may develop evil ways, forsaking God and their love for Him. God loving parents, could, in our permissive society, even hear from their child that they are now “out” and wish to be known as a homosexual or lesbian. Think with compassion of the mother of twin sons, who announced to her that they now wished to be known as homosexual, and would live so. There is nowhere she could turn to, but to God. A double treasure from God, lost! It means that we must release such a problem into God’s care, realising our own impotence to solve it. It is too late to lecture about God’s way, and the evil of the lifestyle. The total end of ourselves in quoting Scripture, frustration, pleading, anger, and all the other emotions spent over years, that we may bring to bear on that child and his/her life style, will not change it - is the experience of those who have tried.

Actually picture yourself wrapping your child in beautiful paper, and then add a lovingly tied bow. Then climb a staircase and present the parcel to Jesus, who will convey it to God (as we do with the incense of our prayers), and that may help us to let go of the problem, to “let go and let God”. Only in the death of a child can you finally relinquish the concern and care for that treasure. Age is no barrier. Children may try to reason with us, but they will only learn the lesson that we can never abdicate the parental role, when they have children themselves.

The only way to relinquish wayward treasure that you cannot care for is to give it back to God. It is a matter of building up enough faith, to place the gift back with Him.

Otherwise

- It becomes like an elephant on your chest,

- A knot, or even a plug in your throat, so that you cannot swallow,

- A bitter pill in your mouth

Guarantee your child your love, and hold the door open.

You never know what God has in store for you. Death is final - never wish for death to solve a problem. Some of us know that death can take with it more than the problem, and it’s too late to wish it otherwise.

9. THE BROTHERS DISREGARD FOR JOSEPH DID CHANGE

The monumental disregard Jacob’s other sons had for Joseph did change, to a degree beyond which they would have never believed of them, when Joseph as a child told them of his dream. Like David, he was the “youngest” son chosen to lead - the difference being that Jesse’s sons knew of the purpose of the passing parade, and the anointing of the youngest brother. The leadership role came to Joseph in a dream, so no one was witness to the choosing. In so many cases, in the history of Israel, the youngest son is chosen as being the fit vehicle for the promises. It is an interesting concept to consider.

Comment:

Isaac was a younger son, as were Jacob, and Joseph. We can go back as far as Shem to see this pattern. It is, of course, not always so, but often enough to make the point that eldest sons are not necessarily chosen. Birthrights and blessings are different circumstances, as we see in this family. However, birthright children often expected the blessings, and even parents (Isaac) sometimes expected to combine the two. Jacob had more sense in this matter at the end of his life.

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(See end chapter note for Digression 2)

Inheritance laws aside, the introduction to Genesis in the NIV Study Bible, “Introduction to Genesis” reminds us that the Genesis account frequently concentrates on the life of a later son in preference to a first born, Seth over Cain, Shem over Japheth (see the study notes on Genesis 10:21), Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Judah and Joseph over their brothers and Ephraim over Manasseh. God is not bound by the rules of our society. Where there is such an emphasis on divinely chosen men and their families we can, in Genesis, detect a prevailing literary and theological characteristic of the book as a whole. From this we can understand, and the fact is emphasised and underscored, that the people of God are not the product of human developments, or their own evolution, but are the result of God’s sovereign and gracious intrusion into human history, for after all it is His to do with as He wishes. It brings out of the fallen human race, a new humanity, re consecrated once more to Himself, called and destined to a new covenant, to be the people of the kingdom, and as they keep covenant, to be the channel of his blessing to the whole earth.

10. PAIN FOR US ALL

Jacob resigned from being Joseph’s caring father, for with his death there was no more care necessary. He experienced great pain and grief, but in time his misery was overcome, and he learned to manage his life again.

(See end chapter note for Digression 3)

If it does go wrong and our heart is breaking, we must make the best of it - like Jacob made the best of it. Surely his sons committed every sin that any of our children may commit, dysfunction was endemic in his family, and our families are no different.

We can hate the sin,

- But love the sinner,

- And such love

(Whether it brings the sin to end or not),

- Is ennobling,

- And what God asks us to do.

At the end of the day, you could never be pleased, that you turned someone away from your love, for example, “I never want to see you again”, “get out, and don’t come back”,

There are lots of loving ways to deal out discipline, and to remove a bad influence, but these quoted words are not Godly.

You can still feel satisfied, at the end of the day,

- If the sin was not concluded,

- At least it was not enriched by your impervious stance,

- But that you kept the loving rays (of hope)

- In the presence of that sin, til the end.

That is the noble way of God.

That is how God deals with us, what God does for us all.

CONCLUSION:

God nurtured Joseph in the prison circumstance, and in turn, he became ennobled for God. At last the mission mandate began on its path again, after all the bad modelling that had doused the plan that God had for His light. It now shone forth and the path was well lit for the children of God to enjoy salvation.

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Digression 1:

It pays to remember that there are three classes - those who rise, and those who fall, and those who find no temptation (they think) at all. Smug we may be, in our lives of ease. The books and films that abound right now of life lived in other countries in the 20th century, in our time illustrate our life of ease and other people’s wretched lives. We really cannot tell how we would behave in a wretched life.

Books like Wild Swans, and films about China are banned in that country for they won’t accept any criticism, or pleas for human rights. It is fashionable to decry the humanists, and rightly so, but with a proper understanding of the humane rights for which they stand, against all forms of abuse, against discrimination, of any kind, we can see that many of their policies are Godly. It is easy to label as humanist behaviour, that which is ungodly, and it was/is convenient for the church to decry them, when traditionalists rule/d in the church and cover/ed the abuse. A prominent, contemporary Catholic nun is quoted as saying, “I used to pray that the church would save the world”. In her disappointment over sin in the church, she says, “I now pray that the world will save the church”. The humanists gave up on the church, and certainly God could also see that reform would not come via the church. The humanists persevered, and while not approving of the humanists, God used them to push for reform. Now discrimination and abuse in the church and everywhere else has been revealed, and reform is under way. Now the church is shamed into dealing with those who took away the rights of others, and every religious sect must look to its history, and change the way they have viewed abuse. It is a pity that it is the humanists, not the church itself, who have brought the church, and its members, to the position of recognising the sin amongst them. It is naive and foolish, and dangerous to say, “It does not exist amongst us”.

