Following my graduation from high school, I attended the local community college for two years. Despite being a math major, I spent most of my time in the music department and that was where I met all of my friends. During breaks, we would either sit in the stairwell or the music room and play guitar and sing together or we would go out and sit in the common area in a group with others. Among the people in those groups were a few Christians like me and several others who considered themselves either atheists or agnostics.

Now, I’ll be honest, through most of my time in high school the only people I hung out with were Christians. In fact, I’d often heard my pastors and church leaders talk about the dangers of hanging around with “unbelievers.” They would quote 2 Corinthians 6:14 which says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” So I felt nervous sitting around conversing with atheists. I felt like my only choices were to seek to convert them or to fall into sin because of them. What I came to realize as I listened to them and heard their stories was that we were all seeking the same things. We wanted to be loved, to have a place to belong, and to feel like we had a purpose for our lives. We were simply taking different paths to find those things. And I came to understand that passage from 2 Corinthians a bit differently.

For oxen to be unequally yoked was one of the two oxen to be bigger and stronger than the other, thus causing the animals to go around in a circle because the one was pulling much harder than the other. We could take that to mean that Christians are the stronger ox and those who don’t believe in Christ are the weaker. But what if that point of that verse is not who is the stronger and who is the weaker, but instead is about balance and working together. Both light and dark, which seem like opposites are needed. We couldn’t truly appreciate one without the other.

Author N.T. Wright provides an illustration that says essentially the same thing. He writes, “The river and the tree appear to be opposites. The river begins, quite literally, all over the place. A tiny spring way up in the hills; a distant lake, itself fed by streams; a melting glacier—all of them and a thousand more contribute to the babble and rush of water, the smooth flow here and the swirling rapids there. Gradually other streams, other whole rivers, make their contribution. Out of many there emerges the one. … The tree begins with a single seed. An acorn or its equivalent falls into the earth: tiny, vulnerable, alone. It germinates and puts out roots down into the dark earth. Simultaneously it sends up a shoot into the light and air. The roots quickly diverge and probe all over the place looking for nourishment and water. The shoot becomes a trunk, again a single upright stalk, but this, too, quickly diverges. An oak or a cedar will spread far and wide in all directions. Even the tall narrow poplar is far more than just a single trunk. The river flows from many into one; the tree grows from one into many. We need both images if we are to understand the church”

Today we are looking at an often overlooked piece of Joseph’s story. Joseph has just heard Pharaoh’s dreams and interpreted them for him. And Joseph has told Pharaoh that he should appoint someone to oversee the operation to save enough from the seven abundant years in order for them to make it through the seven years of famine. Pharaoh is pleased with Joseph’s suggestion and seems to have the perfect person in mind for the task. He says to his servants, “Can we find anyone else like this, one in whom is the spirit of God?” Pharaoh, of all the people in Egypt, chooses Joseph, a prisoner and stranger. That, in and of itself, is astounding. But I wonder if a phrase from Pharaoh’s question stood out to you as much as it did to me. Pharaoh, an Egyptian ruler who followed the customs and traditions of Egypt, and worshiped Ra and the gods of Egypt, calls Joseph, “one in whom is the spirit of God.” I’m intrigued.

The conclusion here that I think many Christians draw is that Pharaoh recognizes the God of the Hebrews in Joseph. God is so powerful and amazing that even this pagan Pharaoh recognizes this foreign God in Joseph. I would venture to say that would be the most common interpretation of this statement by Pharaoh. However, if we delve into the original Hebrew a bit and consider the context of this story, I think perhaps there is a different (and maybe even better interpretation, but I’ll let you decide that).

