Last week, I attended a production of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Coat” at the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster. The story of Joseph is the longest narrative in the book of Genesis—well-known and loved. While I still had the songs from this 1960s musical in my head, I saw that the week’s Parasha (reading from Torah in the weekly Jewish lectionary) was—guess what? The story of Joseph beginning in Genesis 37!
One of the gut-wrenching scenes in Joseph's story is when he is imprisoned because of lies told by Potiphar’s wife! Don’t you hate being falsely accused? That would be bad enough, but after languishing for years in prison, Joseph interprets dreams of the Pharoah’s cupbearer and baker. Predicting to the cupbearer that he would be released and returned to his job, Joseph asks that when the cupbearer is restored to Pharoah’s court, he would put in a good word for Joseph.
Forgotten
The cupbearer, however, “did not remember Joseph; and he forgot him” (Genesis 40:23). In Hebrew, this double “forgetting” by the cupbearer causes us to reflect. Wouldn’t it have been enough for the author just to write, “the cupbearer forgot Joseph?” The first word is negative, “he did not remember”; the second is positive, “he forgot.”
Two different Hebrew verbs are used in this verse. [Zachor] means “to remember” and is used with the negative, “he did not remember.” The second verb [shacach] means “to forget.” The two Hebrew words underline and emphasize the cupbearer’s forgetfulness and his double betrayal of Joseph. Did the cupbearer get distracted in his excitement to be reinstated to his prestigious job? Whatever happened, Joseph languished two more years in that dungeon (Genesis 41:1)! He had asked the cupbearer: “when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness, mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison” (Genesis 40:14). But it didn’t happen. There is a hint in the verb tenses that perhaps time passed between the not remembering and the forgetting. The cupbearer didn’t remember the day of his release and later forgot.
I wonder how Joseph dealt with not being remembered and being forgotten. Did he assume he would NEVER get out of the dungeon? Did he learn to rely only on God, not on men, even those he’d helped? Had God forgotten all about this dreamer who went from a betrayal by his brothers to being sold into slavery, rising to power in Potiphar’s house, and then being wrongly accused, which relegated him to an Egyptian dungeon? Joseph could have thought his life looked like a roller coaster. Had God not remembered/forgotten him also!? Was he tempted to be angry with God for even giving him a gift of dreams and their interpretation since those seemed to get him into a lot of trouble?
Faithful in the Dark; Waiting for the Light
Just as pictures are developed in the dark, so often in our own lives when things seem darkest, like Joseph in a dungeon, God is at work – developing the picture of our life’s purposes according to his plan, not mine. Isn’t this the place where we, as children of God, often find ourselves–waiting on God–for a healing, for the salvation of family members, for a prodigal to come home? The dark is where our dreams are tested.
In the bigger picture, we long and await the return of Jesus. Two thousand years have gone by, like the two more years Joseph spent in the dungeon, not knowing IF an end to his imprisonment might come (see 2 Peter 3: 8-9). Or like the long “bleak mid-winter” days of December. For us, it is a WHEN, not an IF. We intercessors are the “watchmen on the wall of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 62:6-7). We persist in prayer and faith for God’s kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven right now.
We wait, not just for our personal entrance into the courtroom of God’s presence but for something much more cosmic. We are waiting together for the full restoration of ALL THINGS to be put under the dominion of our King Jesus. We cry out for all creation to be filled with his perfect justice, peace, and righteousness. As Joseph longed to be freed from the Egyptian dungeon, we long for our long exile to end and for our King’s return! As in the culmination of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, “The Return of the King,” we, too, wait for the return of our King and cry out: “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.” That will be the ultimate gift of Christmas.
Tags: christmas, advent, darkness, waiting, remember, joseph, ruler, 2nd coming, coming, not forgotten
