Which Bible Hero was a Socialist?

Which beloved Bible character and Sunday School flannel-graph hero was a socialist, as least by modern definitions?
 Some hints:

• He had the position of Prime Minister under a pagan King.
• He levied a 20% tax on a basic commodity and then sold that commodity back to the people when it became scarce. 
• When the people used up all their money buying this commodity, he took payment in their livestock and eventually in their land so that everything in the land eventually belonged to the State. 
• The people were allowed to work their (former) land as sharecroppers, keeping 80% but paying the state 20%. 

The people acclaimed him as the one who had saved them and scripture says that God planned all of this and used it to save many people, both those who were God followers but also the pagan nations around.

Still guessing? 
His name was Zaphenath-paneah, but you know him by another name: Joseph, next in line after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.


Check the story out in Genesis, specifically chapters 41, 47 and 50. Joseph was sold by his brothers into Egypt as a slave. He was in Potiphar's house and then falsely accused and thrown in prison.
Eventually he was called out of prison to help interpret Pharoah's dream (Genesis 41). Pharoah had dreamed of seven years of abundant harvest followed by seven years of devastating famine.  Joseph suggested that he find a wise man to be in charge of Egypt and that they should collect 1/5 of the crops for seven years to use during the  coming years of famine. (41: 21-35)

Pharoah liked the plan so much he picked Joseph to be his number two man. He gave him that funky name, Zaphenath-paneah. Joseph collected 1/5 of the grain and stored it away. This was a tax but also took resources for the state to manage. Storehouses had to be built and people employed to transport it,  guard it and distribute it.

Then comes the beautiful story of Joseph's brothers coming for grain and Joseph testing them and then revealing himself to them and forgiving them.
Chapter 47 carries on with the broader context in vs 13. The starving Egyptians came and bought grain the first year of the famine. When their money was gone, the paid with their livestock. Then when all of that was gone, they sold themselves into slavery and sold their land.
Rather than let them die, Joseph provided them seed to plant and instituted a 20% tax on all that they grew. Sharecropping. Indentured Servitude.
AND the people thanked him for saving their lives. (47:25).  

Later Joseph reveals that all that happened - him being sold into slavery, put into prison, being made Prime Minister and the plan for the state to provide for everyone's needs - ALL of that was something that God intended for good to save the lives of many people. (Genesis 50:20). 
OKAY, so was this really socialism? Wikipedia says that

Socialism is an economic system characterised by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy. "Social ownership" may refer to ... state ownership
A socialist economic system would consist of a system of production and distribution organized to directly satisfy economic demands and human needs, so that goods and services would be produced directly for use instead of for private profit.

So in the Joseph story we have state ownership of large sectors of the economy. High taxation. Government handouts. If the sandal fits. . .

I guess the question is why did God choose to work this way and call it "good", whereas so many will argue that there are better systems than socialism and taxation and people living off the State? In this story, the entire nation of Egypt was made slaves to their Pharaoh and that doesn't seem acceptable today.

I really don't know why God chose this means to accomplish His will. Certainly Pharoah gave Joseph free reign. He could have

• proposed a system of capitalism with companies or farmer co-ops set up to manage and profit from the grain harvest, so that the profit from this went back to the people. If the people had kept their 20%, wouldn't this have produced wealth they could use later to buy grain?

• Or Joseph could have set up some sort of participatory democracy, but then Pharaoh might have been much less favorable to the plan.

• A modern-day Joseph might have set up some sort of Foundation or NGO or govt agency to manage this and then provide the grain as free aid to the people in Egypt in neighboring countries rather than enslaving them.

• Certainly the individual Egyptians could have simply saved their own grain, but then how easy is it to encourage personal savings?

In the end, the Egyptian State was likely the only actor with the wherewithal and will to put into place a plan to save everyone. God could easily have instituted a plan to save just the 70 members of Jacob's family but he was (and is) still concerned with the basic needs of everyone!

I think the most likely explanation is that God chose to work through the existing system, adapting it gradually and pushing out the boundaries as we often seem him doing throughout history, expanding our understanding, moving from law to grace.

It is comforting to see God working through, and even in spite of our different human structures. There are lots of different ways the Church chooses to organize herself locally and at higher levels. There are different structures possible for mission organizations and different sorts of relief agencies.  Some use democratic processes. Others use more top-down leadership with elders and boards and God chooses to work through them all. And throughout history, He has chosen to work through various governmental systems - Pharoah, Caesar, Prophets, Judges, Kings, Socialism, Capitalism, Democracy, Monarchies. Some systems obviously make it easier on Him, but thankfully He is sovereign and will carry out his purposes.

