Genesis 41: Let a Slave Run the Country

Today's podcast

Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams (v. 1-36)

The Pharaoh has a few dreams and nobody is able to interpret them for him.

The very fact that no one is able to interpret these dreams is pretty suspect alone. Even if you buy into everything else, that God is talking to Joseph and everything, I find it pretty hard to believe there isn't one scam artist seer who will make up some stuff to tell the Pharaoh.

His cupbearer remembers his time in prison and suggests that Pharaoh have Joseph interpret his dream. Joseph says the dreams mean there will be 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine. He suggests that the government should collect a portion of everyone's grain during the good 7 years so no one will starve during the 7 bad years.

That's a pretty good suggestion! Setting aside resources in times of plenty for upcoming times of scarcity. In fact, this would be a smart thing to do even if they didn't know that famine was coming.

Guzik points out that Joseph here gives credit to God. He could have very easily taken credit for the reading, and yet he says that God is the source of the reading. At first I wasn't sure if this should count as humility as he was setting himself up as a prophet, but a subsequent reading makes me lean toward agreeing with Guzik. Pharaoh was already seeing value in Joseph's ability, so the appeal to God wasn't necessary to make him an asset. I think it does come off as humble.

Something noticed when reading for the podcast, verse 32 says "And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about." It doesn't say why God does this, just that he does. The pain and suffering caused by the famine are completely on God here. It makes me think of the problem of evil.

Joseph Rises to Power (v. 37-57)

The Pharaoh was pleased with Joseph and put him in power, he was second only to Pharaoh in Egypt.

What? He was a slave in prison, then he interprets a dream and becomes the second most powerful man in the country? Seriously?

Tried some coloring, I think it went well. (Comic Archive)

v.38 "And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?""

Guzik says "This is the first mention in the Bible of the Holy Spirit coming upon a man. Pharoah saw that Joseph was fileld with the Spirit of God."

This seems like a pretty dishonest reading to me, it seems like he's just zeroing in on that word and projecting the trinity on it whenever he can. We've seen him do it with Jesus, now he's doing it with the holy spirit. Plus, I thought the whole in in Acts 10 was the first time the holy spirit was given to people. Wasn't that supposed to be some big changeover?

Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of storing up grains, so he went all around Egypt and collected grains for storage during the time of plenty. When the famine came people complained to Pharaoh that they were hungry and he sent them to Joseph. Not only those in Egypt, but even people outside of Egypt came to Joseph to buy grain.

They had to buy the grain? If he collected the grain from them in the bad time, shouldn't he give it back in the good times? Did he buy it from them in the first place? It doesn't seem to indicate this at all. 

Guzik ends his commentary with a 34 point list comparing Joseph and Jesus. It's pretty ridiculous, but also pretty long, perhaps I'll look into them more closely and make it a post of its own.

for the verses of note post

--Greed--

Genesis 41:56 Joseph sells the people's grain back to them

"So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt."

--Humility--

Genesis 41:15-16 Joseph gives credit to God, rather than taking the credit himself

"And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.' Joseph answered Pharaoh, 'It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.'"

--Prudence--

Genesis 41:35-36 Joseph suggests saving in the good times to survive the bad times

"And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. 36 That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine."

Genesis 39: Give the Slaves Control

Today's podcast

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (v. 1-23)

Recall that in chapter 37 Joseph was sold into slavery. He was taken to Egypt and bought by Potiphar who was captain of the guard under Pharaoh. God was with Joseph and made him successful, even Potiphar recognized God's hand in helping out Joseph. So Potiphar put him in charge of everything in the house, he wasn't concerned about anything going on in he house. The blessing of the lord was on the house for Joseph's sake

I know I've asked this question a bunch of times at this point, but why is God acting this way? Why does he favor Joseph so much, why is he making him successful in everything he does like this? We've seen before that God seems to have poor judgement in the people he favors, and all we know of Joseph is that he is an arrogant jerk with no appreciation for how those around him will react to things. Perhaps God sees greatness in him and it will come out eventually...we will see.

Interesting point from Guzik, Joseph getting put in charge of the house took 11 years. This is apparently made clear in an upcoming chapter

Joseph was attractive, and Potiphar's wife wanted him to have sex with her, but he refused saying that Potiphar had been good to him and doing so would also disrespect God.

This is good, finally Joseph is showing some good judgement.

One day, Joseph came into the house and everyone was gone except Potiphar's wife. She grabbed his clothes and insisted he be with her, so he ran, leaving his clothes with her in the process. So she told everyone that he had tried to force himself on her, but he ran when she screamed. Potiphar believed her and threw Joseph in jail.

