attain unto and enjoy. He was prosperous, rich, powerful, and favored in
every way; but the chief source of his happiness was the superb
consciousness that he was to be the progenitor of a mighty and numerous
progeny, through whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed.
How far his faith was connected with temporal prosperity we cannot tell.
Prosperity seems to have been the blessing of the Old Testament, as
adversity was the blessing of the New. But he was certain of this,--that
his descendants would possess ultimately the land of Canaan, and would
be as numerous as the stars of heaven. He was certain that in some
mysterious way there would come from his race something that would be a
blessing to mankind. Was it revealed to his exultant soul what this
blessing should be? Did this old patriarch cast a prophetic eye
beyond the ages, and see that the promise made to him was spiritual
rather than material, pertaining to the final triumph of truth and
righteousness?--that the unity of God, which he taught to Isaac and
perhaps to Ishmael, was to be upheld by his race alone among prevailing
idolatries, until the Saviour should come to reveal a new dispensation
and finally draw all men unto him? Did Abraham fully realize what a
magnificent nation the Israelites should become,--not merely the rulers
of western Asia under David and Solomon, but that even after their final
dispersion they should furnish ministers to kings, scholars to
universities, and dictators to legislative halls,--an unconquerable
race, powerful even after the vicissitudes and humiliations of four
thousand years? Did he realize fully that from his descendants should
arise the religious teachers of mankind,--not only the prophets and
sages of the Old Testament, but the apostles and martyrs of the
New,--planting in every land the seeds of the everlasting gospel, which
should finally uproot all Brahminical self-expiations, all Buddhistic
reveries, all the speculations of Greek philosophers, all the countless
forms of idolatry, polytheism, pantheism, and pharisaism on this earth,
until every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father?
Yet such were the boons granted to Abraham, as the reward of faith and
obedience to the One true God,--the vital principle without which
religion dies into superstition, with which his descendants were
inspired not only to nationality and civil coherence, but to the highest
and noblest teachings the world has received from any people, and by
which his name is forever linked with the spiritual progress and
happiness of mankind.
JOSEPH.
ISRAEL IN EGYPT.
No one in his senses would dream of adding anything to the story of
Joseph, as narrated in Genesis, whether it came from the pen of Moses or
from some subsequent writer. It is a masterpiece of historical
composition, unequalled in any literature sacred or profane, in ancient
or modern times, for its simplicity, its pathos, its dramatic power, and
its sustained interest. Nor shall I attempt to paraphrase or re-tell it,
save by way of annotation and illustration of subjects connected with
it, having reference to the subsequent development of the Jewish nation
and character.
Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham, was born at Haran in Mesopotamia,
probably during the XVIII. Century B.C., when his father Jacob was in
the service of Laban the Syrian. There was nothing remarkable in his
career until he was sold as a slave by his unnatural and jealous
brothers. He was the favorite son of the patriarch Jacob, by his
beloved Rachel, being the youngest, except Benjamin, of a large family
of twelve sons,--a beautiful and promising youth, with qualities which
peculiarly called out the paternal affections. In the inordinate love
and partiality of Jacob for this youth he gave to him, by way of
distinction, a decorated tunic, such as was worn only by the sons of
princes. The half-brothers of Joseph were filled with envy in view of
this unwise step on the part of their common father,--a proceeding
difficult to be reconciled with his politic and crafty nature; and their
envy ripened into hostility when Joseph, with the frankness of youth,
narrated his dreams, which signified his future pre-eminence and the
humiliation of his brothers. Nor were his dreams altogether pleasing to
his father, who rebuked him with this indignant outburst of feeling:
"Shall I and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee on
the earth?" But while the father pondered, the brothers were consumed
with hatred, for envy is one of the most powerful passions that move the
human soul, and is malignant in its developments. Strange to say, it is
most common in large families and among those who pass for friends. We
do not envy prosperous enemies with the virulence we feel for prosperous
relatives, who theoretically are our equals. Nor does envy cease until
inequality has become so great as to make rivalry preposterous: a
subject does not envy his king, or his generally acknowledged superior.
