The old joke is the question, who was the greatest actor in
the Bible? The answer is Samson, because he brought down
the house. The surprising thing is that there really are actors
in the Bible and Joseph is the first. He put on a performance
that would have won him an Academy Award. He portrayed
himself as a tough guy when his heart was so tender that he
was fighting back tears constantly. In verse 24 we see Joseph
overcome by his emotions, and he had to turn away and let
some tears flow to release the pressure. But then he turns
back and acts like a cruel tyrant by having his brother
Simeon thrown in the slammer.
Joseph not only has to fool his brothers by this act, he has
to fool his own emotions, for they are ready to explode in
compassion. He cannot let his identity be known until he
knows his brother Benjamin is alive and well. So he not only
has to deceive his brothers, but his own heart as well, which
longs to rip off the mask and embrace these ten brothers of
his. Joseph is wearing a mask and playing a role that is not
his real self, and that is what an actor does. It is interesting
that the first acting we see in the Bible takes place in Egypt.
Scholars who study the history of theatre tell us that the art of
drama was first developed in Egypt.
In the thousand page book A History Of The Theatre by
George Freedley and John Reeves, the first chapter is on
dramas for trade on the pyramids of Egypt going back to
3200 B. C. The priests were the first actors. It is interesting
to note that Joseph married Asenath the daughter of one of
these priests. Joseph, no doubt, saw the portrayal of the
many religious dramas of that time. He knew about acting,
for it was a part of his culture just as it is a part of ours.
Joseph is so convincing in this drama of the Stranger And
His Brothers that go back to Jacob thoroughly persuaded that
this harsh and ruthless taskmaster means business. They had
no intention of crossing him, and so Joseph was really quite
good as an amateur actor. Ordinarily the rulers of nations
brought in actors to entertain them, but here we have the
ruler himself putting on the show for his own benefit to
achieve a goal he could not achieve in any other way. It was a
controversial choice, and not all commentators are pleased
with his deception. John Calvin found the deception
offensive, and some Jewish scholars feel Joseph should have
avoided this whole scene by contacting Jacob and letting him
know that he was alive before this event even happened.
It is easy for modern men to try and second guess Joseph
and pretend they have a better plan. But let's face reality.
God had led Joseph to this point where he could be the savior
of his people. The plan of God is working perfect, and what
Joseph does accomplishes the goal. I agree with Robert
Candlish who says in his classic commentary on Genesis,
"...we must regard him as all along acting by inspiration."
This conclusion not only fits the context here with Joseph, but
a study of acting in the Bible confirms it. Acting is a
legitimate means of conveying truth, or for dealing with
situations where the truth needs to be hidden from those who
can use it for harm. David was quite a dramatic actor, and it
saved his life on one occasion. David was afraid of the king of
Gath, for he could have easily had him killed.
We read in I Sam. 21:13-15,
"So he feigned insanity in their presence; and while he was in
their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the
doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard." It
was so real that the king said to his servants, "Look at the
man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of
madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on
like this in front of me?" David's act got him out of that
mess, and they were glad to let him escape. Here was a
mini-comedy that David, no doubt, repeated around many a
fire for a good laugh. His acting career saved his life.
Acting also played a major role in moving David to
actions that others wanted him to take. Nathan the prophet
came to him putting on an act about a rich man who stole a
poor man's only lamb. This made David very angry, and then
Nathan let him know that the story was really about him with
his 8 wives taking the one wife of Uriah. David saw that he
was the man that made him so angry, and he repented.
Acting moved him to repent when nothing else could. Sure it
was a trick and a form of deception, but it was God's prophet
who did it for the good of David, for he had to be moved to
repent in order to be forgiven. Acting saved him again.
Acting also saved his son Absolom from his own anger.
In II Sam. 14 we have the account of the greatest actress
in the Bible. She is not named, but just called the woman of
Tekoa. She was instructed to pretend to be a widow in mourning,
and to dress in mourning clothes and not wear any
makeup. She was to go to David with a sob story about her
two sons getting into a fight and one killing the other, and
leaving her with only one son. Her surviving son was going to
be killed for his crime, which would leave her destitute with
no family left in the world. David is moved by the
performance, and he issues an order that her son was not to
be touched.
She then takes off her mask and asks David why he is not
being as compassionate to his own son whom he has banished.