The history of women in the church over the centuries, from the second century and especially the fifth century, when they were told they could not attain God’s grace unless they emasculated themselves, to mirror males, who were accepted by God, has caused untold misery, from which the church is just now emerging. The old monasteries of the past are littered with the bones of women who through amenorrhoea and anorexia tried, unsuccessfully, to emulate men. The bountiful blessings that our Lord Jesus Christ bestowed upon women, are now, once more, being regained. But we need to think and care for those outside our national boundaries, where women are still, in this age degraded. The Tibetan word for “woman” is a word which means “inferior born”, and that gives us an indication of the enormous problems that many women still face in following their normal daily life, their choice of marriage partners, the way they are required to bring up their children (with gender differences), and even their spiritual choices (who they will worship and how).

Schindler’s Ark/List incites some people to say that the Holocaust did not happen. The books of Babi Yar about life in the Ukraine, in this century, illustrate awful human suffering. Some even use Scripture to endorse their policies of 80 years of apartheid in their oppression of South African blacks. Now, none of the churches formally stand by the self serving justification of slavery and apartheid in terms of Scripture, though they formerly did, saying it was divinely appointed and making a life of great hardship for the blacks, (not that their new found freedom has delivered them the ease that they expected). The text of Genesis 9:25, was used by the British Empire, and in the Americas to justify slavery, and they reasoned that God’s scattering of the people of Babel meant that He wanted people to be separated and some more superior than others. Deuteronomy and Acts provide references that show that God approves of boundaries and separateness of different nations and peoples, and some, still blinkered by the precepts learned from the cradle, act according to their perception of superiority and their interpretation of Scripture. Proverbs 24 gives some good advice to those people who are smug and superior about their well doing, for their slothful sleep and folding of the hands bring poverty. Be vigilant in judgment of others and not partial, never gloating. “The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honour”, (Proverbs 15:33). Therefore we cannot look on others within our own orbit and be smug about our position of “righteousness”. Humility is the greatest leveller of us all. May we never use Scripture as a tool to dishonour our brethren or any of His creatures for it is God’s book, not ours.

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Digression 2:

It does not affect the laws of inheritance which do differ in cultures, even today. English law required the eldest son to inherit family estates and other sons joined the army, the civil service, or the church. Thus the big estates survived even until today. French law accommodated all the sons in land inheritance, and this has caused very small farming plots to be created all over France. So now there are problems for small uneconomic plots, when the French government, bows to world market pressures to remove tariffs. Even Australia’s own dairy market is affected by French tariffs. There is no little discussion about inheritance laws in all countries. Some countries do not consider females in inheritance laws, and others give only cash inheritances to women. In the Islamic Code, the males receive the inheritance, and it is the same in the Jewish Code, except there is a double portion for the eldest son, and a reversion of sold land, back to the family, every 50 years. In both these Codes, women were/are expected to be cared for by their brothers - or husband in the new family. No man was permitted to be a bachelor, and in times of war, where there were fewer men, they were expected to take multiple wives.

In Numbers 26:33 we read of Zelophehad of the tribe of Manasseh, who had no sons, but five daughters. When Zelophehad died (honourably) his inheritance is given to his brothers. The five daughters stood before Moses and Eliezer, and pleaded to be allowed to inherit their father’s land, Numbers 27. Moses brought their request to God, who judged it justified, as long as they married within their tribe. Moses then pronounced their inheritance as part of the law, as God had commanded, verse 8. So it was acceptable for women to make a petition, and this is vindicated in the granting of their request. Also in Joshua 17:3, 4. In Joshua 15:18 we note Caleb’s daughter’s request for a field and her father’s gift, not only of south land, but springs as well. “He gave her upper springs and nether springs” as well. So there was compassion for the predicament of women in some instances, where all along God had provided for them, but the privilege had not been allowed. Man made customs and traditions, not Scripture, have been too heavy a burden for women.

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Digression 3:

Human history, when God does not intervene, leaves all of us, at one time or another, in great pain. Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional, and so we need to have skills to deal with the pain.

Lifeache,

Is when the whole of your life is sore;

It hurts when you move it.

and

Pain will subside eventually.

Lifeache cannot ever be cured,

But you can learn to -

MANAGE the SYMPTOMS.

That pain is not only from within our own lives, but from the lives of our spouses, or the lives of our children, for our hearts wish to take on the pain of those we love. We are so vulnerable. We also “wear our hearts outside our bodies” for those we love. Some of us will live with great pain, and for the moment while we look for books to help us deal with momentous problems (such as a homosexual child) the books of Barbara Johnson will help. They are obtained through the Bible book shops and tell us what we can do when our life really falls apart. The worshipping communities will know how to deal with those situations, but the parents will need great skills to keep the door open.

Hugh Mackay, commentator, is curious to know, in relation to the high incidence of youth suicide in Australia in 1998, when our children fail to reach the potential we set for them, whether we have, in our obsession with materialism and all the things we want, together with our impatience with the numinous (divine), failed to inspire the young with the idea that life is an adventure, to be enjoyed, and never cut short. Did we forget to talk to them about the big questions in life, and the universe, and their very existence? These questions are all still worth considering and exploring for us all. We don’t need to give them pat answers that we think they should have; they are too well educated for that. But we limit their visions, and their horizons, and we are often too influenced by our own cynicisms and prejudices or even apathetic about our own negative response to adversity. Perhaps we limit the vision of our young people by our own cynicism, and by our retreat into prejudice and apathy, and by the increasing toughness of our responses to adversity. In that sense we do contribute to their despair.

These are reasons not excuses, but still worth pondering. Our pat answers are too easy, and we need to listen, and answer our treasured teenagers much more specifically. It takes great wisdom to get the balance just right, as any parents of teenagers will attest.

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CHAPTER 5

ESCAPE FROM THE SECOND PIT

“And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed”, Genesis 41:1

FOCUS:

There is no oil,

Without squeezing the olives,

There is no wine,

Without pressing the grapes,

There is no fragrance,

Without pressing the flowers,

There is no joy,

Without sorrow.

and Joseph soon has the oil, the wine, the fragrance and the joy, Genesis 41:1-14

1. JOSEPH STILL IN THE SECOND PIT

While Joseph remained in the pit for two years (Genesis 41:1) after the release of the butler, and the execution of the baker - both imprisoned per favour of Pharaoh - the Pharaoh of the butler, and the Pharaoh of the baker, died. We are not sure whether it was two more years, or two years altogether.

Patience must have been the virtue that Joseph has, that keeps him from questioning God’s seeming indifference to his plight. It is the prime of life for Joseph, and “hope deferred maketh the heart sick”. David said, “How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord?” It must have been Joseph’s prayer as well.

