Proper 15
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
Object:
In Sunday schools and Bible studies, the Joseph stories are frequently used as moral lessons, and Joseph is often held up as a moral example. As Joseph learned humility, goes the teaching, so should we. As Joseph forgave his brothers, so should we.
It is very doubtful that any character in the Bible, other than our Lord himself, should be pictured as a model of morality, for all have some flaw or commit some sin. In Joseph's case, certainly he develops into an admirable person. But to hold up Joseph as an example is actually to miss the major point of his story. As in all of the scriptures, the major actor and subject of the Joseph stories is God himself, and it is to God's working that our text finally points.
We begin with a moving scene. To test his brothers' characters and familial love, Joseph has hidden a silver cup -- a sacred object used for divining -- in the baggage of Benjamin, who is departing Egypt with his ten brothers. The penalty for stealing a sacred object is death, but when Joseph accuses the brothers of stealing the cup, he makes them agree that whoever is found with the cup will become Joseph's slave. Of course the cup is found with Benjamin. But Judah pleads with Joseph to let him become Joseph's slave instead of Benjamin, for if their father Jacob loses his youngest surviving child, he will die from grief (ch. 44).
As our text opens, Joseph is overcome with emotion at Judah's sacrificial offer and must finally reveal his identity to his dismayed brothers (vv. 1-3). The speech that Joseph then delivers to his brothers, in verses 4-8, marks the central theological point of these stories in Genesis 37-50. Through all of the vicissitudes of Joseph's life, it is God who has been working to fulfill his promise.
God promised Jacob and his father and grandfather before him that they would have many descendants and a land to call their own. But in this period of the fourteenth century B.C., Canaan and Egypt are subjected to seven years of drought and famine. The twelve forebears of Israel and their families are threatened with death from starvation. But if that happens, God cannot keep his promise to the patriarchs. Israel must be saved. And so the Lord sends Joseph ahead into Egypt to learn from Pharaoh's dreams of the coming famine and to instruct the Pharaoh to save up food for the whole region during the seven years of plenty preceding the famine. By that method, God sustains his chosen people (and the Egyptians) alive, in order that he may fulfill his Word.
The manner in which God works out this scheme of salvation is simply amazing. First, he uses the hatred of the brothers to prompt them to sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Sold into the house of Potiphar, Joseph rises in favor in Potiphar's household. But falsely accused of trying to seduce Potiphar's wife, Joseph is thrown into prison. There, however, he interprets the Pharaoh's dream about the seven fat cows and the seven lean cows, which wins his release from jail and his rise to power as Pharaoh's right hand man. Thus, from that position, Joseph is able to store up the grain that will keep Israel alive. What a convoluted, totally human story it seems, full of suspense and good and evil! But it shows clearly how God is able to use human emotions and activities in order to further his good purpose.
God does not cause human evil, but he uses even it, because his plan for his world moves steadily forward -- hidden, unseen, but pressing toward his loving goal. When we think God is absent from our world, therefore; when we believe that all is lost and cruel circumstances have overwhelmed us; then is when we perhaps should most remember the story of Joseph.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
In 538 B.C., Cyrus of Persia issued a decree that allowed the exiles in the former region of Babylonia to return to their homeland and to rebuild the temple, even furnishing the financial means for the reconstruction (cf. Ezra 1). Some of the exiles returned, under the leadership of the Zadokite priests, but some who had settled down in Babylonia, who had married, built houses, and established businesses (cf. Jeremiah 29:1-7) remained in that foreign country.
Those who returned to Jerusalem faced a very difficult situation. Their city and temple were in ruins, poverty and inflation were rampant, and the agriculture of the peasants who had remained behind in Jerusalem was meager at best. Living was hard-scrabble.
In the midst of that difficult situation, Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66) picks up the former message of his predecessor, Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), and announces that God's salvation is near (v. 1). God is returning to his people, to restore their lives. Third Isaiah's call, therefore, is for the people to respond by establishing justice, that is, God's order, in their community, and by doing righteousness, that is, by fulfilling their covenant obligations of love and trust and obedience to their Lord. The prophet calls for such a response, not in order that God might return to them, but because God was in fact returning to be with his chosen people. Obedience and love toward God do not win God's favor, but are responses to the love that God has previously poured out upon us.
