I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 39-41.

Today’s passage recounts Joseph’s rise in Egypt from slave to being the second most powerful man in the country.  There are two key elements in this: Joseph remained faithful to God, and God blessed him in all that he did.  Despite having been spoiled by his father, Joseph did not waste any time being resentful of what had happened to him.  When he entered into Potiphar’s household he immediately began to do the best job that he was able at every task which was set before him.   All of this was done out of faithfulness to God as we discover when Joseph faced sexual temptation.  When Potiphar’s wife attempted to seduce him, Joseph’s answer was not that it would be betrayal of Potiphar for him to have sex with her.  His answer was that it would be a sin against God.

A casual reading of the passage might lead one to think that it was Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams by themselves which led to him being made the second most powerful man in Egypt.  However, without his dedication to doing his best in whatever situation he found himself in, Joseph would not have been in a position to interpret those dreams.  Joseph was only in the “right place at the right time” because he did his best in every task he was given.  Also of importance, the members of Pharaoh’s court would have been able to find out Joseph’s history since he arrived in Egypt.  If, at any point, he had done something which they could use against him, they would have done so.

One final point I want to make about today’s passage.  It concerns Joseph’s wife and my idea that Jacob’s family were the heirs to the stories passed down from Noah.  Joseph’s wife was the daughter of “the priest of On”.  On is the ancient Egyptian city where Egyptian mythology said that Creation took place.  In Egyptian mythology, the god Atun created the Universe.  It seems likely that because Joseph was Jacob’s favorite, and because he would still have been rather young when Jacob rededicated himself and his household to God after the Shechem incident, Joseph would have received a stronger emphasis on those stories passed down to Jacob.  Back to the Egyptian god Atun.  There is evidence that one of the Pharaoh’s attempted to convert Egypt to monotheistic worship of Atun as the sole god.  I have always suspected that the Hebrew monotheistic stories played a role in that.