Joseph’s Dreams     Sept. 30, 2012

 

Background:  Before we get into our story for today we need a little background to set the stage and help us understand the situation more clearly.  Joseph was the son of Rachel and Jacob.  He had 11 brothers and one sister. This was a mixed family, for Jacob, Joseph’s father, had married Leah, her sister Rachel and two slave girls Bilhah and Zilpah and had children with them all.  Just prior to our story Joseph’s mother Rachel died giving birth to his brother Benjamin. After she was buried her husband moved his family beyond Migdal Eber.

        During his time there, his oldest son Reuben went in and slept with his father’s slave girl Bilhah and Jacob found out.  Jacob went home to Mamre to visit his father Isaac who was now quite old and while he was there his father died.  Jacob and his brother Esau burry their father and after this Jacob decides to stay in the land of Canaan with his family.

 

Scripture:  Gen. 37:1-11

Situation:  Joseph, a young shepherd boy of 17 is tending flocks with his four brothers, Gad, Asher, Dan, and Naphtali.  Joseph brings his dad Jacob a bad report about his brothers.  Joseph was Jacob’s favourite and his father had made him a richly ornamented coat.  Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him; they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.  Joseph has some dreams and tells his brothers about them.  This only makes them angrier with him.  When he tells his father his second dream Jacob rebukes Joseph.

As we have been doing in the past we are going to examine the story closely to discover the truths by looking at what people said and did, the choices they made and the consequences of those choices.  Next we will try to apply the lessons learned to everyday living.  We will begin by looking at young Joseph.

Our story says that Joseph brought his father a bad report about his brothers.  He had obviously witnessed something and as a result made a decision.  Did Joseph have options in this situation? What might they have been?  He could have spoken to his brothers and warned them.  He could have ignored their behaviour or chosen not to say anything.  He could have lied to his father about his brother’s bad behaviour to cover for them.  What did Joseph choose to do and what does this tell us about him.  He told his father about his brother’s bad behaviour.  It could mean Joseph cared enough about his brother’s that he felt something had to be done to correct them.  Joseph could have been a righteous young man concerned for the honor and name of the family and therefore told on his brothers.  He could have been in a strained relationship with his brother’s and wanted to get back at them so he told on them. 

What were the consequences of his choice to tell on his brothers?  See vs. 3,4  Joseph’s brothers hated him, could not speak a kind word to him and in vs. 11 says his brothers were jealous of him.  Like the Song, “Doing it right on the wrong side of Town” Joseph did the right thing but ended up with some serious interpersonal family conflict. 

Have you ever heard of anyone in a similar situation today where you did what was right and got into some real difficulty? Has anything like this ever happened to you? 

Jacob, Joseph’s dad seemed to add fuel to the fire; how did he do that? What choices did he make as a father and what other options were open to him?  (see vs. 3, 4)  Jacob favoured Joseph openly, publically, and showed it by making him a special robe. Jacob could have loved his son’s equally, could have given them all special robes.  Jacob could have refused to marry Bilhah and Zilpah and saved himself some serious grief? Even though polygamy was an accepted practice culturally it was not God’s design.  What were the consequences of Jacob’s behaviour for his sons?

(Hatred, jealousy and angry and unkind words) So here we have an interpersonal family conflict which seems to be escalating.  Let’s go back to the story and see what Joseph does in this situation.  (See vs. 5, 9)

 Joseph has some dreams and for some reason decides to tell his brothers.  What is the result of Joseph’s actions, could he have made some better choices under the circumstances?  Joseph’s brothers become even angrier with him after he told them his dreams.  He could have kept his dreams to himself so as not to antagonize his brothers.  Do you think Joseph’s actions also added fuel to the family conflict?

Up to this point in the story things appear to be bordering out of control.  We have a family struggling with favouritism, hatred, and jealousy and the situation seems to be getting more critical by the day.  Where is God in all this mess, is He even around? Look closely at verses 6 and 9. Do you think that anyone in the story knew that the dreams might be significant?   How would you say the dreams fit into this story? What can we learn about God and family conflict from this story? 

Conclusion:  God works in the midst of crisis

No matter how bad the situation looks, we need not lose hope because God is at work behind the scenes.

We may often be so immersed in the family conflict that we will fail to recognize that God is at work. 

Conflict may escalate and last for a time but that does not mean that God has deserted us.

Listen to the words of encouragement from the book of Romans 8:28, 31 etc.

And we know that in all things (that means everything) God works for the good of those who love Him…If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--- how will He not also along with Him, graciously give us all things? In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present or future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.