"What We do Matters"

Genesis 37: 12-36


Today’s reading tells the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers.  While Joseph is the focus of this story, I was intrigued by Reuben.  Reuben is the oldest brother, the first-born son of Jacob (Israel) and Leah.  He first shows up in this reading in verse 21 where he tells his brothers not to harm Joseph.  Ultimately, he plans to rescue Joseph and take him back to Jacob.  


In verses 23 – 28 we see how Reuben‘s (and Joseph’s) brothers take things into their own hands with Judah acting as the leader.  The do not physically harm Joseph, but sell him into slavery.  Verse 29 makes it clear that this was done without Reuben’s knowledge or consent. 

Why did the brothers ignore Reuben?  I personally have a high regard for my oldest sibling (brother).  While we don’t always agree, there is something about his place in the family that is special and deserves respect.  Do you share this perspective?  Are you the oldest sibling in your family?  If this is in any way true today, it was significantly more so in Old Testament times.  So why the total disregard for Reuben?  A couple of verses in Genesis 35 shed some light on this topic:  “²¹ Israel moved on again and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. ²² While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it.”


If you read the rest of Joseph’s story you will see how Judah clearly takes over Reuben’s role.  In Genesis 49: 3-4 Reuben’s fate is “sealed” as Jacob gives his final blessing:   ³ “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.
⁴ Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.”


What can we learn from this?  What we do matters!!  Our ability to lead or influence others in a positive way is affected by our actions.  This seems like good reason to continue to grow in our walk of obedience to God’s commands.  Thanks be to God for the many gifts He provides in our walk of faith and the grace and forgiveness that are ours through Jesus Christ when we fall short. 

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Every cloud has a silver lining.

 

You probably have heard that phrase before. Literally it probably means every storm gives way to nice weather. Figuratively it probably means that some good will come out of every bad situation.

 

The figurative definition may not be strictly true, yet the phrase can provide comfort when we are going through a difficult period in our lives.

 

Today’s reading is Jeremiah 23:1-8.

 

Jeremiah, one of God’s prophets, lived just prior to the exile of the Southern Kingdom (Judah) to Babylon. He was warning the Israelites of their pending plight.

 

Jeremiah warned individuals of their sin, but he was particularly harsh on Judah’s leaders. The secular and religious leaders had not been true to God’s word. They were leading God’s people away from God. The Israelites were worshipping other gods, and some of the leaders encouraged the ritual of child sacrifice to these false gods.

 

If that were the end of the story, Judah would be doomed.

 

Jeremiah continued with his prophesying. He said, “ ’The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.’ “

 

Jeremiah, of course, is telling the Israelites that in spite of their sin, God will send a savior who will protect them from the eternal ravages that sin brings.

 

Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, the very tribe whose shortcomings Judah pointed out. That means that Jesus descended from Judah, a son of Jacob.

 

Judah’s family was broken. Judah was an adulterer and his children were spiritually messed up. Eleven of his children sold one child, Joseph, into slavery.

 

Judah’s family was messed up and broken. Fifteen hundred years later the tribe of Judah was messed up and broken. From these two groups Jesus came and saved God’s people.

 

Today, we are messed up and broken. Yet, as God’s people, we too have been redeemed by Jesus.

 

Fortunately for us, this cloud had a silver lining!

 

 

The extended forecast

“Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you....  The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor will the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his....”  Genesis 49:8, 10 

It was Judah’s turn.  Jacob had huddled up with his sons, altogether a baker's dozen.  “Gather around,” he summoned them, “so I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come.”  Brothers Reuben, Simeon and Levi had gone first and the forecast for them wasn’t entirely pleasant.  Partly cloudy to heavily overcast, we might say.  And now it was Judah’s turn.  (Gulp!) 

How stunned, then, he must have been at the promise of prosperity, success and leadership awaiting his tribe!  What an honor!  What joy!  And what a relief! 

But wait a minute!  Rewind the tape.  “Your father's sons will bow down to you”?  Wasn’t it Joseph, the favored little sib, who dreamed of his brothers bowing down to him?  And hadn’t all of them, including Judah, already done exactly that – not from desire but circumstances far beyond their control?  So why this twist in the tale?  Would things actually transpire this way for Judah and his offspring, or was Dad simply confused as in a “senior moment,” perhaps? 

In bowing down before Joseph, Jacob’s other sons humbled themselves before an earthly power, second-in-command over all Egypt; they showed him the respect he was due.  For God had redeemed Joseph from the treachery of his brothers and set him above everyone but Pharaoh, himself.  “You intended to harm me,” Joseph would later say in forgiveness, “but God intended it for good to accomplish ... the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). 

But from Judah’s line would come to us a higher power – him who holds all power, whose kingdom is not of this world.  In fact, he has come, just as foretold by Jacob, Moses and all the prophets.  He came from heaven, finished his Father’s work and returned to him.  And he will come again in power and authority over all. 

