Blogging
Genesis 39:20–41:46
Genesis 39: 20 Then Joseph’s master
took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were
confined. And he was there in the prison.
Joseph was a foreign slave declared
guilty of the attempted rape of Potiphar’s wife; and Potiphar didn’t
immediately execute and/or castrate him?
Instead he used his position as captain of the guard to have incarcerated
in the KING’s prison. The rest of chapter 39 doesn’t depict the prison
as particularly cruel. The inmates seemed
to have a great deal of freedom, like it was a minimum-security, country-club
prison. Which implies that Potiphar retained some sympathy
for his house-slave and possibly some doubt about his wife’s testimony. Goes
to show that “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to
be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7).
Goes to show that when God’s on your side they can’t break you even
when they want to.
Even while locked up, “the Lord was with
Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper
of the prison” (Genesis 39: 21). Joseph
was transferred from general population to work detail as one of the
warden’s household slaves. In that capacity, Joseph ran the prison, but
something inside him was changing.
When Israel-Jacob promoted Joseph above
his brothers the teenage manager exalted himself, bragging about his dreams of the
family bowing down before him. When he
got the promotion in Potiphar’s house, Joseph attributed his rise to master’s
good judgment and trusted in his good evaluations and company loyalty to protect
him from sexual harassment, false accusations, and racial profiling. But by the
time he began running the king’s prison, Joseph didn’t want another
promotion. He didn’t want the praise of
people who didn’t care about him but only what profits he could generate.
By the turning point in Genesis 40, Joseph was WOKE to the injustice of the
system in which he operated. “I was
stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here
that they should put me into the dungeon” (Genesis 40:15).
In other words, Joseph said, “Yeah, I’m
in the big house, but they still see me as a slave and a prisoner,” so “Remember
me,” he begged the cupbearer (Genesis 40:23).
Meanwhile, he worked. He worked for the man who kept him in dual bondage, and he endured being
un-remembered by those to whom he had ministered in their time of distress. Joseph no longer wanted to be promoted. Joseph wanted to be FREE.
Years passed and Joseph was called to demonstrate
his prophetic skills for the most powerful man in Egypt. But Joseph had changed. He wasn’t about self-promotion anymore. To the contrary, he told the king of Egypt, “It is not in me.” He directed all the praise to “God,” whom Joseph
affirmed, “will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
The son of Israel’s old arrogance was
displaced by irreverence for “great” masters like the king of the Nile. Twice,
Joseph said, “God has shown Pharaoh what He is
about to do,” which is kinda like saying, “Duuh. Isn’t it obvious? I mean,” Joseph continued, “the dream was
repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is
established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” (Genesis 41: 25, 28,
32)
Get ready. A twist is coming.
Joseph then outlined an ingenious plan
to prepare Egypt for the coming economic downturn, and again an Egyptian promoted
him; but this promotion elevated Joseph above his former masters and all masters
in Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph an
Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife, making him a full Egyptian citizen (Genesis
41:39-45). That’s not the twist.
Here’s the twist: Joseph got free, but
he didn’t even try to go home.
He could have asked Pharaoh for a
chariot to take him back to Canaan to rejoin his family and prepare them for
the famine. He could have sent for his
father and baby brother to come stay with him in Egypt. Joseph
could have reconnected with his tribe any number of ways, but he didn’t.
He was finally free but his old family
was as dead to him and he had been made to them.
Promotion doesn’t mean you’re free. Sometimes, neither does freedom.
Yes, ultimately God brought them all
back together. But their re-unification,
still years away at this point, would not undo decades of estrangement. Joseph was going to be prime minister of the
most powerful empire on the planet and he was still so wounded by his brothers’
betrayal that he turned his back on everything in his Hebrew culture --- except
God.
WE are Joseph.
Black in America. Residents by enslavement. Citizens by struggle. They have exploited our skills. They have claimed our bodies for their
entertainment. They have jailed us
unjustly.
WE are Joseph.
We have struggled for promotion and for
freedom in times and contexts where one had to be sacrificed for the
other.
WE are Joseph.
Our ancestral names and nations are dead
to us. Still, we dream through music and
movies of re-unification with our motherland.
But the years of estrangement have stretched so long, and there are
problems in this land that require our attention. Here where we are citizens, named and known, are
crises we can solve.
WE are Joseph.
So, we do what we do. We do our jobs, and we throw shade, and we speak
truth to power and despite ourselves we get promoted because we are that gifted.
WE are Joseph.
We gave up everything of who we were,
but we kept our faith. Tattered and
misattributed as Black Christianity is, we keep the faith of our unconquered
fathers because WE are Joseph.
YOU are Joseph.
Remember yourself.
Remember how God kept you.
Remember that before you started helping
Pharaoh realize his dream, God gave you dreams of your own.
Remember that the God you have not
forgotten has not forgotten you.
YOU are Joseph.
Go be great.
--Anderson T. Graves II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME
Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at
www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