Third Isaiah is aware, however, of the plans for the rebuilt community that the Zadokite priestly leaders have already formulated while they are still in Babylonia. The Zadokite priests, and the priestly editors of the Old Testament, were concerned to prevent Israel ever again from falling into sin and deserving the calamity of an exile. The future plans that the priests therefore made for the rebuilt Israelite community were exclusivistic. They wanted all foreign wives excluded from that community (cf. Ezra 9-10). They planned careful attention to ritual and cultic duties. They limited the priesthood to Zadokites, descendants of Aaron. And they banned all foreigners from even worshiping in the rebuilt temple (cf. Ezekiel 44:6-9).
In the Isaianic tradition that is set forth for us in the whole of the Isaiah corpus, however, such exclusivism is not to be found. First and Second Isaiah both announced a universalism that had included foreigners among the saved in Israel (cf. Isaiah 2:2-4; 19:19-25; 42:1-4; 44:5; 45:22-23; 49:6). And indeed, pre-exilic Israel had never excluded the worshiping foreigner from the temple (cf. Exodus 12:48-49; Numbers 15:14-16). From the beginning, Israel's faith looked forward to the blessing of all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3), and in the figure of the Suffering Servant in Second Isaiah, Israel was called to give its life for the sake of foreign nations (Isaiah 52:13--53:12).
Our text from Third Isaiah therefore continues this universal announcement (vv. 6-8). All faithful people who love the Lord, who keep the sabbath (one of the distinguishing marks of Jewish faithfulness in the exile), and who cling to God in covenant trust will be welcome in the rebuilt temple. They may, in a priesthood of all believers, offer their sacrifices upon the altar, for the temple will be a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). God is gathering not only his scattered Jewish people to himself, but many others outside of Israel -- a fact that came true in the ministry of Jesus and of Paul, who became Christ's apostle to the Gentiles.
Because of the wideness of God's mercy, you and I -- we Gentiles -- now have become, through faith in Jesus Christ, members of his covenant people begun with Israel. And we are bidden by our Lord to take his good news of eternal salvation to all nations, baptizing them in God's triune name, and teaching them all that Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:20). There are no barriers to the worship of the God and Father of Jesus Christ, except that of love and trust in him, and faithful response to his saving Word.
It is very doubtful that any character in the Bible, other than our Lord himself, should be pictured as a model of morality, for all have some flaw or commit some sin. In Joseph's case, certainly he develops into an admirable person. But to hold up Joseph as an example is actually to miss the major point of his story. As in all of the scriptures, the major actor and subject of the Joseph stories is God himself, and it is to God's working that our text finally points.
We begin with a moving scene. To test his brothers' characters and familial love, Joseph has hidden a silver cup -- a sacred object used for divining -- in the baggage of Benjamin, who is departing Egypt with his ten brothers. The penalty for stealing a sacred object is death, but when Joseph accuses the brothers of stealing the cup, he makes them agree that whoever is found with the cup will become Joseph's slave. Of course the cup is found with Benjamin. But Judah pleads with Joseph to let him become Joseph's slave instead of Benjamin, for if their father Jacob loses his youngest surviving child, he will die from grief (ch. 44).
As our text opens, Joseph is overcome with emotion at Judah's sacrificial offer and must finally reveal his identity to his dismayed brothers (vv. 1-3). The speech that Joseph then delivers to his brothers, in verses 4-8, marks the central theological point of these stories in Genesis 37-50. Through all of the vicissitudes of Joseph's life, it is God who has been working to fulfill his promise.
God promised Jacob and his father and grandfather before him that they would have many descendants and a land to call their own. But in this period of the fourteenth century B.C., Canaan and Egypt are subjected to seven years of drought and famine. The twelve forebears of Israel and their families are threatened with death from starvation. But if that happens, God cannot keep his promise to the patriarchs. Israel must be saved. And so the Lord sends Joseph ahead into Egypt to learn from Pharaoh's dreams of the coming famine and to instruct the Pharaoh to save up food for the whole region during the seven years of plenty preceding the famine. By that method, God sustains his chosen people (and the Egyptians) alive, in order that he may fulfill his Word.
