The Shape of Genesis – Part 5

Joseph’s three part narrative demonstrated to men what Adam should have been—and what the Son of Man would be.

Read part 1. Read part 2. Read part 3. Read part 4.

If the story of Joseph were a single major cycle, the book of Genesis would be fivefold like the Torah. But it is comprised of three major cycles, and in doing so it subtly sits on the fence between the fivefold THEOS pattern (as seen in Genesis to Deuteronomy) and the complete sevenfold Creation pattern (as seen in Israel’s dominion in Genesis to Judges). This means that Joseph, as a better Adam, prefigured the one who would fulfill the covenant in history. Just as Joshua would bring Israel into God’s rest, Joseph quite literally brings Israel (Jacob) to his final rest in Canaan.

The triune nature of the book also becomes apparent:

The “global” history of Adam and Noah ends with the call of Abram.
The “local” history of Abram and Jacob ends with the call of Joseph.
The “personal” history of Joseph ends the era of the patriarchs.

These three domains correspond to those in the first three chapters of Genesis (the physical, social, and ethical orders), and also to the three major domains of the Bible: the primeval history of the “physical” land and sea, the history of the “social” Land and Sea (Israel and the Gentiles), and the “personal” blood and water of the body of Christ, the Man who finally defeated the serpent.

The Joseph narrative itself is comprised of three sections. Unlike the lengthier cycles of Abraham and Jacob, these three cycles are shorter, like those of Adam and Noah. But Joseph receives three entire “steps” of the seven in Genesis because he is the conclusion of the “sermon” of the book. Whereas Adam’s failure in the Garden led to his disqualification, which in turn led to the corruption of the Land and the World, Joseph is the “World” step of God’s initiative in establishing a microcosmic sacrificial World “substitute” in Israel.

Abraham: Father – Garden – Trees and Seed – Family
Jacob: Son – Land – Rocks and Flocks – Tribe
Joseph: Spirit – World – Houses and Fields – Nations

In architectural terms, Abraham was called to “Garden” faith in answer to the failure of Adam (promises concerning land and womb, planting trees), Jacob to “Land” faith in answer to the failure of Cain (a rival brother, promises concerning rule of a household, erecting stone memorials), and Joseph was called to “World” faith in answer to the failure of the Sethite priests (theft of promised dominion, testing concerning another’s wife, conquest of the nations). Notice that these three faithful men all received new names, but only Joseph received his new name from a human king, not God. This was a vindication from “below” as well as “above.” His reign

Joseph’s three cycles follow the same pattern internally, but in this case, instead of the three “vertical” domains (Garden above, beside, below) it is the the three “horizontal” offices. In the first cycle, he suffers as a humble priest; in the second, he rules over his brothers as a wise king; in the third, he prepares for the future as a faithful prophet. In this way, his narrative also adds the horizontal beam to the patriarchal “cross.”

But since these cycles that follow the progression of Joseph’s qualification and rule also have to fit the final three steps of the sevenfold structure of the entire book of Genesis, Joseph interprets dreams as a prophet in his first cycle (Maturity/Trumpets/Transformation), tests and mediates for his family in his second cycle (Conquest/Atonement/Vindication), and makes Succession arrangements in his third (Glorification/Booths/Representation). Each cycle is thus a hybrid of two different steps through the use of dual coordinates: one is his station, and the other is his ministry. In other words, each cycle, like the organs in our bodies, is designed to fulfill more than a single function as part of the whole.

GENESIS	STATION	MINISTRY
ETHICS: PROPHECY / MATURITY	PRIESTHOOD Slave Forming	Receiving and interpreting dreams (seeing through the veil)
OATH/SANCTIONS / CONQUEST	KINGDOM Plenipotentiary Filling	Kingly discernment through the use of cunning ruses (seeing the hearts of men)
SUCCESSION / GLORIFICATION	PROPHECY Successor Future	Wise rule over the nations as the fulfillment of the dreams (seeing the future)

Interestingly, Joseph’s first cycle is structured after the heavens and the earth (Creation), the second after the Torah (Covenant), and the third after the Heptateuch (Conquest).

