1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

—

5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.[a]
 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

—

Catharsis!

So- finally some good news, here in chapter 45 of Genesis.  Joseph has removed the veil and revealed himself to his brothers.

I didn’t think that reading the bible one chapter at a time would ever be very problematic.  Wrong.  While not a terrible profound observation, it stands to be said every so often just as a reminder: the Bible wasn’t written in chapters and verses.  In fact, what we call the first five books are really just five chapters of one book.  The conventional divisions into 5 distinct books has to do more with the central theme of each section, but they are all dated at about the same time- and have their own name: Pentateuch.  Sort of a subset within the bible.

Well, this is just another lesson in hermeneutics then- sometimes breaking a story up into artificial segments can be detrimental to how we understand the whole story.  And nowhere has that been more evident in Genesis than right here, in Joseph’s story.

—

Joseph has been gone for at least 9 years.  For a decade, his brothers have been under the mantle of remorse.  Or at least some of them have.  Joseph’s father, the patriarch, Jacob, aka Israel, has been slowly deteriorating under the pain of losing his beautiful Joseph.  Joseph has been a captains right hand, and the focal point of his derision.  He’s lived in relative luxury and in a prison.  He’s known the adrenalin rush of being pursued by a woman- and the fear of standing before the most powerful man in the world, Pharaoh.  He’s been forgotten and he’s been the “father to Pharaoh.”  And now he’s at the end of his considerable emotional rope.

His trials seem to have brought him wisdom.

This is no small victory.  I’m not sure I’d be so fortunate.  Joseph, by today’s standards has every reason to have lost trust in the most sacred things.  He was betrayed and sold into slavery by his own family.  Framed and abandoned by his employer.  Left and forgotten by people he’d been charitable to in prison.  His power would have corrupted a lesser person.  A lesser person might have taken liberty with his power to acquire wealth and security- to prevent the pain and suffering he’d known up to this point from ever happening again.  He might be jaded and permanently untrusting.  He might be inclined to blame God for ten years of being abandoned by family and uncared about, forced to live in a foreign culture with no ties to home.

But no.  In all this time, Joseph’s faith in God’s purpose has caused him to pursue a sort of soterical career.  Even after his own abandonment by family and imprisonment, he is still pursuing other peoples’ peace.

He has spoken truth to the two fellow prisoners.  He gave peace to the Pharaoh about his dreams by clearly giving meaning to the dreams he’d had, and then offers sound wisdom to offset the bad news.  And now, Joseph is giving his brothers peace and forgiveness!  He is telling them that they were doing God’s work by despising him, selling him to a band of strangers, and ultimately into slavery and all that happened to him here in Egypt.  Why?

He’s giving God- this God that we have only heard about in the context of giving meaning to dreams, credit for using Joseph to save a nation’s worth of lives, as well as the lives of his own family.

This, I think, is an almost super-human ability!  Especially when you consider how much time has passed.  I can only speak for myself, but if I get a little down in the mouth for a couple months I start examining my life for places where I’ve let God down.  Maybe that’s not bad, in itself, but when I do that, I start to get blue, and a little mean.  I start thinking naughty thoughts about God- like He’s punishing me (which of course, He’s not, having fully extracted any punishment he must for me from Jesus), or that He’s changed His mind about me (which he doesn’t because nothing can take me from Jesus’ hand).  In short- I get impatient very quickly with God.

Ten years!  Ten years have passed in Joseph’s life.  Have you waited ten years, faithfully, for something?  Anything?  I don’t know that I can honestly say that I have.  At least not in obedience.

There’s plenty here about forgiveness.  There’s plenty here about how family relationships are kinda messy, and sometimes require a frequent and potent bath in the bubble-potion of forgiveness.  But God’s providence is what is on display, and Joseph’s unfailing dependence on it.

God is faithful.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, great comfort can come from the simple proverb: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is God’s purpose that will prevail.”

This may seem obvious- but God has a purpose!  This may seem less obvious at times: God’s purpose is for good!  Joseph declares his joy in this when he tells his brothers not to be troubled by their evil plans, because God caused good to happen!

This is less obvious:  If Joseph had sucked his thumb and pouted while he was in jail, God would have had a much more difficult time getting everything in order.  Joseph set his pain, anger, betrayal down on the floor of his cell and “saw that they were troubled” and set himself to comforting the two fellow prisoners by interpreting their troubling dreams.  Had he never done that- had he never inserted himself as a healer and a comforter into that situation- he would never have stood before Pharaoh to warn him of the coming prosperity that would buffet that following famine!

A simple act of selflessness, on Joseph’s part was a small key in an extremely large lock.  A single act of selflessness was the spark that lit the tinder, that held the ember, that caused a campfire to turn into a forest fire.  And it happened during a rainstorm.  Heck, a monsoon.

That is God’s character.

Genesis 44
—
I must confess that the last several chapters- this story of Joseph playing cat and mouse with his siblings is rather torturous.  Is this Joseph playing a somewhat mean-spirited game with his brothers?  Why does Joseph draw this out so long?  Especially given the age of his father, who he hasn’t seen for so long?

He puts on a great show for them, heaping food up in front of them, and making a display out of Benjamin’s plate.  And then he loads them up with food and sends them back home, AGAIN.

But this time, instead of having the steward simply putting their silver back in their sacks again, ostensibly giving them the food for free- this time, he plants a piece of very damning piece of contraband- Joseph’s prized silver chalice.  Why?

—

The boys are on their journey back home to their father, bags loaded with the grain they’d come for.  They are less than a day’s journey out when their host’s steward catches up with them, all a fury and full of accusations about a missing chalice.  The men, stunned, are appalled at the accusations, reminding the steward that at great personal risk, they returned with twice the silver they needed specifically to keep the air clear between them.