So the Pharaoh changed. Pharaoh is always the same, but he comes and goes, and changes. We are not sure of the alignment of a new Pharaoh, who he might be, and when Joseph’s release occurred.

We know that the dates of Joseph’s time in Egypt, and the dates of the Pharaohs are still uncertain awaiting confirmation, perhaps, in future archaeological finds, as the sand blows about. We do know though, that the “new” Pharaoh was the one that knew Joseph (Exodus 1:8) the one who prepared so well for the famine. However with the dreams this Pharaoh was, if not different, a changed man, with a different outlook. And with this change came the wonderful events of Genesis 41. Pharaoh means “great house” and so it was.

Assuming that there was a death and new coronation, the story will proceed as before, providing useful information about Egyptian customs of the time.

2. THE DEATH OF PHARAOH

There are continual finds now throwing light on Egyptian history and especially about the Hyksos rulers. It is very difficult now to make decisions about where they fitted into Egyptian history. However we are quite sure whatever rulers were favoured at this Joseph time, there were others in the wings trying to make life difficult.

The old Pharaoh had died after all, soon after the traitors of the butler/baker palace coup incident had been caught and punished. What we know of the rule of the Hyksos Pharaohs, of Semitic extraction, and the overpowered indigenous rulers, who were biding their time in the southern cities of Egypt, makes us realise how tenuous the reigns and lives of the Pharaohs were. This Pharaoh’s wife and entourage had not been walled in with his body in the tomb, as had previously been the custom. For some reason the wallers in, and the walled in, ceased to perform this rite at this time. It has been noted by archaeologists as a practice in China, when the first Ming emperor, ordered and was entombed with his wife and 46 concubines, as late as AD 1398. This Chinese mausoleum has only recently been located in a complex underground burial chamber.

So this splendid coffin containing the Pharaoh’s body preserved in salt and bitumen with all manner of spices, and wrapped in great quantities of linen bandages, after seventy days, was drawn on a golden sledge, by oxen, to a many chambered tomb in the hills, and there left with great wealth for eternity - alone, - or until the grave robbers arrived. There are many well preserved mummified bodies from Egypt, on display in coffins, in the British Museum. The walled in ones have only a few skeletal remains - they were not preserved, as they were alive at the time of the walling in. Well - this Pharaoh’s wife did not follow him, she was not a walled in one, nor were his servants.

(See end chapter note for Digression 1)

In Thebes (No) the court sat with its head on its knees and mourned, waiting for “the moon to come right”. Father and son had ruled as co regent, a method employed by the Pharaohs to get the people used to the new heir, trying to avoid an uprising, or revolt. The eldest son or daughter (there were four women Pharaohs) of the chief wife provided the heir to the throne. Theoretically, the Pharaohs were absolute rulers of the people and their property, but they depended on the cooperation of their family and high officials and priests, which gave rise to tension amongst the ranks. They readily and regularly travelled up and down in the land from Memphis in the north, to Thebes in the south, and were constantly concerned with their popularity in the remote provinces in the Near East and Nubia.

This son was only 15 years old, but the mother, “feathered in splendour”, attended with him in the throne room in the palace, in Upper Egypt. Women in Egypt enjoyed power, like none other (of their neighbours), inheriting land, accumulating wealth, able to divorce, with ease. Here, near Thebes today is the present city of Luxor with its beautiful temple - The Temple of Amon. The great Aswan Dam is about 250 kilometres south, upstream, towards the Nubian Desert and the Sudan. Another 1440 kilometres south on the river we would reach Khartoum in the Sudan, the British Colony we hear so much about in the stories of Lawrence of Arabia. The Nile indeed was, and still is a mighty, long and famous river.

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(See end chapter note for Digression 2)

3. THE PHARAOH WHO KNEW JOSEPH

In Thebes, the new boy king was throned and crowned with the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. Soon he was married too, to a daughter of the nobility, who became his consort and mistress of the two lands. All this Joseph missed for he was in prison (except he would note the drunkenness of the prison guards for three days, not uncommon for celebration, feast days.) He did not need to be part of it, but he would benefit greatly from that union and crowning ceremony.

The boy king was anxious to carry out the wishes of his father to fulfil the plans to build a temple at Luxor, near Thebes at the site of his crowning. In his impatience he used the smaller stones from the quarries nearby, not waiting to haul the huge stones from the quarries further north on the Delta. Of course, Joseph in prison there, heard of the building (being engaged in stone quarrying) for “the haste of it” brought much discussion across the whole of Egypt. There was a heritage problem, with the architects, in Egypt, in that far off time. They did not use conforming materials and methods for the extension. Or was it the persuasive powers of the powers that were?

Consider:

* How sacred was this temple and consecration ceremony?

* Why so fast?

* Is it the same problem of a Hyksos verses indigenous ruler?

* Was the boy king (encouraged by his mother) concerned about his own situation, and worried about his portion of authority?

* Maybe he would remember the pretender banished into the desert?

* Did he wish to quickly link himself to the divine?

* Was he priest or king, or both?

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4. PHARAOH’S NEED OF JOSEPH

So Joseph - in 1716 BC - listened again to the voice in the wind - a croon really, “not yet, not yet”, but “soon Joseph, soon, soon, soon, be patient for I am near”. And he waited for God to call him south to Thebes.

And so He did, according to His word.

And our despair, as well as Joseph’s is lifted, and we allow ourselves a tentative smile of relief, like Joseph for it seems it might all be coming right.

Thomas Mann helps us with some remarkable historical detail here, and fills out our exciting water journey with Joseph. As we know he favoured the Nile ferry transport, rather the road transport.

One day, a bark arrived with a purple sail. It fairly flew, so light it was, manned by 10 oarsmen, 5 on each side, bearing the sign of royalty, an express courier, a comet from Thebes. No suspicion flag here. The courier leapt ashore, breathless, though he had not run, breathless with the import of his message. It was a message for Joseph, to “come at once to Pharaoh”.

“Are you not the captain’s aide,

Who was in charge of two of Pharaoh’s prisoners,

In the vulture house two years ago?”

“Before Pharaoh’s will, nothing stands,

For his need of you,

Above all his greatest scholars,

And magicians,

And soothsayers,

And interpreters,

Is known,

And so you must come.

Of course, if you fail

To be wiser than all Pharaoh’s inventors,

The punishment will be greater than theirs.

