Joseph - Reflections (7)

 

 

“The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples, and set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler over all his possessions, to imprison his princes at will, that he might teach his elders wisdom” (Psalm 105:20 – 22).

 

“That he might teach his elders wisdom.” Here is a man who was sold as a slave into Egypt, who then had a position of high responsibility in Potiphar’s house, who then was cast into prison, who was then given responsibility in the prison system; who, after many years, interpreted Pharoah’s dreams, who has now been exalted to the right hand of Pharoah, and who is now charged with teaching wisdom to the elders of Egypt.

 

It isn’t as if the Egyptians were ignorant, without deep understanding of many things, were not able engineers, were not efficient administrators, did not have an effective military – the Egyptians were hardly stupid. Yet, it was Pharoah’s purpose that Joseph teach wisdom to the elders of Egypt.

 

What would you think of Jospeh teaching you wisdom had you been an elder of Egypt? If you had risen through the ranks of Egyptian society and government, if your family could trace its Egyptian lineage back generations? What would you think had you been embedded within Egypt’s religious system at the notion that a Hebrew, worshipping a God that not only could not be seen, but worshipping a God who could not even be represented by images, was going to teach the elders of your people wisdom?

 

What would we think of the idea that a man who had been both a slave and a prisoner was going to teach us wisdom?

 

Perhaps Pharoah saw something in Joseph that he knew his elders needed. Pharoah could look around and see able administrators, engineers, artisans, priests, generals, agriculturalists, and educators, but he could not see what Joseph the slave and prisoner had – a depth of wisdom whose roots lay above and beyond Egypt.

 

“Now in the morning his [Pharoah’s] spirit was troubled, so he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh” (Genesis 41:8).

 

My sense is that Pharoah saw something in Joseph that went beyond being able to interpret dreams, and that it went beyond seeing someone who could provide wise counsel to Pharoah; Pharoah saw someone he could trust, we might say that he saw “an Israelite in whom is no guile.” Perhaps there was a sense in which Pharoah “saw” much as the centurion of Matthew 8:5 – 13 “saw.” The centurion saw something “other” in Jesus, Pharoah saw something “other” in Joseph.

 

How is it that Joseph’s brothers saw a threat to themselves, saw a reason for jealousy and a pretext for murder, while Potiphar, the chief jailer, and Pharoah all saw something “other” and unusual in Joseph, so much so that they trusted him? Joseph was not only an ethnic foreigner, Joseph was in many respects a foreigner to this world, he was “a child of another world.”

 

The reaction of Joseph’s brothers to Joseph’s dreams was much like the reaction of the people in Jesus’ hometown synagogue (Luke 4:14 – 30), they wanted to kill him. A prophet is not without honor except among his own people.

 

I really don’t think that the Son of Man will ever find a place to lay His Head in this present age, why can’t we see this? Why do we keep seeking a home in this age?

 

It seems to me that we know little about wisdom, such is the tyranny of the pragmatic and the monetary. We evaluate life based on money, return on investment, on whether something will “work” or not. We do not value Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, nor do we honor the woman with the box of precious ointment who breaks the vessel and pours it (wastes it!) all on Jesus. “Sell it!” we cry. “Sell it! Do something practical with it!”

 

In 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 31 we see that we are not to use “cleverness of speech” in our preaching lest we should make the Cross of Christ void. We also read that the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, and that God has said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.”

 

Paul writes, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:20 – 21).

 

As I read this passage, I wonder where I have placed my trust, I wonder how I have preached and taught. Have I relied on cleverness of speech? Have I trusted in “persuasive words of wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:4)? Have I relied on methods, on the pragmatic, of the world’s communication practices?

 

“Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:22 – 24).

 

Perhaps we could say that the Pentecostals and charismatics are seeking signs, and that other traditions are seeking wisdom? Are we all seeking something other than Christ Jesus? Can we not see that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God – that all of life is to be found in Him and in Him alone?

 

“Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 1:30).

 

Joseph had a wisdom, the nature of which was not that of the Egyptians, it was the Wisdom of another Age, another World, another Person.

 

“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory” (1 Cor. 2:6 – 7).

 

Therefore we read in Colossians 2:3 that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Indeed, Christ is the Wisdom of which we read in Proverbs Chapter 8, God’s Wisdom from eternity past into eternity present and flowing into eternity future.

 

Joseph’s wisdom was a wisdom formed through suffering, abandonment, betrayal, and trial; this is the wisdom of Christ, the wisdom of the cruciform life – a wisdom that makes no sense to the world or its powers. In Revelation, which among other things is a revelation of wisdom, it is those who lay down their lives, who do not love their lives, who are victorious. It is those who say “no” to the short-term rulers of this age, and who say “yes” to the Lamb who has been slain, who will overcome and prevail. It is the lambs who are led to the slaughter who are super overcomers (Romans 8:31 – 39) and who know the depths of the love of God.

 

The Wisdom from eternity lived in Joseph, Pharoah recognized this; to some degree Potiphar recognized this – which is one reason (I think) that he didn’t have Joseph executed, but rather put in prison, Potiphar knew Joseph was innocent.

 

I do wish that in seminary we had discussed the tension between the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God. I wish that we had pondered the “cleverness of speech” in 1 Corinthians 1:17 and the “persuasive words of wisdom” in 1 Corinthians 2:4 in their context. We may not have reached any conclusions, but perhaps it would have stated a conversation that needs to continue until we leave this life.

 

Most, if not all, of what I see in the world of vocational ministry and in church growth, much of what I see in Biblical interpretation, relies on methods that anyone can employ; that is, we do not need the Holy Spirit, we do not need revelation, we do not need supernatural wisdom. I’m not saying that God cannot use these things, I’m not saying that God doesn’t use these things; I am questioning whether we are truly relying on Him and whether we know that in Christ Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

 

I wonder if we have not become sociologists and therapists and communications specialists and marketing experts and entertainers and textual critics…and whether we are no longer apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor – teachers. I am reminded of Matthew 7:28 – 29:

 

“When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

 

As Peter writes, “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God” (1 Peter 4:11).

 

There was something different, of a higher and deeper nature, in the wisdom of Joseph that Pharoah recognized. Does the world see wisdom of the Divine Nature in us?

 

Are we discovering all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Jesus Christ?

 

If so, are we sharing them with one another?