Joseph the Dreamer, Genesis 37

Joseph the dreamer, one of the best known stories of the Old Testament, thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, is also a story with which it is easy for us to identify.

Jacob has a large family, two official wives and two concubines, the servants of his wives, who have also borne him children. He has twelve sons in total and possibly a number of daughters – only one is mentioned by name but daughters were not generally counted in a man’s descendants so there may have been more. Jacob is also known by the name Israel and his sons will become the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel in due course.

Joseph is a younger son, born to Rachel after many years of barrenness while her sister and the two serving girls gave birth to their children. Rachel was the wife Jacob worked for 14 years to marry, he fell in love with her as a young man and so her son becomes his favourite child. Given his family history of rivalry with his brother, Esau, you would think Jacob may have had more sense! Joseph does not help the situation either, he brings his father bad reports about his brothers, definitely not a good way to promote sibling harmony!

Joseph has been singled out, not only by Jacob, but also by God; he has dreams and visions which seem to foretell an important role for him in the future, he sees visions which suggest that he will be set up as ruler over his brothers and is foolish (or vain) enough to tell his brothers and his parents about them. Even Jacob rebukes his son for sharing the dreams, although he does not see the danger Joseph is in from the jealousy of his brothers. We noted here the pattern of God choosing the younger members of a family, the small and overlooked, features in this story reminding us that we often judge importance and seniority by quite different criteria than God does. Jacob wonders what the dreams might mean, echoed later when Mary stores up all the things she has seen and heard about Jesus in her heart.

One thing which really stood out from this story was the destructive nature of jealousy.

Jealousy is an ugly emotion. We all feel it from time to time; maybe we hear someone talking about a great holiday they went on while we are struggling to pay the bills, or a friend has a bigger, more expensive car, a nicer house, a more helpful husband and we feel hard done by. We can be jealous of another’s looks, intellect, health, age etc., there are so many ways in which we can hold up our lives in comparison and feel that we have been short-changed or somehow cheated out of something to which we were entitled. As a parent of a disabled child I can be guilty of looking enviously at friends whose nests are emptying and being jealous of their freedom, knowing that will never happen for me. We all know someone who just seems to have it better than us, and that can make us angry and bitter. The terrible thing about jealousy is that it steals joy, it taints everything we have and makes us feel discontented as well as poisoning our relationships with those of whom we are jealous.

Shakespeare called jealousy the “green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”, when we look through the lens of jealousy all we see is coloured with our resentment and anger; when we live with jealousy nothing we have is good enough, we cannot enjoy anything because we want more or better. The world loves to foster jealousy, advertising is all about making what we have seem inadequate so that we have to buy more stuff, or persuading us that this or that product will give us the figure or face or hair we want and make us the envy of others.

Joseph’s brothers are jealous of the relationship Joseph enjoys with their father and the suggestion that Joseph may be destined for greatness irks them even more. The relationship between Joseph and his brothers is damaged by their envy, they begin to hate him and plot to get rid of him, their bitterness has reached such depths that they are prepared to commit murder. Here is a stark warning for us – if we allow jealousy to take root in our lives we will soon lose our friends, we will be unable to rejoice with them in their victories and our sympathy for them in sorrow will be false because we will be inwardly happy to see them brought low. No relationship can live and grow under those conditions, true friends want only good things for one another, if we love one another we are happy for the success of others and sorry for their troubles, we do not need to measure them against our own victories and failures, for each of us has our own road to travel. Jealousy leads to hatred and Jesus warns us that to hold hatred in our hearts against another is the same as to murder them.

Their jealousy also poisons the relationship the brothers have with their father, Jacob may be a fool to favour Joseph so openly but there is no suggestion that he treats his other children badly. Simeon and Levi almost started a war when they killed the Shechemites and Reuben slept with one of Jacob’s concubines but there is no mention of any punishment from Jacob towards his sons. If the brothers had been able to focus on their own positions with their father, they had no reason to be discontent, they were well provided for and all had their own households within the tribe. The antidote to jealousy is to look at what we HAVE, to count our blessings and to be content with what God has given us. If all our needs are met by our Heavenly Father why do we need to concern ourselves with what other people have? The Holy Spirit can give us strength to take captive intrusive thoughts and deepens our relationship with a God through prayer and praise, when we cultivate an atmosphere of praise and thankfulness there is no room for bitterness to get a foothold.