So without resisting they volunteer themselves to grave punishment should they be guilty, and, it says, “quickly lowered” their sacks to be inspected.  I’m sure it was amazing to them that once again, their silver is sitting on TOP of the grain they just purchased.  More amazing to find the silver chalice in Benjamin’s sacks.  Imagine the looks on their faces?  Benjamin was probably slack-jawed and pale as the sand he stood on, while the others were probably mystified and confused.

All of this drama?  Why?

—

Honestly, I think that Joseph wasn’t terribly interested in his older brothers.  I think he was trying to kidnap Benjamin.  He’d been holding Simeon captive until the could verify their story by bringing their youngest brother, Benjamin, with them.  Now that he’d seen Benjamin, he’s released Simeon.  But he’s set Benjamin up to be brought back as a slave.

When the steward caught up with them, his terms were simple; the one caught with the chalice returns as a slave, and the rest are free to go.  The brother’s emphatic insistence on their innocence was bolstered by them upping the ante.  They said they would submit to death the guilty brother and submit the remaining brothers to a lifetime of servitude.  But the steward declined.  And Joseph did too- until Judah makes his impassioned speech.

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

Following this speech by Judah, Joseph cracks, and finally reveals himself.

—BACK TO CHAPTER 44—

 
This particular story leaves me with more questions than it does answers, really.  Why does Joseph insist on drawing this game out?  What is his goal in hiding the silver back in their bags, rather than simply giving it to them outright?  Why set up Benjamin as a thief?  And then, why demand only the life of Benjamin as a slave rather than accepting his death, and then the lives of the remaining brothers?

Is God behind the family reunion?  Is God the reason that Judah’s impassioned speech breaks the will of Joseph to break up the family by keeping Benjamin?

Or was there some lesson to be learned that I have missed?  Why is this story even in the biblical account anyways?  I mean, there is no outright arm-of-God moment!  No voice in the pillar of smoke, no dreams, no big miracles.  Where does this story fit into the narrative of God’s redemption?

—

Maybes.  Lots of maybes.  Maybe the full family reunion was part of the plan all along.  Maybe Joseph was just playing cat and mouse, drawing out the anxiety in an ancient case of Candid Camera.  Or maybe Joseph was only ever interested in reuniting with Benjamin.  Bringing him back as a “servant” and putting him in a position of comfort near him.  Maybe he’d just written off his family, his brothers, and accepted his new life in Egypt.

I wonder how much of the Bible is actually like this?

—

When I started reading Genesis, it was with the intention and purpose of looking for God and flashes of His character.  And it has been thoroughly rewarding!  Which is what makes this small section of Genesis troubling.  But plays into Gods hands.  I read a proverb with my oldest son today that fits rather providentially into today’s passage: “Many are the plans of a man’s heart; But it is God’s purpose that prevails.”

Maybe this is the true lesson- that God, named or unnamed, visible or invisible, invited or not, always, always, ALWAYS, gets the very last word.

Genesis 43
—

11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds. 12 Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. 13 Take your brother also and go back to the man at once. 14 And may God Almighty[a] grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

—

“May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man… [and] as for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

Jacob Wrestles with an Angel

What a moment.  I wonder if this is the moment that Jacob the deceiver, now Israel who struggled with God, has finally quit struggling.

This man’s name relates directly and explicitly to his determination to wrestle with God.  His history is one of friction, terse ambition, and conflict.  Yet he is the one who is favored.  His name will be the name of a nation of people.  His name will be known for thousands of years beyond his own life.

The picture I’ve linked to- it’s called “Jacob Wrestling with an Angel” by Gustave Dore.  I love it.  I don’t know much about painting, or criticism.  I have no idea if it’s any good, or if it’s trite.  But I love it.  So I guess it’s good.  I love how Jacob is on the lower ground, and his body looks tense, like he’s really working, but the angel has his wrists in his hands.  And his face is totally … blank.  Like he’s not really exerting himself.

—

Though he struggled, fought, schemed, managed, and argued, he was the recipient of favor.  There was struggle and contention within the womb of his mother.  He “grasped” his brother’s heel, even at the moment of birth.  Rather than emulate his older brother, he actually turn away from his brother’s habits and pleasures- while Esau would hunt, and boy scout about, Jacob would stay near the house, and learned more … domestic arts.

He seemed opportunistic, taking any chance to gain something for himself.  Like a claim to birthright.  Like a blind father’s blessing.  He wanted that badly enough to stand in front of a blind man and lie right to him.

When that plan turned bad, he ran away from home, fleeing to his uncle’s home several days journey from his angry brother.  There he attempted to gain a wife, and was in contention with his uncle, turned father-in-law, when his bride turned out to be somebody other than he’d agreed to.

Then his wives were in struggle between themselves, each straining for the favor of her husband.  And then his children- they too struggled between each other, jockeying for favor.  Jockeying for position in the line of succession, the line of blessing.

In all this- the story of his life up to this point, is like holding up a mirror to the race of humanity.  Struggle.  Against.  God.

And now… there’s no more energy to fight.  No more energy to struggle.  Joseph is gone, Simeon is gone, all of their food is gone, and now he struggles to protect Benjamin from a similar fate.  But there are no more alternative routes.  No more victories.  So he finally gives in.

May God grant you mercy and if I am bereaved, then I am bereaved.

—

I think it is more than appropriate to say that Jacob/Israel, as much as anybody, can serve as an adequate representative for the race of humanity.  And the gem is less in how Israel represents us to God, but rather how God relates to him in spite of the struggle, in spite of the constant friction.

God chose Jacob to be a special kind of conduit to the people of the world.  He blessed Jacob abundantly, taking a poor man with a knap sack and a strange dream in the desert and giving him 2 wives, at least 13 children, and more goats than you could shake a stick at.  Important to distinguish between the children and the goats- though it’s an easy mistake to make.  Both climb everything, eat grass, crap where ever the spirit moves them to, and do nothing but bleat all the time.  Moving along.

