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Samuel

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many parallels between Samuel and Joseph

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like Joseph

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Samuel is about to be elevated to a position of high authority

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Samuel's elevation is going to come at the cost of someone else

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replaces the priest Eli

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Eli's sons had misused their priestly privileges

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so God decided to end this priestly house's service within the temple

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God revealed the grounds for that to Samuel in a vision

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1 Samuel, 3:2

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Lord keeps calling Samuel

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Samuel goes to Eli multiple times

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is sent back to bed

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then Lord gives Samuel a prophecy of what will happen

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will fulfill against Eli, will punish his house forever

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a disturbing vision for Samuel about the man he is in service to

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just as with Joseph who had had dreams which he knows will disturb his brothers

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and disturbed his family

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but Joseph presumably enjoyed revealing this dreams so his brothers could revel in their pain

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Samuel, however, acts differently

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he lay until morning, and was afraid to tell the vision to Eli

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Samuel knows that the verdict is just, but he still feels for the man he serves

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only because Eli forces Samuel does Samuel reveal his vision

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this contrasts starkly with Joseph's behavior who was all too eager to let his brothers in on his dreams

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if Joseph had been more like Samuel, he probably would have kept his dreams to himself

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how do we interpret Joseph's and Samuels different behaviors

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through the lens of Israel's understanding of itself as a chosen nation

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reveals to us how the Bible reveals the category of chosenness

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the problematic of chosenness

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Jon D. Levenson

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Biblical scholar

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the story of Joseph is the most sustained and the most profound exploration of the problematic of chosenness

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a central theological concept not only of ancient Israel, but of rabbinic Judaism and Christianity

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derives from the disparity between the frailty of the human ego and the mysterious operations of the choosing Deity

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human nature is not constituted so as to facilitate the acceptance of chosenness

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the one chosen is sorely tempted to interpret his special status as a mandate for domination

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those not chosen are unlikely to view their status with grace and quiet acceptance

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the challenge of the unchosen is to play their subordinate role with grace and the due regard for the common good

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it is in the demeanor of Jacob that the well-being of the family is communicated

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Jacob is absorbed with inconsolable grief thinking that Joseph is dead through his brothers' ruse, it is clear that neither the chosen nor the unchosen have met their distinctive but equally arduous challenges

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chosenness seems to have proven fatal not only for the chosen but for the common good, leaving in emotional ruin the family it has touched

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regarding Israel's self identity

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election as we have looked at it so far in the stories of Joseph and Samuel, seems to be an arbitrary acquisition of power by one group over another

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leads to tension and perhaps violence

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the reader must ask:

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does God really intend this?

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what is God doing by elevating certain people in this fashion?