Expositions of Holy Scripture

A >> Alexander Maclaren >> Expositions of Holy Scripture

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5. The cruel trick by which Jacob was deceived is perhaps the most
heartless bit of the whole heartless crime. It came as near an
insult as possible. It was maliciously meant. The snarl about the
coat, the studied use of 'thy son' as if the brothers disowned the
brotherhood, the unfeeling harshness of choosing such a way of
telling their lie--all were meant to give the maximum of pain, and
betray their savage hatred of father and son, and its causes. Was
Reuben's mouth shut all this time? Evidently. From his language in
chapter xlii., 'His blood is required,' he seems to have believed
until then that Joseph had been killed in his absence. But he dared
not speak. Had he told what he did know, the brothers had but to
add, 'And he proposed it himself,' and his protestations of his good
intentions would have been unheeded. He believed his brother dead,
and perhaps thought it better that Jacob should think him slain by
wild beasts than by brothers' hands, as Reuben supposed him to be.
But his shut mouth teaches again how dangerous his policy had been,
and how the only road, which it is safe, in view of the
uncertainties of the future, to take, is the plain road of
resistance to evil and non-fellowship with its doers.

6. And what of the poor old father? His grief is unworthy of God's
wrestler. It is not the part of a devout believer in God's
providence to refuse to be comforted. There was no religious
submission in his passionate sorrow. How unlike the quiet
resignation which should have marked the recognition that the God
who had been his guide was working here too! No doubt the
hypocritical condolences of his children were as vinegar upon nitre.
No doubt the loss of Joseph had taken away the one gentle and true
son on whom his loneliness rested since his Rachel's death, while he
found no solace in the wild, passionate men who called him 'father'
and brought him no 'honour.' But still his grief is beyond the
measure which a true faith in God would have warranted; and we
cannot but see that the dark picture which we have just been looking
at gets no lighter or brighter tints from the demeanour of Jacob.

There are few bitterer sorrows than for a parent to see the children
of his own sin in the sins of his children. Jacob might have felt
that bitterness, as he looked round on the lovelessness and dark,
passionate selfishness of his children, and remembered his own early
crimes against Esau. He might have seen that his unwise fondness for
the son of his Rachel had led to the brothers' hatred, though he did
not know that that hatred had plunged the arrow into his soul.
Whether he knew it or not, his own conduct had feathered the arrow.
He was drinking as he had brewed; and the heart-broken grief which
darkened his later years had sprung from seed of his own sowing. So
it is always. 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.'

It is a miserable story of ignoble jealousy and cruel hate; and yet,
over all this foaming torrent, God's steadfast bow of peace shines.
These crimes and this 'affliction of Joseph' were the direct path to
the fulfilment of His purposes. As blind instruments, even in their
rebellion and sin, men work out His designs. The lesson of Joseph's
bondage will one day be the summing up of the world's history. 'Thou
makest the wrath of man to praise Thee: and with the remainder
thereof Thou girdest Thyself.'

GOODNESS IN A DUNGEON

'And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the
prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound:
and he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with
Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in
the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper
of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the
prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they
did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the
prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand;
because the Lord was with him, and that which he did,
the Lord made it to prosper.'--GENESIS xxxix. 20-23.

'And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the
king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of
Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against
the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.
And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard,
into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. And the
captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served
them: and they continued a season in ward. And they dreamed a
dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man
according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the
baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And
Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them,
and, behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that
were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore
look ye so sadly to day? And they said unto him, We have dreamed
a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto
them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray
you. And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to
him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me; And in the vine
were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her
blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe
grapes: And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes,
and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into
Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation
of it: The three branches are three days: Yet within three days shall
Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou
shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner
when thou wast his butler. But think on me when it shall be well with
thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of
me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: For indeed I was
stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done
nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.'--GENESIS xl. 1-15.