If we look at the Hebrew in this verse, verse 38, we see that the author of Genesis has Pharaoh using the word Elohim for God. Now, Elohim is the generic term for God. It can be used to refer to any god. We might compare it to the word Allah, which is the Arabic word for god. Arab speaking Christians, Jews, Muslims, all use the term Allah to refer to god. The same was true for Elohim. It was not a word exclusive to the Hebrews. So, when Pharaoh recognizes Joseph as having the spirit of God, he could just as easily be referring to Ra rather than the God of the Hebrews. In fact, that seems highly likely given the context. Pharaoh is the ruler of Egypt. Ra is the high deity of the Egyptian pantheon. Joseph is a mere prisoner who has been brought before the Pharaoh. It seems unlikely that Pharaoh would look at Joseph, a stranger, and recognize in him a God that Pharaoh did not even know.

Now, if we start from that idea, the rest of this part of the story reads a bit different. Pharaoh at this point chooses Joseph to be his second in command and oversee the collection of food over the next seven years in order to prepare for the following seven years of famine. And Pharaoh says to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.” Again Pharaoh uses the word Elohim here. Pharaoh is recognizing that Joseph has abilities and wisdom that could only come from a higher power, but that higher power for Pharaoh would not be the God of the Hebrews. And I’ve got to believe that Joseph knew that. Joseph knew that Pharaoh was not talking about the God that Joseph worshiped. Yet Joseph did not call him out on it. He simply accepted the compliment from Pharaoh and agreed to the job Pharaoh was offering him.

This is where I’m reminded of our previous discussion about the Corinthians text regarding being unequally yoked. You could say that Joseph and Pharaoh were unequally yoked. Pharah was rich and powerful, while Joseph was poor and a prisoner. Pharaoh had all the power while Joseph had none. If they were oxen trying to use the same yoke, Pharaoh would be doing all the pulling. Yet as Christians we often look at it in the opposite way. We see Joseph as having all the power because he is worshiping the correct God and Pharaoh is not. And maybe both of those perspectives have some truth to them. But Pharaoh offers Joseph a chance to work alongside him to try to save the people of Egypt. He offers him power and authority. And in turn, Joseph offers kindness, compassion, and service. Joseph the Jew and Pharaoh the Son of Ra joined together to help the Egyptian people as well as some of Joseph’s own people, including his own family. Joseph and Pharaoh found unity in a common purpose despite their different religious and cultural beliefs.

As I was studying this story this week, I happened to peruse the website for our peacebuilding partners at the Al Amana Centre in Oman. And I read a couple of the articles posted there. And one of them seemed perfect for this text. I want to share with you a bit of the story of Tamanna: A business student in Bangladesh, Tamanna was seeking an internship and learned about the volunteer opportunities available at the Al Amana Centre. Coming from a diverse nation like Bangladesh, she was attracted to their focus on fostering religious tolerance. She began her internship in January and was met by the opportunity to get to know a group from New Brunswick Theological Seminary. She was able to learn from them and shared with them about her Muslim faith. Then the article says this: “Through hosting the New Brunswick Theological Seminary group, Tamanna began to realize how people are shaped by their society and surroundings. The fears and customs that were normal to them seemed completely foreign to her and vice versa. This insight sparked a personal transformation, encouraging her to be more patient, open-minded, and appreciative of cultures different from her own.”

What I learn from Joseph and Pharaoh’s story in Genesis 41 is that we don’t have to believe the same things or worship the same gods in order to work together for peace and love and compassion in our world. I learned something this week that I found really poignant to this topic. When we consider ourselves, we are ‘I.’ When we put our selfishness away and think of the other instead of ourselves, we cross out the ‘I.’ And it is there (upon that cross) that we find Jesus. Differences exist. We cannot expect to all be the same. And frankly, we wouldn’t really like it if we were. But differences don’t have to divide us. Joseph didn’t let his differences from Pharaoh stand in the way of working for good. And Pharaoh didn’t look at Joseph’s differences from him and dismiss him. Pharaoh, not only worked with him, but gave some of his own power and authority to Joseph. He lifted Joseph up so that together they could lift up all of Egypt and beyond. That is the power of unity. That is the power of the spirit of God at work in the world. May we cross out the I’s that threaten unity and, in looking to the good of the other, find that our differences need not divide us. For we are all human and we are all children of God. Amen!