Next thing he\u2019s practically president. Alleluia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nIf you had been one of Joseph\u2019s brothers in this story, you would have found many things to dislike about him, starting with the fact that he was the favorite of his father, Jacob.<\/p>\n
Dysfunctional families<\/h4>\n
That puts the spotlight on Jacob so let\u2019s look at him first. He is the grasping twin who came out of his mother Rebecca\u2019s womb second grabbing\u00a0 onto his slightly older brother Esau\u2019s heal. He\u2019s the mean-spirited brother who wouldn\u2019t feed his starving twin unless he gave up his birthright. He\u2019s the liar who pretended to be Esau to get his blind father Isaac\u2019s blessing. There would be nothing left for Esau.<\/p>\n
This Jacob later on has no idea of the dissension he\u2019s causing among his own children by playing favorites. He gives Joseph, the only child of his favorite wife, Rachel, a fancy coat. He lets him stay home while his 10 brothers work the fields. Abraham even lets Joseph revel in his grandiose dreams of being worshiped by his brothers.\u00a0Jacob and Joseph are two of my favorite Bible characters; they\u2019re so human.<\/p>\n
Grandfather Abraham has his share of human frailty, too. First he\u2019s the model of the true believer. He doesn\u2019t waiver in his faith in God\u2019s promise to make of him a great nation even when God tells him to sacrifice his only son, the son of his extremely old age. Then he goes down to\u00a0Egypt, and, because his wife is pretty, he instructs her to lie to Pharaoh and tell him she\u2019s Abraham\u2019s sister. That way Pharaoh can have her for his wife without necessarily killing Abraham. A wee bit of a lapse of faith in God\u2019s promise there, if you ask me. And what is God\u2019s response? He punishes Pharaoh instead of Abraham. Abraham gets rewarded with rich gifts from none other than Pharaoh himself. Abraham learns his lessons well. He goes and finds another occasion to do the same thing, and his son Isaac does it once as well.<\/p>\n
Flawed heroes and providence<\/h4>\n
Whoever gave us these stories was pretty intent on spelling out the ancestral heroes\u2019 flaws.\u00a0There is a theme here that runs through the Bible. Being God\u2019s choice is no reason to brag. It\u2019s hardly ever based on merit. God chooses in a way that goes against our expectation. We\u2019d expect God to choose the top of the line. Instead it\u2019s a couple too old to have children. It\u2019s the second or the youngest son. It\u2019s the flawed character and even the flaw itself. God looks squarely at all human things and settles down right in the midst of them.<\/p>\n
Israelites considered themselves to be under a strict obligation to give glory to God. There could be no such thing as hero worship for them. I don\u2019t think you would have found among them a great concern for positive self-image. Their favorite image was of times when God was with his people, faults and all.<\/p>\n
The Joseph story takes up about the last third of the book of Genesis. It\u2019s not history but great literature. Maybe a couple hundred years after this story was set down, Greek playwrights were coming up with some great literature, too. (It could have been a couple hundred years before\u2014there\u2019s disagreement about when these Bible stories were written.) Greek heroes also had flaws, tragic flaws that always led to their downfall. The Fates would see to that. But the Bible introduces us to the \u201chappy fault,\u201d the flaws through which God is pleased to work. Because of Joseph\u2019s insufferable dreams and his brothers\u2019 violent response and even because of the wiles of Potiphar\u2019s wife that landed Joseph in jail, a nation is able to survive through famine. The story moves\u00a0Israel\u2019s imagined ancestors to\u00a0Egypt, where further turns of fortune await them. But it\u2019s providence, not fate that moves the world.<\/p>\n
\n- God has work for me and you.<\/li>\n
- We\u2019re not perfect, but we\u2019ll have to do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Image credit: Bible Encyclopedia<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us something about how God works. It\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material, even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d Episode 9 of the Rowing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3488,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible"],"yoast_head":"\n
Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us about how God works, and it\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material and even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us about how God works, and it\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material and even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lost in a One-Acre Wood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-13T11:28:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-01T21:34:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/980\/2018\/06\/Joseph_cast_into_pit_1414-5c-234x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Hartjes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jack Hartjes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/\",\"name\":\"Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-13T11:28:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-01T21:34:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#\/schema\/person\/e6e1b2e6f95340811a0a61992cf80aa4\"},\"description\":\"The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us about how God works, and it\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material and even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/\",\"name\":\"Lost in a One-Acre Wood\",\"description\":\"Jack Hartjes writes about faith in conversation with Catholic life and teaching, modern Bible interpretation, science, and society.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#\/schema\/person\/e6e1b2e6f95340811a0a61992cf80aa4\",\"name\":\"Jack Hartjes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8182d6c9dfe4803e63f9c0b0e6087d53?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8182d6c9dfe4803e63f9c0b0e6087d53?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jack Hartjes\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/author\/jhartjes\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families","description":"The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us about how God works, and it\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material and even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families","og_description":"The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us about how God works, and it\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material and even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/","og_site_name":"Lost in a One-Acre Wood","article_published_time":"2018-06-13T11:28:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-01T21:34:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/980\/2018\/06\/Joseph_cast_into_pit_1414-5c-234x300.jpg"}],"author":"Jack Hartjes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jack Hartjes","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/","name":"Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-06-13T11:28:58+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-01T21:34:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#\/schema\/person\/e6e1b2e6f95340811a0a61992cf80aa4"},"description":"The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us about how God works, and it\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material and even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/2018\/06\/13\/joseph-bibles-dysfunctional-families\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Joseph of the Bible\u2019s Dysfunctional Families"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/","name":"Lost in a One-Acre Wood","description":"Jack Hartjes writes about faith in conversation with Catholic life and teaching, modern Bible interpretation, science, and society.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#\/schema\/person\/e6e1b2e6f95340811a0a61992cf80aa4","name":"Jack Hartjes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8182d6c9dfe4803e63f9c0b0e6087d53?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8182d6c9dfe4803e63f9c0b0e6087d53?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Jack Hartjes"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/author\/jhartjes\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3488"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lostinaoneacrewood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Joseph's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/980\/2018\/06\/Joseph_cast_into_pit_1414-5c-234x300.jpg\")
The Joseph saga in the last third of Genesis tells us something about how God works. It\u2019s not the way we\u2019d expect. God accomplishes great things with flawed human material, even through the flaws themselves. Instead of the tragic flaw of Greek plays, the Bible gives us the \u201chappy fault.\u201d<\/p>\n