Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt

42When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, ‘Why do you keep looking at one another?²I have heard’, he said, ‘that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.’³So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.⁴But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he feared that harm might come to him.⁵Thus the sons of Israel were among the other people who came to buy grain, for the famine had reached the land of Canaan.

6 Now Joseph was governor over the land; it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.⁷When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them. ‘Where do you come from?’ he said. They said, ‘From the land of Canaan, to buy food.’⁸Although Joseph had recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.⁹Joseph also remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about them. He said to them, ‘You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land!’¹⁰They said to him, ‘No, my lord; your servants have come to buy food.¹¹We are all sons of one man; we are honest men; your servants have never been spies.’¹²But he said to them, ‘No, you have come to see the nakedness of the land!’¹³They said, ‘We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of a certain man in the land of Canaan; the youngest, however, is now with our father, and one is no more.’¹⁴But Joseph said to them, ‘It is just as I have said to you; you are spies!¹⁵Here is how you shall be tested: as Pharaoh lives, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here!¹⁶Let one of you go and bring your brother, while the rest of you remain in prison, in order that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you; or else, as Pharaoh lives, surely you are spies.’¹⁷And he put them all together in prison for three days

Joseph interpreting dreams: Cuyp

God’s dream begins to cohere in the reader’s mind: from Joseph’s dreams to Pharoah’s dreams all has happened so that human lives, including specificaly the human lives of Jacob and his children should be preserved; and so that his people should understand something about the nature of their God’s dreams. When Joseph recognises the brothers who come seeking food, he remembers his own dreams and doubtless the whole sequence of events which has flowed from them. The narrator doesn’t linger on Joseph’s feelings but plunges the reader into a new tangle of deception. Just as God has led Joseph unsuspectingly into fulfilling His purposes, so Joseph cons his brothers into bringing him his younger brother. In this story it is always the difficulties that bring success, always the byways that lead home. As the reader learns the legends of Israel’s origins s/he also learns a sweet wisdom about human existence: through God’s goodness, it’s more comedy than tragedy.

MARK 3: 20-35

Then he went home;²⁰and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.²¹When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’²²And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’²³And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan?²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter;²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’—³⁰for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’<!– 31 –>

The True Kindred of Jesus

31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.³²A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters^* are outside, asking for you.’³³And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

binding the strong man: Blake

The key to this episode is Mark’s depiction of Jesus at war with the power of Satan, that is, with the evil that degrades and disfigures human life. There is no point in asking whether Jesus “believed” in evil spirits as we have no direct acess to Jesus’ mind. Mark “believes” in them to the extent of characterising them as the spirit by which his society isolates those who suffer significant misfortune or who break the taboos by which this isolation is achieved. Jesus, as  a breaker of taboos, is accused of being possessed by Satan/ Beelzebul. Indeed even his own family concurr with this view and come to get him out of harm’s way. Jesus ridicules this diagnosis: manifestly his actions FREE people from illness and isolation, whereas Satan wants to IMPRISON them. So, he asks, is Satan employing him to thwart his own purposes? Is the kingdom (house) of Satan divided in civil war? It’s much more likely, Jesus says, that he is breaking into Satan’s house to rob him of his captives. In order to do this he is given power by the Holy Spirit to bind Satan and render him helpless. I have written about the “oikos” (Greek for house) theology of the Bible.** Usually this involves the image of the “house of God.” Here we see it also uses the image of the “house of Satan” (evil.).

Those who reject the work of God’s spirit in liberating human beings and call it evil are closing themselves to the forgiveness and liberation of that same spirit. Jesus’ warning addresses this sad possibility. Even the human family with its exclusive concern for its own reputation-Jesus’ family has come to remove him from the public arena-can become demonic if it does not find its place within the greater family of God’s children, who obey the liberating love of the Father. The startling sublety and depth of Mark’s portrait of Jesus is evident here.

Those who advocate a return to family values would do well to read the Bible-neither Joseph’s family nor Jesus’ family is depicted as a model for others.

** I have intruded an an essay on Oikos theology as the next blog in sequence (678) entitled “bible blog oikos”