Now, because we do not truly believe in our hearts that the day of adversity is as much from God’s hand as the day of prosperity, we believe that there has to be some way to game the system, and if we somehow play the game of life in just the right way, God will reward us with prosperity and long life. Or we bargain with God - God save me and I’ll be a good person. Or we berate God - God, I’ve been a good person, why are you doing this to me? Spirituality becomes a transaction. If I pray right and live right and present myself in the correct way, God will honour that and bless me with life and success.
We have in our reading today the children of Israel’s second trip to Egypt to purchase grain from the second-in-command to Pharaoh, who is actually their long-lost brother Joseph. Last week we explored the first interaction between the brothers from the perspective of Joseph, who, over the past 20 years in Egypt had come to a mature understanding of God’s providence. This mature understanding of God and his ways enabled Joseph to keep his composure when he had to be wanting payback against his brothers who had sold him into slavery decades ago. Joseph did not take immediate retribution for his brothers’ many sins against him, but allowed God time to work in their lives. Yet he did not immediately entrust himself back to his brothers who had hurt him, but tested them to see if they truly had changed.
And that’s the question that lingers over these chapters, have the brothers changed? More broadly, do people change? How do people change? What does it take before people actually change? I have a five year old, meaning, we watch Frozen. A lot. And they sing a song, the wise rock dwarf people, the fixer-upper song, and there’s a line in it that drives my wife crazy, We’re not saying you can change him/’Cause people don’t really change. But that’s not true, is it? People do change. People change all the time, and while sometimes people may change for mysterious reasons, sometimes we can see patterns in the whys and the hows of personal transformation. It is good news, that people change. Its good for us, because we know we need it. It’s good for us, because we are impacted by the people around us, and their growth is often good, good for us, good for them, good for our relationships.
When we left Joseph at the end of chapter 40, he was alone, forsaken, forgotten in the depths of the prison. Remember how he got there. He was the favoured son, a young man in-home his father delighted, and upon whom God’s favour rested. His visions of supremacy over his brothers, supposedly given him from God, enraged them to the point at which they despised and rejected him. Although they initially planned to kill him themselves, Judah sold him for the price of a slave, delivering him over to a group of Gentiles. Although God was with him and no guilt was found in him, he was falsely accused of sin, and unjustly sentenced to prison where he was forsaken and forgotten.
When we pick up the story in Genesis 41, we find that Joseph has been languishing in prison for over two years. Thus, in the third year of his imprisonment, the circumstances of chapter 41 can be fairly described as a miraculous resurrection. More than that - a miraculous resurrection and ascension, orchestrated by God for the deliverance of the world.
