Daily Question Feb 6

Why does Joseph plant the silver cup? What is the ultimate aim of such a move? How does this relate to his status as the beloved son? Appeal explicitly to the story as a whole (i.e. Gen 37-50) and to the article from Anderson in your answer.

In Genesis 44, when Joseph is in Egypt, presiding over the land directly under Pharaoh, he tests his brothers by not only providing each of them the food and money they expected, but by hiding his own silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest brother, Benjamin. After the brothers depart, Joseph sends his men after them to accuse them of doing evil and when they’re searched, the cup is indeed found in Benjamin’s sack and Joseph demands that Benjamin become his servant, sending the rest of the brothers back. But what happens next reveals the moral of the story and Joseph’s intent in testing his brothers in the first place. Judah is rightly horrified by the demand for Benjamin’s servitude and volunteers himself to step-in as the servant in order to protect Benjamin. This whole account parallels that in Genesis 37 when the brothers, led by Judah’s suggestion, sell Joseph into slavery to the Ishmaelites. But the striking difference, and the important lesson, is that Judah shows a change of heart in that he would “pledge his own life in the adored child’s stead” (in the words of Gary Anderson). This reveals a stark reversal of the envy that once characterized Joseph’s brothers, and so Joseph is moved to tears, seeing that his test of hiding the silver cup achieved its intended purpose. He subsequently reveals himself as their brother and the entire family is reunited in Egypt in the chapters that follow.

The ultimate aim of Joseph’s decision to plant the silver cup, then, is to test for a change in heart of his brothers that would allow the family to become rightly reunited. I think this parallels our reconciliation with God in a broad sense. When we’re unclean or sinful, we cannot be in communion with God who is perfect, righteous, and holy. Likewise, when Joseph’s brothers were corrupt and ridden with envy, the family could not be in communion with one another. When Judah demonstrates a fundamental change in heart, the door is open for forgiveness and for the family to come together again. I’d argue that this illustrates how we, too, must have a fundamental change in heart in the process of salvation to truly reunite with God in holy communion. This is not to say that we can “earn” God’s forgiveness by simply doing the right thing, however. We still, of course, need God’s grace and need to receive the gift of salvation. But the parallel between salvation and the story of Joseph’s brothers is still helpful and interesting to consider.

As for Joseph, his act of planting the silver cup relates to his overall status as the beloved son by drawing a comparison to his younger brother Benjamin, who appears to become the beloved son after Joseph supposedly dies. In Genesis 44, Benjamin fits the role of the beloved son who must be protected (and who the other brothers must not be envious over) just as in Genesis 37, Joseph is the beloved son who must be protected, but is not due to his brother’s envy over the position. Finally, because the scene of the silver cup mirrors salvation in many ways (as described above), we can also see that it relates to Joseph’s favorable status, because as the beloved son, he tests and forgives his brothers, serving as the mediator of the reunification of the family. And as Anderson points out, Christ is God’s beloved son which puts him in a “tight, figural relationship” to God’s beloved son Israel, and by extension, Israel’s beloved son Joseph. Therefore, there is an inherent connection between Christ and Joseph in their roles as beloved sons who mediate and forgive.