Va Yeshev- he settled Genesis 37:1 to 40:23

Va Yeshev- “and he Settled”
Genesis 37:1-40:23




The next Torah portion goes into the famous story of Joseph. Before we get into that, I would like to lay out a theory about this section of the first book of the Torah. I am sure others have said this before, but I have always held this from my earliest years in Bible college and now am not sure who first came up with the idea.
The book of Bere’shit (Genesis) is 50 chapters long. It covers the longest portion of Biblical history from the dawn of creation though thousands of years down until Israel and his family live in Egypt. It sets the stage for the Exodus. Yet, for all these great men and great stories, why would over ¼ of the book be dedicated to the story of Joseph? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great story. It has become the subject of movies, and an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The story resonates on a lot of fronts, but why Joseph? The length of Joseph’s life was only 110. That’s a good long life by any standard, but Adam lived to be almost 1000. Noah was nearly that as well. Abraham and Seth seem to hang on forever. Poor Enoch gets just a couple line in the Bible, yet Joseph get over ¼ of the book of Genesis…why?
Here is the theory. It doesn’t have to be taken as gospel, but it is how I handle the why question. Many people have noticed that different portions of the book of Genesis have a different mood and flow. The Joseph part is the most obvious, but the book starts with a poem. There portions where the name of God (technically “gods“) is exclusively “elohime”, and other portions where the tetra gram is used (the Sacred name of God, generally translated LORD in most English Bibles). There are also portions where the words are used together like “The LORD God said to…”
The theory is that although we do believe in the full inspiration of Scripture it is also possible that the first book included a gathering of text related to Israel’s early history. These gathered texts were then put together by Moses (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) to form the first book of Scripture. This would suggest that the Joseph story would have been a complete text by itself. Proponents of this theory (who know far more then I about Egyptian literature) suggest that this story has the flow of an early Egyptian text. Whether this is true or not, the “original” that Moses might have consulted when he wrote this book has been lost. All we have is the record of the sacred text… which is what God intended for us to have in the first place.
Back to Joseph. The text starts with the statement that Jacob sojourned where his father did in the land of Canaan. One dear older brother recently found himself travelling doing a shofar ministry (e-mail me I can tell you more), and in the course of this was homeless. We, as many of you know, spent several months with no home this year. Another dear young brother with two children drops by and visits often and I have dubbed us the “fellowship of the sojourners”. We work in an area, but we really don’t have our “home” in the area. (Yes, you are correct, we have sort of lost that status just over a week ago). However, there is something to be said for that mindset. We are all sojourners, especially if we dedicate ourselves to the Kingdom of God. We may reside in an area. We may be employed in an area, but we choose not to set our roots down too deep. Our real home, our real place of loyalty, is a kingdom not built by human hands. Here is just where we…”sojourn”. If God calls us elsewhere then we should rejoice to be worthy of that call. We should (like Abraham in the story of the sacrifice of Isaac) wake the next morning and start on the way. Sincerely, brothers and sisters, I am looking at the present chronology of events in Israel. I am watching what is happening with other faithful brothers and sisters and I feel that things may be coming together toward God’s final act. As much as it depends on you, I would urge you to look closely at your life and start thinking about what and how you would act if God asked you to act. We need to be cautious about how deep our roots go. I do think God intended our loyalties to be outside this world. “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness…”
Back to our story. Jacob has now become the patriarch not unlike his fathers Abraham, and Isaac. He has several children, and herds. He also has his favourite, Joseph. Joseph is given a “coat of many colours”. This translation (although made popular from Martin Luther’s translation work) is not consistent with the text. The better translation is either a “coat with long sleeves”, or like the JPS version translates the Hebrew “an ornamented coat”. This may have had many colours, but that is beyond the text. If you have ever seen the movie Joseph King of Dreams they do a good job of setting the stage here. This coat means that he doesn’t do “physical work”. He was the favourite, and the rest of the boys understood that. He was singled out for special honour. This situation was created (at least in part) by Jacob. Joseph continued to irritate the situation.
The rest of the boys could not speak a friendly word (or speak “peaceably”) to him. The word is “Shalom”. This is the traditional Hebrew greeting. We don’t know if this was the greeting during Joseph’s time, but either way the brothers do not seek the well-being of Joseph.
Joseph has these dreams where his brothers and his parents and brothers are all bowing down to him. I have often wondered why God would do this. The kid is 17 years old. Is he really going to have the wisdom to keep this information to himself? If God wanted to provide him with a bit of insight into his future this was certainly not something that endeared him to his family. The brothers are even less likely to be favourably disposed to him.
Joseph is sent to his brothers. Just so you get the visual on this. The brothers don’t like Joseph. Joseph likely knows this. His dad likely knows this, yet Joseph raises no concern. He obeys his father without question.
Joseph doesn’t find his brothers (Gen 37:15) instead he finds a “man”. There have been many comments on this “man” whole stories have been written about him. I will quote from one Bible commentary site:

http://biblicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/commentary-on-genesis-37/

Jewish tradition considered him an angel in the form of a man. For Calvin the inclusion of the “man” episode was to depict the diligence of Joseph in carrying out his duty and concomitantly reveals the heinous atrocity of the brothers’ crime. The word order in Joseph’s response, lit., “my brothers I’m seeking” (v. 16), making familial relationship paramount in his thinking, reinforces the trust that he presumes and the brothers transgressed. Since the “man” intercepted Joseph, overheard the private conversation of the brothers, and correctly directed Joseph to discover his brothers at Dothan, the passage conveys the theological orientation of the narrative as a whole. Whether the “man” is an angel or a human, the unseen hand of the Lord is apparent here. He is directing Joseph to discover his brothers so that the divine plan for the salvation of Jacob and many peoples (50:20) might be realized, although it meant a troubling time for the house of Jacob. Where are Joseph’s custodial angels who like his father’s might save him from his brothers, as they did with Jacob and Esau (32:1-2 [2-3]) Luther answered, “In such danger we see the deepest silence of God and the angels. . . But behold how much good God draws forth from this.”
So Joseph is captured by his brothers, sold as a slave to his cousins (the Ismaelites), sent to work for Potiphar, set up by his wife and lands himself in prison.
In the midst of this story is also a story of Judah and Tamar. Judah is the one who will eventually get the firstborn blessing from Jacob. Judah’s first son is a loser (no explanation), God kills him. The second son doesn’t mind have physical relations with Tamar, just does want to get her pregnant. Is this a lust issue? Is this hatred for his brother? Is this hatred for Tamar? We don’t really know, but we do know God is not please so his live is taken as well. The youngest is really too young for this role, so she waits. He job is to wait…in this case forever for Judah to give his third son. Judah never does.
Tamar tricks Judah to become the father and sets it up so he’s in no position to have her done away for immorality. Judah wants her burned…not a pretty way to go. She’s a pretty clever gal. Judah comments rightly that she is more righteous (zadekh) then he. Weird story, certainly not the sort of nice image of Judah. Remember Judah was the one who sold Joseph even when Reuben was trying to save his life. So, which family does the Messiah come from?
Judah
In fact, he’s from Judah and Tamar. (Mt 1:3 and Luke 3:33)
The story is an amazing contrast with Joseph who refuses relations with his master’s wife and gets falsely accused and tossed into prison.
One other little note, and I think this comes across well in the movie Joseph: king of dreams. Joseph is a slave. He has no rights. Potiphar was well within his rights to just have him killed, but instead he’s tossed into prison. In fact, it’s not a prison for the commoners, but prisons of the royal court. If someone was to say that Potiphar did not believe his wife, or found it suspicious, then I would think he was likely right.
Enjoy God’s word…it was written for you. -Bradley Avi