ETHICS: PROPHECY
Day 5 – Joseph’s “death and resurrection” (Genesis 37:2-41:32) Hosts
(Maturity – Transformation)

Joseph – Cycle 1

As the “Day 5” cycle of Genesis, the general theme is multiplication—“hosts” or “swarms,” and “plunder and plagues.” The hosts are the sons of Jacob who muster themselves as a “body” against the “head” that has been chosen for them. Plunder and plagues are the abundance that God keeps bringing at Joseph’s hand while Joseph himself is continually plagued by theft, slander, and betrayal. This theme culminates in the “blessing and cursing” of his fellow prisoners and in the years of plenty and famine signified by God to Pharaoh.

The other theme of Step 5 is the “multiplication” of resurrection, an event that involves a single seed dying and rising again as a harvest. In this process, God takes the curse and turns it into a blessing. What Joseph experiences as the “head” becomes the experience of the whole “body” under his wise stewardship. Indeed, looking forward into Exodus, all Israel would suffer the slavery experienced by Joseph until God repossessed all of the blessings afforded to Egypt by his faithful obedience.

This fivefold cycle works vertically through the three domains and two barriers of the Tabernacle, a structure that not only follows the fivefold legal covenant pattern but also images the “above, beside, below” nature of heaven and earth. The three corresponding domains in the narrative are Jacob’s tent, Potiphar’s house, and Pharaoh’s palace. Of course, the lower Joseph gets, the closer he gets to the throne. Instead of being crushed under foot in this humaniform sequence, his feet are given dominion of the entire land, and he (presumably) wears the eagle-serpent uraeus of Egypt—the eyes of a wise ruler who sees everything above and everything below.

