June
3rd, 2018 “Jealousy” Rev. Heather Jepsen
Summer
Sermon Series: Dreaming with Joseph
Genesis
37:1-36
This morning we embark upon our next
summer sermon series “Dreaming with Joseph.”
You might remember that last summer our series was “Wrestling with
Jacob” where we explored the narrative of Jacob and his family as told in the
book of Genesis. We started the Jacob
narrative even before his birth as he wrestled in the womb with his brother
Esau. We charted the path of this trickster
as he stole his brother’s birthright and fled into the wilderness. We marveled as he encountered God and then
watched as he fell in love and then was duped into marrying the wrong bride. We witnessed his wrestling with God and
wondered at his reconciliation with Esau.
When we left Jacob last August, he was reunited with his brother Esau,
and together the two sons buried their father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
This summer we will continue the
story as we follow the journey of Jacob’s son Joseph in our new three month
series “Dreaming with Joseph.” We will
trace Joseph’s journey from the favorite son in the famous coat, through
periods of slavery and captivity, to his rise to power within the Egyptian
empire. This summer as well, we will
track the story of Israel as it develops from Israel the person (Jacob), to
Israel the family (Jacob and sons), to Israel the nation, a people who will go
down into Egypt.
We begin our story in Genesis chapter
37.
(Read Genesis 37:1-2a)
The chapter before this, 36, is the
story of the people of Esau. After he
and Jacob bury their father, Esau and his people move out of the land of Canaan
into the land of Edom. Now we read that
Jacob has settled in Canaan, the land of his father and as the narrator tells
us, the following chapters are the story of the family of Jacob. We could also read this as the story of the
family of Israel. Don’t forget that
Jacob was given the name Israel after his wresting match with God.
I think before we get into the
details of this story it would be good to remind ourselves who the characters
are. Jacob has twelve sons. His first wife Leah had Reuben, Simeon, Levi,
Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. His second
wife Rachel, the one he really loved, had Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel’s maid servant Bilhah had Dan and
Naphtali, and Leah’s maid servant Zilpah had Gad and Asher. So, it’s one big happy family.
(Read Genesis 37:2b-4)
Our story begins when Joseph is 17
and already we get a sense of this family’s dysfunction. Joseph is Jacob’s favorite, because he is the
first born of Jacob’s favorite wife.
Joseph also appears to be a bit of a tattle tale, as he brings negative
reports of his brothers’ behavior back to his father.
Jacob makes no attempt to hide his
favoritism and he gives Joseph a special robe.
We don’t really understand the Hebrew words used in this story so we
don’t really know what the robe was like.
Of course, the popular notion is that it was a robe of many colors. The text looks more like a robe with long sleeves
or a long robe that went all the way to the ground. Either way the meaning behind the robe is
clear. Jacob has given Joseph a special
robe, and it makes his brothers jealous.
As the narrator tells us “When his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph
more, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.” Major parenting fail!
(Read Genesis 37:5-8)
Joseph has a dream, and he should
probably keep it to himself! In the
Biblical time, dreams were thought to be prophetic images given from God,
rather than the musings of our interior minds.
Even still, the brothers are not happy about Joseph’s vision of himself
rising to power among them.
(Read Genesis 37:9-11)
Joseph dreams again, and this time
his influence grows. The sun and moon
(mother and father) as well as 11 stars (brothers) all bow down to him. Jacob gets involved this time, telling Joseph
to put a lid on it. And understandably
the tension and jealousy among the siblings grows.
(Read Genesis 37:12-14a)
All the brothers are out pasturing
the flock near Shechem which is about 50 miles from Canaan. Jacob decides to send Joseph out to the
brothers. Maybe he is trying to see if
the boys can work things out, or maybe he is simply trying to get Joseph out of
his hair. Either way, the stage is set
for trouble.
(Read Genesis 37:14b-24)
Joseph arrives to find that the
brothers are an additional 15 miles north in Dothan, even further away from his
father and safety. The brothers see him
coming on the horizon, (I am guessing that fancy coat gave him away), and they
use the time to plot against him.
