JOSEPH
Shall you indeed reign over us?
Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?
—Joseph’s brothers
“You remember Joseph, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Favorite son of Rachel at the back of the line.”
“That’s the one,” said the man. “He becomes the primary focus in this last portion of Genesis.”
“Alright,” said the boy, “let’s hear it.”
“We tune in when Joseph is seventeen, feeding the flock with his brothers. We learn that Joseph ‘brought a bad report of them to his father.’”
“Great. A tattletale,” said the boy. “I hate him already.”
“You’re not alone,” said the man. “It’s made clear that Joseph is the favorite child, and his father makes him a special tunic of many colors, so his brothers hate him when they see their father favors Joseph.”
“I would too,” said the boy. “Clearly no one is learning a lesson about playing favorites.”
“No, they’re not, and the consequences will come again soon. But first, Joseph has a dream in which he tells his brothers the following,” said the man:
“There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”164
“A tattletale and a narcissist?” said the boy. “Even better.”
“There’s no context as to why he initially shared this dream with his brothers. Perhaps there was a genuine curiosity to see what they thought, or a need for help interpreting things, but it’s not clear his intention was to ignite his brother’s jealousy, although that was the result. His brothers tell him, ‘Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?’ And they hate him even more, for what in their eyes is bragging about this prediction of fate. Then he has another dream, and he tells his brothers again, ‘And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.’”
“What a little shit,” said the boy. “He deserves whatever’s coming to him.”
“Careful what you say,” said the man. “But this time he tells his father, too, making it clear these astral bodies represent his family bowing down before him. And even his father scolds him for suggesting the entire family will grovel on their knees. ‘What is this dream that you have dreamed?’ he says. ‘Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?’”
“Isn’t he Rachel’s kid?”
“I suppose ‘mother’ could have implied either the spirit of the departed Rachel or the still-living Leah,” said the man.
“Ah, okay,” said the boy. “Keep going then.”
“From there we see his brothers go to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. So Israel sends Joseph to see if all is well with his brothers and tells him to bring back word. So Joseph heads to Shechem and a man finds him wandering around the fields looking lost. He asks Joseph what he’s looking for and Joseph says, ‘I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.’ And the man tells him they’ve left, but before they did he heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’”
“Uh-oh,” said the boy. “The tattletale coming to spy on his brothers in another one of those cities.”
“The motivation to visit Dothan isn’t clear, but it doesn’t end well for Joseph either way,” said the man, reading on:
They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.165
“That seems a bit drastic,” said the boy. “I think I take back what I said.”
“I had a feeling you would,” said the man. “Wait till you hear what happens next.”
“Alright, shoot.”
So the man continued:
They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.”
But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.”166
The man looked up and said, “Reuben says this so he can come back later and return Joseph to their father.”
“Who is Reuben again?”
“Jacob’s oldest son with Leah,” said the man, “which brings up an interesting point. All the favoritism shined on Joseph should rightfully belong to Reuben, so it’s curious as to why he’s sticking up for him here. Not only is he protecting someone who’s taken his place as the rightful heir, but rescuing Joseph and returning him to their father would betray the rest of his brothers by exposing their actions.”
“I’m listening,” said the boy.
So the man read on:
So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the multicolored tunic that was on him, and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it. Then they sat down to eat a meal.167
“Jeez, don’t let your brother rotting in some pit spoil your appetite now,” said the boy.
The man continued:
They looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.168
“They sell their brother? These people are animals!”
“Indeed they are,” said the man. “And when the traders pass by they pull Joseph from the pit and sell him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, and they take Joseph to Egypt.”
“Alright, I definitely take back what I said.”
The old man gave a nod. “It seems Reuben chose not to stay and eat with his brothers, because when he returns to the pit to fetch Joseph in secret later, he was gone. Reuben becomes heartbroken, and understandably so.”
“Wait a minute,” said the boy. “Wasn’t this the son that slept with Jacob’s concubine?”
“Yes, well—”
“Pffft. This guy was just trying to save face with his dad by rescuing the favorite son.”
“Well it’s possible he just loved his broth—”
“In this family? I don’t think so, pal.” The boy shook his head. “Keep going.”