Potiphar was 'captain of the guard,' or, as the title literally
runs, chief of the executioners. In that capacity he had charge of
the prison, which was connected with his house (Gen. xl. 3). It is,
therefore, quite intelligible that he should have put Joseph in
confinement on his own authority, and the distinction drawn between
such a prisoner and the 'king's prisoners,' who were there by royal
warrant or due process of law, is natural. Such high-handed
treatment of a slave was a small matter, and it was merciful as well
as arrogant, for death would have been the punishment of the crime
of which Joseph was accused. Either Potiphar was singularly lenient,
or, as is perhaps more probable, he did not quite believe his wife's
story, and thought it best to hush up a scandal. The transfer of
Joseph from the house to the adjoining prison would be quietly
managed, and then no more need be said about an ugly business.

So now we see him at the lowest ebb of his fortunes, flung down in a
moment by a lie from the height to which he had slowly been
climbing, having lost the confidence of his master, and earned the
unslumbering hatred of a wicked woman. He had wrecked his career by
his goodness. 'What a fool!' says the world. 'How badly managed
things are in this life,' say doubters, 'that virtue should not be
paid by prosperity!' But the end, even the nearer end in this life,
will show whether he was a fool, and whether things are so badly
arranged; and the lesson enforced by the picture of Joseph in his
dungeon, and which young beginners in life have special need to
learn, is that, come what will of it, right is right, and sin is
sin, that consequences are never to deter from duty, and that it is
better to have a clean conscience and be in prison than do
wickedness and sit at a king's table. A very threadbare lesson, but
needing to be often repeated.

'But the Lord was with Joseph.' That is one of the eloquent 'buts'
of Scripture. The prison is light when God is there, and chains do
not chafe if He wraps His love round them. Many a prisoner for God
since Joseph's time has had his experience repeated, and received
tenderer tokens from Him in a dungeon than ever before. Paul the
prisoner, John in Patmos, Bunyan in Bedford jail, George Fox in
Lancaster Castle, Rutherford in Aberdeen, and many more, have found
the Lord with them, and showing them His kindness. We may all be
sure that, if ever faithfulness to conscience involves us in
difficulties, the faithfulness and the difficulties will combine to
bring to us sweet and strong tokens of God's approval and presence,
the winning of which will make a prison a palace and a gate of
heaven.

Joseph's relations to jailer and fellow-prisoners are beautiful and
instructive. The former is called 'the keeper of the prison,' and is
evidently Potiphar's deputy, in more immediate charge of the prison.
Of course, the great man had an underling to do the work, and
probably that underling was not chosen for sweetness of temper or
facile leniency to his charges. But he fell under the charm of
Joseph's character--all the more readily, perhaps, because his
occupation had not brought many good men to his knowledge. This
jewel would flash all the more brightly for the dark background of
criminals, and the jailer would wonder at a type of character so
unlike what he was accustomed to. Eastern prisons to-day present a
curious mixture of cruelty and companionship. The jailers are on
intimate terms with prisoners, and yet are ready to torture them.
There is no discipline, nor any rules, nor inspection. The jailer
does as he likes. So it seems to have been in Egypt, and there would
be nothing unnatural in making a prisoner jailer of the rest, and
leaving everything in his hands. The 'keeper of the prison' was
lazy, like most of us, and very glad to shift duties on to any
capable shoulders. Such a thing would, of course, be impossible with
us, but it is a bit of true local colouring here.

Joseph won hearts because God was with him, as the story is careful
to point out. Our religion should recommend us, and therefore
itself, to those who have to do with us. It is not enough that we
should be severely righteous, as Joseph had been, or ready to meet
trouble with stoical resignation, but we are to be gentle and
lovable, gracious towards men, because we receive grace from God. We
owe it to our Lord and to our fellows, and to ourselves, to be
magnets to attract to Jesus, by showing how fair He can make a life.
Joseph in prison found work to do, and he did not shirk it. He might
have said to himself: 'This is poor work for me, who had all
Potiphar's house to rule. Shall such a man as I come down to such
small tasks as this?' He might have sulked or desponded in idleness,
but he took the kind of work that offered, and did his best by it.
Many young people nowadays do nothing, because they think themselves
above the small humdrum duties that lie near them. It would do some
of us good to remember Joseph in the jail, and his cheerful
discharge of what his hands found to do there.

