Joseph: A Sacred Narrative Drawn From the Book of Genesis (Part 2)

Pharaoh sent to the prison for Joseph and commanded that he be brought to him. Joseph was brought forth from the fortress: God’s hand brought him forth. According to the custom of the land, his hair was cut and his clothes were changed: he stood before the face of Pharaoh. The Egyptian king told him his dreams and complained of his wise men, that they could not interpret these visions. “I have heard about you”—said Pharaoh to Joseph—“that you explain dreams when they are told to you”. Joseph answered: “Without God, Pharaoh cannot receive a satisfactory answer”. Unwittingly Joseph reveals his spiritual state! He confesses the evident, wondrous, essential action of God, the action of the Holy Spirit, independent of man, visiting man according to the Higher will, and revealing to him secrets. This invisible communion with God, this gracious action, Joseph felt in his soul: to such a height of spiritual progress had his constancy in virtue, his afflictions, his sufferings—or, more truly, the grace of the Holy Spirit, which constantly transforms the virtuous and especially the innocent sufferers—raised him. “Both your dreams”—he said to Pharaoh—“have one meaning; your dreams are one dream. The seven fat cows prefigure seven years of plenty; the seven full ears prefigure the same. The seven lean cows and seven shriveled ears mean seven years of famine. God shows to Pharaoh what He has determined to do. There will come seven years: in the course of them there will be abundant harvests in Egypt. Then will come seven other years, and from their scarcity the abundance of the first seven years will be forgotten. Famine will strike and devastate the land. Even the traces of the preceding abundance will be obliterated by the subsequent scarcity: for the famine will be very severe. Twice Pharaoh’s dream has been repeated: this is a confirmation of God’s word, and a sign that God will hasten to bring His purpose into execution. O King! Seek out a discerning man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let him, during the seven years of plenty, gather a fifth part of all the produce; let the grain that is gathered be placed under Pharaoh’s authority and stored in the cities. Thus grain supplies will be made for the seven years of scarcity, and the land will not perish from famine”. Joseph’s words pleased Pharaoh and all who were with him. Pharaoh said to them: “Can we find another man like this, who has the Spirit of God in him?” Then, turning to Joseph, he says to him: “God reveals mysteries to you, and therefore there is no man who compares with you in wisdom and discernment. You shall be overseer of my house; all my people shall obey you! Only in the throne will I be greater than you. I set you over all the land of Egypt”.

Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, clothed him in fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, and commanded him to ride in his second chariot: in it the new official was driven through the city; before the chariot went a herald, proclaiming to the people Joseph’s rank and authority. Then Joseph was thirty years old. Pharaoh married his intimate friend to Asenath, daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, and gave him another name, calling him “Zaphnath-paaneah”. What does this name mean? It means “Saviour of the world”.[1] Joseph prefigured the descent to earth of the God-man to the fallen and wandering human race, when he was sent by his father to his brothers tending flocks far from his father’s tent. He prefigured Him when he was sold by his brothers to foreigners. He prefigured His burial through his imprisonment in the fortress; through his sudden exaltation and glory he prefigured the glory of His resurrection. The daughter of the priest of Heliopolis, who entered into marriage with Joseph, prefigured the Church of Christ, constituted from among the gentiles. By the salvation of the people from death was prefigured the salvation of mankind from eternal death. The distributor of material bread was a prefigurement of Him who is “the Bread that came down from heaven” and the Distributor of this heavenly bread (Jn. 6:41). From among the mysterious Old Testament prefigurements, for the first time was heard the consoling name: Saviour of the world! Wondrous is God’s Providence, foretelling the great work of God, the redemption of mankind, through biblical prefigurative shadows. What distances of time did these shadows begin to appear across! How vividly did they outline the truth! What mystery was hidden in them for their contemporaries! How they became clear, evident, when God opened to men the understanding of the Scriptures inspired by Him.