The old man smiled as he said, “So the brothers take Joseph’s tunic, kill one of their goats, and dip it in blood. Then they bring it to their father.” Then he looked down and read:
“We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?”
And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.”169
“And as you can expect,” said the man, “Jacob didn’t take the news too well. He mourns his son for many days, and when his children try to comfort him, he tells them he will mourn his son until the day he joins him in the grave.”
“Ouch,” said the boy.
“Ouch is right,” said the man. “Meanwhile the traders sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.”
The boy noticed the man turn the page prematurely and begin reading from the bottom of the next:
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiph—
“Woah, woah, woah,” said the boy. “What’s happening here?”
“Well, Joseph was sold into slavery, remember?”
“No, no, no. I think you know what I mean.”
“Oh, well, nothing important really,” said the man.
But before he could finish speaking, the boy slid his hand under the book and turned it toward himself. He flipped to the prior page and began skim reading aloud. “Judah leaves his brothers and marries a Canaanite girl… They pop out a few kids… The first son marries, but God thinks he’s wicked so He kills him for no apparent reason..?” said the boy, shaking his head. “Judah tells his next son to marry her and raise an heir for his brother…” said the boy with a face of confusion. “And what’s going on here?” the boy asked. “It says when he went into her, he ‘emitted’ on the ground. What does that mean?”
The man blushed a bit and stumbled over his words. “Well, he, um, spills his, uh… Well he wastes his, uh…” The man paused and said, “Do you know what the term coitus interruptus means?”
“Oh, he pulled out,” said the boy, skim reading on. “And this displeased the Lord, so the Lord killed him too..?” The boy looked up in surprise. “What? God killed someone because he didn’t like being forced to knock up his wicked brother’s wife?”
The old man drew in a deep breath as the boy stared blankly in his direction. He let out a long sigh before he began to explain. “Marrying a widow to the next brother in line was a custom passed down through tradition. The children born to this practice were seen as perpetuating the family line of the departed brother. When Onan wastes his, well, seed, he did so intentionally to deny his brother a family so that he would inherit Judah’s property and livestock instead. He robbed his brother of his legacy, inheritance, and support for his wife. The Lord saw this act of greed as dishonorable.”
“Dishonorable?” said the boy. “He brought His big thumb down and squashed him like an ant!”
“How Onan’s life is cut short isn’t detailed,” said the man. “But, yes, the Lord of the Old Testament is often seen as harsher than the Lord of the New Testament.”
“Levi and Simeon slit the throats of an entire town,” said the boy. “Pulling out of a wicked man’s wife you were forced to marry is worse than that?”
“Well, I’ve heard speculation that Onan used Tamar for sex, but rather than honoring her as his new wife and giving her the blessing of being a future mother, he ‘pulled out,’ as you say, treating her like some kind of prostitute. Can you find any morality in that?”
The boy had nothing to say.
“One of the reasons what’s known as a ‘levirate marriage’ will later become part of Mosaic law is because a childless widow didn’t have much of a place in ancient society. This practice was to protect a woman who’d already given up her virginity to a deceased husband.” There was another awkward pause. “Again, I didn’t write it,” said the man. “I’m just sharing what I know about the context of the times.”
“Here,” said the boy, turning the Bible back to face the man, “you finish it. It can’t get much worse.”
The old man groaned. “It always seems to get worse.”
“When do we get to the holy part of the Bible?” said the boy. “The beginning is pure chaos.”
“It sure is,” said the man, looking down to read again:
Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son grows up,” for he feared that he would die like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father’s house.170
“Judah’s probably starting to think all his descendants will be cursed.”
The man paused for a moment as he thought about it. “We’ll get there,” he said. “Anyway, as time goes on, Judah’s wife dies. After he recovers from the grief he goes up to Timnah to shear his sheep. When Tamar hears of this, she changes out of her widow’s clothes and covers her face with a veil. By this time she’s realized Judah’s youngest son had grown up and hadn’t been given to her as a husband, out of his father’s fear he’d die like his brothers. So she goes to sit at the open road on the way to Timnah.” The man looked down to read once more:
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face.
Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.
