Joseph's Release (part 2 of 2)

How would this particular experience of Joseph apply to an attempt to better understand the message of Jesus?  While the believers posits that Jesus is presently ruling as Lord of all things within the kingdom of heaven that commenced with His Resurrection and began to make its presence felt on earth through those that believe in Him and follow the serving and suffering example of Jesus, one should consider what is billed as the great dissertation on the Resurrection, as presented in the fifteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, that Jesus “must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet” (15:25), and that “The last enemy to be defeated is death” (15:26). 

Quoting from the eighth chapter of the Psalms, Paul adds to that, writing “For He has put everything in subjection under His feet” (15:27a), while also going on to point out that “when it says ‘everything’ has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the One (Father) Who put everything in subjection to Him (Son)” (15:27b).  Closely echoing the story of Joseph’s imprisonment, release, and exaltation to the place of second-in-command, one can go on to read here in the Corinthian letter that “when all things are subjected to Him, the Son Himself will be subjected to the One Who subjected everything to Him, so that God may be all in all” (15:28). 

Reflecting back to Joseph then, having been given his charge and management responsibility, the Psalmist reminds the covenant people that Pharaoh also gave Joseph “authority to imprison his officials and to teach his advisers” (Psalm 105:22).  So too Jesus, having been freed from an imprisoning tomb of death, and having had a kingdom delivered over to Him, was also given authority that would be connected with teaching.  With this, one looks to the Gospel of Matthew, and latching on to the greater narrative structure that is to be found there, hears Jesus---before His death and Resurrection, but just before it is posited that “From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things… and on the third day be raised” (16:21), and so connecting His authority with His death and Resurrection---speaking to His disciples and saying, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven” (16:19). 

Clearly, Matthew has the authority of the Christ (anointed one/Messiah/King of Israel) in mind as a key component of His presentation of Jesus, and this is made quite poignant in Matthew’s record of Jesus’ farewell address to His disciples.  In it, Jesus makes an allusion to the seventh chapter of Daniel, with its kingdom and authority for the Son of Man, and says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (28:18b).  Together with the quote from the sixteenth chapter, this dovetails quite nicely with the authority that was said to have been delivered to Joseph.  Building on this, Jesus Himself would seem to be extending and solidifying the connection between Himself and Joseph, saying “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (28:19-20a).   

Joseph's Release (part 1 of 2)

The shackles hurt his feet; his neck was placed in an iron collar, until the time of his prediction came true.  The Lord’s word proved him right. – Psalm 105:18-19  (NET)

Oftentimes, it is a relatively simple matter to find Jesus and the Gospel being spoken of in a proleptic manner in the Hebrew Scriptures  On numerous occasions, when the aforementioned Scriptures are viewed through the lends of the cross and the Christ-event, it is not at all difficult to find Jesus especially reflected in the purported accounts of the life of Joseph.  Here in the one hundred fifth Psalm, the link between Joseph and Jesus, and with it the presentation of Jesus and the message of the Gospel (Jesus is the crucified and resurrected Lord of all), seems to be one of the most explicit and direct that one will ever be able to find. 

In verses eighteen and nineteen, as the Psalmist recounts a portion of the tale of Joseph in Egypt, the reader is reminded that Joseph’s feet were in shackles, while his neck was in an iron collar.  This situation existed until he was vindicated by a prediction that he is reported to have made.  One would be hard pressed to find an analogy closer to that which would eventually be experienced by Jesus.  With these verses then, the reader is reminded of Jesus’ death, along with His being placed in a tomb, as death and the grave symbolically (and somewhat literally) take the place of the shackles and iron collar. 

As was said to have been the experience of Joseph, Jesus too was imprisoned.  This prison was a tomb.  How long did His imprisonment last?  Naturally, it is well understood that the duration of His imprisonment was three days.  On a deeper level however, one could insist that the imprisonment continued until the time of Jesus’ hopeful predictions about His Resurrection came true.  With that Resurrection, like Joseph (who experienced a veritable resurrection), He was vindicated.  To borrow the language of the Psalmist, He was proved right. 

