Many people believe that in the Old Testament, salvation was reserved primarily for the Jewish people, with maybe a few scattered Arabs here and there. In fact, the prevailing view among many is that in the Old Testament, the Israelites were the good guys and the Arabs were the bad guys. However, if you have been following my articles, I hope you are beginning to see that this is simply not true.
In Genesis 12:1-3, God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, in modern-day Iraq, and gave him an incredible promise: His descendants would outnumber the sand on the seashore or the stars in the sky, and through him, all nations on earth would be blessed. Decades later, he miraculously became the father of two sons, Ishmael, the father of the Arab people, and Isaac, the father of the Israelites. I wrote about the blessing given to Ishmael here: http://muslim-academy.com/ishmael-blessed-or-cursed/. In short, the Lord heard his mother’s cry for mercy, even though she was a slave he would be free, and he would live in friendship with his brothers. His brother Isaac inherited the promise given to Abraham, that through him all nations would be blessed. The fulfillment of this promise came through the Messiah, Jesus, who came from the line of Abraham and Isaac and whose message continues to bless the entire world.
Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. The promise of the Messiah was passed to Jacob, who fathered twelve sons; these sons became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph was one of Jacob’s sons; in fact, being the oldest son of his favorite wife, Rachel, Joseph was the favorite. Jacob was not shy at all about letting Joseph know that he was favored above his brothers. When he was about 17 years old, he gave him a brightly-colored cloak to show his special affection. If you read the Genesis account of his story, you will see that he was a bit of a cocky young man.
As any brothers would be, Joseph’s 11 brothers became incredibly jealous and plotted to kill him. The oldest, Reuben, convinced them to throw him into a cistern instead, with the intent to rescue him later. Before Reuben could rescue him, his brothers sold him as a slave to some Midianite traders that happened to be traveling through the area. This proved to be only the beginning of Joseph’s many sufferings.
He was taken into Egypt and became a slave in the house of Potiphar, a high official. In the midst of this God was with Joseph, and he became in charge of all of the other slaves. Trouble soon found him, though. Potiphar’s wife tried to convince Joseph to have sex with her; when he refused she accused him of trying to rape her. He was immediately sent to prison.
Even in prison Joseph prospered, and he received favor in the eyes of the prison warden. One day two of Pharaoh’s servants were thrown into prison, and they both had mysterious dreams. With God’s guidance, Joseph was able to correctly interpret those dreams to mean that one of the men would be hanged, while the other, a cupbearer, would soon be restored to his position in the palace. He begged the cupbearer to mention him to Pharaoh, so that he could be brought out of prison.
The cupbearer was indeed restored to his former position, but he forgot about Joseph. Then Pharaoh had some mysterious dreams, and he remembered Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams. Joseph was brought before Pharaoh and correctly interpreted his dreams to mean that there would soon be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. He then advised Pharaoh to put somebody in charge of storing up grain during the years of plenty, so that there would be food during the famine. Joseph was given the position. He became second in command, next only to Pharaoh.
The famine came and ravaged the entire Middle East. For those of you that think a famine is simply an exaggerated drought, look up pictures from the famine in Somalia. It went all the way into Canaan, where Joseph’s family still lived. Soon they were near starvation. But they heard that there was food in Egypt, so they went down to Egypt to buy food. Lo and behold, Joseph recognized them immediately. Believing him dead, though, they did not recognize him. Joseph played some tricks on them, then revealed his true identity as their long-lost brother. He then says something that theologians often point to when asked the question of God’s goodness in the face of evil and suffering: What you meant for evil, God meant for good, so that now many lives are being saved. (paraphrased from Genesis 50:20).
Regarding the question of whether or not God’s salvation was exclusively for the Israelites, this story begs the question: Why would God put His man in a place of such power and influence in a nation known by every historian to have been pagan? Could it be that God was concerned about the welfare of the Arabs in this famine, as well as Joseph’s family? A hearty, emphatic, Yes. Granted, God’s salvation refers to salvation of our souls, not merely keeping us from starvation. However, it is His kindness, in this case shown by keeping the world from starving, that leads us to repent and trust Him. And we must wonder how many people came to believe in the One True God, as opposed to all of the pagan gods of Egypt and the surrounding nations, because of Joseph.
Although Jonah missed that salvation was not exclusively for Jacob’s descendants (http://muslim-academy.com/jonah-and-ethno-centrism/), Joseph did not. He realized that it was not only for him and his family, but for the whole world.
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