God was determined to make a way.  He had made a promise to Eve that somebody would come along who would take back the life she’d given away.  He had promised Noah that he would be a blessing to the whole world.  He had promised Abram a family that rivaled the stars in the sky and the sands of the deserts.  He actually promised Abram much more- He promised that He himself would be torn and shredded if He did not keep His promise to Abram.  God promised Jacob that he would never be alone.  Ever, no matter what.  God had a stack of promises.  Promises He initiated, promises that He was bound to.  Promises that He was BOUND to keep.

All of His promises were connected to the abundance of LIFE.  And not the striving, stressed out life that was usually happening- but a LIFE that was better.  God makes promises to us that we will gain something awesome from living His LIFE.

What we learn too, is that sometimes God’s promises, as solid and true as they may be, aren’t necessarily what we expect, or when we expect.  Abram was promised a nation of families- but it took decades.  Decades of years passed before Isaac was born.  And Isaac was only one child.  But then Isaac had a child.  Two.  And they fought.  But then Isaac had a grandchild.  And another.  And another.  And then…

—

Passages like this one, and those around it, can seem baffling when taken out of the context of the whole book.  Or even out of context of the whole Pentateuch.  But what I see, having combed through everything leading up to this point, and knowing what’s coming- is a God that can be trusted even when I can’t be.

God is building his answer to the first promises and like any good builder, He’s building it carefully, using the materials He has, and the place that He has them.  And He has a plan.  The boards are warped, and full of knots.  The ground is rolling and far from flat.  The rocks are shaped in peculiar ways, and don’t stack well.  The nails are different lengths, different guages, and piled up loosely in the bottom of a cracked pail.  But this will be a mansion with many rooms when God is done.  A city of mansions.  Filled with Jacob’s who finally stopped struggling, and called on the mercy of God.  And when the struggling stopped, and the calling began, the blessings just kept coming, as they always had.  But now, all the dams were broken, all that blocked and slowed and diverted the flow of God’s word and work were cleared away, and they could finally move.  Finally run, without bends, turns, oxbows or reservoir.

—

On the surface, these stories appear to be about Joseph, or about his brothers, or about Jacob.  But really, this whole book, and every story in it, is about God the Father, the Creator, the Promiser, the LIFE lover, and Busted-Stuff-Repairer.  Sometimes, you just have to back up a little bit to see it.

Genesis 42:
—

6 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. 7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked.

 8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 9 Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”

—

21 They said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us.”
 22 Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.” 23 They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.

—

  He turned away from them and began to weep, but then came back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes.
 25 Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’s silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, 26 they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left.

—

Families are indeed curious creatures.  If you have one, you must agree.  They have these histories- they become genetic.  Part of the DNA of each person.  In this segment of Genesis a strange reunion takes place.  The conceited son who was ambushed, sold off in spite, and left for dead on the highway of their shared memory is reunited with 10 of his 11 brothers.  But rather than leap down from his place, clutching them and exclaiming, he upholds his new identity as an Egyptian governor, keeping safe distance.

In fact, he actually comes down pretty hard on his brothers, yelling at them, and accusing them of mortal crimes.  He throws them in jail for 3 days just to make them sweat.

It says in the scripture that “he remembered his dreams about them [bowing down to him].”  Yet he keeps all of that to himself.

Apparently, though time has passed, and they have collectively agreed that Joseph was killed tragically long ago, the guilt has not passed.  Though they may never talk about it openly, the sounds of their brother weeping and pleading from the bottom of the cistern still echo in the space between them.  And now, at a distance from their father, those memories are not distant.  They are right there, on the surface.  Having another moment of glory, slimy and black on their collective memory.

21 They said to one another, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother.

What a horrible moment this must have been.  Full of tension.  Full of angst.  All the way around the stage, everyone tense, everyone eager for resolution.  Nobody knowing how it might happen.

Did Joseph’s conceit return?  Was he gloating in the memory of his dream, with the sheaves of grain bowing down to his sheaf?  Is this the return of the old Joseph?  What in the world is God’s spirit doing right now?

Does God gain glory from this moment?  Brothers in conflict?

—

In the New Testament epistle called 2 Peter, the author speaks of God not being slow… as some understand slowness.  I don’t know what the Greek words are for all of this- but I have been comforted by the idea of this phrase.  

God is not subject to linear time the way that we are.  The way that Joseph and his brothers were.  God holds time within himself.  Each moment of our history is evident to him.  I believe that every moment of history exists as the present for God.  He is the creator and sustainer of every moment.  Each moment of our lives is utterly rooted in God and in his sustenance.  He is more than sunlight feeding a plant.  He is the sunlight, the soil, the ability to convert the sunlight into energy usable by the plant- he is the time it takes for the plant to convert the sunlight.

My point in saying this is that I see moments like these, where time seems to slow down, and each moment is adrenalin times 100- when each second is like fire and ice mixed together in a torturous pathology, God is still present in these moments.

In that moment when my father was dying, and me and my brothers sat around his bed- where was the glory of God in that?  Each of us experiencing our own private anxiety about losing our father.  Each of us reliving all of the moments of our lives with him, good and bad.  Between each breath.  Each of us secretly fearing the next moment.  Secretly hoping that something miraculous might happen, each knowing that it was impossible.

His glory seemed slow in coming.  But God doesn’t “do” time like we “do” time.  His kind of doing time sees the apple, the manger, the cross, and the last trumpet all at the same time.  Maybe that’s what we’re seeing here.  A sliver of the spectrum.

—

Joseph conceives of a plan.  He wants to see his littlest brother, Benjamin.  It seems, from the text, that Jacob is protecting Benjamin, desperately, almost as though that might somehow save Joseph from his past.