David saw the point, and he issued an order allowing
Absolom his son to come back and live in Jerusalem. The
point is, acting and pretending to be someone but who you
really are was a powerful force in moving people in the
ancient world, and it still is today.
Jesus even used this tool of acting to accomplish His
purpose. On the road to Emmaus after His resurrection He
met and walked with two of His disciples. He did not reveal
who He was but acted like a stranger. He acted like He did
not know what had happened and why they were so sad.
They explained the whole story of the crucifixion and the
women's experience at the tomb that morning. Jesus then
gave them a lesson on Old Testament prophecy, and then it
says in Luke 24:28, "Jesus acted as if He was going further..."
It was only pretense, for he wanted to stay with them. They
urged Him to come into their home and He did. It was there
that their eyes were opened in the breaking of the bread.
Jesus pretended to be somebody else. He had on a mask an
played the role of a stranger before those who knew Him well.
Jesus was sinless, and so it follows that acting is no sin, for
Jesus did it, and the church picked up on the power of acting
to convey truth.
When Rome fell the theater was lost for centuries. But it
was the church that revived it. It all started with reenacting
the great events of Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter.
For hundreds of years all drama was in the church with
actors and elaborate costumes. The church was to the Middle
Ages what TV is to us today. It was the place of
entertainment, but it was also for the purpose of teaching
religious truth. The oldest and most numerous of plays that
exist are of the 3 Mary's going to the tomb on Easter. Over
400 have been discovered. By 1536 there were elaborate plays
like the Acts Of The Apostles with 300 actors playing 494
roles. Today there are passion plays all over the world, and
Christian plays by the thousands. The greatest story ever told
is told again and again through the medium of drama.
One of the greatest examples of a Christian play is Joan
Winmill Brown's Corrie The Lives She Touched. Corrie Ten
Boom had some elaborate deceptions by which to save Jewish
babies. When she got the message that the orphanage in
Amsterdam was going to be raided and the babies killed, she
contacted 30 teenage boys in the underground and asked for
their help. They had German uniforms from soldiers who
had defected. These young men put on the uniforms and
drove up to the orphanage in trucks and demanded that the
babies be turned over to them. The orphanage workers
believed they were authentic and wept as they handed over
their Jewish babies. They had no idea that what seemed like
tragedy was really the salvation of those babies. They were
put in many homes and their lives were spared all by means of
good costumes and good acting.
I do not know if Jesus meant, when He said we must be
like children, that He was saying we must learn to live in a
fantasy world of imagination, and learn to pretend more.
There is, however, no escape from the facts of the Bible and
history. God has used pretending or acting in some
marvelous ways. Let's not be superficial, however, and
assume because acting can be a legitimate tool of God that it
is free of all danger. That is not the case. Acting is equally a
tool of the devil, and a lot of harm has been done by acting
and pretending.
The drama from hell began in the garden when Satan put
on the serpent outfit and pretended to be a friend of Eve. He
deceived her into disobeying God. He tried the same trick in
tempting Jesus. He acted like a friend who was helping him
to get the fame and power he rightly deserved. Jesus saw
behind the mask, however, and was not deceived by this
clever actor. Jesus had to be on His guard constantly against
actors out to deceive Him. In Luke 20:20 we read, "Keeping
a close watch on Him they sent spies, who pretended to be
honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something He said that
they might hand Him over to the power and authority of the
governor." People pretending to understand Jesus were
always asking Him which seemed sincere questions, but they
were hypocrites really seeking to trap Him in some violation
of the law.
We could study the word hypocrite, for it means to be an
actor, and this is why we tend to have a negative view of the
actors, because they use deception. We think it is all one
sided and evil, but the point of this message on Joseph's
acting and other actors of the Bible, including our Lord, is to
point out that there is also a good and positive side to it. Just
because Satan corrupts everything and uses it for evil does
not mean the Christian has to give it up. It is to be used for
good, and for doing God's will, and that is why drama is so
popular in the church again today.
There is a danger of us rejecting it because it seems like
conformity to the world. The world is fanatical about drama
and acting. The heroes of our culture are actors, and there is
a movie madness in our land. To go along with this and add
plays to the church seems like just going along with the
crowd. There is a real risk that this will happen and so we
need wisdom. But we cannot escape the facts. Acting can be
used for good as well as evil.
