Scripture Focus: Genesis 42.1-2; 18-24
1 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?” 2 He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” 

18 On the third day, Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: 19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households. 20 But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified and that you may not die.” This they proceeded to do. 

21 They said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us.” 

22 Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.” 23 They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter. 

24 He turned away from them and began to weep, but then came back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes. 

Reflection: Marks of Leadership — Selflessness
By John Tillman

For a bunch of grown men who felt threatened by their 17-year-old brother’s visions of leadership, Joseph’s older brothers don’t seem to exhibit much. 

Jacob chides them for “standing around looking at one another” instead of doing something about the crisis of the famine. The brothers seem to be paralyzed by crisis and selfishness. No one wants to be the one to take responsibility. Everyone is “looking at one another” seeking to shift blame.

The brothers don’t exactly have a history of great decisions or good leadership. They bicker, blame one another, and claim, “I told you so,” when things go badly in Egypt. 

Joseph tells the brothers directly that he is testing them but we don’t know the intended extent of that test or what was in Joseph’s mind at that time. Perhaps Joseph only intended to manipulate them to see his full brother, Benjamin. Perhaps he intended to keep Benjamin to save him from the brothers who he remembered as abusive and sinful traitors. Perhaps he only wanted to see their reactions to his threat, similarly to Solomon’s test in which he threatened a baby’s life to discover who truly loved the child. (1 Kings 3.25-27)

These failed leaders grow over the next few chapters. They grow in compassion. They grow in unity. They grow in the capacity for self-sacrifice. But the most symbolic moment which shows growth in selfless sacrifice came when Judah offered himself to Joseph as a slave in Benjamin’s place.

Judah was the one who proposed selling Joseph into slavery in the first place. He selfishly and vengefully sold Joseph into slavery because Jacob loved Joseph more than him. But in a dramatic and emotional speech, the slave-seller offered himself in slavery to save Benjamin and spare his father further pain. This action may be why Joseph made his decision to trust the brothers with his identity. 

Jacob’s sons all grow in leadership through suffering and emotional trials. Tests of leadership are almost always connected to selflessness. Humility, compassion, empathy, and service should flow from selflessness. Pride, stubbornness, greed, and lust stop up the stream.

Trials, famines, pandemics, insurrections, and conflicts have come and will continue to come. In this world, we will have trouble.

May we, no matter the trouble we face, allow the Holy Spirit to remove things that block the flow of selflessness. Especially in crises, we need selfless leadership.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
For the Lord God is both sun and shield; he will give grace and glory;
No good thing will the Lord withhold from thse who walk with integrity.
O Lord of hosts, happy are they who put their trust in your! — Psalm 84.10-12

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Genesis 42 (Listen – 5:08) 
Mark 12 (Listen – 6:10)

Read more about Abimelek, Caesar, and Jesus
It is in serving that we will lead.
It is in suffering that we will conquer.
It is in dying that we will live.

Read more about Seeking God’s Servant
God’s servant is different than expected of a king or worldly leader. This servant will not shout…will not use violence…will be led by God in seeking out righteous justice.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 41.38, 51-52
38 So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”

51 Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” 52 The second son he named Ephraim a and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

Reflection: Fruitful in Suffering
By John Tillman

Manasseh’s name looked back to Joseph’s family troubles. Joseph thanked God for relief from the memory of his trouble. This implies the easing of emotional trauma by his current circumstances. With Ephraim’s name, however, Joseph testified that all was not well even in new circumstances—Egypt was still his land of suffering.

As “fruitful” as he was, as much power as Joseph accumulated, he was still a slave. “I am Pharaoh,” the king reminded Joseph as he raised him to power. “You aren’t,” he implied. Joseph was only elevated to serve a king, not be one. 

Even as his privileges grew, Joseph recognized that he lived, as we do, in exile. Later, when dying, Joseph commanded that his bones not be left in Egypt but be carried out when God “came to their aid.” (Genesis 50.24-25) No matter how pretty the cage, a bird’s true home is the sky. 