What a ridiculous story. If he tried to rape her, wouldn't she be the one who winds up naked? I guess the husband really had no choice but to believe her story, why trust a slave above your wife? But still,  her explanation is terrible.

My comic archive

God gave Joseph favor in the eyes of the jailer, and he was put in charge of all the prisoners. The warden paid no attention to anything that Joseph was doing, or what was going on under his watch.

What the hell? Was it common practice at for prisoners to be in charge of other prisoners? This is just stupid?

From Guzik

As it was in the house of Potiphar, Joseph rose to the top, becoming the chief administrator of the prison. Through his experience in both places, God sharpened the administrative skills Joseph needed to one day save his family and save the whole world.

He's giving him administrative duties so he can use them to save his family, and the world, later? How the hell is that going to play out?

for the verses of note post

--Marriage--

Genesis 39:7-8 Potiphar's wife wants Joseph to sleep with her, but he refuses

"And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." But he refused..."

Everybody Draw Mohammad day

More of my comics

Today is everybody draw Mohammed day. Apparently this started because a south park episode had a depiction of Mohammad on it, and it got pulled because some people say that depictions of Muhammad are sacred and therefore they were offended. Death threats were thrown around, and someone made the declaration that if everyone drew Mohammad they couldn't kill all of us. (At least that seems to be the picture I get from reading a few wikipedia articles, it is pretty damn likely that I have some details wrong)

What is the point?

As I said above, it is somewhat of a protest against censorship. People got offended and then complained and some art (well south park, let's say "art") got censored. That is bullshit. You don't have the right to not be offended, in fact free speech is sort of the opposite idea. People have the right to say whatever they want, the only speech that needs to be protected is speech that will offend someone.

Why draw these pictures?

Some people are offended by there simply being a drawing of Mohammad, this seems a bit silly to me but I can't tell someone to not be offended. If they want to boycott South Park then more power to them, if they don't want to be offended and they avoid things that are likely to offend them I think they are acting in a prudent fashion. But once they restrict other people's actions based on their being offended we have a problem. That is really what is at issue here, they are trying to control other people's action based on them being offended (the fact that they use death threats doesn't help either)

What should we put in these drawing?

I suppose this is a question that each person participating needs to answer for themselves. There's no right answer, but of course I have my thoughts on it. By simply drawing Mohammad, even if he is doing nothing but standing and waving is going to be offensive. Does that mean it is game on? If they are offended anyway then why not go full speed ahead and simply draw the most offensive thing you can think of? Many people go this route and we see drawings of Mohammad fucking Jesus in the ass and stuff like that. I'm personally not a huge fan of this direction, it seems childish and very dickish to me.

Am I really in a position to get all high and mighty though? My comic has Mohammad talking about having sex with a 9 year old! Well, the difference is that this really happened in scripture (at least if wikipedia is to be believed). The same is true for the rest of my comics, it might say some snarky thing, or have a bible in the trash or something, but it's all based on ridiculous stuff I have actually read in the scripture. I hope it is funny, but I always want it to be based on things that are actually in the holy books. If someone wants to draw a picture of Mohammad eating a pile of cocks that's fine, it just seems like a missed opportunity to me, why not make it funny, offensive AND somewhat accurate?

Introducing Hausdorff Bible Comics

For the last couple of months, I've been posting comics of some of the things that come up in the bible reading. I had a lot of fun with it, and decided I would like to do them more often. I would ideally like to draw one for every bible chapter (although realistically I am going to shoot for at least one a week), so in the interest of not cluttering up the blog with a bunch of extra posts, I've decided to put them on their own site: Hausdorff Bible Comics. Notice there is also a new RSS feed in the sidebar.

I'm back home, so tomorrow the blog will be back to normal. We are on Revelation, the last book in the bible. I've heard plenty about this book but never read it myself, I'm excited, I hope you guys are too.

Ticket to Heaven

The first two panels contains things I hear Christians say all the time. The third panel comes from my recent reading of 1 John 3.

How Does Jesus Treat His Enemies?

This comic is inspired by Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 1, both of which mention Jesus using his enemies as a footstool. What a loving, merciful God he is.

Straw Men, Straw Men Everywhere!

This comic was inspired by the ridiculous arguments put forth in the comments of my blog and others during the boy scout blogging event last weekend.

Which God?

This is a comic idea that has been sitting in my notebook for a while. It is based on two contradictory verses sitting pretty close to each other. 1 Thessalonians 5:15 says eye for an eye is bad, specifically

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

But then in the very next verse of the bible, it says that eye for an eye is exactly what you should do, specifically 2 Thessalonians 1:6 says

since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you 

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey Jesus died for our sins. We are forgiven.

Dude, are you crazy? The farmer is coming, we have to run

God of the Gaps

I really don't see why my inability to draw should keep me from making web comics