Joseph uses his power and swag to fill the bags of his brothers not only with grain but with the money they used to purchase it as well.  He must have known it would cause them great terror.  Maybe.  Maybe it didn’t occur to him that they might see it is as an opportunity for Egypt to take them all away for good and for ever.

In either event, he keeps one brother as collateral- a guarantee that they will return, and they will bring the little brother, Benjamin.

But when the brother’s get back to their father and tell them what happened, he is in despair at the loss of another son.  And utterly refuses to let another child go down to Egypt.  He is still mourning the loss of Joseph, and is thrown into mourning for Simeon as lost.  And he will not lose another.

But Rueben, desperate to regain his conscience, and fully lost in remorse over Joseph, offers the lives of his own children as a promise that Benjamin will return unharmed from Egypt.

—

Are you in mourning over something that is behind you?  Or frightened of something in front of you?  I have been.  I am.  At times like this it’s easy to wonder where the hell God has gone.  But we have for us many examples, in scripture, and even in the collective lives of our families and friends, stories of God’s faithfulness.  The written comfort from 2 Peter is often on my lips, and in my ears.  God is true.  He is faithful to his own character.  It sometimes drags out for us- sparks glowing into embers, into flames into a full-on all consuming fire that seems like it will go forever.  But it won’t.  It can’t.

Only God and his words can go forever.  And his words, his promise, is that He is with us.

“He is not slow in keeping his promise, as some reckon slowness.  Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

2 Peter 3

Genesis 41:
—

1 When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream:

—

57 And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.

—

Genesis.  In the beginning.  Genesis is all about beginnings- some good, some terrible.  One of the beginnings that Genesis confronts is the beginning of evil in the creation.  The beginnings of trauma, murder, stealing, aggression.  The beginning of what I like to call “the suck.”

But there is another kind of beginning too.  There is the beginning of salvation.  The beginning of the promise.  The promise I’m referring to is found in Genesis 3, when God comes to see Adam and Eve, and discovers their infidelity to Him.  He points to the serpent, in reproach, and promises it that He (God) would have the last word in the matter.

Then there’s the promise to Adam and Eve that they will pay dearly for what they have done- that pain will increase, toil in labor will increase- and finally, that they will not be allowed to reach out to the Tree of Eternal Life, to live forever in this broken way, with no hope.

—

Now we are an unknown number of years beyond these beginnings.  Joseph, the last born son of Isaac, has been in a dungeon for two years, in an Egyptian city, far from his home.  His brothers had sold him into slavery, and he ended up in the service of a captain of the Egyptian Royal guard.  But he was framed by the captain’s wife, who was angry because Joseph would not disgrace himself by sleeping with his master’s wife.

When Joseph sees two fellow inmates looking distressed because of dreams they had each had, he listens to their dreams, interpreting them and explaining them to them.  When the dreams’ visions unfold in real-life drama, Joseph is proven true.  But the dead don’t speak, and the freed go on living, so Joseph’s ability remains in the dark of the dungeon.  Until Pharaoh has a dream that nobody can explain.

Then the freed remember their chains and the day they were broken, and Joseph is quickly brought up from his dungeon.

When Joseph is finally before the Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh has explained to Joseph why he is there, Joseph denies the abilities that have been ascribed to him, saying,

“I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

He then proceeds to explain to Pharaoh what God is revealing to him in these dreams- that seven years of astonishing prosperity were coming to Egypt, but that they would be quickly forgotten during the seven years of agonizing and desperate famine that would immediately follow.

And then he begins to ad-lib a little.  Joseph takes the opportunity to advise Pharaoh on a game plan.  Tax the abundance heavily, and put it into savings for the years of want.  What government can say no to a plan like that?

Just kidding.

Anyways.

—

So God is bringing a famine to Egypt?  That’s part of the plan?  This is not congruent to how I understand mercy, grace, or love.  Why does God want to bring suffering?  What kind of God allows that?

Here’s another question: If God is bringing this suffering, why then is He warning Egypt about it, and then offering a way to mitigate the pain?  Can’t really seem to decide which way He wants to go with this.

—

Jesus faced a similar argument in his ministry too.  People objected to this notion that he might be the Son of God.  They cringed every time he told some whore or diseased bum, or a lowlife roman-sellout-”jew” that he or she was “forgiven.”  Like a man has the authority to say that.  But then they would see him cast out “demons” and healing people with illnesses and the such.  They said “He casts out demons by the power of the devil!”

Wha?  He what?

To this Jesus answered, “a house divided amongst itself will not stand,” implying that it was really kind of stupid to say that (which it was).

—

Here’s my thought: God doesn’t “bring” suffering to Egypt to entertain Himself.  Watching all the little Egyptians scramble around looking for food, and dying is not some kind of God-tube “Survivor: Divine Island” sick entertainment.

Famine is the undeniable evidence of how many ways we are broken.  It is the unstoppable evidence of how badly messed up creation is as a result of our pride and greed and selfish ambition.  It is the fruit and wage of sin.  I.e. it’s all our fault.

God steps in though- desiring to save, feeling compassion, wishing to preserve.  He sends a servant with discernment.

—

How can I say that?  How can compassion exist when a famine is happening?  One of my foundational assumptions is that God is Holy.  A Holy God cannot be divided- or conflicted.  And He is a creator.  He created everything out of an abundance of desire for community.

When Adam and Eve broke that communion, His retaliation came in the form of making better clothes for them than they could make for themselves.  His retaliation came in the form of preserving them from living eternally in that broken state.  His retaliation came in the form of cursing the tempter and promising that the curse would not be permanent.

These promises must be kept by a Holy God.

In the Biblical story, mankind is always the one who instigates evil.  He ignores the advice of God in favor of the shady promises of a serpent.  He kills out of jealousy.  He multiplies evil on top of evil until the whole of society is such an abomination that nothing good can be said about it at all.  He uses his creativity and ambition to build something for himself that he can take pride in, that he can rely on, and hope in.  To look to for strength.

