or more aptly titled: my struggle to follow Jesus

Summary:

Jacob is on his way back to Esau. He sends messengers ahead of him to soften the first meeting. The messengers inform Jacob that Esau is coming to meet him, with 400 of his closest friends. So Jacob divides the camp in two and prays. Then he started preparing gifts for Esau. He sent messengers with different herds ahead of him and his family.

He then spent the night before they left. But during the night a man wrestled with Jacob and messed up his hip. It turned out to be God and God blessed him. God changed his name to Israel.

That day, Jacob looked and could see Esau (and his 400 friends) coming. He panicked. He arranged his family, put himself at the lead, and braced for the worst. But Esau hugged him when he got close.

Esau was so excited to see his brother and meet his family. He tried to refuse Jacob’s gift, but Jacob insisted. They caught up and Esau told him to come with him, but Jacobs family was tired from traveling. So Esau went ahead to Shechem, and Jacob stayed in Succoth.

One day one of Jacob’s daughters (Dinah) went in to visit with women in the town, but she was raped by a man. The man (Shechem) fell in loved with her.

So he tried to arrange a marriage with her, but Jacob’s sons discovered what had happened and devised a plan.

“Sure, you can marry her, but you’ll have to be circumcised first. We can’t intermarry with a people who aren’t. You and every man in your city. Then we can become one big family.”

Shechem was the son of the chieftain (Hamor) and he was gaga over Dinah. He convinced his father that this was worth it, and because Israel had so much, the whole city decided this was a good idea. So every man was circumcised.

Jacob’s sons (Simeon and Levi) waited, and once every man had been circumcised, they attacked while everyone was still sore. They slaughtered the entire town; every male there died.

Jacob was furious. “You have made my name stink to high heaven. These people could easily all gang up on us.”

But his sons were also angry. “No one treats our sister like a whore and gets away with it.”

God told Jacob it was time to move. So they went to Bethel. He told them to build an altar there. Jacob instructed his family to get rid of all their idols, and they did. Then God reaffirmed his promise to Jacob (and Abraham) and reiterated Jacob was to now be named Israel.

Rachel died and Jacob marked her grave with a pillar. Shortly after, while Jacob was still living there, Reuben (his son) slept with one of his concubines.

Jacob made it back home to his father, Isaac, just before Isaac died.

Then we receive the genealogy of Esau (AKA Edom). A bunch of the “ites” come from him, but particularly the Edomites.

Joseph was Israel’s favorite son. He even gave him better stuff than he gave the rest.

Joseph started having visions of his family bowing down to him, and told them so. This didn’t sit well with any of them.

One day, Israel sent Joseph out to check on his brothers. They saw him coming, and decided to kill him. Reuben apparently has some semblance of a conscience, and convinces his brother to “just throw him in a well.”

So when he got to them the stole his coat and threw him in the well. But while they were deciding what to do with him, a traveling caravan of Ishmaelites came by. So they sold him. They sold their brother.

Reuben came back to get Joseph out of the well, and he wasn’t there! When he questioned his brothers they all panicked and decided to rub the coat in some animal blood and lie to their dad.

Meanwhile Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt.

Back with Israel, Judah went his own way and married. He had three sons. The first was married to Tamar, but was grossly disobedient to God, and God killed him.

So Judah instructed his second son to provide a son for Tamar (as was the custom), but every time they made an effort to produce a child, he “spilled his semen on the ground because he knew the child wouldn’t be his.” God killed him too.

So Judah told Tamar to live in her father’s house until his third son was old enough to marry.

Tamar didn’t believe Judah, and as time passed she grew impatient. So one day went he went to shear his sheep, she dressed like a prostitute and made sure she was somewhere Judah would pass by.

He did, and was interested. She asked what he would pay, and he offered a goat. She agreed but took his staff and seal until he delivered it. She got pregnant, and went home.

Judah sent his servant back to find the prostitute, but no one knew anything about her. Three months later, news got to Judah that Tamar was pregnant. She was about to be dragged out before the city when she sent word to Judah.

“The father is the man who owns this seal and staff.”

Judah recognized his folly.

Meanwhile, Joesph had risen to power in the house of Potiphar (who was close to Pharaoh). Potiphar gave Joseph power over everything in his house. Everyone loved Joseph, including Potiphar’s wife.

She was so intrigued that she asked Joseph to sleep with her, every day. He refused over and over, and she grew tired of being dodged. So one day, she sent everyone out of the house, and when Joseph came in to do his work, she grabbed him and tried to coerce him. She ripped off his outer clothes, and he ran.

She accused him of rape and he was thrown in prison.

God stayed with Joseph though. He continued to win favor with everyone he met, and was soon in charge of the entire jail.

One day two of Pharaoh’s most trusted men (baker and cup bearer) were thrown into jail. They had terrible dreams, and were disturbed by them. Joseph was able to interpret them, correctly. He simply asked that the cup bearer remember him when he got back.