Of course, work done 'because the Lord was with him,' in the
consciousness of His presence, and in obedience to Him, went well.
'The Lord made it to prosper,' as He always will make such work.

'When thou dost favour any action,
It runs, it flies.'

And even if, sometimes, work done in the fear of the Lord does not
outwardly prosper, it does so in deepest truth, if it work in us the
peaceable fruit of righteousness. We need to have a more Christian
idea of what constitutes prosperity, and then we shall understand
that there are no exceptions to the law that, if a man does his work
by God and with God and for God, 'that which he does, the Lord makes
it to prosper.'

The help that Joseph gave by interpreting the two high officials'
dreams cannot be considered here in detail, but we note that the
names of similar officers, evidently higher in rank than we should
suppose, with our notions of bakers and butlers, are found in
Egyptian documents, and that these two were 'king's prisoners,' and
put in charge of Potiphar, who alleviated their imprisonment by
detailing Joseph as their attendant, thus showing that his feeling
to the young Hebrew was friendly still. Dreams are the usual method
of divine communication in Genesis, and belong to a certain stage in
the process of revelation. The friend of God, who is in touch with
Him, can interpret these. 'The secret of the Lord is with them that
fear Him,' and it is still true that they who live close by God have
insight into His purposes. Joseph showed sympathy with the two
dreamers, and his question, 'Why look ye so sadly?' unlocked their
hearts. He was not so swallowed up in his own trouble as to be blind
to the signs of another's sorrow, or slow to try to comfort. Grief
is apt to make us selfish, but it is meant to make us tender of
heart and quick of hand to help our fellows in calamity. We win
comfort for our own sorrows by trying to soothe those of others.
Jesus stooped to suffer that He might succour them that suffer, and
we are to tread in His steps.

JOSEPH, THE PRIME MINISTER

'And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a
one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And
Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed
thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou
art: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy
word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne
will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And
Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon
Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen,
and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to
ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried
before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all
the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am
Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand
or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called
Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife
Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And
Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. And Joseph
was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king
of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of
Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. And
in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by
handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven
years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the
food in the cities: the food of the field, which was
round about every city, laid he up in the same.'
GENESIS xli. 38-48.

At seventeen years of age Joseph was sold for a slave; at thirty he
was prime minister of Egypt (Gen. xxxvii, 2; xli. 46). How long his
prison life lasted is uncertain; but it was long enough for the
promises contained in his early dreams to 'try him' (Ps. cv. 19)
whether his faith would stand apparent disappointment and weary
delay. Like all the Scripture narratives, this history of Joseph has
little to say about feelings, and prefers facts. But we can read
between the lines, and be tolerably sure that the thirteen years of
trial were well endured, and that the inward life had grown so as to
fit him for his advancement. We have here a full-length portrait of
the prime minister, or vizier, which brings out three points--his
elevation, his naturalisation, and his administration.

Joseph had not only interpreted Pharaoh's dream, but had suggested a
policy in preparation for the coming famine. He had recommended the
appointment of 'a wise and discreet man,' with supreme authority
over the land. Pharaoh first consulted 'his servants,' and, with
their consent, possibly not very hearty, appointed the proposer of
the plan as its carrier-out, quoting to him his own words, 'wise and
discreet.'

The sudden installing of an unknown prisoner in high office has
often been thought hard to believe, and has been pointed to as proof
of the legendary character of the story. But the ground on which
Pharaoh put it goes far to explain it. He and his servants had come
to believe that 'God' spoke through this man, that 'the Spirit of
God' was in him. So here was a divinely sent messenger, whom it
would be impiety and madness to reject. Observe that Pharaoh and
Joseph both speak in this chapter of 'God.' There was a common
ground of recognition of a divine Being on which they met. The local
colour of the story indicates a period before the fuller revelation,
which drew so broad a line of demarcation between Israel and the
other nations.

