Thoughts on Joseph, part 1

You meant to hurt me, but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people, which is being done. (Genesis 50:20, EXB)

Image by Robert T. Barrett (source)

My personal study of the Old Testament this year has been richly rewarding. The story of Joseph has taken on multiple layers of deeper meaning in light of recent topics we've posted here.  Today's post will be a summary and review of various ideas about one of the deeper meanings of the story of Joseph -- specifically how this story teaches us about the grand arc of the House of Israel.  What began with a small group of people in the land of Canaan culminates in the latter days with the gathering of all of God's children who have ever or will ever live on the earth!

Back to 'the fulness of the Gentiles'

I'm revisiting the phrase "fulness of the Gentiles" in Genesis 48:19.  In studying this important phrase, I came across Romans 11:25, where Paul states something remarkable about the future of the House of Israel:

So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. (NRSV)

The whole chapter is remarkable.  Having just read the five books of Moses, this passage really stands out:

13 I’m speaking to you Gentiles. Considering that I’m an apostle to the Gentiles, I publicize my own ministry 14 in the hope that somehow I might make my own people jealous and save some of them. 15 If their rejection has brought about a close relationship between God and the world, how can their acceptance mean anything less than life from the dead? 16 But if part of a batch of dough is offered to God as holy, the whole batch of dough is holy too. If a root is holy, the branches will be holy too.  (CEB)

 

He's making reference to firstfruits in verse 16. Recall that the holiness of the Levites allows the whole company to be(come) holy.  In a similar manner, Paul is saying here that when the Jews began rejecting the Gospel, God saw fit to have it preached to the Gentiles. In verse 15, he compares this miraculous opening up of the Gospel to the whole world to raising someone from the dead.

Parallels in the story of Joseph

All of this brings me back to Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Genesis 48:19 tells us that Jacob prophesies that Manasseh will be a great nation, but Ephraim will be the 'melo hagoyyim' -- 'a multitude of nations.'  This phrase could also be rendered 'fulness of the Gentiles.' It's no wonder Paul says in Romans 11:25 that a mystery of God is that the Jews were hardened so that and until the 'fulness of the Gentiles' has come in. This seems to me to be a clear reference to the latter-day restoration, which comes to the world through Ephraim.

Can you see the parallel to Joseph? He was stripped of his robe (a symbol of his authority/divine favor) and sold into slavery, but he prospered nonetheless.  The hand of God was over him, and he recognizes this when he tells his brothers years later:

You meant to hurt me, but God turned your evil into good to save the lives of many people, which is being done. (Genesis 50:20, EXB)

Likewise, the seed of his two sons each play key roles in the latter-day gathering.  Manasseh (through Lehi) gives us the Nephites, whose record has become the instrument of the gathering.  The seed of Ephraim (scattered to the Gentile nations) becomes the nursing father who carries the house of Israel, spoken of by Isaiah.  Nephi expounds on this when he says:

11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.
12 Behold, I say unto you, that the house of Israel was compared unto an olive tree, by the Spirit of the Lord which was in our father; and behold are we not broken off from the house of Israel, and are we not a branch of the house of Israel?
13 And now, the thing which our father meaneth concerning the grafting in of the natural branches through the fulness of the Gentiles, is, that in the latter days, when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief, yea, for the space of many years, and many generations after the Messiah shall be manifested in body unto the children of men, then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed—
14 And at that day shall the remnant of our seed know that they are of the house of Israel, and that they are the covenant people of the Lord; and then shall they know and come to the knowledge of their forefathers, and also to the knowledge of the gospel of their Redeemer, which was ministered unto their fathers by him; wherefore, they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer and the very points of his doctrine, that they may know how to come unto him and be saved. (1 Nephi 15)

Christ speaks of it in 3 Nephi 16:

4 And I command you that ye shall write these sayings after I am gone, that if it so be that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name, that they may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost, and also of the other tribes whom they know not of, that these sayings which ye shall write shall be kept and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed, who shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer.
5 And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and then will I fulfil the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel.
6 And blessed are the Gentiles, because of their belief in me, in and of the Holy Ghost, which witnesses unto them of me and of the Father. (3 Nephi 16)

(Stisa's post here is one of the key sources of inspiration for me to make many of these connections. I recommend you go back an re-read that post if this concept interests you.) 

The story of Joseph is a parable of the history of the house of Israel, with Ephraim and Manasseh's roles playing out precisely as defined by Jacob himself in Genesis 48:19. This is re-affirmed repeatedly throughout the scriptures. It brings clarity and importance to the Book of Mormon Title Page:

Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation—Written and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed—To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof—Sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by way of the Gentile ... Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations...

The meaning of 'Ephraim' and the connection to Genesis 1:22 and 28

Several Bible commentaries teach that the name 'Ephraim' means 'double fruitfulness' or 'increasing.' We know that Biblical names often contain wordplay.  'Ephraim' is no exception. There is a connection to the Hebrew word for 'fruitful' ('parah'). The '-aim' ending indicates a pairing or doubling. 

52 Joseph named the second son Ephraim [related to the Hebrew word for “fruitful”; 1:22] and said, “God has ·given me children [made me fruitful] in the land of my ·troubles [afflictions].” (Genesis 41, EXB)

Joseph recognized that God had blessed him with fruitfulness even in the land of his afflictions, hence the name of his second son. The connection to Genesis 1 is also fascinating.  It seems that the commandment given to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and replenish/fill the earth is fulfilled in the posterity of this 'doubly fruitful' branch of the House of Israel.

Jacob later blesses Ephraim (not his older brother) with the right hand and tells Joseph his seed will become 'a multitude of nations.' 'The fulness of the Gentiles' would be a perfectly acceptable alternative translation of the same words, as indicated above. At a time when the Gospel was nowhere to be found on the earth, God restored His covenant and ushered in the gathering by calling a descendant of that same Joseph to begin the latter-day work. 

5 Wherefore, Joseph truly saw our day. And he obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of his loins the Lord God would raise up a righteous branch unto the house of Israel; not the Messiah, but a branch which was to be broken off, nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the bringing of them out of darkness unto light—yea, out of hidden darkness and out of captivity unto freedom.

6 For Joseph truly testified, saying: A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins.

7 Yea, Joseph truly said: Thus saith the Lord unto me: A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins. And unto him will I give commandment that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers. (2 Nephi 3)

The angel Moroni mentioned this principle to Joseph Smith during his visits in 1823:

41 He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here. (Joseph Smith -- History)

Conclusion

So there you have my attempt at a summary of this really big set of ideas.  The story of Joseph is far more than just a tale of one man forgiving his brothers for selling him into slavery in a fit of jealousy.  It contains symbolism with far-reaching ramifications laying out God's plan to remember His covenant.

My next post will stay of the Joseph theme, looking in more detail at Joseph's coat and what it symbolizes.