In the Biblical story, God is always the one with Hope for a better future.  He’s the one that tells the tempter that the curse will be only for a time.  He resets what he has made and restarts society- giving it a second chance with a new family of his careful choosing.  He distracts humanity, causing them to cease their building (at least for awhile), and hopefully turning their eyes back to God for their strength and solace.

And today, God speaks through Joseph, warning Pharaoh that disaster is ahead.

—

Maybe you’ve been suffering for awhile.  I know that I have had seasons that felt like dungeons.  I have had seasons that felt like a trap.  Like handcuffs.  Like maybe, I was being punished.

But maybe a time is coming where you will stand before a king, and proclaim saving news to him.

Maybe a time is coming where you will share something with somebody that they have been trying desperately to see on their own, and have had no fortune to find.  Until you.

Maybe you would never have been there, not in a million years, if your brother hadn’t sold you out.  If somebody who you’d tried to serve graciously hadn’t framed you, and made you look like a horrible monster.  If you’d not simply spoken truthfully to somebody who had no intention of returning the favor.  Maybe, you had to experience the famine before the feast so that somebody else would never know the famine at all.

8.Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

—

Joseph is in prison.

Ambushed by his brothers, threatened with death, and ultimately sold into the hands of travelers, he was sold into the servitude of a high-ranking military figure in the Egyptian royal guard, near the palace-compound of the Pharaoh.  Undaunted by the specter of his past, and unfettered by the chains of his circumstances, Joseph has risen to prominence, even as a slave, by being a blessing to the people around him.

Joseph’s attitude and mission made him a fountain of blessing to the people closest to him, no matter his circumstances.  He was attractive to people, because he brought blessing to them.

Unfortunately, somebody desired to take advantage of that, and lustily grasped for more.  Joseph refused to be put in that situation, out of respect for his master, but ultimately, because he knew it would be displeasing to God.  So she cooked up false charges against Joseph in her bitterness, and now, he is in prison.

Framed, and unjustly imprisoned, yet his attitude and mission have not wavered.  When fellow prisoners appear disheartened, he seeks to ease their burden.  And he says something that is most intriguing to me.  They tell him they are troubled because “they have had dreams” and there is no one to interpret the them.  His response?  “Do not interpretations belong to God?  Tell me your dreams.”

What a curious phrase.  Why would Joseph think he has any ability to ease the burden of his fellow prisoners by hearing the dreams, if interpretations belong to God?  What would make him think that?

—

Rob Bell, enigmatic and ire-inspiring, has written on something that strikes me as being parallel to this question:  Does God speak into and through unbelievers prophetically?  I don’t know that Bell would necessarily have phrased the question as clumsily as that- being prone to poetic prose, and being very good at phrasing questions with swagger.  But the question is still interesting.  Does truth spill from the mouth of the unbeliever?

I see Joseph making that claim, in a veiled way, in his statement.  He seems to be suggesting that the dreams have truth in them.  The truth resides in the vision-giver, not contingent on the vision-haver‘s belief or knowledge of God.

Paul says, hundreds and hundreds of years later, that God has made his invisible qualities known in Creation, and that He is made known in what He has made.  But that we have turned a blind eye to it.

All that is necessary then, is for somebody to enter the situation and see it for what it is!  And isn’t that ability itself a gift?  Isn’t it grace that removes the veil of sin and darkness from our eyes that we can peel back the curtain and see God’s Kingdom?

Joseph looks into these men, and their lives, as they are, and peels back the veil of God’s Truth spoken to them, and through them.

—

God longs to be known.  Communion with what He has created is intrinsic to the plan, and design of what He has made.  He is a communicator.  He is a protagonist.  Life is qualified by the degree to which it is in communion with its maker.  Joseph knows that God desires to be seen.  And that He can be seen, present in every life- not just the life of a “believer.”  So he looks for the truth in the vision, and gives the truthfulness of the vision- the degree to which it is true- over to God, who himself claims the meaning.

God speaks into people.  He speaks through people.  He does this with the desire to be seen and known.  Maybe one of our most important jobs isn’t to bring the truth to people, but instead of bringing it to them, showing them how it’s been there all along.

God doesn’t just show up in your life all of a sudden when you realize and admit that He’s real.  That would be idiotic.  Why would you want a God like that?  Rather, it’s in recognizing how God has always been, and will always be, there, with you, ahead of you, to your left and your right, and protecting your rear flank.

—

I think there is a powerful and compelling message to be found here: God doesn’t need us (i.e. “believers”) to “stick together” to the exclusion of the outside world.  We do not need to be pharaisees in our world.  He’s already out there, laying truth in people, doing truth in people, and setting them up to be called out and seen as part`of God’s plan, as part of God’s world, rather than antagonistic to it.

I think there are seasons where withdrawal is good.  We often call those seasons “sabbatical.”  Kind of like going to bed each night- sleep is more than recovery.  Sleep is health building.  But if you sleep all the time, well, you just get fat.

I will accept the challenge in this passage- God is out there, working, doing things, and waiting.  He’s waiting to be seen, waiting to be identified.  Waiting for genuine communion with everything He has made.  At the root of everything that is true, there can be but one Truth.

Genesis 39:

—

 2 The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes

—

But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

—

23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

—

5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.

—

It’s an amazing day when you see something something old and familiar in a way that you never have before, in effect seeing it for the first time, again.  For six weeks, I’ve been experiencing that as I have literally crawled through the story of Genesis.  The stories are familiar to me.  I’ve read through Genesis several times on my many failed missions to power through the whole Bible.  Adam and Eve, the serpent, Cain and Abel, the tower of Babel, Noah and the Flood, Abram, Sarai, Lot, sister-wives, Sodom and Gomorrah, angels in common dress, Hagar and Ishmael, Isaac, child-sacrifice that was narrowly averted, Jacob and Esau, Laban, Rachel, Joseph and the technicolor dream coat.