Joseph undertook to fulfill the duties to which God Himself had called him, and which, by God’s arrangement, the ruler of Egypt had laid upon him. He undertook a journey throughout all Egypt and, having surveyed the land, made the necessary arrangements. The land in the course of seven years gave an abundant harvest. In the course of these seven years Joseph accumulated grain supplies, which he stored in the cities under secure watch and guard in vast storehouses. He gathered an immeasurable quantity of wheat: it lay in the storage places like mountains of sand. In the course of those same fertile seven years, Asenath bore him two sons. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh. In naming him thus, he enclosed in the name of his eldest son a profound thought: “God has made it so that I have forgotten my suffering”. The second he named Ephraim, joining to this name another profound and devout thought: “God has made me fruitful ‘in the land’ ‘of my affliction’. Such thoughts are contained in these names according to their meaning in the Hebrew language.[2]

The seven years of plenty passed, as all things subject to time pass: the hungry years came. According to Joseph’s prediction, famine began to rage throughout the land. The Egyptian people cried out to Pharaoh, asking for bread. Pharaoh answered his subjects: “Go” “to Joseph and do what he tells you”. Joseph opened the reserve storehouses and began to sell grain to the Egyptians. Famine raged over the face of the land. The inhabitants of neighboring countries, hearing that grain was being sold in Egypt, and oppressed by hunger, began to come to Egypt to buy wheat. The wise, foresighted ruler had prepared reserve grain in quantities sufficient not only to feed his own people but also to draw the money of other peoples into the Egyptian state.

Among the other lands afflicted by famine was the land of Canaan. The household of the holy patriarch was suffering from lack of food. Word reached the old man that grain was being sold in Egypt (Gen. 42). He said to his sons: “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt: why do you not pay attention to this? Go down there, buy some grain for us to keep us alive; otherwise we shall die of starvation”. Obeying the will of their father, Joseph’s ten brothers set out for Egypt to buy grain. Jacob did not send Benjamin with his brothers; he said: “Lest some misfortune befall him on the way”.

When Joseph’s sons arrived in Egypt, they came with other grain buyers to the place where grain was being sold. Joseph himself was in charge of grain distribution. When his brothers came before him, he recognized them at once; but they had no idea that they were standing before the brother they had sold into slavery for twenty pieces of gold. And how could they recognize him? When they parted from him, he had barely completed seventeen years; now he was approaching forty. Changed by years, he was no less changed by the majesty and splendor of his rank—the first in the Egyptian kingdom, which had surpassed almost all other states in learning, power, and organization. Standing before Joseph, the brothers bowed low to him, their foreheads to the ground. Joseph remembered his dreams… Wise, virtuous Joseph! He put off revealing himself to his brothers for another time. What great power this mighty soul had over itself! Was not his heart consumed with a desire to immediately bring the joyful news to his aged, holy parent, who had known nothing about him for more than twenty years, and, counting him lost forever, had grieved inconsolably? He does not heed the inclination of his merciful, magnanimous heart, but chooses a course of action, necessary for the benefit both of himself and of his brothers. Joseph knew the rough, untamed nature of these men; they were half-wild shepherds, brought up among flocks, having spent their whole lives at pasture in the freedom of wild liberty, under the open sky, in desolate deserts. They knew no restraint over themselves, no bridle: they showed disobedience to their father; they often caused him insult; whatever desire came to them, however criminal, they fulfilled; their hands were often stained with the blood of the innocent. Thus Scripture portrays Jacob’s sons. They needed a lesson. For their own well-being, it was necessary to make them acquainted with obedience, with propriety of conduct. Cruel souls, accustomed to trampling conscience and the fear of God, could not otherwise be shaken, brought to their senses and to self-knowledge, except through the torment of human fear. Foreseeing the prolonged famine, Joseph foresaw also the necessity of moving Jacob’s family from Palestine to Egypt. Was this not why he called his brothers spies at their first arrival in Egypt?.. Had his brothers brought their unbridled, wild nature into their new homeland, they would soon have drawn the wrath of the Egyptians upon themselves; soon the well-being of Jacob’s family would have been destroyed, the well-being of Joseph himself; the family and he would have been subjected to the greatest disasters. What was gained through long suffering had to be protected, preserved through wise conduct.

