Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. | Genesis 47:27
This week’s sermon was on Genesis 47, but we stopped at verse 26, because the rest of the chapter is more about Jacob’s impending death and it fits better with the next chapter. Before the author moves on to that, he adds the above verse about the descendants of Jacob settling in Goshen and thriving apart from the rest of Egypt.
What this sets up for us is an interesting juxtaposition of engagement models. When I say engagement models, I mean ways of thinking about the role of Christians in the world. H. Richard Niebuhr famously defined 5 approaches in his book Christ and Culture. He looked at engagement through the lens of how we think of Jesus relating to culture:
1. Christ against culture | counter-cultural
2. Christ of culture | conformist
3. Christ above culture | partnership
4. Christ and culture in paradox | dualistic
5. Christ transforming culture | transformationalist
I am not going to go through all of these (a good summary can be found here), but want to cover the two that relate to Genesis 47: Christ transforming culture and Christ against culture.
CHRIST TRANSFORMING CULTURE
In the sermon (and in this series previously), we have seen Joseph using the talents that he has been given, along with his relationship to God, to bring about the common good in Egypt. He has brought God’s order to bear on the culture in a way that has prevented them from being destroyed by famine. In response, we see that Pharaoh has a positive view of the power of Joseph’s God (Genesis 41:38-39). This is an example of Christ transforming culture. God uses His people to bring about His purposes in every part of life.
CHRIST AGAINST CULTURE
The way that Joseph works to establish his family in Goshen, away from the influence of the Egyptians seems to fit the counter-culturalist model. God makes it clear, a bit further down the road, that the nation of Israel is set apart, as a people distinct from the rest of the world. God will use His people, being distinctly His people, to show the rest of the world His glory (Exodus 19:5-6).
So which is it? These models are helpful to clarify positions, but do not do well representing the variety this life brings. In Genesis 47, we see that God has Joseph transforming culture, while his family sets up a counter-culture; God is simultaneously engaging with the world, through His people, in two very different ways. When we see this, it should challenge us to not get too committed to a specific model. It isn’t about withdrawing into your comfortably defined model, but prayerfully considering in every moment: what is appropriate here and now? In the situation that God has placed me in, what response would best reveal God’s goodness?
There is much more to say on this, but I will simply leave you with this short video. In it, Tim Keller explains how he sees the church’s responsibility of being Salt and Light, to be reflected in both the Counter-culturalists (Ananbaptist, Hauerwasian) and the Tranformationalists (Kuyperians). Rather than choosing a side, we should learn to use both of these models to effectively engage the culture (Keller devotes 60 pages of his book, Center Church, to exploring these models and giving insights on how/when each is appropriate).