But astonishingly, I failed to see God.

So I determined to see God this time.  Oh man.  Without ignoring the human characters in the story, I let God be the star in the cast.  I guess I realized that no matter how much I learn about the human race, what’s more important- or maybe, what makes all that understanding about the human race even relevant, is understanding who God is.  Seeing what God does in the stories of Genesis speaks to me about what God values.  About what is important to God.  Which is kind of a big deal, because now, on this side of the birth of Jesus, on this side of his life, and of his crucifixion, and of his amazing rebirth through death to life, we can see something that Adam couldn’t, nor Noah, nor Abraham, nor Moses after him.  We can see the way God would live through us, through me.  And my confidence in God, in God’s purpose and presence and His perseverance, His utter commitment to me, and to His plan in my existence has given me new strength.  New purpose.

Today is no different.

Joseph has been sold out by his brothers.  First he was ambushed them.  Have you ever been ambushed?  How about by your own brothers or sisters?  How about by eleven of them?  This couldn’t have been a good feeling.

While he sat in the dark bottom of the empty cistern, he must have heard them arguing.  He must have heard them debate about whether to kill him, leave him- tear up his robe, and soak it in a goat’s blood.

The betrayal.  The fear.  Would he die in this hole?  Had he been completely abandoned?

Then new voices.  Unfamiliar voices.  New ones.  Then a new plan.  Rough hands hauling him out of the cistern.

“What’s going on?!  What are you doing?  Rueben?  Where’s Rueben?  Dan?  What’s happening?”

And then he’s in the captivity of strangers.  His brothers’ forms get smaller and smaller in the dust as his new captors saunter off into the desert.

How many days did that trip take?  Did they speak a common language?

And then Joseph and his captors arrive in large city, and he’s sold like a mule, or a camel, to somebody else.  Who is this person?  Will I be treated poorly?

—

Joseph is sold into the care and captivity of a captain of the King’s army.  Four times in this passage a phrase is repeated: The Lord was with him.  It’s more than a consolation.  This was the basis and foundation of God’s promise, each time.  His promise to Abraham: I brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to this land.  I will be with you.  His promise to Jacob as he slept in the desert, “I will be with you.”

God is with us.  God is with us.  God is with ME.  God is with ME.

Is that enough for me?  How long do you suppose Joseph foundered in his faith before he found himself in charge of the entire estate of a Captain of Pharaoh’s army?

God is with us.  God is with us.  God is with ME.  God is with ME.

And then, after all of that success?  Jail.  Conspiracy.  Injustice.

How long might Joseph have sat in this dark prison before the prison guards began to notice his abilities?

God is with us.  God is with us.  God is with me.  God is with me.

What’s more?  God is more than with us.  He’s active and engaged.  His presence is more than a co-traveller.  He is a co-conspirator.  He isn’t working in reaction or response.

In this passage, God is establishing the outpost of His blessing- a fountain of His Kingdom, through Joseph right there in the Captain’s living room!  God is setting up camp, and he brought everything with him, including the kitchen sink.  And he is putting the power of the Kingdom of God all over that house, just because of one person.  Joseph.

Where are you?  Where am I?  Doesn’t really matter.  It doesn’t matter where I am.  Where I am is unimportant.  Who I’m with.  That matters.  And who I am with, on this side of the rebirth of Jesus from his Death to Resurrection Life is virtually the same as who I am.

I have died to myself, and am born to Jesus.  Jesus moves in me.  His spirit is MY spirit.  Because I am less and He is more.  Because I have died to myself and He lives now in me.  God is setting up an outpost, a camp, where He can himself reside with me.  And he brought everything, including the kitchen sink, for the purpose of building a fountain of his Kingdom.  He’s rebuilding the whole earth, making all things new.  Starting right here, and working out.  Wherever I am is where You are.

God is with us.  God is with us.  God is with me.  God is with me. 

Genesis 38:

—

1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.

—

 6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death.

 8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death also.

—

 11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.

—

14 she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

—

23 Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

 24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

   Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

 25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

 26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

—

According to Hoyle.  Heard that?  I didn’t become familiar with the phrase until I was probably 22 years old.  Here’s another one: SOP.  Learned that one right around the same time; Standard Operating Procedures.  BAU?  Just picked that little gem up in the last year or two, courtesy of my savvy, business pro-wife.  Business As Usual.

Yeah, this story?  Not at all according to Hoyle.  Total disregard for SOPs.  Long, long way from BAU.

This is the first generation of the line of descent that would become the lineage of Jesus Christ.  The first.  Not off to an awesome start.  At least by human standards.

In case you got lost, Judah left his brothers after the ordeal with Joseph being sold off into slavery.

He broke rule #1 by marrying into the Canaanite community.  God had impressed it upon Abram that Isaac should not marry a Canaanite.  He impressed it upon Isaac that Jacob should not marry a Canaanite woman.  And now, here’s Judah.  What does he do?  Marries a Canaanite woman.  Oh well.  All’s fair in love and war, right?  The narrator seems to move on easily enough from the fact.

He has three sons.  Son 1, Son 2, and then what seems to be a distant Son 3.  Son 1 get’s married, but then dies unexpectedly, reportedly for being “wicked in the sight of the Lord.”  Hard to speculate about what happened there.

The cultural norm of the day dictates that Son 2 then takes on the “duty” of husband, caring for the widow.  In that society that means making sure she has children that can take care of her as she gets older.  And if that widow doesn’t happen to have children, well, that means he’s supposed to get her pregnant.

But he takes… measures, shall we say, to take advantage of the “right” to sleep with her, but not to get her pregnant.  Not according to Hoyle.  Breaks from SOPs, and definitely not BAU.  Son 2 is being very naughty.

Suddenly, he’s dead.  Out of the picture.  Seems like not reading the manual gets a body in REAL trouble around these parts.