Joseph's sudden promotion is made the more intelligible by the
probability which the study of Egyptian history has given, that the
Pharaoh who made him his second in command was one of the Hyksos
conquerors who dominated Egypt for a long period. They would have no
prejudices against Joseph on account of his being a foreigner. A
dynasty of alien conquerors has generally an open door for talent,
and cares little who a man's father is, or where he comes from, if
he can do his work. And Joseph, by not being an Egyptian born, would
be all the fitter an instrument for carrying out the policy which he
had suggested.

His ceremonial investiture with the insignia of office is true to
Egyptian manners. The signet ring, as the emblem of full authority;
the chain, as a mark of dignity; the robe of 'fine linen' (or rather
of cotton), which was a priestly dress--all are illustrated by the
monuments. The proclamation made before him as he rode in the second
chariot has been very variously interpreted. It has been taken for a
Hebraised Egyptian word, meaning 'Cast thyself down'; and this
interpretation was deemed the most probable, until Assyrian
discovery brought to light 'that _abarakku_ is the Assyrian
name of the grand vizier' (Fr. Delitzsch, _Hebrew Language Viewed
in the Light of Assyrian Research_, p. 26). Sayce proposes
another explanation, also from the cuneiform tablets: 'There was a
word _abrik_ in the Sumerian language, which signified a seer,
and was borrowed by the Semitic Babylonians under the varying forms
of _abrikku_ and _abarakku_. It is _abrikku_ which we have in Genesis,
and the title applied by the people to the "seer" Joseph proves to be
the one we should most naturally expect.' The Tel el-Amarna tablets
show that the knowledge of cuneiform writing was common in Egypt
(Sayce, _Higher Criticism and the Monuments_, p. 214). This
explanation is tempting, but it is perhaps scarcely probable that the
proclamation should have been in any other language than Egyptian,
or should have had reference to anything but Joseph's new office. It was
not as seer that he was to be obeyed, but as Pharaoh's representative,
even though he had become the latter because he had proved himself the
former.

But in any case, the whole context is accurately and strongly
Egyptian. Was there any point in the history of Israel, down to an
impossibly late date, except the time of Moses, at which Jewish
writers were so familiar with Egypt as to have been capable of
producing so true a picture?

The lessons of this incident are plain. First stands out, clear and
full, the witness it bears to God's faithfulness, and to His
sovereign sway over all events. What are all the persons concerned
in the narrative but unconscious instruments of His? The fierce
brothers, the unconcerned slave-dealers, Potiphar, his wife, the
prisoners, Pharaoh, are so many links in a chain; but they are also
men, and therefore free to act, and guilty if acting wrongly. Men
execute God's purposes, even when unconscious or rebellious, but are
responsible, and often punished, for the acts which He uses to
effect His designs.

Joseph's thirteen years of trial, crowned with sudden prosperity,
may read all of us, and especially young men and women, a lesson of
patience. Many of us have to fight our way through analogous
difficulties at the outset of our career; and we are apt to lose
heart and get restive when success seems slow to come, and one
hindrance after another blocks our road. But hindrances are helps.
If one of Joseph's misfortunes had been omitted, his good fortune
would never have come. If his brethren had not hated him, if he had
not been sold, if he had not been imprisoned, he would never have
ruled Egypt. Not one thread in the tapestry could have been
withdrawn without spoiling the pattern. We cannot afford to lose one
of our sorrows or trials. There would be no summer unless winter had
gone before. There is a bud or a fruit for every snowflake, and a
bird's song for every howl of the storm.