After Joseph is sold off into slavery, his brothers then have to live with the knowledge that they have caused their father great sorrow, they have to carry the lies they have told with them and it is their lives which are blighted by their actions. When they come to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph they interpret his harsh behaviour towards them as a judgement for their treatment of him, clearly their consciences have not been quiet even though many years have passed.

As I read this story I am reminded again to beware of comparing myself to others, to be happy with what I have and to thank God for all he gives me.  The antidote to jealousy is worship. More than this I want to be the kind of friend who will happily rejoice with others without reservation and who can come alongside others in their times of trouble and comfort them in humility and grace, because the greatest gifts God has given me are the friends who walk with me through the ups and downs of life, sharing my joys and sadness as I share theirs without measuring ourselves against one another but with open hearts and hands.

 

Praise

In our human relationships we use praise as a way to modify the behaviour of those around us, children learn which behaviours elicit the praise of their parents and so repeat those behaviours, we praise our partners when they do what we want, we even praise our pets in order to train them into positive behaviour. We work harder and more willingly for an employer who is generous with praise, being praised gives us a warm feeling.

So when we praise God it is all too easy for us to slip into the mindset of behaviour modification; if I praise God, he will answer my requests, if only God would do what I ask then I could praise him. Our worship becomes transactional and we miss the point.

God does not need us to tell him he has done a good job, he is not anxiously waiting for our stamp of approval. We can not modify God’s behaviour by praising him, he won’t do a better job if only we would encourage him. So why do we praise?

We praise God because it modifies our behaviour, we take the focus away from us and our needs and wants and simply celebrate God for who he is and we are freed from the demands of the flesh, praise brings us in line with heaven, where the angels  constantly worship, and releases us from the noise and chaos of the world. When we enter God’s presence in praise we allow him to speak to us, to reclothe us in our rightful mind and remind us of our place in his plan rather than trying to fit him into our plans. When we stop trying to control God we can truly worship in spirit and in truth, in the words of an old hymn we can “let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace”.

Song of Mary: Luke ch1v46-56

Mary’s song praises the Lord, she bursts into spontaneous worship when she meets Elizabeth and the two women realise that they are both carrying miraculous babies. Mary has been holding onto her secrets since she encountered the Angel and now she knows that Elizabeth will understand because she is experiencing something similar.

Mary calls herself “humble”, meaning unassuming and not pushing oneself forward, the humble person allows God room to work in their life, Mary humbles herself before the angel when she says she is willing to allow God to have his way in her life. To be humble is to be available to God’s grace and to be willing to put our own plans aside in order that God’s plan can be realised.

1 Peter 5:5 “God opposes the proud but shows Grace to the humble”

Psalm 147  “The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.”

Psalm 149  “For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.”

Mary lifts up the name of the Lord in praise, she recalls the great things he has done for Israel and extols his generosity to his people. Her words echo several of the Psalms, hymns of praise Mary would have been familiar with as they were sung in the Temple and in the synagogues on every Sabbath.

Psalm 136 “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm”

Psalm 107 “for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things”

Psalm 146 “He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.”

Pslam 119 “remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope.”

Psalm 115 “for he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham”

Mary is chosen to bear the child who will save the world, she is aware of the enormity of the favour shown to her and is filled with the Holy Spirit, praise bubbles up out of her! Her focus in this song, however is not herself or the importance of her task, she sings of the greatness and mercy of God, of his power and might and his faithfulness to his people. The Latin title of the song “Magnificat” means “magnify”, also translated as glorify, to worship in spirit and in truth is to glorify and magnify the name of the Lord.

Do we ever feel the love and favour of our Lord so vividly that we break into worship? Do we spend much time thinking about what God has done rather than what we want him to do?

We can all be guilty of looking inwards to our problems rather than outwards to God’s greatness.

Maybe we should try it? Spend some time alone with God this week and allow him to reveal his loving kindness to you as you worship him, starting with Mary’s song and continuing in your own words.

