Continuing with a brief synopsis of the Bible's Fantastic Divine Drama...
Part one left off with God’s promise (covenant) with Abraham, promising 3 things in addition to the promise to be Abraham’s God. The creation account is very broad, but with Abraham, the Bible’s focus becomes very specific now. So land (Canaan, the land “flowing with milk and honey”), offspring, and “descendants being a blessing to all nations” becomes the focus of this divine commitment by God (Genesis 12 and 15). It also establishes a mission for Abraham and his descendants: to not only be God’s chosen people but also to be God’s instrument to speak to the world about his true nature, over and against the nature of all the false gods and idols. However, almost as soon as God’s promise is made, and though initially, “Abraham believed God...” (Genesis 15:6), mistrust of God begins soon thereafter. They begin to have children from Abraham’s mistresses because Sarah was unable to conceive initially (ch. 16). God reminds them again of his divine promise through a physical reminder: circumcision - which is to be an ongoing sign of God’s promise to Abraham and his offspring. Still there is doubt about God’s promise - and Sarah again scoffs at the idea of bearing children as God promised, even in the presence of the three angels, thought to be the Holy Trinity (ch. 18). We see that sin is still as rampant and perverse as ever, with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (ch. 19); Abraham becomes quite good at deception by lying to kings and Pharaohs for his own personal gain (ch. 20); and it seems that Abraham is out to bring about the results God promised on his own, rather than truly trusting God. Finally a true heir is born of his wife, Sarah, and they name him Isaac (ch. 21). Abraham is tested to see if he truly trusts God, and it seems as though he does, as he is prepared to kill his son and heir, all the while telling an inquisitive Isaac that “God will provide the lamb” for the sacrifice, which God does indeed do in the end (ch. 22).
What follows then is a history of Abraham’s line through Isaac, to Jacob, then to Jacob’s twelve sons (who become the “12 tribes”), along with Ishmael’s sons (the child of one of Abraham’s mistresses) that eventually lead to the Palestinian people and the religion of Islam today. Jacob’s twelve sons were extremely jealous of Jacob’s favorite: Joseph. Joseph sharing his dreams of having authority over his brothers (ch. 37) certainly did not help, and so through trickery and deception, they sold him into slavery and told his father, Jacob, that he had been killed! (ch. 37).
God’s promise of offspring to Abraham had indeed come true, but continually we see deception and sin amongst his descendants. Joseph’s history is indeed a colorful one, more so than his coat of many colors (Genesis 37). Because Joseph was his father’s favorite, and because he told his brothers about his dreams of being their master one day, envy and hatred existed amongst his 11 brothers. They sold him to a band of Ishmaelites (who would be distant relatives of theirs and also the forefathers of the Palestinians and of Islam). They in turn took him to Egypt and Joseph was purchased as a slave by Potiphar, who was one of Pharaoh’s officials (ch. 39). Reuben, one of his brothers, unsuccessfully tried to prevent this from happening (ch. 37:22). His brothers took his coat and made it appear to have been ripped to shreds by a wild animal, causing Jacob to believe that his son, Joseph, was dead.
In all of this, and including the subsequent deceptions and trickery by not only those who enslaved Joseph as well as his surviving brothers, God was with him, and continued to have events unfold according to His divine plan! Joseph is thrown into prison in Egypt based on a lie (ch. 39), and while there, interprets dreams correctly for another of Pharaoh’s officials. Eventually Pharaoh himself (the ruler of Egypt, who proclaims himself a god), has dreams of seven fat cows being consumed by seven sickly looking cows. The dream repeats, but with heads of grain in place of the cows (ch. 41). The dream’s interpretation given to Joseph by God indicates that there will be seven years of plentiful harvest, followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh believes Joseph, and so he is now put in charge of storing up food during the seven good years, in order that the Egyptians will be able to survive the coming years of famine. So Joseph has gone from favored son, to slave in a foreign land, to prisoner, and now to one of Pharaoh’s top officials!
Eventually, the famine becomes so severe that people from all over the region travel to Egypt to see about securing food from the surplus stored up by Joseph. This includes Joseph’s brothers, sent there by Jacob (ch.42). Joseph instantly recognizes them, but they do not recognize the brother they hadn’t seen in years. Though he initially toys with them and has them imprisoned, accusing them of being spies, he eventually reveals himself to them (ch. 45) and tells them, “do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” (v. 5). The brothers return home and bring Jacob and all of their families back with them to Egypt. Though it is not the land promised to them by God, nonetheless God blesses them, and they continue to become a great nation with numerous descendants through many generations, enjoying prosperity in Egypt. And so the stage has now been set for the greatest event of the Old Testament: The Exodus!
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