Monday 13 July 2009

Background

"You want to go where everybody knows your name..." - so goesthe theme song to the television programme Cheers - a long-runningshow from the 80s and early 90s about friends who gather in a pubin Boston (USA). Being known is often a good thing - it can mean awarm welcome, open doors, and help when needed. But now, in thisBible passage, there was a king in Egypt who "did not know Joseph".So to quote another song: "Nobody knows you, when you're down andout..." (made famous by Derek and the Dominoes).

Joseph (yeah, the one with the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat) hadhelped his family, the Hebrews, to settle in Egypt when there was afamine in their own land (Genesis chapters42-50). Joseph, himself a foreign immigrant, had become ahigh-flyer in the king of Egypt's government - and he knew thenames of his family when they came to Egypt in search of food. Whata relief for them! But now things had changed. Joseph was long deadand the Egyptians "set taskmasters over them to oppress them withforced labour".

When the Hebrews had become 'nameless' to the Egyptians, they alsobecame worthless: they became as mere cogs in the economicmachinery. What's in a name? Everything! How they must have longedto be 'known' - and valued.

To Ponder

Can you think of modern parallels to the plightof the Hebrews in our own society?

What does it mean to you to know that God knowsyou by name (see Isaiah 43:1)?