Article 2015-12 - Zaphenath-paneah
Chapter 15: Zaphenath-paneah
Introduction
Joseph shows that it is not always wise to share God’s vision for your life with others. The beginning of his missionary training went almost unnoticed, yet it was very painful. However, expulsion from the ‘circle of the brothers’ doesn’t mean that God lost control. Missionaries that are trained in fetters may suffer from a ‘smashed theology’ – and then learn that mere trust in God is enough to survive their ordeal. Again, God doesn’t need any man’s help to take His trainees to the throne. During and after his suffering, Jesus became very visible in Joseph’s life, and the same will be true for us.
Scripture reference
Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. … I am going to send you to them.” ‘Very well’, he replied (Gen. 37:13)
He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; and he sent a man before them – Joseph, sold as a slave (Ps. 105:16,17)
The story
Joseph had a second dream and told his father and brothers. Nobody said anything at first. They knew it was no use to argue when father was around. They envied Joseph, because he was almost the youngest, and son of their father’s beloved wife who had died. Jacob favored him and they figured that one day he would be chief of the clan and that the best parts of father’s inheritance would pass them by.
Joseph told his dream about the sun, moon and stars bowing down for him. This went too far even for Jacob. He rebuked his son, but couldn’t stop thinking about the incident.
One day Jacob called Joseph and told him that he wanted to send him to Shechem, where his other sons were tending the flocks. Jacob could not forget what had happened there a few years ago. His daughter Dinah had been raped by a Shechemite prince and the way Simeon and Levi had taken revenge would be in the town people’s memory for a long time. Jacob may have feared that Shechemite revenge had hit his sons. So, he sent his beloved son to his other sons. Joseph, surprised that his father would send him on such a mission, not without danger, replied that he would be happy to go.
Little did Joseph know that he was about to embark on the greatest adventure of his life. Had he known what was to happen in the next few days, he might have stayed home. He had no idea that the beginning of his dreams coming true was at the door. Neither did he have that idea when it happened, because this blessing was so disguised that he would have called it a curse. His missionary training, expected by neither his father nor himself, had begun. Even less could he suspect that, when things started to go wrong, he would more than ever look like a greater King, Who would appear nineteen centuries later.
Unaware of the clouds gathering above his head, Joseph went on his way.
Days of walking and searching passed. Then Joseph distinguished large flocks and some tents, some miles away. He had just passed the village of Dothan, which a stranger had pointed out to him when he inquired after his brothers. When he came closer, the brothers noticed his colored garment. How could they miss it? Immediately the brothers planned to kill him, but they did not all agree. In the end they sold him to a bunch of Midianite traders, on their way to Egypt. They took Joseph’s garment, drenched it in some goat’s blood and sent it to their father. ‘Could it be that this garment was Joseph’s…?’, the ambivalent message was. ‘Could he have been eaten by a wild animal…?’ Jacob believed the lie and grieved for twenty-two years, refusing to be comforted.
Joseph was taken to Egypt, sold as slave, made a career, was falsely accused of adultery with his master’s wife and ended up in jail. A thousand times he may have asked himself what wrong he did to deserve such a fate. His theology was in shambles. He had always understood that when one served God things would go well in life. He didn’t understand it at all. What about those dreams? Didn’t God mean him to be a ruler? Then, what was he doing here in jail?
Well, working for one! The jailer saw that Joseph was a good man and he entrusted him with the care over the other prisoners. The young man brought them food and encouraged them. The warden had nothing to worry about with Joseph around. The latter carried the keys of all cells – except that of the main entrance of course.
Scripture reference
... the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care… (Gen. 39:22,23)
The story, continued
Would Joseph ever have considered escaping? He had the keys of the cells, because feeding the prisoners was his responsibility. After all, he was innocent, treated unjustly and also called to rule. He could have organized a prison rebellion, hit the warden on the head, grab the main key, and escape with all his fellow-prisoners.
Fortunately, whether he considered the thought or not, he never did. Joseph was wise enough to resist the possibility of escaping his suffering. He had started to understand that no successful God-given plan becomes reality without the called person having to suffer. There would be no throne for him without suffering first, just like no birth takes place without the mother’s labor pains.
During years behind bars he decided that if God allowed him to be treated unjustly, He could also change that. So, he resolved to keep believing in the realization of his dreams. One day he would rule. He didn’t know when, where or how. But he decided that God of his fathers, Who had been good to them, would be good to him as well. He would reach his life’s purpose. Some day.