SO, that brings us to Son 3.  Now he’s obligated to step in and cover for Son 1.  As it were.  But Judah, aka mean, old Dad, steps in and says- he’s not ready now.  Go back home, live with YOUR dad for awhile.

In other words, I’m not going to take care of you anymore.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Judah!  Maybe you didn’t get the memo, but God wants you to care for the widow, especially in your own family!

So time passes, and for whatever reason, Judah has not sent for Tamar to come and be given as Son 3’s wife.  Maybe he’s got other plans for Son 3- plans that are more suited to prosperity and taking care of an old man than charity and an extra mouth to feed.

So Tamar goes insurance shopping.  And she gets a deal that would make the Geico gecko blush.

She disguises herself as a prostitute, and Judah, newly widowed himself, gets an itch.  But he forgot his Mastercard.  So he gives her the keys to his Bently (with custom plates: “JezsGrmpa”) as collateral.

But she gets pregnant.  Finally, she’s pregnant.  Somebody to watch over me, she says.    Problem is, she’s not married.  So she’s in trouble with the morality police.  And they come and tell Judah, and he grabs his badge and heads down to the station. (uh, hey, can you give me a lift?  Can’t find my keys…)

As they’re preparing to read Tamar her rights, she shows Judah the key ring.  And he swallows his altoid.  “Call it off!”

As the Bad Boys theme song plays in the distance, Judah admits to his indescretion, gets his Bently back, and gets back to livin the clean life.

—

Can you be comforted in knowing that the family line of the perfect Son of God has so much soap opera melodrama in it?  It actually makes Jesus more perfect in my mind.  Scripture says he was as we are, in every way.  His family was jacked up.  Starting from the very first generation.  He can understand a bad reputation.  He understands single moms.  He understands dead-beat dads.

He also understands when things just never lay out the way they are supposed to.  When things don’t go according to Hoyle.  When SOPs are a distant fantasy, and life is anything but business as usual.  And His plan is able to accommodate those things.

My life is definitely different than I ever expected it to be.  I’m forever grateful for that, too.  It’s a little saccharine to hear, but sometimes, life going off-schedule, off-message, just plain off-the-rails, sometimes is better than the alternative.  Sometimes.

I still have my fantasies.  But I think I’m holding on with a looser grip than I used to.  I’ve had too many surprises to think that I can go through life without any more.  And as I said yesterday, sometimes bad stuff happens.  Really bad stuff can happen.  Cars crash, planes crash, organs stop working.  Babies are born with unforeseen challenges.  Jobs get lost.  People get sick.  Relationships break down.  These things are not dispensed by God as punishment for being naughty, being wrong, being… something.  But He will make good to come from them.  Because again, God is a maker, and He’s a GOOD maker.  He makes things, and says, “that’s pretty good!”

Even, maybe, if you’re the one doing the naughty stuff?  I mean, it’s one thing to be the recipient of suck.  But what if you’re handing the suck out like candy to everyone going by you on the sidewalk?  Answer, yes.  Judah acknowledges his failure, instead of compounding it by hiding it.  Judah repents- it says he stopped sleeping with Tamar.  There was a life-change.

Maybe that life change wasn’t the cause of God’s blessing.  Maybe it was God’s blessing.  Maybe changing your life is the most tangible blessing God can give you.  He has a way for us to live.  He has a way that we’re designed to live.  Judah was ignoring it, to an extent, ignoring the need to care for the poor and disenfranchised within his family, within his community.  God took to the matter himself though.  And in doing so, lives got whacked back into the right way.  God got the situation back on track, according to Hoyle.  Judah read the manual.  Finally.  Standard Operating Procedures being observed.   Business as usual.  Life.  Good.

—

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
 8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

—

26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

—

29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
 31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
 33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

—

36 Meanwhile, the Midianites[c] sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

—

Well, another generation has come, and God’s deliverer, promised in Eden, has not yet arisen. So the slow crawl continues.

Israel is older now, and his youngest son is 17- a young man.

There’s a familiar story here, of jealousy, and of pride. Joseph, in my mind, seems naive to a fault, telling his brother’s all these self-aggrandizing dreams, and alienating them all in the process. But this morning, having stared so intently into the family history of deceitfulness, manipulation and scheming, passed down from Abram to Isaac, and then to Jacob, now called Israel, and seeing it’s familiar face in the countenances of the jealous brothers- I can’t help but think that Joseph was less dewy eyed and silly in telling his brothers about his dreams, and more prideful- pricking at the social order and decorum. He’s maybe jabbing a stick between the bars, poking the lion with his comments, and trying to stir up division in the large family.

But it backfires, dramatically, when the brothers agree (that’s eleven of them in agreement- rare among people, much less brothers, much much less among brothers who all have different mothers) that they should kill Jacob’s son, Joseph.

Reuben- the oldest son, gets cold feet, though, and thinks to himself that he will rescue Joseph later. He vanishes from the scene, for no known reason, only to return to an empty cell. Joseph is gone. There will be no rescue.

The others, seeing a band of travelers, change their course, choosing to sell Joseph into slavery, and only pretend to kill Joseph.

Joseph ends up in the house of Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, sold as a slave.

This is the fate of Israel’s favorite son. Doesn’t seem very well conceived. Israel, this man who God has promised such amazing things. Joseph, the apple of the promise holder’s eye.

I wonder what Joseph thought about all that time. I wonder if he thought it was all just a practical joke. The older sibs putting him back in his place. A hazing of some kind. A little dose of “shut-up.”

What a long season of suck that ended up being. Seriously. Joseph is torn from a good life, near his father, comfortable in his work, and cared for. And the very next day, he’s totally despised by his own brothers, sold into a life of servitude in a foreign land. Luh-ame.

