Good Morning, everyone.Well because traffic came to a standstill on the PA Turnpike for a half-hour and I subsequently missed my first class this morning, I figured I'd make the most of what little time I had before it is set to conclude and other obligations await me. So here we are.
Today's lessons pick up with the story of Joseph, son of Jacob. He is the oldest son born to Jacob and Rachel, although younger than most of his other brothers, and was something of a prize child. We all know the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," right? Well, this is where the story comes from... and you can imagine that the music is floating through my mind as we speak. "It was red, yellow, green, brown, scarlet, black, ocher, peach, ruby, olive, violet, fawn, lilac, gold, chocolate, mauve, cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and grey, and purple and white and pink and orange and blue..." But I digress.
Things worth noting:
1) Keep it to yourself? I am assuming that one would share their dreams with others as much then as we do now; especially dreams as symbolic as these. But no one seems to like Joseph's dreams - they do sound a bit self-exalting. Of course, they are prophpetic, as we will see towards the conclusion of Genesis. What do you do with this? Well, there is clearly a great deal of jealousy on the part of his brothers. Not only is Joseph prized by his father, but he is now touting these visions before them. Feeling threatened, they plot his demise. How often do we become threatened by others in our lives? Or by others in the church? Or, conversely, do we ever tout around the depths of our spiritual life to others in a way that might destruct rather than edify others? I'm really not sure whether it was good or bad that Joseph spoke the dreams to the other brothers - except that, if he had not, God would not have fulfilled His plan. And that leads to more questions: Did God want Joseph to suffer so that good could do good? That seems to be implied later in chapter 50, where Jospeh says to his brothers, "You intended this for harm, but good intended it for good?" But if we say that, does that mean God wants us to suffer so that He can use it for good? Or do we instead mean that God simply takes what is evil and sinful and turns it into good? I would tend to favor the latter, because I don't know why God would want someone to sin to bring about good. That would go against God's righteous character. But the reality is that we don't begin to understand the ways of God, and so who knows. But whatever bad came from it, God used it for good.
2) Then what's worse, they upset their father by tearing Joseph's coat and dipping it in blood to make it look like some beast had eaten him. Human sin again at its finest: we not only hate our brother, but we force him into slavery, and then cover up that misdeed with an even greater lie that hurts the father we love. What miserable wretches we humans can be to each other sometimes in the name of our selfish ambitions and envy. What atrocities we commit against those we are called to love (or those we actually love). And God still uses these people! To think that we would ever doubt God's love for us, who are brought into the same covenant bond through Jesus Christ. If these miserable wretches received the promises of God in spite of their sin, and in view of the great sacrifice of Christ yet to come, how much more shall God redeem and save us who know the truth of what Christ has done for us! Why do we doubt the tender mercies of God our Father, who has loved and redeemed us while we were still such miserable people? I'm astounded at God's forebareance and love toward us.
3) Judah and Tamar: Are you kidding me? The first time I read this, I went "You mean this stuff is in the Bible?" Whoever said this book is boring clearly has never read these parts very carefully. Worth noting here is what is actually considered sinful here. First, the sin of Onan is often considered to be either masturbation or contraception. Neither of these are forbidden by this specific passage, however, because the command from God was to have a child with Tamar to raise up offspring for his wicked brother Er (whom God apparently struck dead in his sinfulness - we don't know what that's about - and this marrying of your dead brother's widow was accepted practice at the time). What Onan fails to do is what God asks him to do - conceive a child for his brother. He knows the child will not be his, and so, rather than simply create a child that will not bring him honor, he... well... ignores God and "spills his seed" on the ground. This act is not inherently sinful based on the passage - it's only sinful because it goes against what God commands Onan specifically to do. You could tie this in with the cultural mandate in Genesis 1 to be fruitful and multiply, but does avoiding contraception really fulfill God's command, especailly the one to be caretakers of the earth? With overpopulation now a huge concern, would it be more responsible for couples to use contraception and have a few children rather than not using it and having like fifteen? It's debateable, for sure; and I respect my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters here, because of the great respect they have for life even before conception; but I don't see contraception (or masturbation) forbidden by this passage on its own. Maybe elsewhere, but not here. End tangent... and you're probably learning more than you ever wanted to know.
And why did Judah go to a prostitute anyway? And what's worse, Tamar wanted a child badly, so she "plays the harlot" so as to conceive a child with him. Then we find out that just when Judah wants to burn her at the stake for her misdeeds, she brings forth clothing of his that she kept. Woops, guess he's the daddy. So then he decides to call off the burning, and doesn't sleep with her again.
Sorry if I sound at all crass (I mean no disrespect to God when I talk like this), but this must be how God is feeling. What is wrong with these people? Why do they act this way? But again, God makes good out of terrible bad. One of the twins is named Perez. Go to Matthew 1 in the New Testament and see whose ancestor he is. Yep. Jesus. Leave it to God to redeem humanity by turning bad into good. This is why I love Him!
4)Joseph on the other hand, does well for himself. He even avoids the temptation to promiscuity (and, if I can admit my shamefulness here, the scene has a "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?" feel to it). But then when Joseph runs off naked, Potipher's wife makes up a story about how he did sleep with her, and that lands Joseph in jail. Still, God protects him and Joseph even finds favor with the jailer. What a comfort to know here that even when injustice is done to us as we try to follow God's will and righteousness, God still works even more to protect and honor us for following Him. Good to know in a world where sometimes the good people are treated badly for being good.
Well, that's all for today. What a wild ride! Leave comments or further questions... the grace and peace of Christ be with you.
In Him,
Pastor Nathan
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