So you had better think well of what you will say.

You have been named in this crisis,

And so the king has sent for you”.

“What of the (unjust) charge against me?

What of my (terrible) sentence?

What of the (sentence of) bonds and chains?

What of the (restraining) bars and gates?

How can I leave (with honour)?” reasons Joseph

But he is persuaded -

“May God help me as I stand before him”.

Joseph considers that God is with him,

And that he will not fail,

To endure the death punishment,

But that he will succeed,

To win the crown.

And so Joseph is hurried

“Out of the pit and drawn out of the well”

- same pattern as before.

Now three times out of the well.

The butler has just stubbed his toe on the memory of Joseph, since the king’s dream crisis.

Consider:

* Would Joseph forget his prison friends?

* Would he remember them “when he comes into his kingdom”?

They would ask this, like the thief on the cross (in Luke 23:42), and like we do of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will come again into his Kingdom.

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Joseph sat aboard the bark underneath a shading pavilion, on the after deck, and was shaved. The beard was a disgrace in Egypt, shaving a disgrace in Palestine, (Companion Bible).

Mourning Egyptians could wear beards, and false beards were a fashion accessory for men, a male ornament. The Pharaoh wore a ceremonial beard encased in a tiny leather case and strapped on to the chin. Stone friezes show men of low estates, or captives, with beards. Joseph was also rouged and dressed for the presence of the boy king.

5. A DIFFERENT PHARAOH FROM HIS FATHER

The dynasty ruling Egypt at this time, anxious about its authority, was keen to show their superiority, and so the young king was expected to perform great feats.

The young Pharaoh had grown a little older, and without his mother’s consort, timid and frightened by the prospect of the custom of war. A war he had to wage, and to be victorious, bringing home bounty and booty to present to the gods, to validate his always precarious position of power. The war could be to the Asiatic or Negro lands, North West or east, or south. He really wanted to be a Prince of Peace, not only that, but his frequent illnesses, faintings, and headaches, made the thought of war, setting the neighbouring princedoms under his feet, a horrifying prospect. He would have to think of other ways of gaining respect and power, all the while not knowing that the attaining of that respect and power were going to be overseen by God. He was supposed to, with his own hand, be seen to slay a half dozen prisoners of war of high rank - elevated for the purpose if need be. It all made him more ill. He called it all off. The plunder would not take place. He would not even consider any arrangements for such a thing, and put it all out of his mind. Why, all the lands of the world lay at his feet anyway, if he wanted to fight, but he wanted to be insignificant in matters of war, and no one would picture him on the temple walls, or on the archways slaying anyone.

And no one did.

This is the Pharaoh that knew Joseph - and we begin to admire this man, Joseph’s friend and benefactor, for he was blessed by God, though he hardly knew it. He spent endless hours on judicial business, sentences, tax registers, plans for new canals, foundation stone laying, building supplies, the plans for quarries and mines in the desert - learning about it all from his viziers and making the pronouncements they expected. He was educated in things royal, and in things judicious and things religious. King and Judge and Priest he was. The whole cumbersome ritual of it all, with the obligatory excursions to the miserable outpost peoples, who invited him or not, whether they wanted him or not, wearied him and he sought to remove north to On from Wese Nowet-Amun (also known as No, and later Thebes), but the priests prevented him from going north permanently. They said he was necessary. They wanted him in the city of Great Ram. If only he could transfer to On at the top of the Delta. It was the old university city of Egypt, and he enjoyed the discussions there, and the intelligentsia. He would be happier and healthier in On - not so much incense burning, as he had now to do in the temple. Still there was there shining gold, which was a vexation to his eyes and made him squint. But still there was gold everywhere in Egypt, and his eyes were always squinting anywhere and everywhere.

The court chroniclers often recorded the journey of the king and his family by boat, or by wagon up and down to On - they knew his pleasures there. His conflict between this devotion to the gods, and his own duties as judge and king - god/king - gave him conscience and conflict headaches. He had tremendous stress, and the viziers, with their continual advice, made the headaches worse. The fact that the Hyksos/indigenous king contention was always raging, made him nervous, for he thought too much was expected of him, to keep power in the right Hyksos hands. Why did the other indigenes want to rule anyway? It was a terrible job.

There were sometimes two viziers, one in charge of the north, and one south. Pharaoh’s role as both priest and king confused him, and without his parent’s wisdom and guiding hands, he attended to the imperial business without enthusiasm. But ha ah. Here is the great delusion. This king, this young, unenthusiastic, ineffectual god/king was God’s figurehead in Egypt, and he represented an assurance against holy and necessary processes which must proceed, to allow the fulfilment of His will.

The king made his way to On once more, together with his pregnant queen, the queen’s sisters, and his mother, and floated in his own bark. Other boats floated down the river, either well in advance, or behind, or wagoned down the road with all his servants and supplies and all that was needed for the royal personages. We can place On, about nine kilometres north east of Cairo. The king’s bark was followed by the others in their barks on the great river. There is an event chronicled where Pharaoh sits under his bark’s canopy eating roast pigeon and sharing it with his wife. He uses the bone to further tempt her with sweetmeats dipped in wine. The river inspires people with its slowness and “weather permitting” is never an issue. The bark journey was always pleasant.

One day, some time later, at On, after partaking in discussions with his advisers, Pharaoh falls asleep amidst the cushions of his exquisitely ornate bed, which stands on a dais, in the middle of the room. The bed head is decorated with ivory figures of jackals and goats. His dressing and undressing slave slept at the door threshold. Thomas Mann has a good description of these particular dreams.

Pharaoh begins to dream - a vivid dream complicated, impressive, absurd, pastoral and agricultural, and so he begins his task of being God’s agent in Egypt.

6. THE DESCRIPTION OF PHARAOH’S DREAMS

He is standing on the banks of the great river in a lonely, marshy spot. Suddenly up out of the river rise seven cows - magnificent cows, smooth and fat. Cows were a sacred Egyptian animal, the symbol of the earth and its cultivation, so they are a fitting dream symbol. They had been in the river up to their necks to keep themselves from the worrisome insects and the scorching sun. The cows begin to graze among the reeds, sedge and rank, or marsh grasses, usually luxuriously growing beside the river. Then again another seven cows - lean, hungry, and wretched - rise out of the river and approach the well favoured cows. They are scarcely able to keep their legs, but they leap on the fat cows and devour them off the face of the earth - none left. Afterwards the lean cows look just as lean as before, no sign of being any fuller, and they looked satisfied and sinister.

