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NRSV Genesis 45:1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 10 You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. 11 I will provide for you there– since there are five more years of famine to come– so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.’ 12 And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. 13 You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” 14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

The dramatic story of Joseph and his brothers comes to a climax in these verses. This scene speaks a profound theology of God’s ability to redeem suffering. In response to the clear contrition of his brothers as represented by the words of Judah, Joseph breaks down (v. 1). He clears the area of all persons except for his brothers. Despite being alone, Joseph is so emotional and weeping so loudly that the Egyptians in the area as well as the household of Pharaoh could hear Joseph (v. 2). In verse 3, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. Notice Joseph’s first concern–it is his father. Joseph wants to know if Jacob is still living. This is further confirmation of Joseph’s character. He does not focus first on himself or on the culpability of his brothers. In the face of this revelation, Joseph’s brothers are terrified. The NRSV “dismayed” is too qualified. The verb generally suggests a response of fear or alarm. The implication here is that Joseph’s brothers are horrified rather than joy filled in the presence of Joseph. They expect to be punished rather than to experience forgiveness and reconciliation. Throughout the above background, the brothers consistently interpreted their troubles in Egypt as punishment for their earlier actions toward Joseph.

But this encounter with Joseph is not merely about past wrongs; it is about the future of God’s people. Verses 4-13 contain Joseph does not whitewash the sins of his brothers (v. 4). Joseph identifies himself as “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.” Joseph does not whitewash the past; he calls a spade a spade. He speaks the truth to his brothers by verbalizing the elephant in the room. But Joseph does not leave the brothers in the past. Instead he pronounces a God-centered interpretation of the past that also explains the present and opens up the future for good. In verse 5, he attempts to comfort his brothers. They need not be afraid of him nor should they be angry with themselves. They do not need to live with regret for the rest of their lives because God has been at work to bring salvation to the family. This good news is the basis for the rest of Joseph’s speech.

Perhaps for the first time, Joseph is able to look back at the events of his life and see God’s hand in working God’s best for God’s people. Yes, Joseph’s brothers acted unjustly, but amazingly God was able to work God’s salvation despite of and even through the actions of his brothers. This is the recurring theme of Joseph’s words (45:5-8). God has had a bigger plan. Joseph’s brothers had intended to eliminate Joseph in order to preserve and prosper their own lives, but the result was the creation of a personal hell for themselves and for Jacob of shame, guilt, loss, and mourning. God is able to reshape these tragic events into an opportunity for the preservation and prosperity of the entire family and even for many of the surrounding nations. By selling Joseph into slavery, his brothers unwittingly permitted God to provide safety and salvation for God’s people during the time of famine. This is the key insight that allows Joseph to move forward through the pain of the past. He is able to discern God’s work in the midst of the hardships of his life. He is able to testify to the ways in which God was able to transform cruelty, jealousy, and injustice into a means for achieving God’s purposes. Joseph discerns this so clearly that in verse 8 he remarks stunningly, “So it was not you who sent me here but God….”

It is crucial to not draw incorrect applications from this passage. This is not an invitation to engage in unjust actions with the hope that God’s grace will work things out for the offended. It is not a story about passively accepting one’s fate. This text is not encouraging a naïve theology in which every injustice experienced will quickly evidence some greater good that will be obvious to all involved. Instead, the story of Joseph points to the profound power of God to shape God’s future despite the sinful actions of humanity. Life can be messy, but God is faithful. This is the truth that Paul articulates in Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

In verses 9-15 Joseph turns to the immediate future for his family. He orders his brothers to return quickly to Jacob to share with him the good news that his son Joseph is alive and to bring the rest of the family to Egypt to live in safety with abundance. His father must know all the good that Joseph has experienced in Egpyt. Last, Joseph physically embraces his brothers in an act of public reconciliation. In verse 14, he embraces and weeps over his brother Benjamin. In verse 15, he kisses and weeps over his ten older brothers who had been living in a prison of guilt and fear over their actions toward him so many years before.

I have two young daughters, and they like all things “princess.” They love Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Snow White, Fairy Tale Barbie…. Most importantly, however, they believe that they are princesses. They want to grow up and one day and marry a handsome prince and live in a castle like Cinderella’s. I love this about my girls. They seem to have an innate sense that they can be persons of significance now and in the future.

I can remember some of my own dreams when I was a child. Like many boys, I was interested in sports and guns. I can remember believing as an elementary school child that I would grow up to be a Hall of Fame football player or a heroic soldier who would risk it all for the sake of my comrades. I devoured books on sports legends and war heroes.