The manner in which God works out this scheme of salvation is simply amazing. First, he uses the hatred of the brothers to prompt them to sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Sold into the house of Potiphar, Joseph rises in favor in Potiphar's household. But falsely accused of trying to seduce Potiphar's wife, Joseph is thrown into prison. There, however, he interprets the Pharaoh's dream about the seven fat cows and the seven lean cows, which wins his release from jail and his rise to power as Pharaoh's right hand man. Thus, from that position, Joseph is able to store up the grain that will keep Israel alive. What a convoluted, totally human story it seems, full of suspense and good and evil! But it shows clearly how God is able to use human emotions and activities in order to further his good purpose.
God does not cause human evil, but he uses even it, because his plan for his world moves steadily forward -- hidden, unseen, but pressing toward his loving goal. When we think God is absent from our world, therefore; when we believe that all is lost and cruel circumstances have overwhelmed us; then is when we perhaps should most remember the story of Joseph.
Lutheran Option: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
In 538 B.C., Cyrus of Persia issued a decree that allowed the exiles in the former region of Babylonia to return to their homeland and to rebuild the temple, even furnishing the financial means for the reconstruction (cf. Ezra 1). Some of the exiles returned, under the leadership of the Zadokite priests, but some who had settled down in Babylonia, who had married, built houses, and established businesses (cf. Jeremiah 29:1-7) remained in that foreign country.
Those who returned to Jerusalem faced a very difficult situation. Their city and temple were in ruins, poverty and inflation were rampant, and the agriculture of the peasants who had remained behind in Jerusalem was meager at best. Living was hard-scrabble.
In the midst of that difficult situation, Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66) picks up the former message of his predecessor, Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), and announces that God's salvation is near (v. 1). God is returning to his people, to restore their lives. Third Isaiah's call, therefore, is for the people to respond by establishing justice, that is, God's order, in their community, and by doing righteousness, that is, by fulfilling their covenant obligations of love and trust and obedience to their Lord. The prophet calls for such a response, not in order that God might return to them, but because God was in fact returning to be with his chosen people. Obedience and love toward God do not win God's favor, but are responses to the love that God has previously poured out upon us.
Third Isaiah is aware, however, of the plans for the rebuilt community that the Zadokite priestly leaders have already formulated while they are still in Babylonia. The Zadokite priests, and the priestly editors of the Old Testament, were concerned to prevent Israel ever again from falling into sin and deserving the calamity of an exile. The future plans that the priests therefore made for the rebuilt Israelite community were exclusivistic. They wanted all foreign wives excluded from that community (cf. Ezra 9-10). They planned careful attention to ritual and cultic duties. They limited the priesthood to Zadokites, descendants of Aaron. And they banned all foreigners from even worshiping in the rebuilt temple (cf. Ezekiel 44:6-9).
In the Isaianic tradition that is set forth for us in the whole of the Isaiah corpus, however, such exclusivism is not to be found. First and Second Isaiah both announced a universalism that had included foreigners among the saved in Israel (cf. Isaiah 2:2-4; 19:19-25; 42:1-4; 44:5; 45:22-23; 49:6). And indeed, pre-exilic Israel had never excluded the worshiping foreigner from the temple (cf. Exodus 12:48-49; Numbers 15:14-16). From the beginning, Israel's faith looked forward to the blessing of all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3), and in the figure of the Suffering Servant in Second Isaiah, Israel was called to give its life for the sake of foreign nations (Isaiah 52:13--53:12).
Our text from Third Isaiah therefore continues this universal announcement (vv. 6-8). All faithful people who love the Lord, who keep the sabbath (one of the distinguishing marks of Jewish faithfulness in the exile), and who cling to God in covenant trust will be welcome in the rebuilt temple. They may, in a priesthood of all believers, offer their sacrifices upon the altar, for the temple will be a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). God is gathering not only his scattered Jewish people to himself, but many others outside of Israel -- a fact that came true in the ministry of Jesus and of Paul, who became Christ's apostle to the Gentiles.
Because of the wideness of God's mercy, you and I -- we Gentiles -- now have become, through faith in Jesus Christ, members of his covenant people begun with Israel. And we are bidden by our Lord to take his good news of eternal salvation to all nations, baptizing them in God's triune name, and teaching them all that Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:20). There are no barriers to the worship of the God and Father of Jesus Christ, except that of love and trust in him, and faithful response to his saving Word.
