Forgiveness is power: The story of Joseph and his brothers

Genesis 50:15-21

Power. The story of Joseph comes down to power. You may remember this story from Sunday School or from watching Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at some point along the way; it’s familiar but in case the details are fuzzy I’m going to run through them quick. Israel, whose original name was Jacob, had twelve sons. Now, Jacob was married to both Leah and Rachel at the same time because of some trickery done by his father-in-law and uncle, Laban. By the way, this is one of the reasons to be skeptical of anybody who says there is one singular biblical definition of marriage, because marriage in this time was wacky. Jacob has two wives and at least two mistresses and nothing was the bother with it.

Of Jacob’s twelve sons, the first four were from Leah; the next two with Rachel’s maid, Bilhah; the next two were with Leah’s maid, Zilpah; the next two were again with Leah; and then there was one daughter with Leah as well. Then, in Genesis 30:22-24 it says, “Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘God has taken away my reproach’; and she named him Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord add to me another son!’” Some time later, Benjamin is born to Rachel and we have our twelve tribes of Israel—a hodgepodge of mothers, a strange accumulation of brothers—and, as usual, God elects one we would not expect to rule over the others.

There’s a long scriptural tradition of choosing the unexpected one, so maybe it’s not as unexpected after all. Joseph was the second-youngest, the child of Israel’s old age. But Joseph was the first son of Rachel, the one wife Israel loved most. We’re told that Joseph was destined for great things and had the dreams of one whom God favored. But this is not how power was established in those days. The eldest had the claim to the inheritance. Israel knew this; after all, it was he who stole the birthright and the inheritance from his older twin brother, Esau. To all rights Reuben, the eldest son, should have been the blessed one here, but Israel held a special place for Rachel, the wife he had always wanted first of all, and so it is Joseph who is chosen and set apart.

Now, that’s a lot of names to keep straight if this story isn’t particularly familiar to you. Suffice it to say, Joseph was 11^th of 12, but in his father’s eyes he was greatest of all. So we come to this story. And power. It came down to power.

The problem was that the ten older brothers craved the power they could not have. If only they removed Joseph from the picture then perhaps they could have the wealth their family accrued. This was, after all, a very rich family. The blessing given to Abraham had passed from Isaac to Jacob and now to his sons. There was good reason to be tempted. So, when the opportunity comes along the brothers sell Joseph to some slave traders who take him to Egypt and they return to tell their father that Joseph has been killed. Cruel, yes, but what do we expect when Joseph so openly flaunts his power? These brothers of his were looking for the same thing their father was looking for when he defrauded his brother—they were looking for power and the wealth and the blessing that came with it.

This sets into motion a long and winding story of Joseph ascending to power in Egypt by virtue of providence and Godly intervention to become a ruler of Egypt under Pharaoh. So it is Joseph that the brothers must see when famine overtakes the land. Ironically, all their wealth does nothing, because in those days there was no backup food supply. If the food didn’t grow, you starved; wealthy or poor, it didn’t matter. Actually, the wealthy were wealthy in property and livestock—not money—so in times of poverty their wealth may be more a hindrance than anything else. So, when the brothers show up in Egypt begging for food it is Joseph that must decide what to give the brothers who sold him into captivity.

Pause here for a moment.

This story is so powerful because for the first time in our scriptural witness something more powerful than wealth and political rule emerges. This moment where Joseph’s brothers come to him and beg to be made slaves is entirely typical of the history of God’s people, except this time Joseph does something extraordinary: He forgives them. Like Esau with his brother Jacob before him, he says “Your sins are no more to me.” I forgive you.

 I believe this is why Joseph was chosen in the first place, because he had the capacity to see God’s power not as something to use over against others but as a means of forgiveness. I believe he saw himself as God’s chosen not because he was better than his brothers but because he was more capable than his brothers of loving even those who wished him ill. I believe Joseph was so great because his faith was in God and not in himself, so what his brothers interpreted as boasting Joseph experienced as fidelity. I believe Joseph was so great because he did what we mostly cannot: He cared less for pride than for grace.

Power. It comes down to power. And the true power is in giving your power away. True power is in having everything and refraining from using it. True power is having the capacity for revenge, the ability to “make things right” and the means to make it happen, and instead saying, “No, I choose love.”

Forgiveness is not about giving someone what they deserve; it is about setting someone free even though they don’t deserve it; and, more often than not, the person you set free is yourself. Maybe you’ve noticed this? The burden of not forgiving often rests more heavily on the shoulders of the person withholding forgiveness than the person needing it. The longer you stay in righteous anger the more powerful the initial wrong becomes because you continue to give it that power.

            Forgiveness is tough. Sometimes it’s impossible. It feels like letting someone off easy, and in some cases it feels like we can’t really be the one to do it, like it’s dishonoring somebody, especially when we’re talking about somebody killed by somebody else. Still, Joseph was better than the rest because he trusted God more than he trusted his need to make things right. An eye for an eye would be fair. It would be well within his reach as the one who now held the power to judge. But true power—real, awesome power—is having the capacity for vengeance, the right to judge harshly, because the defendants deserved it; they deserved every ounce of it. They deserved only death. But true power—real, awesome power—is not using that power, because God calls us to something better.

            Forgiveness is love, and even if we can’t love the ones who wrong us we can love ourselves enough to see how broken we are, and if we can’t forgive another then what hope do we have for ourselves?

            Power. Forgiveness is power. Real power. Power that is perpetually undervalued. But, like Joseph, it is power given to us to use for the sake of those who desperately need it. And the first person who needs it is you and me.

            Thanks be to God.