I am not intending to limit males and females to these sorts of stereotypical dreams, but rather want to emphasize the reality that all of us are born with these sorts of longings–longings to become someone great, a person of significance.

But what happens as we mature? How many of still believe that we can live heroic lives or make even a small difference in the wider world? But nonetheless, we remain dogged by these longings, don’t we?

Why do you think that God crafted us with longings to be persons who live lives that make a difference?

What are the missional implications of this phenomenon?

I hope that everyone enjoys a Happy Thanksgiving.

Gratitude is a key Christian virtue. The comic strip “Mutts” has focused on thankfulness and gratitude all week with a recurring quotation from the medieval Christian mystic Meister Eckhart:

What are you thankful for this year?

The presence of passages regulating slavery in the Bible are problematic (and rightly so) for modern readers of the Old and New Testament. These texts often serve as stumbling blocks for persons who otherwise are open to taking the Bible’s claims about God seriously. I want to post some exegetical and theological reflections on Exodus 21:1-11 in the hope of helping persons who take the authority of the Bible seriously to gain some hermeneutical awareness of how to deal with difficult passages.

Here is the text of Exodus 21:1-11–

NIV Exodus 21:1 “These are the laws you are to set before them: 2 “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. 5 “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life. 7 “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do. 8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. 9 If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. 10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. 11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

Reflection:
1) The Old Testament assumes the existence of the institution of slavery. This may strike us a problematic, but remember that there is not a single verse in the Bible written explicitly in the defense of slavery. Instead, the laws here in Exod 21 explicitly establish rights and protections for those most vulnerable. The Old Testament (see Laws on Slavery) ultimately moves to a position of no ownership of Hebrew slaves.

The NT does not abolish slavery either (see especially Eph 6:5 “Slaves obey your masters…”). However, the trajectory towards a full abolition continues. Unlike the OT, Paul could not simply order the Roman Empire to abolish slavery. It wasn’t an option. Paul however makes at least three key points: 1) slave and free are equal in Christ (Gal 3:28 and Col 3:11), 2) Paul exhorts Philemon to accept his slave Onesimus back as “more than a slave, but as a brother” (v. 16) and to welcome him as Philemon would have welcomed Paul. These words at least imply that Philemon ought to free Onesimus, and 3) 1 Tim 1:10 lists “slave trader/kidnapper” in a grouping of ungodly practices. Thus, there is clearly a redemptive trajectory toward the full abolition of all slavery. The slave issue is important hermeutically for two important issues that often ride on the coat-tails of the slavery argument: status of women and status of homosexuals. The argument for the full equality of women both socially and especially in terms of their ordination in our churches also rides on a redemptive trajectory argument. Problematically, however, is the fact that the pro-homosexual lobby (by this I mean those who want male-male and female-female sexual contact to be declassifed as a sin with the corollary that sexually active homosexuals be allowed to serve as ordained ministers and bishops) attempts to argue that a similar trajectory occurs in terms of homosexuality. It is way beyond the confines of this class to offer a full treatment. The short counter-argument is that unlike the cases of slavery and the status of women there is not a hint in the Bible that even suggests a ground for positing a change.

For those interested in reading more about a “redemptive trajectory” hermeneutic, see the following resources:

William Webb, Slaves,Women, and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis (IVP, 2001). Also see Asbury’s own David L. Thompson’s “Women, Men, Slaves and the Bible: Hermeneutical Inquiries,” CSR 25 (1996): 326-49.

2) Even in these laws that seem so foreign to us, we can see a distinct concept of justice at work. Slaves are not to be held for indefinite periods of time (contrast with the slavery experienced by Israel in Egypt) and even the most vulnerable of slaves (the female servant) receives a carefully delineated set of legal protections.

3) Stress on restorative justice and not simply punishment. Slaves are restored to freedom. Even female slaves are restored to freedom in certain conditions. Thus there is not merely a stress on punishment of offenders.

4) The Decalogue and Covenant Code have to be read in light of Israel’s twin vocation of a kingdom of priests and holy nation (19:5-6). Part of being a holy nation required that the people embody the character of God. This meant that justice has to be available even for those of low status - slaves.