Pharaoh awakes, but for all his disturbing sleep, and impressed by the images he had seen, sleeps again - and dreams again.

He is on the banks of the river again and there in the rich loam there is movement and a tiny stalk comes forth, curls over, and grows, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven ears of corn on one branch, full with golden fullness, fat ears. This is a common Egyptian corn strain, i.e. seven ears, but growing so close to the river indicates that the water level must have been very low. Then the stalk continues to sprout - seven more ears - but these unhappily are poor, pathetic, scungy, scorched ears, no good for anything. The grain is turned stony like grit as it pushes out, being blasted with the East wind, north east really. The NIV Study Bible tells us this blighting, withering wind is known as the Sirocco in Palestine, the Khamsin in Egypt, and blowing in late spring or early autumn withers the crops and destroys the pasture. They devour the fat ears. They also are just as lean as before, pathetic to look at. If they had eyes they would also look satisfied and sinister.

Pharaoh was troubled. In his dream he had worn his “kingly” garments so they were obviously “king” dreams and must be made public, for they must be an alarming portent with a significant meaning. No lean cows or scorched ears should consume fat cows and fat ears. Danger threatened, credibility would be doubted - answers must be given, authority displayed, for this picture language of impossible greediness needed interpretation. His cow and corn dream assumed huge proportions in his mind for of course, God made it so.

The audience in the council hall stood near Pharaoh’s splendid seat together with the prophets and the dream experts. It was still the same box like chair (except for added ornamentation) as at the time of the pyramid builders - but people no longer threw themselves on the floor in prostration in front of the king. Pharaoh tried to tell the dream experts, magicians, sacred scribes, astrologers and the learned priests about his dream - it seemed so preposterous - they nodded their heads and shook their curls, and tried to help, until in utter frustration he sent them all away, with no gold this time. They had murmured, and muttered and spoken nonsense and ineffectually babbled on, for their solutions did not fit the dreams. Their Scriptures (The Book of the Dead) did not help them, so they could not speak sense. Of course God was preventing them from making sense. It is a proof that God stopped their well oiled minds, for one would have thought that they could have combined, and produced some solution to save their skins.

7. JOSEPH IS REMEMBERED

The oppressive silence was broken by the cup bearer, stubbing his toe on the memory of Joseph. (Not really, for God put it in his head). He had never told any of the wise men about Joseph, for if he had remembered and told, Joseph’s method might have given them some clues about dream interpretations. Or again, if he had told they might have lost their jobs. It seems now that they have lost their jobs so there is nothing to loose. Yes, he knew a man who could help, for this man in the great prison of Pharaoh, two years before, had been able to predict from a dream, that his restoration to the king would soon be complete. Indeed in the field of dream exegesis, he certainly was an expert, for his handsome father had also had, and interpreted dreams, as had his other forebears. The butler’s own very presence in the presence of Pharaoh was proof that this man’s expertise in dream interpretation was highly recommended for had he not predicted that he would serve Pharaoh again.

Joseph never held a revengeful thought, neither for his brothers, not for the Potiphars, not for the selfish cupbearer. Disillusionment and disappointment in people did not lead to cynicism for Joseph, for he would not then have been able to see God. Job for a time could not see Him.

“Behold, I go forward but He is not there,

And backward, and I cannot perceive him;

When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him;

He turns on the right, I cannot see Him”, Job 23:8, 9.

Not only must we see, but listen as well. God does not announce his appointments in advance, like some companies do. Joseph did not know, but he listened, was ready and waiting.

It is a fact that “unless thy law had been (his) delight,

(He) should then have perished in (his) affliction”, Psalm 119:92.

Comment:

God does not need to shout to us in our pleasures, but when our consciences fail us and the pain descends, He shouts at us, and it hurts so much, but it is only then that we listen.

- For we need to hear Him,

Because we so often forget to listen to Him.

We need to remember that we cannot stand still, in the silence, as we progress, slowly turning on the spit, for we either progress towards “a hellish, or a heavenly creature”.

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CONCLUSION:

Patient, listening Noah waited over 100 years for it to rain. Joseph forgot his bad memories, he remembered to forget. But, like Noah, he remembered to be patient and listen. He had overcome the sting of abandonment, and had waited in the silence for God to act. And God had not forgotten.

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Digression 1:

The custom of wife immolation has only recently been outlawed in India, where at funeral pyres of great Hindu men, wives, also, were persuaded to the incineration, to die with their husband. In some cases in American Indian tribes women walked out into the wilderness to die (we remember Hagar and Ishmael following the practice, being excluded from Abraham’s care, at Sarah’s request).

Perhaps women, everywhere, saw their means of support had disappeared, and added to their grief, lack of security made it easy for them to be walled in, incinerated, or otherwise to commit suicide. It is known, also, that they were encouraged and assisted in the suicide process.

It seems that, even today in some tribal areas of New Guinea, women must be taken into the forest and killed by their brothers, if their husband dies, especially if they have his particular knowledge about magic practices. A brother will stand on either side of their kneeling sister, and with a rope entwined around her neck, give a quick pull, and she is dead. Most cultural practices can be changed, in time, with patience, and respect for Biblical teaching, to Godly customs, but child sacrifice and wife killing are two practices that Christians resolve to change as soon as they can, for obvious reasons. This may be accomplished with great difficulty, and requires enormous skill, when they first begin the mission process.

In any case, wife killing was, and is common, even when it is outlawed. It is remarkable that men never followed their wives to death, so it was not done for love. Of course the remaining multiple wives, and children, needed support. The new widows in worshipping communities don’t find it easy to fit into their role, as well as cope with their grief, and we need to be especially caring of them and their needs. There are so many widows in worshipping communities, helping to make a gender imbalance. We need to question the stress we put upon men, and we need to share the load, where we can within scriptural guidance. The wonderful provision in The Law of Moses, and the later Christian principles, for widows, must have been quite unique, in their time and circumstance.

It is interesting to note, though, that for thousands of years in Jewish funeral processions, the Jewish wife walked in front of her husband’s coffin as a “recognition” of her prominent place in bringing sin into the world - her husband now suffering the consequence - death. God punished them both, of course, for they both sinned, in Genesis 3, but Adam did blame Eve, and tried to cover his sin, in his excuse to God. Perhaps Egyptian, Hindu and other cultures have something of the same reason to require a wife to suicide or be killed. Burial customs (of men) have often been disadvantageous to women. The blaming of Eve is enhanced by continuing the custom of blame for the woman at a man’s death, and it is only education that can change that pattern.