• Transcendence / Genesis: Eisegesis abounds because interpreters fail to take note of the meaning that is contained in the literary structure. Was Jacob merely playing favorites? Was Joseph a spoiled brat? No. Joseph is the “son of the herd” chosen for sacrifice because he is without blemish. He reports on his brothers not because he is a snitch but because he is his father’s right hand. But like David, and like Christ, being anointed as the successor leads to suffering that will prepare him for rule. His two dreams—of sheaves and stars—speak of dominion on earth as it is in heaven, but in the order of priestly grain and kingly lights, symbols from Genesis 1. The robe of righteous rule is given to him then taken away. Dipping it in goat’s blood looks back to Adam’s tunic of skin and forward to the use of a goat as a deceptive disguise that enables theft, atonement or escape. The chapter divides easily into a sevenfold sequence, with Jacob mourning for his son at Succession/Booths.
• Hierarchy / Exodus: Following the injustice done to Jacob’s chosen heir, Judah behaves like Esau, despising the covenant of Abraham by taking a Canaanite wife. He “sees” her in the way that the Sons of God “saw” the daughters of men in Genesis 6. The circumcision was established to prevent such intermarriage and a repeat of the judgment that followed. God takes vengeance upon the house of Judah, slaying his “Canaanite” firstborn (for behaving like the uncircumcised), and then also taking his second born for his refusal to honor the levirate law and preserve an inheritance for his brother. The fivefold architecture of the cycle gives “Tabernacle” significance to Tamar’s veil, which is the item of clothing that is removed in this step. This time, however, the deception is a holy one, like that of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus. Her pretence of being a prostitute and the red cord placed upon the “almost” firstborn prefigure the red cord in the window of the prostitute Rahab, her marriage into the lineage of Perez and God’s judgment upon the line of Achan, the son of Zerah. Again, God’s practice of choosing a faithful younger son over the natural heir is apparent. Notice also the shaming of a faithless Jew by a faithful Gentile. Due to the illegimiacy of the twins, Judah’s line could not be kings for ten generations (Deuteronomy 23:2). This is assumed to be the purpose of the Davidic genealogy at the end of the book of Ruth.
• Ethics / Leviticus: Paul’s command to flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18) relates to Joseph’s flight from Potiphar’s wife, but there are deeper temptations afoot. The sin that Paul condemns was that of a man having his father’s wife (1 Corinthians 5:1). Like the practice of polygamy, if we assume that the gratification of mere sexual desire was the limit of the intention, we are not understanding the sin in the cumulative “Edenic” context of the whole Bible. Reuben slept with Jacob’s concubine for the same reason that Absalom slept with his father‘s concubines on the roof of the palace. These were attempts to claim the succession as ruler of the household. Joseph had been given that honor but it had been stolen from him. This offer from Potiphar’s wife was a temptation to steal his master’s household, something to which a lesser man might have considered himself to be entitled. This explains Joseph’s response to her in Genesis 39:8-9. So the temptation included both facts of historical continuity—the womb and the land. Like David, Joseph would not even seize that which had been taken from him. Like Jesus, and unlike Adam, he would only receive “kingdom” from the hand of God. Once again, his robe of office is taken, this time in the sequence’s “Holy Place.” The mention of “Yahweh” and “lovingkindness” demonstrates that Joseph’s strength was his trust in the promises of God. Although cursed by men, he saw God’s blessing upon the work of his hands as evidence of ultimate vindication.
• Oath/Sanctions / Numbers: The two trees of Eden, representing priesthood and kingdom, make an appearance in Joseph’s prison as the stewards of Pharaoh’s bread and wine. It seems one of them was a thief and a liar, the two sins that appear in the Oath/Sanctions pattern of the Ten Commandments (see also Zechariah 5:3 and Acts 5:3-4). Joseph would have recognized the cursing/blessing symbols of the birds and the vine from the history of Abraham and Noah, two men who experienced “deep sleep” in the presence of God. Interestingly, the sacramental order is another notable inversion (wine before bread), and this was perhaps a sign to Joseph that his time of suffering was coming to an end. The dream of the cupbearer comes first (at Ascension), followed by the interpretation and Joseph’s request (Testing). Matching the first dream in the chiasm, the second dream and its interpretation come together as two witnesses at Maturity/Trumpets, followed by the “lifting up” of both servants at Conquest/Atonement, one to life and the other to death. This section is only sixfold, highlighting the fact that Joseph was forgotten by the cupbearer and left in prison. The baker is stripped of glory and the cupbearer’s robe of office is restored to him. This bread versus wine symbolism is reprised by the third horseman in Revelation, where the scarcity of bread indicated the decreasing strength of the “Canaanite” Old Covenant priesthood, and the glorious oil and wine the miraculous perseverance of the new priesthood in the power of Jesus’ fellowship of the Spirit.
• Succession / Deuteronomy: Again, after two years, (once again, on Pharaoh’s birthday) the dreams come paired as two legal witnesses, and the dreams are even related twice in the narrative. The cows, both fat and thin, come up from the “waters below,” Egypt‘s river of life, onto the land. The ears of grain are obviously already on the land. The imagery relates to the events of Day 3 of Creation, the rising of the land from the sea (remember that one of the features of the Promised Land was milk) and the creation of the firstfruits. Since Pharaoh bore upon his shoulders the weight of maintaining the fertility of the land through various “Baal-style” rites, Joseph’s repeated mentions of the true God reveal that the world is under the control of a greater Lord. The old order and its gods would be eaten up in a process of “de-creation,” and that included the ministry of the Egyptian wise men. However, by consuming the seven plentiful years, the seven lean years would survive. Of course, the message for the Hebrew hearer was that both the barrenness borne by Abraham and the promise of international blessing through Abraham were undergoing a territorial expansion. Unlike the Babylonians in the time of Daniel, the Egyptians bear no enmity towards Joseph. This indicates a great conversion to the true God. As in Eden, God sends crises not to destroy us but to humble us in preparation for greater blessings.

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