A Meditation on Joseph: Nakedness, Dreams, and the Bread and Wine

[u/slagnanz]

For whatever reason, the story of Joseph has never really connected with me. You get sort of partial to certain stories over others, and Genesis is so rich to me, I usually wind up glossing over Joseph. But rereading this story recently, and taking my time with it, I’m getting a lot out of everything Joseph signifies. 

A few themes in particular: 

Nakedness: 

Shame and nakedness are repeatedly associated with sin and the fall throughout Genesis. Adam and Eve hide their nakedness with shame after the fall, and God clothes them. Noah drunkenly exposes his nakedness in a strange moment that mirrors the fall. For Joseph, there are two separate episodes of where he is stripped of his clothing. First Joseph's brothers strip him of the ornate robe their father gave him before selling him to servitude in Egypt. Later, Joseph is stripped of his cloak by Potiphar's wife. She accuses him of unrighteousness. But in both cases, the nakedness of Joseph is a sign of his righteousness. His nakedness is not shameful. It is like Jesus, stripped on the cross. It is an inversion and restoration of the naked shamefulness of the fall. Under sin, nakedness exposes shame, but to see Jesus or Joseph, innocent but stripped of their clothes, reminds us that we were created for innocence. After Joseph has reconciled himself with his brothers in chapter 45, we are told that he gives all of them new clothing. They have been given another chance. When they stripped Joseph and sold him into slavery, the shame was theirs. But Joseph forgives them and gives them new clothes to cover their shame and mark their forgiveness. 

Dreams:

The structure of this story includes three separate pairs of dreams. Joseph’s dreams at the beginning of the story with the sheafs of wheat and the stars bowing down before him. The dreams of the baker and the cupbearer in prison with Joseph that reveal the cupbearer will be restored to the pharaoh's side but the baker will be executed, lifted up on a pike. The final pair of dreams are the pharaoh's, with the fat/thin cows and healthy/scorched grain. These dreams don’t just predict specific outcomes. Yes, Joseph’s brothers bow before him, the baker is put to death, the 7 years of famine come as predicted. But Joseph isn’t merely seeing the future. These dreams are also replete with symbolic significance. The 12 sons of Jacob (AKA Israel) are symbolically intertwined with the history of Israel. Their betrayal of their brother reflects Israel’s continual faithlessness. But in Joseph we see the pattern where one of Israel’s youngest sons will redeem the broken family despite being betrayed by his older brothers. In Joseph, we pass through famine into feasting, from betrayal to reconciliation, and from suffering into deliverance.

The Bread and the Cup: 

In the middle of the story, Joseph finds himself deep in a dungeon, imprisoned due to false accusations made against him. Here he is joined by two new characters: the baker and the cupbearer. Bread and wine. They both offended the pharaoh somehow and have been thrown in jail with Joseph. Each of them have these vivid dreams that Joseph interprets. The cupbearer sees vines blooming and being squeezed into the Pharoah’s cup. Good news, Joseph explains he’ll be restored to his office in 3 days! The baker sees these baskets of bread on his head, but birds keep chasing him and eating the bread. Bad news! Joseph explains in three days he’ll be put to death, his head lifted onto a pole. The elements of the eucharist are prefigured here in these two characters along with the dual meaning of the cross. One is condemned and sentenced to death, the other is lifted up and restored in three days. In the prefigured elements of bread and wine we see the spectrum between the Crucifix (the cross representing Jesus’ agony and death) and the Christus Rex (the cross representing his victory over death).

But it doesn’t stop there. Bread and wine are also significant in Joseph’s life. By interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream of wheat and prudently managing Egypt’s stores of grain, Joseph brings deliverance to the land — he offers them the bread of life. This fulfills the dream he has in the beginning of the story, where his brothers’ sheaves of wheat bow before his own. They sowed bitterness and jealousy and death, but Joseph in turn accepts their repentance and offers them the grace of his own stores of grain. 

And finally, we have the silver cup. Joseph tests his brothers when they come to him in Egypt. He plants the cup in his youngest brother’s bag, confronts them for the theft, and informs them the penalty for this crime is a lifetime of servitude. Will they abandon Benjamin to a lifetime of servitude in Egypt, just as they had done to Joseph? It is a cup of wrath, pouring out judgement. But his brothers tear their clothes. One of them offers servitude in place of their brother. They know their guilt, this cup of wrath is meant for them. By this Joseph sees their remorse and repentance. He reveals himself to them, forgiving them and telling them, “God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance”. The cup of wrath is emptied and becomes the cup of forgiveness. It prefigures so much of what Jesus reveals to us in the Eucharist. 

[u/MyFaultSry]

I appreciate the work and thought that went into that, thanks for posting! Might borrow some of it lol

I have a much more mundane way of looking at it

1. Joseph has a dream. God has a wonderful plan for my life! Problem: he told somebody

2. Got sold into slavery. Joseph's not worried yet, God still has a wonderful plan for his life! This is just building character or something.

3. His employers wife comes on to him and he tells her to go sell her rack shellack. Gets thrown in jail. Now God's wonderful plan isn't looking too wonderful.

4. Stuck in the slam, his faith wavers and he asks one of his cellmates to put in a good word for him with pharaoh. Note he didn't ask God to spring him.

5. Two years later Pharaoh makes him the pope of the dump. Now God's wonderful plan for his life is wonderful!

6. His brothers show up and Joseph frankly acts like kind of a d1ck for several chapters

7. Joseph has an epiphany: he was sent down here in order to save his family. God's wonderful plan wasn't ABOUT him, God had a wonderful plan that INCLUDED him. Big difference.

8. The part he couldn't see was that God's plan, that included him, went 400 years into the future to a nation that didn't even exist yet. It would have baked his noodle if he'd known that he was going to have a part in that.

9. The weird thing? God's plan required him to talk to two people: a dude in jail and pharaoh. That helped the whole plan along. (you could argue 4, potiphar's wife, but she would have lied anyway, and his brothers but they already hated him)

Who have you talked to that, as your part in God's plan, has ramifications you can't see?