Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize
him. – Genesis 42:8 (NET)
Delving into the life of Joseph
will almost invariably produce a comparative analogy to the life of Jesus, and
with what is transpiring in association with this particular verse, the
statement proves to be true. The reader of Scripture can never be allowed
to forget that the way in which Israel thought about itself, the way the
disciples would have heard and understood the words and ministry of Jesus, and
even the way that Jesus thought of and presented Himself to Israel, would all
have been couched in the regularly told history of Israel, as grounded in the
Abrahamic covenant and in the history of the Egyptian exodus.
To that end, not only was every Passover an explicit
reminder of their exodus experience and that their God was the God of exodus,
but the long subjugation to various empires---the latest of which was Rome---was
productive of a general (though not exclusive) mindset of a people in an exile
from the full manifestation of their God’s promises to them. Thus, among many, there was a consistent
longing for a new exodus led by a new deliverer.
Owing to that the groaning
desire of freedom from Rome’s yoke (not unlike the groaning of Israel in Egypt,
as recorded in Exodus), one can be assured that thoughts of the Creator God’s
miraculous deliverance of His people from the power of Egypt would never have
been too far from their minds. Quite naturally, the story of Joseph,
which was so closely connected to the story of Israel’s arrival in Egypt (which
was itself part of the God of Israel’s confirmation of His promise to Abraham),
and which was itself a poignant story of vindication and exaltation after an
ordeal of wrongful suffering, would have been a popular story in Israel.
Because it offers a tight analogy to that which was
experienced by Jesus (suffering, vindication, exaltation), stories of Joseph, especially
following the Resurrection of Jesus, would have been fertile ground for gaining
an even greater understanding of Jesus and His mission, of the covenant God
that raised Him from the dead, and of the redeeming, rescuing movement of that
same God throughout all of history---with comprehension of that work, enacted
primarily through His covenant people, given shape by the Abrahamic covenant
and its associated pointers and promises that are rehearsed and recorded
throughout the written history (including the poets and prophets) of Israel.
Now, some misguided souls might
be tempted to look at these analogies from a resurrection-denying perspective
and draw the conclusion that followers of Jesus, subsequent to His unexpected
and defeating death and seeking to keep alive the cult that had grown around
Him, simply searched the Scriptures so as to pull together bits and pieces by
which it was possible to build a better foundation for their ongoing worship
and subsequent proclamation of Him as the embodiment of Israel’s God.
However, reading the Hebrew Scriptures in the light of God’s
redemptive plan that was commenced through Abraham, carried on through Israel,
climaxed in Jesus, and continually out-worked through the Church of Christ,
becomes an exercise in learning about the Creator God and His purposes, so that
one might gain a greater measure of trust through what is somehow understood to
be the out-spiring work of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, believers come to be able to identify the places that
connect them to the culminating event in the history of the entire cosmos,
which was the Christ-event. This operation is undertaken, presumably, so
that those that confess Jesus as Lord and who seek to live according to that
proclamation, might be able to more effectively operate by the mysterious power
of the Resurrection, that they might be the means by which the Creator God
applies that transformative power, by the Spirit, through that Gospel
proclamation of Jesus as Lord.
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