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Part of the fun of the pastoral life where I have two weekly Bible preps are reading books I wouldn’t normally put together, together. Right now I’m in James and Joseph.

Joseph and Wisdom

Yesterday I was wrestling with “wisdom” in the context of James. David Snapper protested that my posting didn’t define “wisdom” and he was right. The term is very broad and for each context one needs to get specific. Joseph adds a new dimension to “wisdom”.

God’s favor on Joseph doesn’t take the shape of insuring happy circumstances for him. Joseph is disrobed, tossed in a cistern and sold into slavery by his brothers. In Potipher’s house God’s favor takes the form of fruitfulness of Joseph’s labor. Joseph is a poster child for someone with the gift of leadership and administration. Everything he manages goes well. This is one aspect of how the Bible talks about “wisdom”.

Joseph of course goes from Potipher’s house because he won’t betray his master by sleeping with his master’s wife into prison, but there too his gift of “wisdom”, the shape of God’s favor on him, propels him to the top of that pecking order.

With the opportunity of interpreting the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker we begin to see a new dimension of “wisdom”. Joseph tells his prison chargers “do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

This is of course making the assertion that God reveals his future plans to Joseph and that Joseph is authorized to disclose them.

The nature of the disclosure, however, is different from that of prophesy, where the prophet tells what is going to happen. Here the future telling is a combination of skill in interpreting dreams. Apparently “God” (note the use of Elohim, the generic use of “God” with the pagan Egyptians, rather than the Hebrew particularist YHWH) has revealed the future to the individuals to whom it pertains in combination with giving Joseph the interpretive key. Unlike, for example in the Daniel story where Daniel furnishes the whole bit as verification to Nebuchadnezzar, God discloses to the pagan recipient and Joseph only interprets.

When we come to the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream, not only is the connection made to revelation of the future but also administration of the future. Upon the prompting of Joseph’s management idea of grain collection and storage Pharaoh asks “Can we find a man like this in whom is the spirit of God? Since God has made all of this known to you there is no one as discerning and wise as you.” and then puts Joseph in charge of everything. A rather impulsive move for the despot of an imperial superpower but there it is.

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