The story of Joseph, despite the tragedy, despite the betrayal and abuse Joseph experienced at the hands of his brothers, seems to end happily for Joseph and his family. Joseph had risen high into Egyptian society, becoming one of the most powerful men in it. He wisely predicted that Egypt, and the region surrounding it, would experience a terrible, long-lasting famine, and he made sure Egypt would be prepared for it. In this way, he was able to help many people, including his family, survive, and even thrive, once the famine hit. When his family came to him in need, not knowing who he was, he not only was able to reveal himself to them, but to show they forgiveness and love, telling them that what they had done worked for the best (and a part of God’s plan). He then had them come and live in Egypt. But, after his death, things changed. Scripture then tells us that over time, the people of Egypt forgot about Joseph and what he had done for them:
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war befall us, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens; and they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. So they made the people of Israel serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field; in all their work they made them serve with rigor (Ex. 1:8-14 RSV).
Historically, it seems there was a time when foreigners ruled over Egypt (Hyksos). The lost power, and were expelled. This experience under the Hyksos probably caused the Egyptians, at least for a time, to be hostile to foreigners and all foreign influence. Some scholars have suggested that there is a connection with the Hyksos and the story of the Exodus, but most discount that connection. Perhaps the problem is that scholars are looking to make a direct connection with the Hyksos and the people of Israel instead of considering another option: what if the Pharaoh Joseph worked under was one of the Hyksos, or a dynasty like them, with foreign influence, which is why he was given the kind authority which would have been seen as more than a little unusual at any other time? That would also explain why we are told the Egyptians had a “new king” who did not know Joseph, because that “new king” would not have been one who accepted such foreign influence in Egypt, and would have used his power to make sure no foreigner gained such power in Egypt again. All this is speculative; we do not have historical records which tell us about Joseph and his family and how many of them were in Egypt and how long they were there and to what extent they were welcomed before they were despised by the people of Egypt. We don’t even know when they were in Egypt.It is also possible that there was a historical Joseph, but much of what we know from him is taken not only from him, but from other events in history. That is, as Genesis (and later, the Exodus) takes from many myths and legends, it is possible it borrows from the events surrounding the Hyksos but also adds to it other, lesser events, those connected with Joseph. What is not difficult for us to believe is that something along these lines happened, that there was a rise in nationalism and xenophobia in Egypt, one which took out all the frustrations Egyptians had foreign influences on the people of Israel. Certainly, we see nationalism and xenophobia (and racism) often arises when those who are seen as other, as foreign or different in some fashion, are perceived as having too much power and authority in society. They not only become resented, they are often seen as trying to take over society as a whole, and as a result, they experience some kind of oppression by those who hate and fear them.
We can only speculate how many of the people of Israel, that is, how many people Joseph brought into Egypt, and how many of them were still there decades or centuries later. It would not have to be a great number for them to be of significance (just as a few thousand migrants in a city can be seen as a threat by nationalists and racists). If and when there were problems in Egyptian society, then, it would not be difficult for Egyptians to consider various outsiders, foreigners, as threats, turning them into scapegoats, using them to explain why Egypt was in some sort of social decline. It would be especially easy to do so to those who, at one time or another, also had some sort of influence on Egyptian society, such as we are told the people of Israel had with Joseph. Once they are turned into scapegoats, such foreigners would then be treated poorly, indeed oppressed, sometimes tortured or killed, or, at other times, forced into slave-like labor. What we are told at the beginning of the Exodus, even if it is full of myth and legend, is credible. And what we have is a memory of that experience, with all the pain and sorrow the people of Israel experienced. Similarly, as they are reading it and understanding it in light of later history, they also know that their oppression was seen by God, and God was on their side. It is because God is always on the side of justice, and therefore, on the side of those unjustly treated (which means that those who are on the side of oppression are in direct opposition to God).