Joseph lived out what Jeremiah would tell Joseph’s descendants entering Babylonian exile—he sought peace and prosperity for the place he had been sent. (Jeremiah 29.7) 

In the pivotal moment in which the decision is made to elevate Joseph, the key factor is that Pharaoh sees “the spirit of God” in Joseph. As we seek the peace and prosperity of the governments and cultures of our exile, God’s Spirit will be the key to any success we achieve. 

Joseph’s life in exile is marked by submission to God’s Spirit. He submitted to a sexual ethic his culture didn’t understand. He submitted to authority. He sought the betterment of every situation and every person. He gave comfort, aid, and, most importantly, the truth to others. 

Joseph didn’t try to cut a deal or ask for a price before Pharaoh. He just kept giving away what the Spirit gave him. He just kept telling people the truth.

Joseph shows us a preview of Jesus, the suffering servant, upon whom the Holy Spirit would rest and be given without limit. Jesus has given this Spirit to us and he intends us, through its power, to change our world.

In exile, we must seek submission to the Spirit rather than power for ourselves. We are the messengers of the Spirit in our age, in our cities, to our culture, and to government. We can be fruitful in the land of our suffering, not by our own cleverness, craft, or scheming, but by the Holy Spirit.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
One day in your courts is better than a thousand in my own room, and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. — Psalm 84.9

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Genesis 41 (Listen – 7:30) 
Mark 11 (Listen – 3:59)

Read more about Setting a New Standard
Jesus reset the standard from “Moses allowed” to “God made.”

Read more about Captivity, Exile, and Exodus
Jeremiah describes a different kind of enslavement. While living in political freedom, the people of Israel and Judah became spiritually enslaved.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 35.9-10
9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel. 

Reflection: From Pejorative to Promise
By John Tillman

The number of people with name changes in the Bible is long and many of the changes are significant.

Abram and Sarai are renamed Abraham and Sarah.
Ben-Oni is renamed Benjamin.
Naomi renames herself Mara.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are renamed Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 
James and John are called Boanerges, the Sons of Thunder.
Simon is called Cephas or Peter, the rock.
Joseph is renamed Barnabas.
And, of course, Jacob’s name is changed by God to Israel. 

All of the examples above, a changed name meant a changed identity. They said something about how they thought about themselves, how the world saw them, and about their God.

The name, Israel, doesn’t seem to stick the first time, so God comes to Jacob again, repeating the name change and the promise that goes with it. Jacob was a pejorative, meaning “heel grasper.” Israel is a blessing, meaning “contends with God” or perhaps a promise, “overcomes with God.”

Names still have power. We name ourselves and others. Twitter and Instagram handles, gamertags, and many other names function as self-description. The names we give ourselves can be encoded with inside jokes or vague pop culture references.

We also engage in damaging name-calling. Instead of validating a part of one’s humanity, name-calling strips it. Name-calling has been used heavily in politics of late, but its roots go much further back. Name-calling is an attack on the image of God in others and Jesus compared it to murder. (Matthew 5:21-22)

Dealing with a few famous name-callers would be bad enough. Some of us, however, are our own name-calling bullies. We bully ourselves with names like, Stupid, Fat, Worthless. These hurt us more than any other person’s name for us could.

The Bible tells us that Jesus has a name for us. (Revelation 2.17; 3.12) It is not a pejorative but a promise. When Jesus names us, he doesn’t badmouth us, he blesses us. Jesus, rather than call us names like “loser” or “deplorable,” give us new and good names. 

He became a loser in our place when he died on the cross. He erased our deplorable sins, paying for them by his sacrificial death. He gives us new names of victory and holiness that only we may know. We can come to know his name for us by coming close, wrestling with him as Jacob did, holding on to him until he lovingly names us as his child.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

Today’s Readings
Genesis 35-36 (Listen – 9:33)
Mark 6 (Listen – 7:23)

Read more about Identity Lost, Identity Gained
In Jacob’s preparation to fool his father he put on qualities that his father loved, covering his own unloved qualities.

Read more about Suffering for Our True Identity
It is not all right to be a Christian. And if we ask why, the answer is a sad one; Christians have given Christianity a bad name. — Madeleine L’Engle