Joseph has already figured out that his father is favoring Benjamin over his other brothers just as Jacob once favored him.  Joseph has exaggerated this favoritism in his own house to remind the brothers of how it feels to be set under their youngest brother.  With the bitter flavor of inequality still in their mouths Jacob’s sons set off for home.  Then Joseph hands his older brothers the perfect scenario for getting rid of young Benjamin and watches what they will do.  Joseph plants his silver cup in Benjamin’s grain sack as a pretext for bringing him back.  The brothers have their first opportunity to abandon Ben here, Joseph’s men do not try to detain them, just Benjamin.  Nevertheless they all return to Joseph’s house an there Joseph demands Benjamin as a slave and releases the rest of the brothers to be on their merry way.  But they will not go.  Judah, the very one who sold Joseph to Egypt begs Joseph to take him and let the boy go free.  It feels like a pretty extreme test of character.  And hardly fair to poor Benjamin.  Yet, what else could Joseph do?  Before he could restore relationship with his brothers he needed to know whether they could be trusted not to turn on him and his children in envy over their even more exalted position than any one that Jacob gave him.  I’m not saying that wee need to test people by throwing them in prison or lying, but I am saying that we should give those who have wronged us a chance to show they have changed.  We should not just write them off.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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Joseph’s brothers do bow down before him.  They enter his presence as supplicants asking the head og Egypt for grain.  Though Joseph instantly recognizes them, they do not know him and he takes pains to keep it that way.  Joseph is greeted with the sight of all the brothers who betrayed him and is missing the one brother who is fully his kin and not a part of the decision to sell him as a slave.  I don’t know whether his throwing the brothers into prison and then sending them away to fetch Benjamin was a well thought out scheme to be sure the brothers had changed and were treating Benjamin properly, or it was a burst of anger wishing to punish them for all his misery by throwing them in prison and scaring them.  I’m not entirely certain Joseph knew.  In the end it is a brilliant way to truly find out if his brothers have changed in the years since their betrayal.  I am pretty certain Joseph enjoyed throwing them into the prison he had inhabited for all those years after Potiphar had him arrested.  But Joseph does not get revenge.  He saves his family from the famine and sets up the situation by which he will be able to see Benjamin and decide whter to reconcile with his family or support them with grain from afar.  May we be as wise when the ones we hurt now need something from us.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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God send Pharaoh two dreams of the thin and scraggly devouring the plump and pleasing.  Whether cows or wheat grains the message was the same, things will be very good and then they will be very bad.  No one in his court could interpret the dream and as Pharaoh is getting impatient the cupbearer remembers his two year old promise, and mentions Joseph.  In the interview of his life Joseph gives God all the credit for any interpretive ability and, when told the dream, identifies it as a message from the God of Abraham to the Pharaoh of Egypt.  Seven years of abundant harvest is coming and seven years of terrible famine will follow.  After Joseph interprets the dream he sees fit to continue and advise Pharaoh how to set up a system to save food in Egypt in order to survive the coming ecological disaster.  As audacious as it was for a prisoner just out of the dungeon to give the ruler of the most powerful nation in the area advice, Pharaoh sees through appearances and listens closely.  Let us remember that sometimes the best ideas come from those we least expect to find the right solution to a problem.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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Upon arriving in Egypt Joseph is sold as a slave.  On the positive side Joseph is sold to a powerful and rich man, so life is pretty secure, on the down side he is still a slave.  This boy who had servants in his father’s household now is a servant.  Joseph prospers in his new situation.  God is with him to bless his master for all of Joe’s hard work.  Good slaves being difficult to find, Potiphar promotes Joseph to steward of his entire household and gives no more thought to running his own estates.  Through no fault of his own Joseph become the target of Potipar’s wife.  She desires him and will not take no for an answer.  When Joseph runs from her perfect seduction setup, she accuses him of the very thing he refused to do and Potiphar throws Joseph in jail for attempting to rape his wife.  Some take his refusal to execute Joseph but only jailing him as Potiphar questioning his wife’s story.  Even in his descent to jail Joseph retains God’s favor.  Throughout this passage we are reminded that everywhere he went, God was with Joseph.  In the prison Joe quickly becomes the warden’s right hand man and practically runs the place.  But once again all the upside in the world does not erase the fact that he is in prison.  Joseph‘s trials did not mean that God abandoned him.  Your own trials do not mean that God has abandoned you.  He is still there and He still loves you.

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Dr. Dwight
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Joseph is not always the smartest guy in the room.  If he really was he would quit telling everyone he was the smartest guy in the room.  His father pampers him, God sends him visions of ruling over hi family (which he will) and Joseph embraces his father’s favoritism and crows about God’s vision.  Watching your dad obviously favor your brother is bad enough, but then having the little twerp tell you he will rule over the whole family one day is just adding insult to injury.  Then the quailing tells dad that you and the rest of the boys are goofing off instead of working.  Joseph helped to brew the stew he found himself in, but getting sold into slavery is hardly a fitting punishment for the crime of being a little arrogant and pampered.  Joseph’s own brothers sell him into slavery.  How alone and abandoned he must have felt, following the camels of the Midianites across the desert to Egypt.  How small he must have felt moving from his tents and flocks to the imperial magnificence that was Egypt of the period.  It is easy to fast forward to the end of the story and see how God is setting up the fulfillment of the vision, but right now Joseph must have been feeling abandoned and forgotten by God.  The next time we feel abandoned let us remember Joseph, and how God was with him through it all.

Without Wax,

Dr. Dwight
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