This history we are told of the people of Israel, therefore, is a story which is full of myths and legends, ones which likely have some historical basis to them, but also ones which we cannot properly identify. Indeed, it, like many myths of legends, seem to exaggerate what happened to make its point. We know that many of the work projects in Egypt were also done by the people of Egypt themselves; but it would not be surprising that there was a hierarchy within those projects, and that the people of Israel found themselves at the bottom of the hierarchy. They might have been given the worst, and most dangerous jobs, without giving them the ability to come unto themselves, and have times of rest and practice their own religious and cultural traditions, similar to the way many nationalists in the United States want migrants to strip away their cultural heritage.
Traditional Christian theology takes the story of Joseph, and the way the people of Israel came into Egypt and slowly found themselves overcome and oppressed by Egypt, as an allegory representing the way good people find themselves overwhelmed and oppressed by sin. Egypt, at least in this context, is understood to represent the world as it is overrun by sin. Famine and desolation, be it spiritual, or material, is the end result of such sin. Good people can foresee it, and do something to mitigate the worst of it, encouraging others to act wisely (and so with justice); when society is unwilling to heed them, they often become seen as a threat who must be taken out or forced to comply. Thus, Joseph is seen to represent those who try to take control of the situation, putting some discipline and order into the world, not through legalist ideologies of law of order, but through policies wisely developed for the good of all. He also shows us that sometimes, they can be successful, and everyone reaps the rewards. But their success will always be limited. Eventually corruption takes over, and that corruption will seek to take out or enslave everyone who resists. While there will be no utopia in the world, but there can be times when things are better. This is why those who are wise, those who are just, must work for and promote the common good, for even if their success is limited, it will be better than if no one tried and just let the corruption go on without resistance.
Thus, if Egypt is a symbol of sin, and the power of sin, we must, in a way, separate ourselves from it, or, as St. John Climacus wrote, we must: “Run from Egypt, run and do not turn back. The heart yearning for the land there will never see Jerusalem, the land of dispassion.”[1] We must understand this properly; we are not to reject the world in a nihilistic way, acting like the world itself is evil. What we must see is the world is defiled by sin and we must seek to find a way to embrace the good while eliminating the bad. This is why we must not become quietists, ignoring the world around us. Rather, we must embrace the world, looking forward to the state it will be in the eschaton. And in this way, we run away from the sin by running towards the world as it is in God’s vision of it, in the goodness God has given to it. Similarly, when talking about our own personal lives, we must seek to understand who we are, to see our true face, not as we are known in and through our false self and the mask which sin uses to cover our face, but who we are underneath that mask. We must do what we can, both in our own lives, and in society. But we must also accept that we cannot do it all by ourselves. We need help. We need a liberator, a liberator like unto Moses, that is Jesus, who leads us with grace, freeing us from the corruption of Egypt (sin):
Those of us who wish to get away from Egypt, to escape Pharoah, need some Moses to be our intermediary with God, to stand between action and contemplation, and stretch out his arms to God, that those led by him may cross the sea of sin and put to flight the Amalek of the passions. Those who have given themselves up to God but imagine that they can go forward without a leader are surely deceiving themselves. [2]
When we work for justice in the world, we must understand what that justice is. We must understand the good which sin has corrupted so that we can seek to restore it. And we must start with ourselves. We will be able to do much more good when we know who we are as a person, that is, when we know who we are in Christ. For then, we will know our potential, what is we can do, and we will work to achieve it. We will also know and accept our limitations, which is an important part of coming to know who we are; for, when we do so, we will be able to accept that we are in need of others with their own talents, that they will help us (and society) even as we can help them. We are in this together. And, when we realize this, we will also then be open to Jesus and his grace knowing that only by cooperating with that grace, we will be able to journey from temporal “Egypt” to the heavenly, eternal Jerusalem, where there is no sin.
[1] St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Trans. Colm Luibheid (New York: Paulist Press, 1982), 86 [Step 3].
[2] St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 75 [Step 1].
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