Day 10: Genesis 39:1-43:34

Today was Joseph's story. He was sold into slavery and bought by an Egyptian official. If I was Joseph, I would be pretty upset by now. I'm a couple hundred miles from home working for some rich guy. But God had his eyes on Joseph, and Joseph probably worked hard too. He prospered and Potiphar was impressed. So, he decided to make Joseph the manager of his estate. Then Potiphar's wife starts hitting on Joseph because he was "well-built and handsome". Wouldn't be nice to be immortalized in history and in biblical text as well-built and handsome? I digress. Joseph refuses many times, and has to run away as she rips his clothes off which she uses to blackmail him. Joseph ran away from temptation, even though it meant leaving behind his expensive cloak leaving him bare. Potiphar's nameless wife uses the cloak as evidence and lies to her husband saying that Joseph tried sleeping with her. So, Potiphar throws Joseph into prison.

He interprets some dreams, and is only let out when the Pharaoh himself (which one, it doesn't say) needs a dream interpreted. I would be really interested to know if there is archeological or written evidence other than the Bible that corroborates this story. It seems to me that a seven year famine is a big deal and would have been written about. It also seems like, if Joseph really was acting as a manager of Egypt, separate sources would corroborate that. I haven't checked yet, but I am curious to know if it is written about elsewhere other than the Jewish texts (the Bible). So, Pharaoh has a dream that needs interpreting. The pharaoh's cup-bearer remembered Joseph because of his predictive success, so Pharaoh gets Joseph who predicts the famine. Joseph is now the big cheese. He institutes a food production and rationing program, where they store grain during the abundant seven years and sell it to people during the famine years. I can't even begin to imagine how much money that generated. When people can't feed their children they will pay almost anything they have to get food for them... or raid others.

Pharaoh had two dreams, which both meant the same thing. I'm assuming this is more like for emphasis. Saying things twice means you really meant to say it.

During the famine Joseph's bros are sent to get grain from Egypt. They meet him and bow down before him to ask for grain. Fulfillment of prophecy? Joseph accuses them of being spies. They deny it, but he throws them in jail for a few days. I figure this is to teach them a lesson, to serve out a little justice, and maybe to have a little fun with them. But after that, he fills their sacks with grain, and orders his people to put his brothers' silver back in their bags without them knowing. Now he shows them grace. He gave them grain, precious and limited grain, for free. He tells them to get his youngest brother, Ben, because Ben was his only full-blooded brother.

They go home, find the silver, are terrified they'll be killed for stealing money, go back with their brother and then bow down really low to the ground and pay him extra. He weeps. I can only imagine he feels some sense of empathy towards them. Sure, they threw him in a hole, sold him to slavery, and faked his death, but they were terrified they would be killed or worse for having stolen money from the Pharaoh. He weeps, but then comes back and throws a feast.

The bros are back in action!

I have found that morning is the best time to read, but probably won't work once I get my job. It took about an hour to read all that stuff and probably another half hour to blog it. I hope I can make this a little bit more routine. Maybe it's time I dragged out the ol' DragonSpeak software and just dictate my blog. No one reads this thing, but I want to make it easier to maintain.