Finally God released Joseph into missionary ministry of such a nature as the world had not yet seen. When he was called to explain Pharaoh’s dreams to him, Joseph knew that his life was going to change drastically. He prayed that he would be able to correctly explain the king’s dreams.
The king told Joseph his dream about the seven sleek, fat cows and the seven gaunt, ugly ones who ate the first seven. It was easy for Joseph to picture this in his mind. Then Pharaoh told him the second dream, about the seven plump ears of grain and the seven thin ones that ate the first seven. This wasn’t hard either, he found. In fact, both dreams said the same. This had to mean that it was not only a message of God, but one that was firmly decided in His heavenly purpose. And so Joseph explained the dreams to his king. He concluded with some ideas about how the problem could be solved and proceeded to lay out God’s wisdom for the salvation of Egypt for the next decade and a half.
Scripture reference
So Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.’ … ‘I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.’ Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah … (Gen. 41:41,44)
Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name, Zaphenath-paneah, meaning ‘the savior of the land’. Joseph left the palace, stunned about such sudden developments. He felt as if he was dreaming. No, after thirteen years of holding on to his dreams reality had finally come!
Comment
Joseph, loved by his father, could easily understand that God loved him too. Jacob had given him that beautiful garment, which Joseph interpreted as indication that he was the new clan-chief – designate. He started behaving like that already a bit, before the time came. No wonder, that when God shared His plans for Joseph’s life with him, these fit in with his imaginations just nicely. No wonder, that his brothers, when Joseph shared those plans, envied him and detested his arrogance. They despised him, that spoilt brat and their father as well who showed such favoritism. And so, Jacob, this generation’s son of promise, copied the pattern of split family-loyalties in which he himself had grown up. He didn’t see it, much less try to repair it. He would harvest his sons’ bitterness for decades to come.
From beginning to end it was planned by God, but Joseph was over thirty before he discovered God’s perspective on his life and ministry. Things often go like that in the lives of missionaries. Our training starts long before we realize it, usually accompanied by un-understood suffering. During such suffering only one thing is to be learned: trusting God when we don’t see or understand, think that everything goes wrong, that we’ll never make it, that we’re failures, etc. etc. It’s part of the plan to make us desperate with regard to our own power and entirely dependent on God’s power to get us where He wants us. When we think we can do it, we can’t but as soon as we’re convinced we can’t, we can; in His power only. That is what Joseph had to learn, as well as the rest of us.
Maybe Joseph thought that everything went wrong. It didn’t. He may have despaired that God lost control. He didn’t. Joseph learned that, in order to build high, he had to dig deep to lay a solid foundation. When he was deported to Egypt he was a weak, spoilt young man with a pretty untrained character, unfit to rule. When he came out of prison, almost thirteen years later, his character had been well-trained and hardened to steel-quality in the fires of suffering, surely fit to rule!
Joseph learned that suffering brought gain and losses would occur if suffering were avoided. Had he given in to the temptation to flee, he would have been chased as a fugitive for life, never really free and would never have made it to the throne of Egypt. In the process hundreds of thousands of people would have died from starvation.
The fact that Joseph did not escape and accepted suffering as part of his vocation, puts him in the ranks of the great missionaries. Like Jesus, Paul and many others as well, he suffered much and bore much fruit. That is the characteristic of a sent-one: to accept suffering that the devil inflicts, because you penetrate his domain to establish God’s Kingdom. Avoiding suffering robs you of the capacity to bear fruit. Joseph learned that there will be no crown without a cross.
Joseph looks like Jesus
Joseph’s willingness to submit to God’s way with all the pain included, made him the most prominent missionary in Genesis. He is like Jesus in many ways. Like Him, Joseph’s brothers envied him. Joseph was called to rule by dreams, as Christ was by divine ordination. Joseph was stripped of his wealth and position to become a slave before he could rule, as was the case with Jesus. Joseph almost laid down his life; Jesus really did. Both were treated unjustly at many occasions. Joseph refused to escape from prison; Jesus refused to escape His suffering. After his humiliation Joseph was elevated to the second highest place in Egypt and Jesus received the position at the right hand of God, after His Ascension. Joseph received from Pharaoh the new name Zaphenath-paneah, the savior of the land; Jesus received the name above all names and became the Savior of the World. The one saved people from physical starvation; the Other from spiritual death.
Discussion & dialogue
- Give an example of two other biblical persons who were trained for their mission through suffering
- Discuss whether Christians should attempt to escape suffering, when a chance occurs
- Which seven of the ten themes reoccur in Joseph’s story? (Answer in the Teacher’s Guide)