So she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
And he said, “I will send a young goat from the flock.”
So she said, “Will you give me a pledge till you send it?”
Then he said, “What pledge shall I give you?”
So she said, “Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.”
Then he gave them to her, and went in to her.171
“I smell trouble,” said the boy.
“Yes, well, Tamar becomes pregnant from that exchange,” said the man, “which I’ll get to momentarily. But first Tamar returns home and changes back into her widow’s clothes, so when Judah sends his friend to exchange the promised goat and take back his pledge, he can no longer find her. He asks the locals where he can find the harlot of Timnah and they tell him there is no such harlot around. He stops the search and chalks his staff and signet up to a loss to spare his reputation the mark of sleeping with a harlot, not to mention so soon after the death of his wife.”
The boy shook his head. “Well that’s what he gets for trusting some strumpet with his most valuable object.”
The man tried to hold back a smile. “Yes, but three months later Judah’s informed that Tamar has become pregnant by means of prostitution, so Judah says, ‘Bring her out and let her be burned!’”
“Jeez!” said the boy. “That seems harsh.”
“Not to mention hypocritical,” said the man. “But clever Tamar shows Judah the seal and staff and says, ‘By the man to whom these belong, I am with child.’ So Judah acknowledges what’s happened and he says, ‘She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.’”
“Got ’em,” said the boy. “What a mess though. Everyone loves to come up with these crazy schemes.”
“They do indeed,” said the man, reading on again:
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand, so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!”172
“And his name was called Perez,” said the man, “meaning breach or burst forth. And after, his brother was born with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.”
“What does that one mean?”
“I’ve found things like ‘dawn’ or ‘rising’ or ‘brightness,’” said the man, “but none of them exactly seem fitting.”
“They sound like they’re words describing the sun,” said the boy. “Maybe it’s a play on how the sun will show itself temporarily and then disappear again.”
The man’s eyebrows perked up. “You know, that’s not half bad.”
“Call me a scholar,” said the boy.
The man smiled and said, “Now from here we go to Egypt. If you recall, Joseph was purchased by Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, Potiphar.” The man looked down and read:
The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care. With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.173
“What does that last line mean?”
“It means Potiphar didn’t have to concern himself with anything but food because he trusted Joseph so much to run his affairs.”
“Ah, okay,” said the boy.
So the man read on:
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”174
“Oh brother,” said the boy. “The drama never stops.”
“No,” said the man, “seems it doesn’t. But it’s difficult to overstate the position this puts Joseph in. Normally a slave would have to obey his master’s wife, but here, of course, this command would cause Joseph to commit a betrayal of his master.”
“Here comes the tattletale,” said the boy.
“Not exactly,” said the man. “Joseph refuses her advances day after day, asking how he could commit such wicked sin against his Lord. But on one occasion, Joseph was working when no one else was around and she grabs his garment saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he leaves his garment behind and runs away. Clearly upset by the ongoing rejection, Potiphar’s wife calls the men of the house and tells them he tried to force himself upon her, saying when she yelled for help he left his garment and ran. When her husband returns, she tells him the same story and he was furious, so he threw Joseph in jail.”
The man looked up and saw anger brewing in the boy’s eyes. “What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” said the man. “You seem pretty upset about something.”
“It’s nothing,” said the boy. “This story just strikes a personal chord, that’s all.”
“Care to explain?” said the man.
“I don’t know. It’s a pretty sensitive topic these days.”
The man looked over his shoulder to the left, then over his other shoulder to the right. Then he looked back at the boy. “I don’t see any sensitive people around here.”
The boy hesitated for a moment longer, but then he spoke. “I had this friend who graduated before me. His freshman year at college he hooked up with a girl in his dorm one night after they’d both been drinking. The next day the police showed up to interrogate him, saying the girl claimed she’d been raped. He was shocked. Everyone was shocked. They looked into the case and there were all these texts on the girl’s phone saying she was coming over and wanted to hook up. There were even texts with her friends saying she was going to his place to get laid. The guy had no track record of anything like this before and plenty of people came to his defense saying he wasn’t that kind of guy. I mean I knew the guy and he’d never do anything like that. But despite all the evidence, they arrested him and kicked him out of school. They ruined his whole life because of this girl’s claim!”