The God who is Embarrassingly Messy and Undignified

1 John 3:1 says “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

Not only does God adopt us as his kids, but he lavishes his love on us. God has been really speaking to me about this outlandish love he has for all of us. “Lavish” – that isn’t just a birthday party your folks throw for you with a clown and a pony, but one at Disneyworld, with Mickey passing out balloons, all the Princesses there, and Justin Bieber on hand for entertainment. 

It’s the sort of love that embarrasses you when you see others displaying it in public. Brennan Manning (Souvenirs of Solitude, p. 31) says that God is so crazy in love with us that he “can scarcely bear to be without us.” I wonder if He is not like a teenager in love, who sends SMS’s to his beloved every few minutes – but we don’t get them because we haven’t paid for the text package, or have disabled “Holy Spirit tweets” or are just too busy to listen.

You might think I am exaggerating. Look at the scandalous things that God does – things that if he did today, we might question his sanity, or judgment or dedication to the overall plan.

1. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. They certainly were taken back by this. Here is the CEO stooping to wash his servants’ feet! In Mali, I am “Monsieur le Directeur” and can hardly carry my own suitcase without causing scandal among our staff, as it is so unfitting for me to do that. What Jesus does for his disciples is SCANDOULOUS.

2. Brennan Manning gives the example of the Woman Caught in Adultery. Jesus absolves her sins BEFORE SHE EVEN ASKS and then sends her on her way. He doesn’t ask her a lot of questions to make sure she understands the gospel, or get her checked into a half-way house, or make her jump through hoops.  If we were with him, we’d be looking for some sort of assurances this woman would not be out on the streets again tonight, but he just lets her go, with the injunction to “go and sin no more.” As if!

“Why doesn’t this God of ours display some taste and discretion in dealing with us?” (Manning, p. 33) His love isn’t dignified. It’s messy.

3. Then there is the Parable of the Prodigal Son/Loving Father (Luke 15). Again, we have a person of authority, an elderly father, dropping everything and running across the fields to his son, the one who totally dissed him. Does he even listen to the son’s apology? Nope, again there are really no hoops to jump through.
“You’re back. I’ve missed you like mad. Here are the keys to the mansion, an executive VP position in the company, a new Ipad and a Lexus.  Let’s Party.”
Now if it were me, I’d want the son to prove he was serious, let him work his way back up in the family enterprise, maybe put him back in his old job for a while.
But NOT GOD.

4. God announces his son's birth, not in the Coliseum in Rome, but to a bunch of outcasts: shepherds in Podunk, Judea.

5. He chooses his closest companions – not from the elite soldiers, or learned people or skilled artisans - but from fishermen and tax collectors and uneducated folks.

6. Is this only a New Testament thing? No, from Day One, we have God being messy. He kills animals to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness and shame. Killing animals is messy and had to REALLY hurt God as these were the first creatures EVER to lose their lives.

7. The OT God does all sorts of “coloring outside the lines” by doing things like picking the younger son to bless: Jacob, not Esau.

8. Then there is David, who falls so royally, by committing adultery and then killing his lover’s husband. Okay, we might be up for God forgiving this person if they were really, really sorry. (He was). But certainly he should be removed from ministry and his bestselling Psalm CDs pulled from the Christian bookstores. “Let’s take him out of power circles. He can come to church and all but not have any real future role.”
Not with God. David stays on as King, and is called a man after God’s own heart. He even gets “a lasting dynasty” which includes Jesus.

9. Finally, there is Rahab, the prostitute. I was reading this story yesterday in Joshua 2.  What’s up with this story? How did the spies end up at HER house, which was after all, a house of prostitution? Was this their cover? The king assumed they were her clients. Certainly would not look good in the next newsletter.

Obviously, God’s sovereignty was at work to protect the spies. But if God is being sovereign, why not choose a less messy way, involving someone respectable and something more dignified than a prostitute?

All I can figure is that God’s plan also included rehabilitation for Rahab who recognizes God for God in all this and ends up with a place of honor in society, a lasting place in history and a lineage that includes: Boaz, David, and Jesus.

If someone with a track record like God was sitting on your church’s elder board or the board of your non-profit or company, I imagine most of you would be looking for a way to replace him with someone more sensible and dignified. The good news is that He is the Chairman of the Board and has a lifetime post and can override our votes. 
This love that we are so stingy in doling out only to respectable folks who meet certain criteria for advancing our ends, well, our Chairman is crazy and messy and undignified and will LAVISH that love on you and me and everyone else, regardless of how it looks.

And aren't you glad he does?