Look again at the story of Joseph. The very Hebrew
word for Joseph's pretense, which is NAKAR is the word
used in Gen. 37 when these ten brothers now before him came
home to their father Jacob with the bloody coat of Joseph.
They were pretending that he had been killed by a wild beast.
They put on a play of great sorrow at such a tragedy. Poor
Jacob was fooled by it. Jacob had a whole family of hams,
and that is bad news for a Jewish father. But these same ten
actors are now being deceived by Joseph the very way they
deceived Jacob. They are getting a taste of their own
medicine.
We need to see that the very tools that are used for doing
evil need to be redeemed and used for good. The deceivers
need to be deceived and brought to a point of repentance, and
this is what Joseph is doing by his acting. I would not be
surprised that Satan, the great deceiver, was being deceived
himself by the crucifixion. Satan had to think that he was
succeeding by getting Judas to betray Jesus, and by getting
the leaders of the Jews to crucify Him. It looked like he was a
clear winner, but he was deceived, for by entering death Jesus
was able to release the captives of Satan, and destroy his
greatest weapon over man. Jesus did to Satan what Satan did
to Adam and Eve. He led him to believe that he was gaining a
total victory when in reality the cross meant his total defeat.
This is what is going on in this story of Joseph. He is now
in a position to reverse the awful story of their evil. He can
turn this whole account into a comedy with a happy ending,
but he needed to use his gift of acting to make it happen. Just
as the devil should not have all the best songs, so he should
not have all the best actors. Evil needs to be fought with its
own best weapons. Many plays downgrade the Christian
faith, and it is only right that Christians write quality plays
that exalt the Christian faith.
Joseph could put on his act with no rehearsal because he
spoke to these brothers in the language of the Egyptians.
They could not tell if he should the wrong emotion and under
the stress of the situation forget his lines. Verse 23 tells us
that Joseph spoke through an interpreter. The brothers
assumed he could not understand their language, and so they
talked in his presence not knowing that he could understand
them perfectly. He had them at a real disadvantage. He
knew all that was being said, and they were in the dark about
who he was and what he was up to. This made it easy to
deceive them, but on the other hand, it made it so hard for
Joseph to control his emotions.
When he heard his oldest brother Reuben tell the others
that they were now paying for their sin against their brother
Joseph, he was so deeply moved that he had to turn away and
weep. He had not known through all these years that his
oldest brother had loved him and tried to save him. Hearing
that brought a lump to his throat and tears to his eyes.
Joseph was a very emotional man. He cried more than most
men, and he was not acting when he wept. It took enormous
energy to play his tough guy role because of his emotions. It
was a difficult battle to keep the act going and not blow his
cover.
In 43:30-31 we see two decades of suppressed emotions
held back even though they are pushing with flood force
against his heart. The ten have returned to Egypt with
Benjamin, and we read, "Deeply moved at the sight of his
brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep.
He went into his private room and wept there. After he had
washed his face, he came out and, controlling himself, said,
serve the food." He has temporary control, but as the play
goes on Judah gives a moving speech about the love of Jacob
for Benjamin, and the fact that he will die if he is not brought
back.
This causes Joseph to lose it. He is a strong man, but he is
overwhelmed by the flood of emotion, and we read this in the
first two verses of chapter 45: "Then Joseph could no longer
control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out,
'Have everyone leave my presence!' So there was no one with
Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he
wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's
household heard about it."
Then we read in verses 14 and 15, "Then he threw his
arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin
embraced him weeping, and he kissed all his brothers and
wept over them." The act was over, but not the tears. When
Joseph's old father Jacob was finally brought down to Egypt
it was flood time again, and in 46:29 we read, "As soon as
Jacob appeared before him, he threw his arms around his
father and wept for a long time." Two more times Joseph
wept, but I think we have seen enough tears to know that he
was one of the most emotional men of the Bible. Real men do
cry, for Joseph was a man's man, yet he wept frequently.
All of this has relevance to acting, for the emotions of
Joseph were a real handicap to him, but in spite of them he
was able to act his role out and accomplish his purpose. There
are fears in tears, and all sorts of emotions that have to
be overcome to be a good actor, but they can be controlled,
for we see it in the experience of Joseph. God's will was
served by his acting, and it continues to be served today by
those who portray the good news of Christ through acting.