The man remained silent to allow the boy to finish, but when it appeared he had nothing more to say, he spoke. “As they say, there are three sides to every story, perspective A, perspective B, and the truth. But it doesn’t seem fair there wasn’t any kind of due process in this situation.”
“None,” said the boy. “They just took her side because she’s a girl and conjured tears. And look, there’s no way I can say for sure he didn’t do anything. Maybe things started and she wanted to stop and he kept going, or something like that, but what happened to innocent until proven guilty? They fuck up a guy’s life when all the evidence points to the contrary?”
“What motivation do you think she’d have for lying?” said the man.
“What motivation does any woman have to lie about anything?” said the boy. “Maybe somebody found out and started teasing her. Maybe she thought it was a good idea when she was drunk but sobered up and regretted it. Maybe he had a tiny dick and came in two seconds and she never wanted to see him again. Or maybe he flat out rejected her like Joseph did and she wanted to make him pay. Are you trying to convince me no woman has ever justified lying about anything? That we have to believe all women just because they have a vagina? That amongst the billions of them that have existed throughout history not a single one has bent the truth to screw over a man?”
“That’s not exactly what I was getting at,” said the man. “But wome—”
“This isn’t even about women! It’s about liars, and truth. And in this case there was no evidence to prove what was truth and what was a lie. But that doesn’t mean you just pick sides because of a gender and ruin someone’s life. Take it to court, bring them in front of a jury or whatever you have to do. And if more women come out and say he did that to them as well, then okay, we have a case. But if a bunch of guys come out and say she lied about them as well, maybe we can start to see a fucking pattern. But we don’t play gender favorites with someone’s future on the line without facts and stories.”
“Well, there are surely plenty of cases like this where the truth is being told,” said the man. “And in this case, we’ll likely never know what happened, but I can see why you’re upset.”
“That’s not the point,” said the boy. “It just changes the whole legal system, ya know? It’s not about whether you’re a genuine human being or a liar, all that matters is what you have between your legs. It’s the same thing in divorce courts.”
“Well, I don—”
“I don’t wanna talk about this anymore. It just caught me off guard to hear the Bible talk about it a thousand years ago and it’s still relevant today. Let’s just move on.”
“You sure?” said the man. “I’m here if you need to vent.”
“I’m sure,” said the boy. “Keep reading before I really start ranting.”
“Alright. But just know this won’t be the last thing that occurred long ago that still applies today.” The boy nodded, so the man drew in a long breath before looking down to read again:
The Lord was with him, he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.175
The man looked up to see the boy still visibly upset. “If you’re listening, this is a good place to see that Joseph could have responded by withdrawing into himself, or cursing the Lord who allowed him to be sold into slavery and jailed, but instead he chose to serve others with integrity as a man who believed he was blessed. And in return, God gave him favor in the sight of the warden, a good reminder that God can raise up friends in places even where we don’t expect them. This is the second time Joseph could have been killed, but instead he was given an opportunity to work through his adversity and rise up again.”
The boy didn’t say anything, but his anger began to melt away, so the man kept reading:
Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.176
“Wait,” said the boy, “didn’t you say Potiphar was captain of the guard?”
“Well, when the Bible says ‘some time later’ we’re unsure of exactly how much time has gone by. If it’s years, perhaps Potiphar has moved on from his position. But if it’s still him, perhaps he begins to see Joseph in a good light again. If so, for the sake of his own peace and his wife’s reputation, Joseph remains in jail.”
The boy nodded, so the man read on:
While they were in prison, Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker each had a dream one night, and each dream had its own meaning. When Joseph saw them the next morning, he noticed that they both looked upset.177
So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”178
They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.”
And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”179
“That’s a bit presumptuous,” said the boy, “considering where his last interpretation got him.”
The man smiled and kept reading:
So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me in prison.”180
“Notice he doesn’t accuse either his brethren or his mistress for his circumstance,” said the man, “but merely asserts his own innocence.”
“Am I supposed to take that as some kind of nobility?”
“I think it says something about his character, yes. Anyway,” said the man:
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream. There were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.”