Joshua and Rahab

 

Joshua ch 2-6

The story of Rahab is not often preached on, she is mentioned as an ancestress of Jesus and one of the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews but her main appearance in the bible is skated over somewhat because she raises some issues which we maybe don’t like to talk about as nice Christians.

Rahab lived in the city of Jericho, already an ancient city in the 13^th century BC, a part of the mighty Assyrian empire which held sway over the  Middle and Near East for hundreds of years. City states existed in modern day Iran, Iraq, China and Palestine as well as Egypt and their kings and rulers were engaged in constant wars against their neighbours as they needed slaves, tribute and looted riches to keep their city dwellers loyal and comfortable. Rahab was a prostitute, she had her own house and was possibly a madam of a brothel as well as servicing clients herself. Prostitution was common at the time, in a society where slavery was the norm, paying someone for the use of their body did not seem at all strange. Most men would have used their female household slaves if they did not have wives or concubines, young men especially probably had their early sexual encounters with family owned slaves (even as recently as the 19^th century “practicing” on the housemaids was considered normal behaviour among the British upper classes). There were also courtesans, men and women who were skilled at music and dancing and who would be employed to entertain guests as well as to be available to them. Canaanite religious practices included the use of sacred prostitutes, both male and female, as part of temple ceremonies and no army has ever marched without its complement of camp followers. As an independent  businesswoman, Rahab probably falls into the courtesan category, she has a house of her own, she does not belong to anyone and she is not involved in the temple. Her house is conveniently sited in the wall of the city, allowing her guests to leave discretely even after the city gates are closed for the night and she has handy hiding places on the roof for those guests who would like to remain anonymous. She is believed by the guards who come to search her house suggesting that she has some social standing, again compatible with her being the more expensive sort of prostitute.

Joshua’s spies enter the city of Jericho to see where there might be any weak spots in the defences and report back to the waiting tribes on the other side of the Jordan. They go to Rahab’s house, probably a good place to find information, and she hides them from the suspicious city guards. She tells the spies that the whole city is terrified of the Israelites; their progress through the wilderness must have attracted some attention over the last forty years – there are now several thousand people surviving in the wilderness, seemingly on nothing. As they have started to move towards the Promised Land they have had some military victories and now the people of Canaan are afraid. Rahab sees that the God these travellers serve is real, he has sustained them in the desert and he is giving them victory over the cities they have conquered so far. She wants to be on the winning side when they come to Jericho, she sees the way the wind is blowing and she wants to put herself and her family under the protection of the powerful God whose works she has seen and heard about. The spies are grateful for her protection and so vow to protect her and her family in return when they take the city. Having agreed the sign of the red cord, Rahab lets the men out the handy back way and they escape the guards.

When the Israelites came to Jericho having marched dry shod across the Jordan, Rahab gathered her family and put the red cord in her window. She must have wondered what on earth was happening as Israel marched around the city walls for six days but she waited and her faith in the spies and in their God was justified, she and her family were rescued when the city fell, her house was preserved even when the rest of the wall fell and she came out of Jericho to live among the Israelites.

Her story raises some questions for us today;

Do we look like winners? Do people want to be on our side? Do we seem to be getting the upper hand over life’s trials? What about our lives might make an observer conclude that the God we serve is real and powerful? We have Good News to share, not terrible warnings.

Do we have faith that we DO serve a real and powerful God? Are we putting that faith into practice in our lives or do we hedge our bets? God wants us all in, totally trusting him.

If someone wants to join us, are we welcoming to them? Are we willing to save others? Joshua’s men did not ask Rahab to give up her profession, nor did they refuse to trust her because of what she did, they promised to save her and they did. Are we putting up barriers to other people coming to Jesus because we don’t think they are good enough? Jesus never did.

 

Jonah

Into the Word

I am starting this blog to try to be more disciplined with my personal Bible study by giving myself “homework”! I love a deadline so if I set myself the goal of posting a study once a week it will make me more intentional about my studying. If anyone actually reads this blog there is also the exciting possibility of feedback and discussion which will again help me to get deeper into the Word and help to inform the direction of study.

My process includes journaling – drawing and painting in my Bible in response to what I read so I will also include pictures of my journaling Bible as part of each study. I don’t pretend to be an artist but I do see pictures when I read so my journaling is my attempt to reproduce what I see in my mind on paper.