RnR

I've got myself a little bit out of synch with my readings over the last week or so, but the pay-off has been that I've ended up reading big chunks of the Old Testament at a time.

One of the things that's hit me in a new and pretty vivid way (partly because I'm reading The Message which, I think, helps with the sense of reading a story) is just how messed up most of those key Genesis characters are!

I'm just working my way through the story of Joseph. It's very familiar - the technicolour dreamcoat, the well, Potiphar, Potiphar's wife, prison, the cup bearer, the baker, Pharaoh, seven years of plenty, seven years of famine. And right there I hit the first problem. It's familiar. I know the key players. I can recite you the dreams.

Re-reading the story, I'm aware that it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the events of Joseph's life happened in fairly quick succession over a short period of time - I guess that's the danger of packing all that action into a few short chapters. But the reality is that he must have been separated from his family - particularly from his father and his younger brother - for years, first in Potiphar's house (clearly for a chunk of time, but Genesis seems hazy on the details), then in prison (for at least two years, since that's the gap between the cup bearer and baker's dreams, and Pharaoh's dream), then serving in Pharaoh's household (for at least nine years before his brothers turn up). I make that eleven years at the very outside.

That's a long time in which to think about the injustice done to you by your older brothers. When those same brothers turn up after over a decade begging for food, it's not surprising Joseph gets pretty emotional on at least three separate occasions - I imagine there was a fairly combustible mix of joy, anger, relief and regret that surfaced during the course of that protracted reconnection and reconciliation with his family.

I guess the thing I find so amazing about this story is that during those years of estrangement, Joseph doesn't allow the bitterness and resentment to take root and destroy him. Instead, he's able to see God at work in all that he's experienced as well as being willing to step up and take responsibility for those things within his control, so that when his brothers finally stand in front of him and unwittingly fulfil the prophecy they ridiculed all those years before, Joseph is able to embrace them with a compassion and grace borne out of a deep understanding that "you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good".