Joseph dealt with his brothers sternly, severely, as a strict lord. “Where are you from?”—he asked them. They answered: “From the land of Canaan: we have come to buy grain”. He objected: “You are spies: you have come to spy out our land!” They answered: “No, my lord! your servants have come to buy grain. We are all brothers, sons of one old man. We have come with peaceful intent: your servants are not spies”. He said: “No, no: you have come to spy out the land!” They answered: “We are twelve brothers. Your servants are from the land of Canaan. The youngest of us stayed with our father, and one… is no more”. Joseph observed: “There is falsehood in your words! I speak the truth when I say you are spies. I swear by Pharaoh’s life, you shall not leave here unless your youngest brother comes to me. By this you shall prove yourselves. Send one of your number: let him bring your brother. You shall remain here under guard, until it is clear whether your words are true or false. If they prove false… I swear by Pharaoh’s life, you are spies!”—and with these words he had them placed under guard.

Three days passed. On the third day he summoned them and said: “I am one who fears God. Do this, and you will live: if you are peaceful men, let one of your brothers stay here with me, while you take home the grain you have bought; then bring your youngest brother to me when you return, and I shall know that you are not spies but honest men. You may trade freely in the land”. Joseph spoke with his brothers through an interpreter. He did not yet release them fully, and while he was occupied with other customers, Jacob’s sons began quietly to converse among themselves in Hebrew. Could they have supposed that the formidable Egyptian official understood them! But he, with strained hearing and attention, followed every word; his soul, full of holy love and acting with holy, saving wisdom, caught every word. “Indeed”—Jacob’s sons said to one another—“we are being punished for the sin we committed against our brother! We disregarded his bitter distress when he begged us, we did not listen to him: this disaster has come upon us for his sake!” Reuben said to the others: “Did I not say to you, Do not harm the youth? But you did not listen to me: now his blood is being required of us”. The words of his brothers pierced Joseph’s tender heart. He went out from them for a moment to relieve his overburdened heart with a flood of tears. Then he came back to them, chose Simeon from among them, and commanded that chains be put on him before their eyes. In the actions of wise Joseph, everything has its reason. The reason why chains became the lot of wild and fierce Simeon rather than another of his brothers is not stated by Scripture; but from Scripture itself it is evident that he had a greater need for a severe lesson. All ten brothers allowed themselves grave transgressions, but Simeon stained himself with the terrible murder of the Shechemites, which subjected the entire household of the holy patriarch to fearful danger, from which it was saved only by the special protection of Providence. And were not his hands raised to another, more terrible and criminal murder?.. Joseph gave secret orders to fill the sacks of his brothers with grain and to put back the money of each man in his sack, and to give them provisions for the road. It seems each paid separately for the grain he took: this is a detail—one of those by which the distant customs of biblical antiquity are portrayed to us.

Having loaded their donkeys with grain, Jacob’s sons set out on their return journey. At the first encampment, one of them, intending to feed his donkey, opened his sack, which somehow came unfastened, and saw his money tied up in the sack, on top of the grain. He cried out to his brothers: “My money has been returned to me! here it is… in my sack”. Their hearts were filled with fear, they were troubled, and said to one another: “What is God doing to us?” When they arrived in the land of Canaan, at their father’s house, they told him all that had happened to them, saying: “The man, the lord of that land, treated us very harshly, even put us in prison as spies. We said to him: No, my lord, we are not spies! We have come in peace. We are twelve brothers, we are the sons of our father; one of us is no more, and the youngest is with our father in the land of Canaan. The man, the lord of that land, answered us: Here is the proof for me that you are not spies but peaceful men: leave one of your brothers with me; take for your households the grain you have bought, and go your way; but bring your youngest brother to me. Thus I shall know that you are not spies but peaceful men: then I will return your brother who remained with me, and you may trade freely in the land of Egypt”. When they poured out their grain from their sacks, each one’s money—the price of his grain—came out in his sack. When they and their father saw their money, they were afraid. Their father Jacob said to them: “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone: and Benjamin you want to take! All these things are against me”. Reuben said to his father: “Kill my two sons if I do not bring Benjamin back to you”. The old man answered: “My son shall not go with you! His brother is dead, and he alone is left: if harm should come to him on the journey you are undertaking, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave”.