At that time, it will not only be the descendants of Jacob’s sons who honor the Anointed One, rather every knee in heaven and on earth will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10, 11).  Rich and poor, young and old, famous and anonymous, powerful and helpless, oppressor and oppressed – all will bow down and proclaim him for who he is.  And God will be glorified. 

What a great day that will be!  The forecast calls for clear skies.  Sunny and bright, we might say. 

[Click here to see the daily reading in Genesis 49:1-28.] 

Broken in

Have you ever taken a new baseball glove straight from the store to the field?  If so, you know the frustration of using the unusable!  Stiff.  Inflexible.  Awkward.  The hand knows what it wants to do, but the new equipment doesn’t cooperate!  Balls bounce off the outside of the mitt we cannot open and they pop out of the inside of the one we cannot close! 

It was my brother who taught me how to break in a new glove.  We would coat ours – inside and out – with vegetable oil.  Then we would place a ball inside and wrap the entire glove tightly in twine so the softening leather would form around the ball.  The next day, we’d unwrap the glove and put it to use.  It wasn’t long before our new purchase was “broken in” – now a help and not a hindrance.  Better than new! 

We celebrate the new believer in Christ.  High fives all around!  Yet over the years, I’ve noticed God’s people, too, are a bit stiff and inflexible ... that is, until we’re broken (in). 

Take Judah, for instance.  Even though he saved Joseph from family conspiracy, it was he who convinced his brothers to sell into slavery this favorite son of their father.  But the aftereffects of sin turned out worse than Judah had foreseen – they always do! – so what followed was life lived in guilty silence as his father, Jacob, needlessly mourned the loss of his precious son.  Judah had given into peer pressure, discarded Joseph’s freedom, protected his own good standing ... and all at the expense of his father’s grief.  Who can possibly carry that load of guilt? 

So it was a broken Judah now standing before the second-in-command over all of Egypt.  It was this broken Judah who could not bear the thought of his father mourning the loss of another son.  And it was the broken Judah who offered himself to captivity in place of brother Benjamin.  “Now then,” offered Judah to the Egyptian ruler, “please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.  How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me?  No!  Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father” (Genesis 44:18, 33, 34). 

How far Judah had come!  From slave trader to substitute ... that’s brokenness!  From apathy to empathy ... that’s brokenness!  From me-first to me-last ... that’s brokenness!  From comfort to sacrifice … that’s brokenness! 

And no matter how we get there, "Broken" is a suprisingly wonderful place to be.  For broken people are free people.  They are no longer constrained by the cares of this world, liberated, instead, in the love of God.  

No matter what trials we encounter, God goes with us.  And when we trust him and follow him, we come out the other side at a place called, "Broken."  There, God can use us – a flexible, pliable, dependable us – softened and conformed to his image.    

And ready to “play ball!”  

[Click here to see the daily reading in Genesis 41:1 – 44:34.] 

Even Family Relationships Can Be Restored

Families are a social structure that God has given us for love, growth and protection. Next to our relationship with Jesus Christ, the relationships with our family members are perhaps the most important ones we have.

 

We tend to be ourselves with our family. There is no need to put on the veneer of respectability that we might to other people. Our families know our strengths and our faults. Yet our families love us and we them.

 

But being ourselves means that we might bruise a relationship.

 

Perhaps you said something you later regretted.  Maybe you were a bit too nosy. You may have even eaten the last vanilla cream donut in the dozen.

 

Perhaps you angered somebody and there was an argument. With the help of God, you probably were able to patch things up.

But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes things are just too vicious to fix easily.

 

Today’s reading is Genesis 38:12-30. Judah had a messed up family. Two of his sons were put to death because they did not find favor in the eyes of the Lord. Judah had a widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar, whom he was to have his third son marry, as Mosaic Law dictated.

 

Judah discouraged – rather, he sabotaged – the marriage.

 

But it gets worse. Judah’s later actions had him directly violate another family provision in the Mosaic Law. Judah raised a sinful family, and Judah himself was guilty of severe sin. His family was really messed up.

 

In spite of our sins, Jesus has the power to restore us. Because of our faith in him, our sins, no matter how egregious, are forgiven. This is great news.

 

Jesus restores our relationship with God. But what about the family members we sinned against? He can’t restore our relationship with them, can he?

 

The story continues. Judah’s and Tamar’s child, Perez, is a direct ancestor of Jesus. That makes sinful Judah a direct ancestor of Jesus.

 

Jesus’ family tree not only consists of Judah, but it consists of other less-than-righteous people. In fact, Jesus’ ancestors, like us, are sinners. Jesus knows what it is like to have sinners in the family. He knows how to restore relationships.

 

With his help, even family relationships can be restored.