And for your listening pleasures (this is dedicated to my sister, it’s her birthday today)
I hope you realize that I’m not just getting my kicks from a young Donny Osmond, but that we’re looking at the story of Joseph.
Joseph seems to suffer from a condition that I have diagnosed as YSS- Younger Sibling Syndrome. He is your typical younger sibling, you know, needing attention all the time and getting all the best stuff and being loved most by his dad, ermm, not that I’m an older sibling who is bitter or anything!
But let’s be honest here, in Genesis 37 Joseph comes off as a bit of a brat. He’s tattling on his brothers, trying to make himself seem more important than them (Hey look guys, I had this dream where I was greater than you and you all bowed down to me, isn’t that weird? Heh, I guess dreams mimic real life don’t they?). I mean surely he knew that his brothers were not very fond of him, why poke the bear?
I suppose the short and easy answer is because that’s what was supposed to happen.
When I have a dream (not the Martin Luther King Jr. variety) and I actually remember it in the morning, I’m pretty quick to share it with everyone who I think might be interested. Now usually it elicits nothing more than a “what did you eat before you went to bed???” but every once in a while someone might try and interpret it, to see what is going on in my life that might have produced such a weird dream.
Joseph’s dream was meant to be interpreted. Whether he knew it or not as he was sharing it with his family, it had significant meaning and was the beginning of his call from God.
Unfortunately, even though these dreams were signaling the beginning of his call, it wasn’t necessarily a happy beginning. These dreams had him hated even more fiercely by his brothers to the point where murder was a very real possibility. But luckily all they did was steal his coat, dump him in a cistern, sell him into slavery and then tell his dad that he was murdered and his body eaten so that said father wouldn’t go looking for him.
Oh boy is it fun to receive a call from God!
And really this is where we get stuck too, right? There’s all this crap that comes at us, usually all at the same time, and it gets us down. We get depressed and are sure that God has completely forgotten that we exist. There’s no way he would let all of this horrible stuff happen to us if he knew what was actually going on. Or maybe if I just stop what I’m doing, this horrible stuff will stop too. I mean, if God wanted me to follow him he would have made it easier.
Luckily, Joseph doesn’t follow this same thought process. Even though this all happens he keeps going and as it says several times throughout Genesis 39 the Lord was with him. It was something that even those who didn’t believe in God noticed about him. It was this faith in God, the way that God worked in his life that caused him to rise up higher again. He had it even better than before: he was in charge, had lots of respect and authority; what a great life!
Of course you know the story as well as I do and you know that it wasn’t meant to be. The respect and authority didn’t last for too long. Potiphar’s wife had other plans for Joseph, plans that my innocent little mind can’t even begin to comprehend. And as soon as he had begun to climb up that ladder again, he was punished for something else that he didn’t do.
His father spoils him; his brothers sell him into slavery. Potiphar gives him a big promotion; Potiphar’s wife is upset with Joseph’s morals and has him sent to jail. As soon as he makes progress he’s sent down even further than he was before. With all of this yo-yoing up and down, you’d think that Joseph would lose faith, give into the temptations that are surrounding him and really stop trying to please God.
Obviously, Joseph isn’t us. God had big plans for him and even when he was at his lowest; God used him to do good. His call wasn’t limited to one event, it wasn’t even really vocalized. By the end of chapter 39 we’ve only started to get a bit of background on how God is preparing Joseph to really carry out his call. There’s still a few more ups and downs before Joseph gets to the point where God wants him to be.
Yep, this far in and it’s only just beginning. As Beyonce would say “I don’t think you can handle this.”
Stayed tuned next week for part 2 of Joseph and his unusual call from God!
No comments:
Post a Comment