What Power Can Reveal About Your Character (Genesis 46-50)
This desire for power manifests itself in many forms. It rises up when we're tempted to leverage our position at work to suppress others, use a cutting comment to hurt a family member or refuse to help others when they are at their weakest. These are the moments that define us.
Genesis 46-50
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
How do you treat others when you hold the keys of power?
This is a question Joseph faces in this section. In Genesis chapters 46-50, the narrative concludes the story of Joseph and his family. Upon hearing that Joseph is alive in Egypt, Jacob moves there with his entire household. In Egypt, the Israelites settled in the region of Goshen, where they prospered. As Jacob nears death, he blesses his sons, each receiving a prophecy about their future.
After Jacob dies, his sons realize Joseph's motivation to keep them alive might have dissipated. So, in Genesis 50:15-18, the author shares this narrative:
15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, "If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him." 16 So they sent this message to Joseph, "Before he died your father gave a command: 17 'Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers' transgression and their sin—the suffering they caused you.' Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when their message came to him. 18 His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, "We are your slaves!"
This story parallels Jacob's appeal to his brother Esau. According to Gordon Wenham, most traditional commentators "argue that, since Jacob makes no clear reference to his sons' treatment of Joseph, he cannot have known what they had done to him." [1] Therefore, they've made up this story to ensure Joseph treats them favorably. But Scripture doesn't tell us if this is the case. We can only assume.
In response, Joseph weeps. Rabbi Benno Jacob writes that Joseph
"weeps because they think they need a mediator, because they are afraid of him, because they ascribe to him the attitude of v 15, because he hears his father's voice, because he recalls his youth persecuted by their hate, and because it is they who remind him of this through their submissiveness. These his last tears are really their tears."[2]
Joseph responds by saying,
19 "But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people. 21 Therefore don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.' And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them."
This story can't help but give us flashbacks to the Garden of Eden. Victor Hamilton makes this powerful observation that while the phrase "in the place of God," "is not explicit in the text, it is implicit in the serpent's question to Eve. In essence, he tantalizes her with, 'Would you like to be in God's place?' 'Would you like to be your own God?'"[3]
Hamilton concludes with this powerful contrast:
"Genesis begins by telling us about a primeval couple who tried to become like God, and ends by telling us about a man who denied he was in God's place. Adam and Eve attempted to wipe out the dividing line between humanity and deity. Joseph refuses to try to cross that line. Joseph will only be God's instrument, never his substitute." 28
Joseph's story teaches us that we reveal our true character by how we treat others when we have power. When Adam and Eve saw an opportunity to usurp God's power, they lunged for it, and humans have been making this same lunge ever since. But now that Joseph held the keys of power over his brothers, he refused to bypass God's plan. He said no to the serpent when Adam and Eve said yes.