His brothers, now saddled with the knowledge that they have done something horrible. And all of them probably daily worried, wondering if one of their little tribe is going to despise them next, sell them next. Wondering if somebody is going to go behind the whole group and tell Israel what really happened.

Israel, old and filled with sorrow. Obsessed with the notion of death being the only way he will find solace.

And yet God stirs. He is said, many, many lifetimes later, to make all things count for good. I would add that it does not necessarily mean that all things are themselves good. Terrible things happen- things that are grievous and unnatural. Rape. Murder. Theft. Lying. Depression. Disease. Death. People are often at a loss for how to reconcile these things with a “loving” God. An all Powerful God. How can these things happen? And I can totally get that. But on this side of the line of faith, I see something else too. I see how God permits these things to happen because they must. We have broken so many of His ordinances that it is unavoidable. But He has mercy in that He is making a way. He is lighting a pathway out of our tragedies, and into the way of His Kingdom. I believe He mitigates the consequences of our lives so often.

But the picture I see here, is that something terrible happens to Joseph, and to Joseph’s family. And we will see how God “makes” (think Creates) good things to happen as a result. 

This is intrinsic to God’s character. He is a maker. He is a maker of things that are GOOD. The first chapters of Genesis are filled with that affirmation, and it rings true still. Humanity birthed disobedience into the scenario, not God. But God, true to his character, creates something NEW. He creates something that is GOOD. It is LIFE giving. It is LIFE affirming.

So yes, terrible, awful things happen. And in Joseph’s case, it maybe years before you understand, if ever, the season of suck that is about to take you under for the last time. But when I am in the darkest days of the season of suck, I can cling, in a white-knuckle, death-grip clutch, to the rock-foundation truth that God is a maker. Of good things. Of LIFE things. Of NEW things. That is no different, no less true for me, or for you, than it ended up being for Joseph. And God’s character forces His own hand- He will be faithful and MAKE all things to turn out for GOOD. That’s the only kinda makin He does that you need to remember…

—

¹This is the account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom).

 ² Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite— ³ also Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

—

⁴⁰These were the chiefs descended from Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions:

   Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, ⁴¹ Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, ⁴² Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, ⁴³ Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they occupied.

   This is the family line of Esau, the father of the Edomites.

—

“Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes,
Baby, even the losers, keep a little bit of pride, they get lucky sometimes,”

—

I don’t think there is a lot to be said here.  I considered not writing a post at all about this chapter.  But then a thought occurred to me.  “This guy was the loser in the deal.  And he still gets a spot in the Bible.”  Why?

So, if you haven’t been around lately, Esau is the elder brother in a odd situation.  He is a twin.  Usually, the elder brother is the chief punk in his house.  But not this one.

During Rebekah’s pregnancy, she cried out to God because her pregnancy was so uncomfortable.  And God replied, telling her that she was having trouble because she had twin boys inside of her, and they were struggling with each other.

In fact, God also told her that the younger would be greater than the older.  That there would always be contention between the brothers. And that oddly, the older would serve the younger.

I wonder if she considered that often as the boys grew.  She must have.  Esau, as a young man must have put the weight on first, gotten the hair on his arms and legs first.  He’d have likely been 1st string on the Varsity football team.  He was the big, rugged guy.

Jacob- well.  Jacob did home econ.  He liked to cook, preferred sitting by the fire, and long talks with with his mother.  He was… dainty, fair skinned.  And mouthy.  Surely there was a mistake made.  She must have misunderstood what God meant.  Hormones and stuff.  Jacob?  Waterboy material.  Smart, sure.  But overpowering Esau?  Controlling Esau?  Nah.

And yet.  It happens.  Rebekah sees to it that it happens.  And it goes.  But not well.  So Jacob runs.  Far.  And for a long time.

He grows wealthy, establishes a strong and prosperous family.  He is blessed by God, and in time, God comes to change his name.  Israel.

And all along, right in the middle of all that, Esau.  Esau is still here.  Still chugging along.  And not doing so bad for himself either.  Just has this nasty little curse hanging over him.  Screwed over by his brother, and his parents resent him some, because in his anger, he married with the local girls, none of whom were especially impressive to Isaac or Rebekah.

Yet here he is, in the biblical record, with a burgeoning family.

God has actually blessed him in his lifetime.  Kinda like God actually blessed Ishmael in his lifetime.  Why?

Because He is a life lover, and a promise keeper.  And he told some people he would make whole nations out of their families.  A promise like that is potent.  It doesn’t die in the frost.  It survives.  It springs through crusty ground.  It is drought tolerant, heat hardy, and, well, it just grows.  God promised Abraham that a nation would come through his son.  From his own body.  And God blessed Hagar and Ishmael because, well, they were connected to that promise, by hook or by crook.  And so is Esau.  Yeah, he was impetuous with things.  Yes he got robbed.  And yes he did not handle it especially well.  But there’s another “yes” to be considered.  Yes, he is a part of Abraham’s bloodline.  And Isaac’s.  And that’s not nothing.

God is generous.  God keeps his word.  If you are in Jesus bloodline, if you are walking in Jesus’ footsteps, living in two planes- two realities, the Kingdom of this world, AND the present Kingdom of Heaven- if you are part of Jesus’ family heritage, then there can be no question.  God has raised you up with Jesus, because you are tied to Him.  God will be generous to you, regardless of how you screwed up your birthright, without regard to how you might have valued soup over your place as an image bearer of your creator.  God is generous to you without regard to your anger management issues.  God is generous to YOU with only the very highest regard to your unbreakable connection with Jesus.   As He wills to bless Jesus, you too will be blessed.  And as He blessed Jesus to do good works, peeling back the veil of God’s nearness and His kingdom’s nearness, He will move in you, stirring your spirit to compassion, goodness, mercy, gentleness, peace, and patience, placing his hand over your hand on the curtain between this world and God’s world, and aiding you as you turn it back to reveal His ways, right here, right now.

—