The legacy of a millennium of Confucianism is particularly cruel even in this day, in many Asian countries, where young girls need to borrow their social status from male family members, until they are married. If there are none, she falls into abuses of all kinds. Confucianism believes that women are too difficult to educate, and so must be bound, ignorant and obedient to men. The older matriarch becomes a woman of power, especially over younger women. The diversity of beliefs about women over the centuries is interesting, and now there are numerous research pieces to help our understanding of the subject, for example, Susan Dowell’s study about monogamy in history and religion, “They Two Shall Be One”. The same customs and expressions of devaluing women, like female circumcision, are still perpetuated in many tribes, like the Massai people of Africa. The fundamental Muslim faith in many countries, exercises the same control over the lives of women.

It is imperative then to recognise in the Christian faith, the valuing of women, where men and women enjoy complementary roles. The two Marys were the first true apostles, (“one sent”), by Jesus, to give the news of his resurrection to the disciples, Matthew 28:1-11. John records the event also. If Jesus can entrust women with so great a message, then surely for men to denigrate her, devalues her role. Phebe’s qualifications for an elder, or a deacon, in the new church, in Romans 16:1-2, closely followed what Paul required of them, both men and women, in 1 Thessalonians 5, and I Timothy 3. She is the only person so commended, not only for her Titus 2:3-5 role, but as a “sister” and “succourer of many”, particularly Paul.

Herein lies a very powerful gospel message, which has a wonderful reception where women have lived in fear of their lives. No wonder other religions where cultural practices have women in great submission, wish to exclude Christianity. They will do everything within their power to prevent women from hearing our Lord Jesus Christ’s message of complementary roles of service, and submission for all “in Christ”, not just for women.

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Digression 2:

Verdi wrote “Aida” to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869. The canal was blocked by the Israelis in 1958, and after that the liners, to and from Australia, had to go round the Cape of Good Hope. This Capetown detour was a bonus to those of us stranded in England after the canal closure, but a tragedy for freight from the Far East, for the middle and Far East were no longer easily connected. To overcome this, big freighters (mostly for oil) were built to cope with the high seas of the Cape. When the canal was unblocked in 1986, the new huge freighters could not fit, and so the Suez Canal never revived as a great trade route. The opera, “Aida” was performed in 1986, in the Luxor Temple ruins, to draw attention to the canal again. But Verdi had set his opera at the Vulcan Temple in Memphis, near Cairo, about 560 kilometres north, in 1000 BC. The story is of an Egyptian princess pledged to marry an Egyptian Captain of the Guard. He falls in love with a slave girl, read Nubian, and so the love story is played out.

Perhaps the Luxor site was more appropriate for some reason, and it has been developed as a tourist site. However, now that the Moslem extremist’s suicide bombings have happened there, tourists do not feel secure at Luxor any more.

The tombs and temples here at Thebes were discovered early in the 19th Century, by French scholars, who were attached to Napoleon’s army.

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CHAPTER 6

JOSEPH ARRIVES IN THE ROYAL CITY

“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh”, Genesis 41:14

FOCUS:

So arrangements were quickly made and

That is how Joseph,

The sooth saying youth,

Came to be propelled

In the beautiful bark,

Towards the great obelisk,

At On,

Once more,

to stand before Pharaoh, Genesis 41:15-42.

1. THE RUSH TO PHARAOH’S PALACE

Such a rush, such a hurry,

From pit to pinnacle,

From pinnacle to prison pit,

From prison pit to higher pinnacle

- to the palace.

The wonder workers of Pharaoh had all been banished, they had lost their jobs, and Joseph was urged along with the fleet footed messenger towards the great presence.

Though we all know the end of it - how it all fell out - we must remember that Joseph did not. He only had his faith in God and his conviction of presumption that God was with him and that this was indeed His plan, His path, and His will.

Comment:

Not for Joseph the self distrust of Moses, and the self doubt of his ability to speak to Pharaoh. We are all of us extremes, like these two were at the beginning of their Pharaoh dialogue - or somewhere in between. God can, and does, use everyone, and will compensate for our peculiarities, restraining the servants who are seemingly confident, (He adds in some humility), and supporting the doubters, (He added Aaron, who came to stand beside Moses). There are, of course, the hypocrites who talk about nothing, never achieving anything for God, whose mouths well oiled conceal their lack of commitment to Him. If we are honest we can recognise our own category. If you were a Moses or a Joseph you can assess how you would feel. It is a pleasant muse to decide which Godly character you would like to be, and what assets you would ask God to give you to complete His task.

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So Joseph arrived in On, the city of the triangle, the city of obelisks, the city of sun, for everything pointed to the sun. It was the city of blinking too, like the city of the Great Ram, but here the sun worship enhanced the glare. One endured the glare to sit in the apex of the triangle, any triangle and be a servant of the sun. Joseph had seen it all once before, when he was with his friend the old man from The Midianite/Ishmaelite Trading Company.

And so to the steps of the palace, and up, Joseph climbed, all the time being carried on, and hurried through the pavilion, gaily coloured, with landscapes on the walls, and ornamental columns, and arrived at a fountain hall shining with pillars of rare and polished wood. The armed men, probably with daggers and short spears, helped speed Joseph, through the antechamber, with deep doors each side, until they arrived in a very large dining hall, where servants were cleaning away fruit plates, brushing up crumbs, plumping up cushions, seeing to the lamps, and incense vases sitting on tripods around the hall. Silver and gold beakers were being cleaned and rearranged on the buffet, ready for the next meal.

All these descriptions lay the foundation for us to understand the opulence and sumptuous palaces that became so familiar to Joseph, and the glory that Joseph displayed for his family, so we must not disregard it as unnecessary detail. Besides to saviour the brilliance of it all, after the tawdry prison, emphasises and extends our joyfulness for Joseph at this time, for he is about to become glorious. He might be full of fear at this minute, but we, with gleeful anticipation, are not, for we know the end.

Joseph needed some quick instruction on protocol as he was escorted to the resting king. They sped through the passage lighted from above with oil lamps, where the walls were painted with harvesting and sacrifice scenes, and past the entrance to the hall of council and audience, to the little garden house where lay the king, instructing his sculptors of what artistic creations he required. The hunchback one, from much bowing, announced him, and in he went.

