Life Has More Bonds Than Mere Slavery
While Joseph carries out the business of feeding and saving the world, the relational story line of his family hangs unfinished. What has become of Jacob and his family?
Chapter 42 opens with Jacob dope smacking this sons who in Jacob’s mind are milling about useless imperiling the family because they have no food. “Don’t just stand there, go to Egypt and get some grain!”
Bondage to our Deep Flaws
Next we are reminded of the ways Jacob is deeply flawed, and deeply wounded. Jacob who lied to his father to secure his brother’s blessing was lied to by his sons to cover up the sale of Joseph into slavery. Jacob, who was lied to on the night he was eager to bed his precious Rachel and was deceived into marrying Leah now clings to the son that Rachel bore at the cost of her life. Jacob is seen in the same moment as being completely pragmatic and completely paralyzed by fear.
The brothers too are bound as we will see. They know they caused the deep wound that invites Jacob to cling to Benjamin. In their responsibility for Jacob’s loss of Joseph they feel themselves bound to protect their fragile father. Their father’s wounding partiality that prompted the evil perpetrated against their brother now must be full accepted and embraced. They too must now mirror their father’s favoritism, their evil forcing them to swallow in shame that which moved them to sell one of their own and cover it up with the blood of a goat. They must embrace the favoritism make it a fixed part of the family system. We all love Benjamin because we did evil against Joseph.
I assume this has become the family culture, someone universally known but never spoken of. To Egypt they must go to buy grain, but Benjamin stays behind.
Joseph’s New Test Continue reading →
