Words on Wednesday: Reading about Joseph

  One of the things i loved about Angela Elwell Hunt's Legacies of the Ancient River series is how not only don't we lose track of book one's main character throughout, but he's actually a key figure in them all, sometimes primary, sometimes secondary, but always in the forefront.

Dreamers

  Here, we meet Joseph and his world, especially fellow-slave, Tuya.
  While my slight studies seem to indicate that Joseph's time was much earlier, Hunt's setting of her tale in the 18th Dynasty of Egypt makes a certain amount of sense.  There definitely seems to have been some Yahweh-encounter impressing itself upon the people of that time (though i see that encounter as having been the events of Moses' life).
  Hunt develops the story of Potiphar and his wife as a main focus of the novel.  Mrs. Potiphar, Sagira, actually comes off a sympathetic character.  A great irony and tragedy of Potiphar's life is suggested as the root of our Biblically recorded incident.

Brothers

  The epilogue of Dreamers is presented as a prologue in this book, with slightly different details, as is appropriate when showing another point of view.
  In Book two of the series, we get to know Joseph's family:

• Jacob, the patriarch, an inadequate husband and father
• Reuben, dignified but ineffectual
• Levi and especially Simeon, hotheaded, quick to both take offense respond violently
• Dinah, who responded to her tragedy by seeking God, which made her look crrazy to everyone else.
• Benjamin, whose eyes are so much like Joseph's - and their mother's.

  Like the first book, in this one we come to know a beautiful serving woman.  Her story links to Simeon's, leading to his character growth.

Journey

  In this volume, we see Joseph through the eyes of his sons, beginning with the journey back to Canaan to bury Jacob.  Manesseh comes to grips with his grandfather's unusual disposition of the blessing.  We see sibling rivalry, impatience with differing views on God's requirements, and frustration of a father with his sons.
  Joseph in maturity is very much Joseph as a boy, inspiring and trying at once.
 Some of the major activity

Tying all three together, 

  i enjoyed seeing into several people's heads at once.  God spoke to someone in each book, and in each, another says something like, "Would God speak to YOU?"  This is a very present day thing.  How do we know who God would speak to?  His word, which the ancients did not have, gives us a clue as to what, but to whom?  He speaks to those who will hear Him.
  Interestingly, most of God's words that Hunt inserts are directly from Scripture.  When she shows God speaking to the individual, the words are in italics.  In the one case that the words are not directly from Scripture, words which influence most of the action of the book, the words are NOT italicized.  This allows us to wonder if this character is truly hearing from God.  The unresolved ambiguity lends great interest to the book.