2. JOSEPH COMES BEFORE PHARAOH

So Joseph came before Pharaoh. Nervousness, excitement and exhilaration must have been all swirling around in Joseph’s emotions, but overriding it all would have been his prayers for guidance and help. Too much confidence would have made him insulated against God’s help. Pharaoh needed to accept Joseph. There is, on surface value, not much to recommend this stranger from afar.

Moses was pushed, but Joseph’s blessing of confidence carried him forward eagerly. The spectacular little logia soon appeared and it sparkled with coloured glass and pretty stones, and designer tiles. The sides were open upon a beautiful garden, with brightly coloured flowers, and a lily pond with islands and bridges and pretty kiosks. The remaining back walls were painted, (obviously by foreigners) of lands and seascapes of faraway places. Such opulence Joseph had never seen, and he took it all in at a glance, and the performing artists, clowns, jugglers, acrobats as well. He saw the little prince with lambskin boots, and particoloured trousers and a feathered headgear, playing with his bow and arrow and fussing around were many coiffured women in beautiful stiff dresses. The dowager queen was there as well, but they all turned to look at his eagerly awaited arrival.

So did the Pharaoh, sitting deep, amid the cushions, in his throne chair, leaning back, and one hand dangling. His legs were crossed, with his linen covered knees drawn up. The gold strap of his sandals ran between his great and second toes, like thongs that we know today. Later in Moses’ time sandals had toe pieces that extended from the front of the sole, back over the top of the sandal in a curling point. They were made of leather or strong raffia. Shoes had to be removed in front of someone of greater authority.

Pharaoh was probably seventeen years old (as Joseph was when he had the technicolour coat, and beguiled his father and tested his brothers). Thomas Mann’s reminders are thrilling and timely.

The Joseph pattern of suffering and recompense is now concluded.

1. His dreams - his brothers hated his dreams, yet because of those dreams he was exalted in Egypt, and they were saved from the drought in Canaan,

2. His coat - his brothers stripped him of his coat, yet the Egyptians clothed him in byssus (fine linen),

3. His pit - his brothers cast him into a pit, but he was finally drawn from the pit in Egypt,

4. His status - his brothers sold him into slavery, yet in Egypt he was made a lord by Pharaoh,

5. His ornaments - he was fettered as a prisoner, yet came to wear gold and chains around his neck.

Now Joseph stands amidst the splendour of Pharaoh who asks him his credentials. The Semitics were treated with respect in Egypt, at this time, but, as well, Joseph had become thoroughly Egyptianised and presented well. Joseph tells the story of his forefathers and their life’s determination built upon their dreams. He tells Pharaoh of the God dreamers who made covenants with their God, that it is He who will interpret the dreams of Pharaoh, so that he (Pharaoh) will at last be at peace.

Pharaoh must have been surprised at the story of the young man’s journey to the Egyptian prison where he became one of the royal slaves. Pharaoh was used to Moors, Libyans and Asiatics bringing gifts of gold bars and gold rings, silver vases, ostrich feathers, oxen, byssus, leopards and elephants - that is, tribute from his conquered lands, and gifts from his worried neighbours. Interestingly, he is pictured with a tortoise shell lyre (from seafaring Crete). Singers and seers swinging their incense came from as far away as India and Babel, and from Arabia and Persia (famous for its beautiful gardens), and they left strange souvenirs and divine signs. The oracle and occult experts never looked like this man, and he came empty handed.

Joseph, now not tactless (having learned his lesson), slowly builds up Pharaoh’s confidence in him and patiently listens to the dream story, presenting himself as God’s agent through whom God’s revelation will be made. Joseph makes many references to God in his discussion with Pharaoh. First of all, Joseph told Pharaoh (after Pharaoh finished the story) “it is not two dreams but one - one dream dreamed twice”.

a. To dream twice is not necessarily to have two dreams.

b. It is one dream dreamed in two forms.

c. A double dream, a royal double dream in this case.

d. To dream it twice means that it has emphasis.

e. The second dream, rhyming with the first, attends to the emphasis, its certainty and its imminence.

Even in this dream sequence presentation in later versions we see the Hebrew poetic literary structure that we so often miss in the AV (which was unknown at the time of that translation).

Here there is a principle of rhyming thoughts, (rather than, as we think of English poetry, rhyming end line sounds), underlying these dreams. There are abundant examples of this in the Proverbs, where the parallelism can be synthetic, or antithetic.

There is another example relevant to our story, “the pit is empty and there is no water in it”, Genesis 37:24.

The cows are years, seven and seven

The ears are years, seven and seven.

Fat cows and fat ears are years of plenty

Thin cows and thin ears are years of famine.

The harshness of the latter, will consume the fullness of the former.

Dearth and death will stalk the earth.

Famine is a feast for the birds.

Every living creature dies.

Famine leaves whole dead villages.

Comment:

It is possible to have famine because of continuing flood, like the people of Bangladesh experience, when they cannot grow food, so we need not assume that all food shortages come from lack of rain. It is a point to consider. Famine may be caused by flood or drought, (or fire).

The city of Tanis (Zoan, or Goshen) once recorded a poll tax paid by 300,000 men, yet following a drought and famine, less than 100 souls remained.

The monarch around this Joseph time is recorded as constructing a complete set of dykes, canals, locks and reservoirs and an artificial lake, perhaps using the resources of the tax system that Joseph was to put in place. Until this time there was a dearth of water controls on the great and mighty Nile. Since then the controls have greatly helped. Whether the Aswan Dam (in our time) a long way south, up the river, has helped, is now in doubt, as the Delta industries have been too restricted.

Elijah’s intercession at Mount Carmel, years later, cut a seven year famine by half, i.e. into three and a half years. 1 Kings 18:45 (see NIV Study Bible). Long famines in the area are well known.

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Pharaoh reasoned rightly

- That as he had dreamed about the food supply this time

- That he has been warned, and

- That he is meant to prepare for the lean years.

If the lean years had come first, the fat years would have been of no help.

Pharaoh agrees with Joseph that

- Plans should be made to take breath to bear the suffering

- And to take weapons to deal with the affliction.

Surely Pharaoh realises now that God has given this blessing of provision and the command to provide - a whole fourteen year plan. Joseph had promised that God would “give Pharaoh an answer of peace”, verse 16, and it was so. And God had prepared Pharaoh’s mind to receive it. In fact Joseph says, “what God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh”, verse 28.