In the verses that follow, the Psalmist provides an analysis of this release from prison.  For Joseph, it is said that “The king authorized his release” (105:20a).  Pharaoh released Joseph from his imprisonment, and the believers knows that this release by the king to be true of Jesus as well.  The Creator God---the sovereign ruler of the universe---released Jesus from the shackles of death.  Indeed, in the very first public proclamation of Jesus’ Resurrection, as recorded in the second chapter of Acts, Peter speaks about death and says that “it was not possible for Him to be held in its power” (2:24b). 

Of Joseph it is said that “the ruler of nations set him free” (105:20b).  With His being freed from death, it is more than appropriate to speak of Jesus with such words, while also finding that it is said of Joseph that Pharaoh “put him in charge of his palace, and made him manager of all his property” (105:21).  In fact, if one was to turn to the original story of Joseph, there it would be found that Joseph was made second in command over the empire of Egypt.  Only Pharaoh was greater than Joseph. 

Suppression Of Truth (part 6 of 6)

Here again, one simply finds passion misdirected to that which dishonors, springing from self-idolatry, rather than to that which acknowledges and honors the Creator God.  In a sharp and revealing contrast to the shame that was said to have been experienced by Adam and Eve when their eyes were opened and they realized what they had done and that they were naked, Paul insists that mankind’s course of dishonor and idolatry would quickly reach the point at which “Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27b). 

Indeed, it would appear to be the general argument of Scripture that, because of the corruption that occurred at what is recognized as the fall of man, which is pointed to as the time at which the truth of the covenant God and of man’s purpose in this world to honor the Creator rather than self began to be suppressed, that death began its long reign.  Borrowing the language of the Apostle, this was a due penalty indeed.  With this in mind, Paul goes on to describe the lot of all of humanity, writing “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done” (1:28). 

Thusly, from time immemorial mankind has been “filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice… rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility” (1:28a).  It goes beyond that, as Paul goes on to write, “They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless” (1:29-31).  This would certainly seem to run amiss of that which the Creator intended for His specially created image-bearers.  Paul continues, writing that even though all this be the case “they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them” (1:32).  

So yes, because man had been imprinted with/as the divine image, he retains, even in the midst of his self-worship and petulant refusal to acknowledge a god beyond himself.  Here Paul implies that there is still a basic, residual knowledge and understanding of the Creator God’s decree of death for violation of His covenant, though the fallen image-bearers impotently rage against and attempt to deny that decree, along with the just Creator that stands behind it.  In spite of this damning indictment, the reader of the letter to the Romans eventually come to find that, because of the love of God, the Christ died (5:8) for that same humanity just described, which is most definitely a truth that should not, cannot, and will not be suppressed.   

Suppression Of Truth (part 5 of 6)

Amplifying the seriousness of the charge, the Apostle Paul repeats himself and says that this situation with humanity developed because “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever!” (1:25)  Of all of the things that can be said about the fall of man, it should probably be made abundantly clear that it is said to have occurred because they believed the lie. 

In believing the lie, not only did they, in effect, point their faith towards the serpent, honoring that part of the creation more than the Creator, but above all things, it occurred because they knew themselves to be the pinnacle of their God’s creation.  With that knowledge, it would not be a stretch to surmise that they sought to worship themselves.  The serpent merely provided the justification for that which was already desired.  In many ways, this mindset continues unabated to this very day.  It is the single darkest component of man’s fallen state, and it could be said that this is what keeps humanity entrenched in the state of falling short of the glory of their Creator God. 

At this point in Romans, Paul can be understood to be moving on from Adam and Eve and surveying the scope of human history from the that day until his own, as he writes, “For this reason”---holding the lie as truth and in so doing worshiping the creation rather than the Creator---“God gave them over to dishonorable passions” (1:26a).  The implication would seem to be that mankind’s passions were no longer directed towards honoring the Creator God by engaging in the purpose for which he was created, but rather, those passions are directed towards that which dishonored the Creator by dishonoring the image of the God in which he had been made. 

It could be said that this dishonor was a diminishing of what can be called “human-ness.”   This diminishing stood in stark contrast to the Creator’s very first command to those made in and as His image, which was to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).  Bringing forth life is one of the primary ways in which mankind can participate in and represent that image with which it has been endowed, and it will generally involve much sacrifice and care and concern on the part of the ones responsible (human parents) for the creation of that life. 

