We have arrived at the emotional peak of the Joseph story
this week, and probably one of the most emotional scenes in the Torah. Joseph,
who has not yet revealed his identity to his brothers, listens to his brother
Judah speak about the heartbreak it would cause their father Jacob if the
brothers were to return home without Benjamin. And as Judah goes on to plead
that Joseph take him as a slave in place of Benjamin, Joseph can no longer
control his emotions. He breaks down in tears and says to his brothers “I am
Joseph.”
Joseph continues, reassuring his brothers that “it was to
save life that God sent me ahead of you. . . to save your lives in an extraordinary
deliverance.”(Gen. 45:5-7) This is the meaning that Joseph has chosen to derive
from his having been sold down to Egypt as a slave by his own brothers. There
was a larger purpose – to save life.
It is not entirely clear if the “extraordinary deliverance”
to which Joseph is referring is the short-term rescue of his family from the
famine or the dramatic Exodus that is to come 400 years from now. Nevertheless,
Joseph’s willingness to forgive his brothers and to find a greater purpose in
his own suffering is striking.
Can we relate to Joseph’s reading of the meaning of his
life? He sees God’s hand in all that has happened to him. Is this because he
has dreamed it or because God has come to him with prophecies? Or does he sees
God’s hand because this is the only way he can remain whole spiritually?
In contrast to Joseph, his father Jacob, when introducing
himself to Pharaoh, says, “Few and hard have been the years of my life, nor do
they come up to the life spans of my fathers during their sojourns.”(Gen 47:9)
As he looks back at the ups and downs of his life, Jacob seems embittered,
without clarity about the meaning of it all. Although he is now reunited with the
son he once though dead, instead of rejoicing, he complains.
Is Joseph being pollyanish here, in seeing God’s redemptive
hand in the difficulties of his life, or is this the choice one makes in order
to feel at peace and whole and strong?
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