Does cream rise to the top? Genesis 39.

Let's re-word the beginning of Jo's trip to Egypt. Joseph = Joe Christian. Egypt = The Office. Pharaoh = The boss.

The boss is mighty pleased with Joe's work and realises that if he promotes this trustworthy and loyal character that he will soon be able to play golf three times a week. So he does, Joe rips his job to the power of woohoo, and the boss upgrades his 3 wood. But the receptionist who gets batted by Joe after an advance on his half-decent bod spitefully frames Joe for stealing paperclips with an scheme worthy of being an episode of Grey's Anatomy. The next thing you know Joe is demoted to the cleaning staff. Joe being Joe, the cleaning boss spots the same attributes the big boss did, and within no time Joe is managing all the cleaners whilst the cleaning boss gets back to his post-graduate studies in the ecophysiology of submerged angiosperms.

There are plenty of well told life lessons in these early passages. What struck me is Joseph's success by being ethical in a world that was not. We live in a world where right and wrong seem to have no bearing on a persons ability to rise to the top (think presidents, executives, murderers) and the measure of a person's character is less important than their position or achievements. Much like what Egypt represented symbolically. Will ethical and morally motivated people be successful in this world or have the rules changed?