The famine grew worse and worse, it oppressed the land (Gen. 43). The grain that Jacob’s household had brought from Egypt was used up, and the old man said to his sons: “Go again to Egypt, buy us a little more grain”. Judah answered him: “The man, the lord of that land, solemnly warned us when we left, saying that we shall not see his face unless our youngest brother comes with us”. Jacob said: “Why did you do me this evil, why did you tell the man that you have another brother?” They answered: “The man questioned us carefully and thoroughly. He asked: Is your father still living? Do you have another brother? We answered his questions. How were we to know that he would say: Bring your brother back?” Then Judah began to urge his father: “Send the boy with me; let us go at once, so that we may live and not die—you and we and also our little ones. I myself will be his guarantee; you can hold me accountable for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let your anger be upon me forever. For if we had not delayed, we would have returned twice by now”. His father said to him: “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry them down as a present to the man—a little balm and a little honey, some gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. Take double the money with you, for you must return the money that was put back in your sacks; perhaps it was an oversight. And take your brother too. Now go back to the man. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, so that he may send back your other brother and Benjamin as well. As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved”.

Jacob’s sons took gifts and double money and set out for Egypt. When they arrived, they presented themselves to Joseph. Joseph saw Benjamin, his brother on his mother’s side, and his soul was stirred. He called his steward and said to him: “Bring these men into my house and slaughter an animal and make preparations, for the men are to dine with me at noon”. The steward did according to Joseph’s word and brought the brothers into his house. Seeing that they were being brought to Joseph’s house, they said to one another: “We are brought here because of the money that was returned in our sacks the first time; they want to accuse us, seize us as slaves, and take our donkeys”. Therefore, at the gate of the house, before entering, they approached the steward and spoke to him: “Oh, my lord, we came down the first time to buy grain; and when we opened our sacks at the first encampment, each of us found his money, the full weight of it, in his sack; and we have brought it back with us in full. And we have brought other money with us to buy grain. We do not know who put our money in our sacks”. The steward answered: “Peace be to you, do not be afraid. Your God, the God of your fathers, must have put treasure in your sacks for you; I received your money”. And he brought Simeon out to them. Then water was brought, and they washed their feet, and their donkeys were given fodder. They laid out their gifts, preparing them, and awaited Joseph’s arrival at noon.

When Joseph returned to his house, his brothers brought him their gifts and bowed down to him with their foreheads to the ground. He asked them: “Are you well?”—then added—“How is your aged father, of whom you spoke to me? Is he still alive?” They answered: “Your servant, our father, is still alive and well”. “Blessed be this man before God!”—said Joseph. They bowed low to him. Seeking Benjamin among them with his eyes, Joseph asked: “Is this your youngest brother, whom you promised to bring to me?”—and on their affirmative answer said: “God be merciful to you, my child!” Joseph was troubled; his heart beat violently; tears flowed from his eyes. He hastily went to his chamber, there he satisfied himself with tears; then he washed his face, came out to his brothers, and, restraining himself, said: “Bring in the meal”. For him a table was prepared separately, and separately for Jacob’s sons, and separately for the Egyptians who dined at the great man’s house that day. The Egyptians, Scripture tells us, could not eat at the same table with Hebrews; they, according to their belief, abhorred every shepherd of flocks. Jacob’s sons were seated opposite Joseph in order of their age. They were amazed when they saw themselves seated by seniority. Dishes were brought to them, each his own portion served separately: Joseph himself put portions on their plates, and to Benjamin he gave a portion five times larger than to the other brothers. Wine was also brought. The hearts of Jacob’s sons became light at this luxurious and gracious table. Not accustomed to restraining themselves, desert shepherds ate their fill and drank abundantly. This meal prefigured the spiritual meal of Christ the Saviour, offered to Christians at the Divine Liturgy. The Lord was pleased to become our brother, He acquired dominion over the world—the mysterious Egypt—and to His brothers, who suffer under the burden of sin, “has prepared a table” and a cup that overflows” (Ps. 22:5), His most holy body and most holy blood. Christians, partaking of this divine food, partake of eternal life, are freed from sins, and in the intoxication of spiritual joy forget the sorrows that oppress them in their wanderings in Egypt—in a foreign land, in the land of exile: this land, full of griefs and afflictions, visible and invisible—is earthly life.