Commentary on Genesis 50:15-21

Kathryn Schifferdecker
Just when you think all is right in the world of Joseph and his brothers, their family drama
reminds us that trust is very difficult to earn.
Genesis 50:15-21 contains the final scene of the Joseph novella, which began to unfold in
Genesis 37. It depends deeply on the long story that has gone before, so some summarizing
or contextualizing will be necessary when preaching from this text. The semi-continuous
Old Testament lectionary includes excerpts from Genesis 37 and Genesis 45 on the ninth
and tenth Sundays after Pentecost, but Genesis 50 is an option these many weeks later
because its account of forgiveness pairs well with the same theme in Matthew 18:21-35.
This weeks passage reads like an epilogue to the Joseph story, almost an afterthought.
Many years after selling their brother Joseph into slavery, the sons of Jacob have been
reunited with Joseph and saved from starvation because of his position of power in Egypt.
Their father Jacob has blessed his sons and died and a grand procession comprising both
Egyptians and Jacobs family have traveled to Canaan to bury Jacob there. Joseph and his
brothers have returned to Egypt to live a life of privilege; surely all the drama of the Jacob
cycle should be over.
Yet the brothers shared emotion quickly becomes clear at Gen 50:15: they still fear Joseph.
This is not altogether surprising. We readers who have followed Josephs story have seen
how Joseph manipulated his brothers, including holding one hostage and framing another
for stealing.1 Joseph is a powerful man; anything he wishes to do to his brothers, he can
accomplish. What we have thought was reconciliation turns out to have been a tenuous coexistence.
If the brothers perception of Joseph has not changed, their posture toward him has not
changed, either. They are still liars and manipulators themselves. They play on his deep
love for his father, knowing that Joseph was Jacobs favorite son. Though the narrative
does not specify outright that their words are not truthful, the fact that they speak out of fear
of Josephs wrath, combined with our understanding of their character as it is developed
throughout Genesis 37-50, makes it difficult to read this passage any other way. They beg
for forgiveness, not with their own voices, but by co-opting the voice of their dead father.
Ever since he rose to be the administrator of the governments supply of grain in Egypt,
Joseph has had all the official power in this story. As the one who is wronged, Joseph also
has the interpersonal power, the power to forgive. These two sides of Josephs power -- the

personal and the political -- combine when Joseph makes his theological proclamation:
Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve
a numerous people, as he is doing today (Genesis 50:20).
Joseph sees the ways his own personal story and that of his family are wrapped up in the
stories of Gods relationship with Israel. If Josephs brothers, or an outside observer, were
to say that Josephs suffering was all part of Gods plan, those words would surely ring
hollow for him.
Just as the one who is wronged has the power to forgive, the one wronged also has the
power to make this kind of theological proclamation. If a sufferer sees divine
purposefulness in her or his suffering, we can affirm or at least hear out that declaration.
We dare not, however, try explain away another persons suffering with our own
theological speculation; in that case we are as ineffectual and obtuse as Jobs friends.
I mentioned at the outset that the Joseph cycle reads like a family drama: parental
favoritism leads to sibling rivalry and swells to violence pitting eleven brothers against one.
Even so, the story also has broader political implications. Like the stories of Daniel 1-6 and
the book of Esther, Genesis 37-50 is a court story, a genre of literature that seems to have
been particularly popular in the post-exilic Diaspora.
In these court stories, a Jewish hero finds himself or herself holding favored status in a
foreign court. The heros rise to power may be a result of special insights, like dream
interpretation, or it may be because of his or her piety. Once elevated, the hero has the
opportunity to save his or her family or people because of that access to the imperial power.
In the post-exilic era, stories like Joseph, Daniel, and Esther made powerful statements
about how to retain religious and ethnic identity in a foreign land. They also reminded Jews
in Diaspora that Gods faithfulness to Israel had not wavered, despite the exile and the
subsequently ever-changing political landscape. Thus, while we can reflect fruitfully on the
compelling interpersonal dynamics that the Joseph story offers, we should also not neglect
the broader message of Gods election of and continuing fidelity to Gods chosen people.
Josephs declaration that God intended it for good reminds us that the stories of biblical
families are not just lectionary-sized snippets of individual family dramas, but rather they
are part of the long and ongoing story of Gods relationship with Israel, chosen for blessing
and in whom all families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3).