5) It is fascinating from an exegetical point of view how this passage has been treated. Above, I have set out some basic principles that are present in the laws that could be applied to our modern setting. My reflections are quite general. Consider in contrast the exegetical use of Exod 21:5 by Ambrose:
“That man is truly free, a true Hebrew, who is entirely God’s. Everything that he possesses shares in freedom. He has nothing in common with the man who rejects freedom and says, ‘I have loved my master…I will not go free.’ The man who subjects himself to the world is returned not only to his master but also to his infirmity, because he loves the world or his mind, that is his nous, the author of this desire. He is returned not only to his wife but even to those pleasures which make him so bound to household matters that he does not care for what is eternal. Thus ‘at his threshold and door his master shall pierce his ear,’ in order that he might remember the decision by which he chose slavery.” Letter 1(7).14

Or Jerome:
On verse 21:2, Jerome writes: “We read that every Hebrew keeps the same Passover, and that in every seventh year every prisoner is set free, and that at Jubilee, that is the fiftieth year, every possession returns to its owner. All this refers not to the present but to the future. For being in bondage during the six days of the world, on the seventh day, the true and eternal sabbath, we shall be free. If we wish to be free, we will be free even while still in bondage in the world. If, however, we do not desire it, our ear will be bored in token of our disobedience. We shall with our wives and children remain in perpetual slavery if we prefer the flesh and its works to liberty.” Against Jovinian 2.25

It is interesting that Desmond Alexander in his modern treatment of the Pentateuch From Paradise to the Promised Land makes a similar move. On 21:5-11 he writes, “In contrast, the inclusion of the statutes concerning a slave who loves his master (21:5-6) and a female servant (21:7-11) are intended to highlight various aspects of Israel’s covenant relationship with the LORD; the Israelites will remain faithful to them.” (87)

6) Paul employs the slave/servant motif effectively in the NT. It is striking that the idea of God as master and the believer/Israel as slave was viewed as an effective image for thinking about the Christian life. Yet, in the Greco-Roman world where up to 1/3rd of the population lived as a slave, this image remained a potent one.

Reflect on a few of these verses:

NIV Romans 6:15-23 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey– whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

NIV 1 Corinthians 7:22-23 For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

What questions do you have?

© 2006 Brian D. Russell

Forgiveness. Reconciliation. These are words that stand at the heart of community and intimacy. Where would we be without the power of forgiveness? How many friendships would endure without forgiveness? How many marriages would last without forgiveness? How many families would be able to stick together without it?

Forgiveness is a gift that an offended person offers to an offender. It is the bedrock of all relationships. It serves as a balm for a broken relationship. It opens up the future by healing past hurts.

Mother Teresa reminds us of its importance in these two quotations: If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive. And We must make our homes centers of compassion and forgive endlessly. We instinctively resonate with Teresa’s words, but we also know that the work of forgiveness and reconciliation can be difficult. Perhaps this is the reason that Alexander Pope, the great 18th century English poet wrote in his poem “An Essay on Criticism,” To err is human; to forgive is divine. We all are guilty of actions, some intentional other unintentional, which have hurt others deeply. This is part of the human condition. We are imperfect and tend to default to self-centeredness more often than we would care to admit. Yet, Scripture is clear that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God has offered the gift of forgiveness and an invitation to a reconciled relationship.

Yet God does not simply leave forgiveness to the realm of the divine. God desires for it to be the modus operandi of Christian community as well. Forgiveness stands at the center of the Lord’s Prayer: forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). Note that the petition requesting God’s forgiveness of our sins presupposes that we have taken a stance of forgiveness toward those who have offended us.

Why is forgiveness so important in relationships? Why is it difficult for us to give and/or receive forgiveness?

Failure and disappointment happen. They are part of the fabric of life. No one is immune from their unwelcome appearance into our lives. It is however how one reacts to failure and disappointment that will shape ultimately our character and the future into which God invites us.

I enjoy writing very much, but for a time, I struggled to find venues for publishing. I was able to get a few small essays and book reviews into journals and magazines, but
the “big break” continued to elude me. In fact, I began to pile up a disappointing collection of rejection letters from publishers who did not find my ideas for books and essays promising. Some rejection letters included significant amounts of criticism of my writing and thinking. Much of it was personally painful to read. Yet, I was convinced that I would be able to make a contribution to the world through writing.

Thus, I refused to allow the word “no” to deter me. I learned to value letters of rejection and even criticism because I was able to improve my skills as a writer through reflecting on the comments of editors and reviews. I continued to publish small essays including an enrichment article a couple of years ago in Adult Bible Studies—Teacher. The current editor was brand new at the time, and he liked my small essay. This led to my first big break—the editor offered me an opportunity to work on a full-length Adult Bible Studies—Teacher book. Practice and perseverance paid off. Without experiencing failure and rejection, I may have never improved my writing skills enough to make a broader contribution to the Church.

Failure will come to us all. It is inevitable. However, ultimately, it is our reaction to failure more than failure itself that determines our future. As persons seeking to live as the people that God created us to be, we need to get a handle on failure and disappointment.

How have the failures and disappointments in your life impacted you? Have they proven to be doors to new opportunities or brick walls that have crushed dreams?