Envy may even give place to respect and deference when the object of it
has achieved fame and conceded power. Relatives who begin with jealousy
sometimes end as worshippers, but not until extraordinary merit, vast
wealth, or overtopping influence are universally conceded. Conceive of
Napoleon's brothers envying the great Emperor, or Webster's the great
statesman, or Grant's the great general, although the passion may have
lurked in the bosoms of political rivals and military chieftains.
But one thing certainly extinguishes envy; and that is death. Hence the
envy of Joseph's brothers, after they had sold him to a caravan of
Ishmaelite merchants, was succeeded by remorse and shame. Their
murmurings passed into lies. They could not tell their broken-hearted
father of their crime; they never told him. Jacob was led to suppose
that his favorite son was devoured by wild beasts; they added deceit and
cowardice to a depraved heartlessness, and nearly brought down the gray
hairs of their father to the grave. No subsequent humiliation or
punishment could be too severe for such wickedness. Although they were
destined to become the heads of powerful tribes, even of the chosen
people of God, these men have incurred the condemnation of all ages. But
Judah and Reuben do not come in for unlimited censure, since these sons
of Leah sought to save their brother from a violent death; and
subsequently in Egypt Judah looms up as a magnanimous character, whom we
admire almost as much as we do Joseph himself. What can be more eloquent
than his defence of Benjamin, and his appeal to what seemed to him to be
an Egyptian potentate!
The sale of Joseph as a slave is one of the most signal instances of the
providence of God working by natural laws recorded in all history,--more
marked even than the elevation of Esther and Mordecai. In it we see
permission of evil and its counteraction,--its conversion into good;
victory over evil, over conspiracy, treachery, and murderous intent. And
so marked is this lesson of a superintending Providence over all human
action, that a wise and good man can see wars and revolutions and
revolting crimes with almost philosophical complacency, knowing that out
of destruction proceeds creation; that the wrath of man is always
overruled; that the love of God is the brightest and clearest and most
consoling thing in the universe. We cannot interpret history without the
recognition of this fundamental truth. We cannot be unmoved amid the
prevalence of evil without this feeling, that God is more powerful than
all the combined forces of his enemies both on earth and in hell; and
that no matter what the evil is, it will surely be made to praise Him
who sitteth in the heavens. This is a sublime revelation of the
omnipotence and benevolence of a personal God, of his constant oversight
of the world which he has made.
The protection and elevation of Joseph, seemingly a natural event in
view of his genius and character, is in some respects a type of that
great sacrifice by which a sinful world has been redeemed. Little did
the Jews suspect when they crucified Jesus that he would arise from his
tomb and overturn the idolatries of nations, and found a religion which
should go on from conquering to conquer. Little did the gifted Burke see
in the atrocities of the French Revolution the overturning of a system
of injustices which for centuries had cried to Heaven for vengeance.
Still less did the proud and conservative citizens of New England
recognize in the cruelties of Southern slaveholders a crime which would
provoke one of the bloodiest wars of modern times, and lead to the
constitutional and political equality of the whites and blacks. Evil
appeared to triumph, but ended in the humiliation of millions and the
enfranchisement of humanity, when the cause of the right seemed utterly
hopeless. So let every one write upon all walls and houses and chambers,
upon his conscience and his intellect, "The Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth, and will bring good out of the severest tribulation!" And this
great truth applies not to nations alone, but to the humblest
individual, as he bows down in grief or wrath or penitence to
unlooked-for chastisement,--like Job upon his heap of ashes, or the
broken-hearted mother when afflicted with disease or poverty, or the
misconduct or death of children. There is no wisdom, no sound
philosophy, no religion, and no happiness until this truth is recognized
in all the changes and relations of life.