We need to consider whether Pharaoh, and the Egyptians, at this time, are all culpable for not abandoning their idolatrous worship in the face of such a huge acknowledged blessing from the one true God. They may argue that it was a blessing really for God’s children and therefore they were only of peripheral account. Still the rain falling on the unjust is not only to give them a random blessing, but also to give them opportunity to repent.

Here is foresight for what lay ahead, a foresight provided by God. Ah, for foresight. Joseph had lacked it, now he provided it - by God’s gift - for Pharaoh. Joseph suggested a wise and loving taskmaster to teach the people the economy of plenty, (but does not suggest himself). When the famine comes, how their love and trust will increase because of his care of them. The taskmaster’s strictness will be forgiven, when they see a wise and loving taskmaster to teach the people the economy of plenty.

3. THE WISDOM OF JOSEPH

Pharaoh recognises the worth of Joseph’s suggestion. He sees Joseph, instructed by a God who gives him wise and prudent advice, as a wise and a gifted gift for Egypt. After all Pharaoh had no other wise persons. This seemed to be the best thing to do for the years ahead.

Joseph was 30 years old and he became the saviour of Egypt.

The parallels with God’s own son are enormous here.

He would be the viceroy, or the Grand Vizier. The two viziers, one of the North and one of the South, the steward of the storehouses and stalls, and the head of the treasury must all work for, and be responsible to Joseph - no committee here, no counsellors here, just one man in charge. The task is that important. Understandably a Pharaoh appointed committee, at this time, would have no divine and knowledgeable foresight, so it would be impossible to galvanise them into action. Some with faith and some with foresight would create factions and nothing would get done.

Pharaoh is impressed with Joseph’s credentials. What other nomadic race would be able to name a great grandfather, his source and his travels. Why, this great grandfather had even come to Egypt during a great famine, and had a beautiful wife, who had impressed the Pharaoh at the time. On the gifted interpretation of the dreams as well as the credentials, Pharaoh asks Joseph to be the mouthpiece of Egypt, over all, except for Pharaoh.

There are three points to make here -

One

Pharaoh’s increasing appreciation of the God of Joseph must have made some jealousies at court - and even further away from the palace. Verse 37, though, speaks of the goodwill in the eyes of the watching servants, even though the worship of Egypt was not as pagan at this time, as it became later. God continued to bless Pharaoh for Joseph’s sake. However there must have been some traitors anxious for a false step, or an opportunity for poison. We have discussed before, in other incidents the effect of the jealousy poison on the life of Joseph.

Two

If we did not know the story, we would be at this point full of wonder. Though glad of our blessing (of being Bible literate) it is a pity that we miss the emotion of wonder and astonishment at the first telling. If we do know the story, it is useful to try to experience the excitement and wonder, and to smile with joy, after all the sadness.

Three

The affliction of blindness to futurity affects us all, but Joseph’s brothers would have said at this time, “Oh, if only we’d known”. They did say it nine years later. The lesson for us is obvious.

Joseph accepts the task and places himself in Pharaoh’s hands. Over it all, like an umbrella, is God. In Egypt, Joseph is not known by this Hebrew name, Osarsiph - the dead one - dead to his father, pulled out of the death pit. It is a possible name, as has been earlier suggested, signed on the Egyptian migration list at Thel in the Customs House, and a name recommended by the old man in The Midianite/Ishmaelite Trading Company. He is dead to his father, but not to us, certainly not to the Egyptians. Now Pharaoh has a problem about his name, but he will easily solve that, “no name” means Pharaoh can name this Prime Minister whatever he pleases. “And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath paaneah”, Genesis 41:45.

New barns will need to be constructed (and smeared with cat grease to scare the mice away). These granaries of Egypt are today well documented. Tax officials will need to be educated, and employed with fixed ratings, to eliminate bribes and corruption. The grain must be distributed to the poor and sold to the rich. People will come on pilgrimages from far away places to buy bread and seed corn, driven by need and hunger. They will pay, not only with gold and silver and wood, but they will pay with their sons and daughters as well - even themselves. They will not pretend to be loyal, and look at their neighbour with a winking eye; they will be loyal, for they will be bound by their own children, who will be slaves in Egypt. William Blaikie thinks that Hagar may have come to Egypt as a slave from south of Egypt. It was a common occurrence.

Pharaoh could see that, with the drought expanding, the surrounding nations, even far up, to the river that “ran the wrong way” (the Euphrates running south), would be subject to him. No one now doubted the respect people had for him, now no one ever referred to the killings he had to accomplish to gain respect, amongst his enemies. This wonderful plan with, hopefully, its great success, would be a bulwark against the whisperers, who sniffed and spat about his allegiance to the man, who worshipped the Hebrew God. No person prevented the servants of Joseph, each from his function in God’s plan, and Pharaoh is recorded (verse 38:39) as appreciating God’s wisdom and goodness. It is difficult to know whether this was just “court talk”, or whether there was a real appreciation of God.

With great ceremony Pharaoh took the ring from his finger and placed it on Joseph’s finger. “With this ring I decree that you are my signatory - you have the royal signet to make decrees into law. It is your symbol of authority” Joseph was indeed first in the land, and whatever law he made he placed the seal upon it

Pharaoh endorsed the authority that he gave to Joseph with a ring, and Joseph remembered to thank God for all his blessings, and prepared for the famine.

On Sahel Island near the modern first cataract of the Nile, a famous inscription records a period of seven disastrous years, when the Nile did not flood. This event may well have caused the 7 years of famine for which Joseph prepared.

Webber like (Andrew Lloyd Webber), we also have a story of a dream coat.

We close our eyes, and draw back the curtain

And see for certain,

That long ago that dream was true.

We know the pleasures of the Canaan ways,

And then the weeping of the Egyptian days

When that coat was destroyed.

The darkness was accompanied by

Waiting and hesitating

Until the dream came true.

To some people any dream will do,

But for Joseph

God’s dream was certain.

And in the west as our sun is setting

We return to our beginnings,

To our longings and our dream coat.

Our hands are shaking now, and

With our longing our fingers itch,

To do His bidding.

Our heads are filled with memory,

And our eyes overflow,

And we feel our heart would break.

But with that weeping,

The uncompromising melody moves

To its conclusion and draws us with it

- to His kingdom.

CONCLUSION:

If we recognise a glow in out hearts at this turn of events, Joseph must have felt it intently. All of us know that God is here and that we are on holy ground. Go, Joseph, go, go, go.

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