Genesis 40:9-42:28

It is hard for me to read the story of Joseph and his brothers without recalling the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. (I like corny musicals--sue me!) Andrew Lloyd Webber chose his inspiration well, as this is a wonderfully rich Bible story and absolutely one of my favorites. There are, to my mind, so many aspects of the story that foreshadow the life of Christ. Joseph's cell mates in prison are Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker whose dreams are of wine and bread--calling to mind the Last Supper and the body and blood of Christ. I also am reminded of the two criminals on Calvary, one of him is saved and the other of whom remains condemned. Not a perfect analogy, but if the entire Old Testament is part of the story of our salvation, which culminates in Christ, then I think it makes sense to recognize the foreshadowing aspects of these stories. Joseph is rescued from prison because of his ability to interpret dreams, and Pharaoh acknowledges that he is special: "Could we find another like him, a man so endowed with the spirit of God?" Joseph is very directly the means of Egypt's salvation: "In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain (the body of Christ?), for famine had gripped the whole world." All the world including the sons of Israel, Joseph's brothers (all of them but Benjamin, whom Israel holds back out of fear that a fate similar to Joseph's might befall him). Joseph recognizes his brothers and puts them to the test. He is moved to tears in speaking with them, but hides it from them (as they do not recognize him), and he sends them back to their father with orders to bring Benjamin in return for the grain they seek.

Genesis 14:14-18:8

There are many echoes of what has already come, and what is to come, in this section of Genesis. Abram is the soldier, foreshadowing David, who rescues his nephew, Lot, from his captors. Melchizedek, the great priest of God Most High, prefiguring Jesus at the Last Supper, offers bread and wine to commemorate Abram's victory.  The great priest also blesses God the Most High, who delivered Abram's foes into Abram's hands--as God, through Jesus, delivers us from our enemy, sin. As with Noah, God promises Abram that he will have countless descendants, but instead of likening the number to particles of dust (as with Noah), God compares them to the multitude of stars on the sky. Abram fathers Ishmael, with Sarai's maid, and then God promises Abram that Sarai will bear him a son herself. As he did with Noah, God also makes a covenant with Abram, promising that He will be the God of Abram and his descendants forever--an "everlasting pact." This covenant is fulfilled in Christ.  As a sign of the covenant, God renames both Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah), and instructs Abraham that circumcision will be the human mark of the covenant. God then reiterates his promise that Sarah will bear him a son, who shall be called Isaac.