The history of Joseph in Egypt in all his varied fortunes is, as I have
said, a most memorable illustration of this cardinal and fundamental
truth. A favorite of fortune, he is sold as a slave for less than twenty
dollars of our money, and is brought to a foreign country,--a land
oppressed by kings and priests, yet in which is a high civilization, in
spite of social and political degradation. He is resold to a high
official of the Egyptian court, probably on account of his beauty and
intelligence. He rises in the service of this official,--captain of the
royal guard, or, as the critics tell us, superintendent of the police
and prisons,--for he has extraordinary abilities and great integrity,
character as well as natural genius, until he is unjustly accused of a
meditated crime by a wicked woman. It is evident that Potiphar, his
master, only half believes in Joseph's guilt, in spite of the
protestations of his artful and profligate wife, since instead of
summarily executing him, as Ahasuerus did Haman, he simply sends him to
a mild and temporary imprisonment in the prison adjacent to his palace.
Here Joseph wins the favor of his jailers and of his brother prisoners,
as Paul did nearly two thousand years later, and shows remarkable gifts,
even to the interpretation of dreams,--a wonderful faculty to
superstitious people like the Egyptians, and in which he exceeds even
their magicians and priests. The fame of his rare gifts, the most prized
in Egypt, reaches at last the ears of Pharaoh, who is troubled by a
singular dream which no one of his learned men can interpret. The Hebrew
slave interprets it, and is magnificently rewarded, becoming the prime
minister of an absolute monarch. The King gives him his signet ring,
emblem of power, and a collar or chain of gold, the emblem of the
highest rank; clothes him in a vestment of fine linen, makes him ride in
his second chariot, and appoints him ruler over the land, second only to
the King in power and rank. And, further, he gives to him in marriage
the daughter of the High Priest of On, by which he becomes connected
with the priesthood.
Joseph deserves all the honor and influence he receives, for he saves
the kingdom from a great calamity. He predicts seven years of plenty and
seven years of famine, and points out the remedy. According to
tradition, the monarch whom he served was Apepi, the last Shepherd
King, during whose reign slaves were very numerous. The King himself had
a vast number, as well as the nobles. Foreign slaves were preferred to
native ones, and wars were carried on for the chief purpose of capturing
and selling captives.
The sacred narrative says but little of the government of Egypt by a
Hebrew slave, or of his abilities as a ruler,--virtually supreme in the
land, since Pharaoh delegates to him his own authority, persuaded both
of his fidelity and his abilities. It is difficult to understand how
Joseph arose at a single bound to such dignity and power, under a proud
and despotic king, and in the face of all the prejudices of the Egyptian
priesthood and nobility, except through the custom of all Oriental
despots to gratify the whim of the moment,--like the one who made his
horse prime minister. But nothing short of transcendent talents and
transcendent services can account for his retention of office and his
marked success. Joseph was then thirty years of age, having served
Potiphar ten years, and spent two or three years in prison.
This all took place, as some now suppose, shortly after 1700 B.C., under
the dynasty of the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings, who had conquered the
kingdom about three hundred years before. Their capital was Memphis,
near the pyramids, which had been erected several centuries earlier by
the older and native dynasties. Rawlinson supposes that Tanis on the
delta was the seat of their court. Conquered by the Hyksos, the old
kings retreated to their other capital, Thebes, and were probably made
tributary to the conquerors. It was by the earlier and later dynasties
that the magnificent temples and palaces were built, whose ruins have so
long been the wonder of travellers. The Shepherd Kings were warlike, and
led their armies from Scythia,--that land of roving and emigrant
warriors,--or, as Ewald thinks, from the land of Canaan: Aramaean
chieftains, who sought the spoil of the richest monarchy in the world.
Hence there was more affinity between these people and the Hebrews than
between them and the ancient Egyptians, who were the descendants of Ham.