This necessary sacrifice, care, and concern towards a creation sounds very much like the attitude of the God that is both revealed and discovered in the pages of Scripture.  It is possible that Paul sees the rejection of this creation of life, together with the sacrifice, care, and concern that is learned in this creation and rearing of fellow humans, as a core component of the self-idolatry that is rampant within humanity, and addresses it in writing words such as “For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another” (1:26b-27a).  

Suppression Of Truth (part 4)

What is the end of this becoming foolish and its expression of foolish statements?  Paul writes that the ones who did not glorify the Creator God, nor give Him thanks, but became futile in their thoughts with darkened hearts, who claimed to be wise but instead became fools, “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles” (Romans 1:23). 

What Adam and Eve accomplished was indeed the beginning of idolatry, and it began with self-worship, along with a complete disregard of their God and a forgetfulness of the Creator.  A forgotten Creator, together with self-worship, can be seen when Eve gives birth to a son and declares herself to have been able to create a man.  With that, man, rather than continuing to comprehend himself as the steward of life, now looked at himself as being able to bring forth life---as god-like. 

There is an implication that once the Creator God is shoved to the side and replaced by another creator, then the fact that there was an act of creation (along with an associated gifting of responsibilities) by that Creator falls quickly from the mind.  Having forgotten their Creator, and no longer bearing in mind that they were part of a good created order, Adam and Eve (and those to whom they gave birth) could look around them, observing the entire order of nature, and surmise that the animals that they saw had brought themselves into existence, that they could also pro-create and generate life, and that they were therefore worthy of worship as well.  So began the interminable fall into the practice of idolatry that has gripped mankind from the very beginning.  The Scriptures seem to insist that it is only the grace of the covenant God of Israel that enables one to break free from the ingrained tendency to idolatry, so as to be able to see the Creator in His glory, and in doing so, seek to honor and give worship to Him.      

   

With mankind having made its nearly irrevocable fall into idolatry, worshiping that which is not the Creator God, and thereby deciding for themselves that there is no god beyond himself and that to which he ascribes divinity, Paul continues his potential reflection on the creation story and insists that “God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves” (Romans 1:24). 

The Creator God was to be honored by mankind’s stewardship of His good creation, but man, as can be observed from the fall and all that followed, had and has an altogether different plan.  It becomes patently clear from Genesis that the serpent merely simply seized upon the desire of the human heart to honor only self, and Paul, because of his constant assertion that the God of Israel is ultimately in control of all things, describes this as the Creator God giving humanity over to the desires of the heart. 

With this self-honor, in truth, the opposite transpired.  With this self-honor, impurity imposed itself into the world.  With this self-honor came dishonor.  That dishonor, resulting from the rejection of their God’s plan for them, manifested itself in death.  The blame for this does not lie with the serpent, but with mankind alone, who alone was created as the divine image for the cosmos.  This dishonor came at their own hands, as humanity is said to have engaged in the process of dishonoring their bodies through their own decisions and actions---doing so among themselves.  What had been made in perfection and for life was now subject to the dishonor of death, far removed from the God-glorifying honor of the Creator, which is the purpose for which they had been created. 

Suppression Of Truth (part 3)

Building on what has been said then, not only would glorifying the Creator God have consisted of Adam and Eve (the original image and covenant bearers) following His direct command, but through disobedience they would, apparently for the first time according to the story told in Genesis, fall short of His glory as well (sin), thereby losing the ability to adequately and properly and perfectly reflect the glory of their Creator into the world. 

Though this was supposed to be rectified by the call of Abraham and Israel, this expected rectification would ultimately be left undone until Jesus placed a foot on to the stage of history.  Clearly then, Adam and Eve can be understood to have not been thankful for the responsibility with which they had been charged, nor the exalted position with which they had been blessed.  Continuing to allow an overplay between the first chapter of Romans and the beginning of the Scriptural narrative, with the influence of the serpent, their thoughts did indeed become futile.  It could certainly be said that their thoughts were turned towards themselves and away from that which was their God’s purpose for them. 

It could even be said that the inward turning of thought was the beginning of futility, along with being the beginning of idolatry, as Adam and Eve were convinced to focus on themselves and that which they could gain for themselves (becoming like God, knowing right and wrong), rather than on what their God had done for them and what it was that they were supposed to be doing in and for the world, and for His glorification. 