Plainly, too, does the story read the lesson of quiet doing of the
work and accepting the circumstances of the moment. Joseph was being
prepared for the administration of a kingdom by his oversight of
Potiphar's house and of the prison. His character was matured by his
trials, as iron is consolidated by heavy hammers. To resist
temptation, to do modestly and sedulously whatever work comes to our
hands, to be content to look after a jail even though we have
dreamed of sun and moon bowing down to us, is the best
apprenticeship for whatever elevation circumstances--or, to speak
more devoutly, God--intends for us. Young men thrown into city life
far away from their homes, and whispered to by many seducing voices,
have often to suffer for keeping themselves unspotted; but they are
being strengthened by rough discipline, and will get such promotion,
in due time, as is good for them. But outward success is not God's
best gift. It was better to be the Joseph who deserved his high
place, than to have the place. The character which he had grown into
was more than the trappings which Pharaoh put on him. And such a
character is always the reward of such patience, faith, and self-
control, whether chains and chariots are added or not.

Little need be said about the other points of the story. Joseph's
naturalisation as an Egyptian was complete. His name was changed, in
token that he had completely become a subject of Pharaoh's. The
meaning of the formidable-looking polysyllable, which Egyptian lips
found easier than 'Joseph,' is uncertain. 'At present the origin of
the first syllable is still doubtful, and though the latter part of
the name is certainly the Egyptian _n-ti-pa-ankh_ ("of the
life"), it is difficult to say in which of its different senses the
expression _pa-ankh_ ("the life") is employed' (Sayce, _ut
supra_, p. 213). The prevailing opinion of Egyptian experts is
that it means 'Support of life.'

The naturalising was completed by his marriage to Asenath (supposed
to mean 'One belonging to the goddess Neith'), a daughter of a high
officer of state, Poti-phera (meaning, like its shortened form,
Potiphar, 'The gift of Ra' the sun-god). Such an alliance placed him
at once in the very innermost circle of Egyptian aristocracy. It may
have been a bitter pill for the priest to swallow, to give his
daughter to a man of yesterday, and an alien; but, just as probably,
he too looked to Joseph with some kind of awe, and was not unwilling
to wed Asenath to the first man in the empire, wherever he had
started up from.

But should not Joseph's religion have barred such a marriage? The
narrator gives no judgment on the fact, and we have to form our own
estimate. But it is not to be estimated as if it had occurred five
or six centuries later. The family of Jacob was not so fenced off,
nor was its treasure of revelation so complete, as afterwards. We
may be fairly sure that Joseph felt no inconsistency between his
ancestral faith, which had become his own in his trials, and this
union. He was risking a great deal; that is certain. Whether the
venture ended well or ill, we know not. Only we may be very sure
that a marriage in which a common faith is not a strong bond of
union lacks its highest sanctity, and is perilously apt to find that
difference in religious convictions is a strong separator.

Joseph's administration opens up questions as to Egyptian land
tenure, and the like, which cannot be dealt with here. 'In the
earlier days of the monarchy the country was in the hands of great
feudal lords; ... the land belonged to them absolutely.... But after
the convulsion caused by the Hyksos conquest and the war of
independence, this older system of land tenure was completely
changed.... The Pharaoh is the fountain head, not only of honour,
but of property as well.... The people ceased to have any rights of
their own' (Sayce, _ut supra_, p. 216).

We may note Joseph's immediate entrance upon office and his
characteristic energy in it. He 'went out from the presence of
Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.' No grass grew
under this man's feet. He was ubiquitous, personally overseeing
everything for seven long years. Wasteful consumption of the
abundant crops had to be restrained, storehouses to be built,
careful records of the contents to be made, after Egyptian fashion.
The people, who could not look so far as seven years ahead, and
wanted to enjoy, or make money out of, the good harvests, had to be
looked after, and an army of officials to be kept in order. Dignity
meant work for him. Like all true men, he thought more of his duty
than of his honours. Depend on it, he did not wear his fine clothes
or ride in the second chariot, when he was hurrying about the
country at his task.