The first plan is to kill Joseph outright;
but Reuben, the oldest, thinks better of it.
If they have their brother’s blood on their hands, they might be cursed
for all of eternity. Reuben convinces
the brothers to throw Joseph in a pit, hoping that he might return alone and
save Joseph later on.
The brothers agree and when Joseph arrives,
they strip him of his special coat and throw him in an empty water
cistern. I saw many cisterns like this
in my travels in Israel and I can tell you it is not somewhere I would want to
be. An ancient cistern is a wide, deep hole,
and you would be unable to climb out of it no matter how hard you tried.
(Read Genesis 37:25-28)
Joseph would probably have died of
starvation in the cistern, but his fortunes change as a band of Ishmaelite
traders appear in the distance. Judah
suggests that the brothers sell Joseph to them as a slave. This way, they won’t be responsible for Joseph’s
death and they can make a little money on the side. The traders pull Joseph out of the hole and
they take him with them into Egypt to live as a slave.
(Read Genesis 37:29-36)
Apparently Reuben was not part of
this plot to sell Joseph into slavery, and when he returns to rescue Joseph he
finds him gone. Reuben’s sympathy ends
there though, as he does not look for Joseph or tell his father the truth about
what has happened. Meanwhile, the
brothers, dip the famous robe in blood and concoct a story. Claiming to have found Joseph’s bloody robe
in the wilderness, they successfully hide their misdeeds. Jacob falls for their trick, and mourns the
death of his favorite son. Meanwhile in
Egypt, the Midianites have sold Joseph into the service of Potiphar, an
official within Pharaoh’s court.
And thus ends our story for
today. Joseph has gone from the extreme
high of being his Father’s favorite son, to the extreme low of being sold into
slavery in a foreign land. It seems to
be a hopeless situation. But what about
those dreams? Were they really from
God? Were they really a vision of the
future? At this point, it sure doesn’t
seem possible that the brothers who plotted his demise would ever bow down to
him.
Who is to blame in this family
conflict? From our position it certainly
looks like no one is innocent. The
brothers, of course, are the biggest sinners in this story, as they allow their
jealousy to overtake them. In their fevered
hatred of Joseph, they plot his death.
It is only by the grace of God that Joseph is rescued into slavery, if
that can even be called a rescue.
But what about those whose actions led
to such extreme jealousy? Surely Jacob
is to share some of the blame as he fueled the fire of conflict between his
children. He made no attempt to hide his
favoritism for Joseph. And the gift of
the special coat, only served to remind the other sons that Joseph was loved in
a way that they were not.
And what of Joseph himself? Is he fully innocent or does he too share in
some of the blame? A savvy person would
have kept those dreams to himself, and he would not have paraded around in that
coat. Either Joseph is an idiot, or he
fully intended to goad his brothers on.
I think Joseph knew what he was doing, and liked to flaunt his status as
the favorite son. His own arrogance is partly
to blame for his current situation.
And finally, where is God in this
story? You might have noticed that there
was no direct mention of God in the chapter that we read today. Perhaps God was in the dreams, or perhaps God
was in the traders that saved Joseph’s life, but the text never offers us any
details on the divine.
We will find, as we read the Joseph
narrative, that God becomes more of a background character in the story. Much like in our own lives, God is always
there, but God is not addressed unless we take the time to address God
ourselves. For Joseph there will be no
conversations with God or wrestling matches in the dark, like his father Jacob
had. From here on, as the name Israel
becomes a family and a nation, the people’s experience of God will be less
direct. God certainly is in this story, but God is not a main
character driving the action.
And so, for today, we leave Joseph in
slavery. He has been the victim of
extreme jealousy and violence. What will
happen to him in the home of Potiphar?
Will slavery be the rescue he hoped for, or will it lead to further
trauma? I will be gone for a few
Sundays, but when I return at the end of this month we will continue “Dreaming
with Joseph”. Amen.
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