The Empty Disguises of Genesis 37 and 39

You could be forgiven for wanting to tug on the beard of every character in Genesis in hopes of exposing an impostor.  The story of the Patriarchs is tightly woven together with the thread of deception.  Abraham and Isaac try to pass off their wives as sisters.  Jacob impersonates Esau (27:16), Laban makes Leah impersonate Rachel (29:23), and Tamar impersonates a shrine prostitute (38:14).  Joseph's story also involves costumes right from the beginning.  What's different is that he's not wearing them.  

After selling him into slavery, Joseph's brothers utilize his famously colorful cloak, dipped in the blood of a goat for effect, to perpetrate the lie that he has been killed by a wild animal (37:31).  In the very next episode of the Joseph story yet another of Joseph's cloaks becomes the centerpiece of a lie.  Potiphar's wife is left holding the cloak.  She ripped it from Joseph's body as he literally ran away, but instead spreads word that Joseph left it after attempting to seduce her (39:14).  For the second time, Joseph is left wrongly condemned and naked; a victim of his own clothing submitted as evidence against him.  

The beauty of the narrative is that while the thread of deception is still the tie that binds, these empty cloaks notify us that Joseph is a different kind of patriarch from his predecessors.  He appears to be innately trustworthy. Potiphar, the Egyptian jailer, and Pharaoh himself all do not concern themselves with anything [see 39:8, 39:23, and 41:42] once they have put Joseph in charge.  This is not a trickster prone to deceit and disguise, but an enduring servant, with faithfulness as a defining trait.  

The cloak scenes then, give the reader of Genesis a physical visualization of what has happened in the line of the Patriarchs.  In a world saturated by deception, Joseph is doing something new. He is removing himself - literally and figuratively - from the deception around him.  

There is an exception, but it proves the rule.  Joseph rightly represents himself as the man in charge of Egypt when his brothers come asking for help in chapter 42, but he does not reveal his identity as their brother.  Under the disguise of years and authority, they do not recognize him.  Unlike the imposters before him however, Joseph just can't keep up the secret.  He eventually reveals himself through audible tears (45:2-3).  He has used his power as ruler to compel all his brothers to join him in the safety of Egypt, but he wants the whole to be known.  He is their brother.  They sold him into slavery and faked his death, and now he is choosing to be their savior.  The secret identity here is one of sacrifice and love.

Joseph is a different kind of leader for God's chosen family.  He tells the truth.  He endures.  He loves.  Naked and transparent, he removes (or more accurately is forcibly removed from) the disguises that have characterized his family's story, and he becomes a changemaker for God's chosen people.  The thread of deception is tightly woven into his story, but Joseph is no deceiver.  His life is a challenge to all of us:  Can we interact with a thoroughly sin-soaked world, exhibiting the faithfulness to change the patterns of dysfunction we live in?