Abraham, when he visited Egypt, found it ruled by these Scythian or
Aramaean warriors, which accounts for the kind and generous treatment he
received. It is not probable that a monarch of the ancient dynasties
would have been so courteous to Abraham, or would have elevated Joseph
to such an exalted rank, for they were jealous of strangers, and hated a
pastoral people. It was only under the rule of the Hyksos that the
Hebrews could have been tolerated and encouraged; for as soon as the
Shepherd Kings were expelled by the Pharaohs who reigned at Thebes, as
the Moors were expelled from Spain by the old Castilian princes, it
fared ill with the descendants of Jacob, and they were bitterly and
cruelly oppressed until the exodus under Moses. Prosperity probably led
the Hyksos conquerors to that fatal degeneracy which is unfavorable to
war, while adversity strengthened the souls of the descendants of the
ancient kings, and enabled them to subdue and drive away their invaders
and conquerors. And yet the Hyksos could not have ruled Egypt had they
not adapted themselves to the habits, religion, and prejudices of the
people they subdued. The Pharaoh who reigned at the time of Joseph
belonged like his predecessors to the sacerdotal caste, and worshipped
the gods of the Egyptians. But he was not jealous of the Hebrews, and
fully appreciated the genius of Joseph.
The wisdom of Joseph as ruler of the land destined to a seven years'
famine was marked by foresight as well as promptness in action. He
personally visited the various provinces, advising the people to husband
their harvests. But as all people are thoughtless and improvident, he
himself gathered up and stored all the grain which could be spared, and
in such vast quantities that he ceased to measure it. At last the
predicted famine came, as the Nile had not risen to its usual height;
but the royal granaries were full, since all the surplus wheat--about a
fifth of the annual produce--had been stored away; not purchased by
Joseph, but exacted as a tax. Nor was this exaction unreasonable in
view of the emergency. Under the Bourbon kings of France more than one
half of the produce of the land was taken by the Government and the
feudal proprietors without compensation, and that not in provision for
coming national trouble, but for the fattening of the royal purse.
Joseph exacted only a fifth as a sort of special tax, less than the
present Italian government exacts from all landowners.
Very soon the famine pressed upon the Egyptian people, for they had no
corn in reserve; the reserve was in the hands of the government. But
this reserve Joseph did not deal out gratuitously, as the Roman
government, under the emperors, dealt out food to the citizens. He made
the people pay for their bread, and took their money and deposited it in
the royal treasury. When after two years their money was all spent, it
was necessary to resort to barter, and cattle were given in exchange for
corn, by which means the King became possessed of all the personal
property of his subjects. As famine pressed, the people next surrendered
their land to avoid starvation,--all but the priests. Pharaoh thus
became absolute proprietor of the whole country; of money, cattle, and
land,--an unprecedented surrender, which would have produced a
wide-spread disaffection and revolt, had it not been that Joseph, after
the famine was past and the earth yielded its accustomed harvest,
exacted only one-fifth of the produce of the land for the support of
the government, which could not be regarded as oppressive. As the King
thus became absolute proprietor of Egypt by consent of the people, whom
he had saved from starvation through the wisdom and energy of his prime
minister, it is probable that later a new division of land took place,
it being distributed among the people generally in small farms, for
which they paid as rent a fifth of their produce. The gratitude of the
people was marked: "Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the
eyes of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's slaves." Since the time of
Christ there have been two similar famines recorded,--one in the
eleventh century, lasting, like Joseph's, seven years; and the other in
the twelfth century, of which the most distressing details are given,
even to the extreme desperation of cannibalism. The same cause
originated both,--the failure of the Nile overflow. Out of the sacred
river came up for Egypt its fat kine and its lean,--its blessings and
its curses.
The price exacted by Joseph for the people's salvation made the King
more absolute than before, since all were thus made dependent on the
government.
This absolute rule of the kings, however, was somewhat modified by
ancient customs, and by the vast influence of the priesthood, to which
the King himself belonged. The priests of Egypt, under all the
dynasties, formed the most powerful caste ever seen among the nations
of the earth, if we except the Brahmanical caste of India. At the head
of it was the King himself, who was chief of the religion and of the
state. He regulated the sacrifices of the temples, and had the peculiar
right of offering them to the gods upon grand occasions. He
superintended the feasts and festivals in honor of the deities. The
priests enjoyed privileges which extended to their whole family. They
were exempt from taxes, and possessed one-third of the landed property,
which was entailed upon them, and of which they could not be deprived.