In consideration of the statement from the Apostle Paul that “their senseless hearts were darkened,” could it not be said that, prior to the ill-fated taking from the tree and the subsequent fall, that they had no sense of nakedness, no sense of shame, no sense of fear, no sense of the knowledge of good and evil, no sense of remorse, and no sense of guilt?  Now and quite unfortunately, following the cataclysmic act of the fall, these senses were all present, having been darkened by the presence of sin---falling short of the glory of the Creator God (bearing His image in and for the world).  The insistence of Scripture is that prior to this paradoxical livening and deadening of their senses, they lived in a conscious state that were devoid of these things, but with what had been done, that condition was darkened by an evil presence. 

Yes, they ate from the tree.  It is said to have been the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  As the story goes, the serpent told them that if they did so, they would become like divine beings.  The serpent said that their eyes would be opened.  The serpent said that they could have power.  Power?  Yes, because they understood the power of their God; and because this tree was connected with knowledge, it could be said that on display here is the first human premonition that knowledge is power, and they wanted it. 

It is said that part of the motivation for taking and eating from the tree was that not only was the fruit “attractive to the eye” (Genesis 3:6b), but that it was also “desirable for making one wise” (3:6c).  Did wisdom come?  What is to be found in the next verse here in Romans?  “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (1:22).  Fools!  What is it that the Scriptures have to say about fools?  The Psalmist writes that “Fools say to themselves, ‘There is no God.’  They sin and commit evil deeds; none of them does what is right” (14:1).  So what one here observes is that Eve first, and then Adam, desiring wisdom but becoming fools.  In essence and effect, as they cast off their right bearing of the divine image, they declarie that “there is no God.”  Is this not what they were truly expressing in their desire to become like gods, beings that know good and evil? 

Suppression Of Truth (part 2)

It is said that this suppression of truth occurred even though what could be known about the God of creation had been made quite plain to them (Romans 1:19).  Indeed, Scripture seems to indicate that Adam and Eve had a regular fellowship with the Creator, in His very presence, as it was following their eye-opening fruit-eating that “the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard” (Genesis 3:8).  This could be taken as an indication that such was a regular occurrence.  In that time spent with Adam and Eve, it could be presumed to have been the case that it is to be understood that the covenant God made Himself and His ways and His expectations very plain to them. 

Based upon that, could it not be asserted that the experience of Adam and Eve is reflected in the next verse, where Paul writes “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes---His eternal power and divine nature---have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made”? (Romans 1:20a)  Paul’s position is that though they would not have been able to tangibly see or feel the eternal power of the Creator God, it would most certainly have been the case that they would have been brought into an understanding of it by the very fact of their existence, along with that of the world.  They would have understood that power by observing what was all around them---what had been made. 

The Creator God’s divine nature would have been understood, especially by Adam, as having been made in and as the image of God, and undoubtedly having had that communicated to him as he was given the responsibility of naming all of the living creatures (according to Genesis 2:20).  This was part of the exercise of the stewarding authority over the creation that had been delivered to Adam.  Along with that, Adam had been placed in Eden, in the world, to care for it and to maintain it (2:15). 

These two things, along with the command in regards to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, would presumably have given Adam a vision of God’s nature, as part of the bearing of the divine image (which would seem to entail some measure of a shared nature) was the authority over and responsibility for his God’s creation.  It is owing to this direct knowledge of and fellowship with the Creator God, with the explicit commands of that God and responsibilities that sprang from that knowledge and fellowship, that would have left Adam and Eve “without excuse” (Romans 1:20b) when it came time for their God to question them about the matter involving the serpent, the fruit, and their rebellion.      

Following the assertion that there is a lack of any excuse, as one continues to view these verses from the first chapter of Romans through the lens of Adam and Eve and the fall, one goes on to read “For although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks, but became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21).  Once again, it is appropriate to here reflect on the implied fact that Adam and Eve most certainly knew the Creator God, and in a way that would have been quite unique to them alone.  In the midst of this knowledge and this way of knowing, they still rebelled against Him and ate the fruit.  In that, there was most certainly no glory given to their God.  There was no thankfulness.