And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.”181
Pharaoh’s birthday came three days later, and he prepared a banquet for all his officials and staff. He summoned his chief cup-bearer and chief baker to join the other officials. He then restored the chief cup-bearer to his former position, so he could again hand Pharaoh his cup. But Pharaoh impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had predicted when he interpreted his dream. Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.182
The boy was taking a sip of water and began coughing wildly, pounding a fist on his chest.
“You alright?” said the man.
“What the hell?” the boy croaked between coughs. “How could you forget about something like that?”
“My guess is the failure to mention this was likely on purpose,” said the man. “Perhaps he thought the timing to stir up more controversy for Pharaoh wasn’t right immediately upon his release.”
“Well,” said the boy, still clearing his throat, “I guess we’ll be seeing Joseph’s brothers bowing down soon.”
The man smiled again and read on:
Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. In his dream he saw seven fat, healthy cows come up out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. Then he saw seven more cows come up behind them from the Nile, but these were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the riverbank. Then the scrawny, thin cows ate the seven healthy, fat cows! At this point in the dream, Pharaoh woke up.
But he fell asleep again and had a second dream. This time he saw seven heads of grain, plump and beautiful, growing on a single stalk. Then seven more heads of grain appeared, but these were shriveled and withered by the east wind. And these thin heads swallowed up the seven plump, well-formed heads! Then Pharaoh woke up again and realized it was a dream.
The next morning Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dreams. So he called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dreams, not one of them could tell him what they meant.183
The boy coughed one last time. “Sorry.”
“No worries,” said the man. “Anyway, here’s where the butler speaks up regarding Joseph. He tells Pharaoh about his time spent in prison and the interpretations of his dream, so Pharaoh sends for Joseph, and when he stands before him, Pharaoh tells him about the dream.”
“Two years later,” said the boy. “Thanks, butler.”
“Well, he could have rot in there forever,” said the man, “or been hanged. But we also need to have patience until the timing is right for God’s plan to unfold. Had the butler told Pharaoh of Joseph upon his release, perhaps he would have been let go and sent home to the land of Hebrews. But wait another two years and misfortune turns to fortune that he wouldn’t have otherwise been granted, as we’ll see now.”
“Alright, let’s see it then,” said the boy.
“Right then. Here’s Joseph’s interpretation,” said the man:
“The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. It is one and the same dream. The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind. They are seven years of famine. It is just as I said to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.
“Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.
“And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”184
“Good timing on the whole ‘select a wise man’ play,” said the boy, “right after all the other wise men failed.”
“Precisely. And the advice is good in the eyes of Pharaoh, as we see in what he tells Joseph here,” said the man, looking down at his Bible:
“Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.”185
“Moving on up in the world I see,” said the boy.
“Yes, well, we may not always see God’s plan for us when things aren’t going well, but in this case we see a swift turn in fortune as His plan unfolds.”
“Promoted to rule over a kingdom as a slave,” said the boy. “Must be nice to see the future.”
“This seems to follow the pattern of Joseph’s life where others entrust him with nearly all their responsibilities. And we’ll see this position taken very seriously, as Pharaoh dresses Joseph in fine clothing and jewelry and parades him around in a chariot, telling his people to bow before him, giving Joseph power and control. Then Pharaoh names him Zaphnath-Paaneah, which means something like ‘a revealer of secrets,’ and then he gives him Asenath as a wife, the daughter of Poti-Pherah, priest of On.”
“And how old was he at this point?”
“Thirty at the time the prophecy begins to unfold,” said the man. “And in the seven years before the famine, he stored immeasurable amounts of grain in every city. And in these years his wife gave birth to two sons, Manasseh, ‘For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house,’ and Ephraim, ‘For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.’ Then the seven years of abundance end and the seven years of famine begin. And the famine exists throughout all the surrounding lands, but in Egypt there was bread because of Joseph, and Joseph was able to open the storehouses and sell his bread to the Egyptians, as well as the rest of the surrounding world who came to Egypt for grain.”
“I suppose this is the origin of that moral about saving a penny for a rainy day?” said the boy.
“Well, a drought, in this case,” said the man, “but perhaps so.”