Among them there were great distinctions of rank, but the high-priests
held the most honorable station; they were devoted to the service of the
presiding deities of the cities in which they lived,--such as the
worship of Ammon at Thebes, of Phtha at Memphis, and of Ra at On, or
Heliopolis. One of the principal grades of the priesthood was that of
prophets, who were particularly versed in all matters pertaining to
religion. They presided over the temple and the sacred rites, and
directed the management of the priestly revenues; they bore a
distinguished part in solemn processions, carrying the holy vase.
The priests not only regulated all spiritual matters and superintended
the worship of the gods, but they were esteemed for their superior
knowledge. They acquired an ascendency over the people by their
supposed understanding of the sacred mysteries, only those priests being
initiated in the higher secrets of religion who had proved themselves
virtuous and discerning. "The honor of ascending from the less to the
greater mysteries was as highly esteemed as it was difficult to obtain.
The aspirant was required to go through the most severe ordeal, and show
the greatest moral resignation." Those who aspired to know the
profoundest secrets, imposed upon themselves duties more severe than
those required by any other class. It was seldom that the priests were
objects of scandal; they were reserved and discreet, practising the
strictest purification of body and mind. Their life was so full of
minute details that they rarely appeared in public. They thus obtained
the sincere respect of the people, and ruled by the power of learning
and sanctity as well as by privilege. They are most censured for
concealing and withholding knowledge from the people.
How deep and profound was the knowledge of the Egyptian priests it is
difficult to settle, since it was so carefully guarded. Pythagoras made
great efforts and sacrifices to be initiated in their higher mysteries;
but these, it is thought, were withheld, since he was a foreigner. What
he did learn, however, formed a foundation of what is most valuable in
Grecian philosophy. Herodotus declares that he knew the mysteries, but
should not divulge them. Moses was skilled in all the knowledge of the
sacred schools of Egypt, and perhaps incorporated in his jurisprudence
some of its most valued truths. Possibly Plato obtained from the
Egyptian priests his idea of the immortality of the soul, since this was
one of their doctrines. It is even thought by Wilkinson that they
believed in the unity, the eternal existence, and invisible power of
God, but there is no definite knowledge on that point. Ammon, the
concealed god, seems to have corresponded with the Zeus of the Greeks,
as Sovereign Lord of Heaven. The priests certainly taught a state of
future rewards and punishments, for the great doctrine of metempsychosis
is based upon it,--the transmission of the soul after death into the
bodies of various animals as an expiation for sin. But however lofty
were the esoteric doctrines which the more learned of the initiated
believed, they were carefully concealed from the people, who were deemed
too ignorant to understand them; and hence the immense difference
between the priests and people, and the universal prevalence of
degrading superstitions and the vile polytheism which everywhere
existed,--even the worship of the powers of Nature in those animals
which were held sacred. Among all the ancient nations, however
complicated were their theogonies, and however degraded the forms of
worship assumed,--of men, or animals, or plants,--it was heat or light
(the sun as the visible promoter of blessings) which was regarded as the
_animus mundi_, to be worshipped as the highest manifestation of divine
power and goodness. The sun, among all the ancient polytheists, was
worshipped under various names, and was one of the supremest deities.
The priestly city of On, a sort of university town, was consecrated to
the worship of Ra, the sun. Baal was the sun-god among the polytheistic
Canaanites, as Bel was among the Assyrians.
The Egyptian Pantheon, except perhaps that of Rome, was the most
extensive among the ancient nations, and the most degraded, although
that people were the most religious as well as superstitious of ancient
pagans. The worship of the Deity, in some form, was as devout as it was
universal, however degrading were the rites; and no expense was spared
in sacrifices to propitiate the favor of the peculiar deity who presided
over each of the various cities, for almost every city had a different
deity. Notwithstanding the degrading fetichism--the lowest kind of
Nature-worship, including the worship of animals--which formed the basis
of the Egyptian religion, there were traces in it of pure monotheism, as
in that of Babylonia and of ancient India. The distinguishing
peculiarity of the Egyptian religion was the adoration of sacred
animals as emblems of the gods, the chief of which were the bull, the
cat, and the beetle.