“Sure, I won’t forget you…”

Two years later, Pharaoh had some dreams no one could interpret and finally, the cup bearer said, “Oh yeah…”

So Joseph was brought in and correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. God told Pharaoh what was going to happen through Joseph, and then Joseph provided a solution. So Pharaoh placed him in charge; second in command only to Pharaoh.

Joseph’s solution worked beautifully and when the foretold famine came, Joseph saved many, many lives.

Israel was hit hard by the famine as well, and when he realized how much trouble his family was in he sent his sons (minus Benjamin, his new favorite) to get grain from the people in Egypt.

Joseph saw his brothers while he was overseeing the grain distribution and accused them of being spies. This way he could question them in plain sight and find out how his family was. He was also testing them. They didn’t recognize him at all.

He kept one of them behind and sent the rest on their way with their grain (and their money, without their knowing). He told them the only way the could get this brother back was to bring the other with them. They knew Israel would never go for it. They returned and told their father what had happened.

As they had guessed Israel refused. Eventually they ran out of food again, and Israel relented. Benjamin was sent with his brothers.

Joseph was so excited to see Benjamin he had them in for dinner. He sat them in birth order and gave Benjamin way more than the others. They were shocked and frightened because they still didn’t recognize him.

He had their bags filled (and money returned) once more, but this time made it look like Benjamin had stolen his cup. Then he sent soldiers after them. They were amazed and distraught when the cup was discovered in Benjamin’s bag.

They all went back and pleaded for the life of their brother. They argued and lamented about how this was their payback for having treated their brother so poorly. They had no idea Joseph could understand them because he had been using an interpreter.

When Joseph couldn’t stand it any longer, he ordered everyone out of the room and let his brothers see who he was.

They embraced and cried.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good,” Joseph told his brothers. “Look how many lives have been spared because you sold me into slavery.”

So Israel was brought to live in Egypt with Joseph. And Joseph made sure his entire family (brothers and all) were taken care of.

Before Israel died, he made Joseph promise to bury him in the land of their fathers. Joseph did, and when Israel died, Joseph took him back (with a giant funeral procession) to the cave where Abraham was buried.

Joseph died in Egypt.

Tidbits:

What was the logic behind Esau bringing 400 men with him? Was he just messing with Jacob?

I love the families in the Bible. Jerry Springer would have a field day with them. Jacob loves Joseph more than the other 10 born before him. They hate Joseph…

And what kind of place do you have to be in to have a group of brothers (all of whom are adults) get to the point where selling another brother into slavery is okay?

I wonder if the baker ever regretted asking for an interpretation…

Thoughts:

I can’t stand when people give the same old lesson with a Bible story. I feel like it’s generally much better to try to take a fresh look at something.

I hate using the same old, worn out “moral of the story.”

So, right now, I hate myself.

Joseph is such an unbelievable story of perseverance.

Most scholars would argue that Joseph was in his late teens when his brothers sold him, and that he was at least 30 when he rose to power in Egypt. Thirteen years. Joseph was a prisoner/slave for thirteen years of his life.

For nearly half of his life (when he finally got out of jail) he had been imprisoned in one sense or another.

We are so impatient and whiny. (And when I say we, I really mean me… and we.) We experience down times in life, things don’t go our way, and we get whiny. We starting asking, “Why God? Why me?!?”

Then, if it lasts longer than a year or two (or even more than a month), we feel like we’ve been left behind. God has forsaken us.

Why would He let me suffer this so long?!? I’ve been praying for weeks and weeks and nothing. This is so unfair. Doesn’t He love me? Why would He let this go on for days and days? Can’t He see the immense pain I’m in?

Now, let me pause here. There are plenty of people in my life who are genuinely suffering (under little or no fault of their own), and have for a long period of time. Those are not the people I’m referring to. The people I’m referring to are in the same boat I’m in. Most of the strife they encounter is self-inflicted and short-lived. But we are just too narrow-sighted to understand what long-suffering really is.

We are so impatient. We have little to no perseverance. We think we know what perseverance looks like.

We see a football player like Aaron Rodgers who sat behind Brett Favre for a couple of years, and we make him a saint for it. He was stuck in this terrible situation where no one knew if Favre would retire or not. Oh the pain and drama. What a terrible circumstance!

In all seriousness, the situation was ridiculous and annoying, but Rodgers got paid more money in one year to sit behind someone, than I will ever see in my life.

Yet we look and see him “suffering” and we call it perseverance.

The point is our understanding of suffering (and the length of time related to it) is severely limited.

Joseph was seventeen. Do you remember how long a single year feels when you’re seventeen? Even when you’re happy and enjoying life, a year (as a seventeen year old) is a tremendous amount of time. Think about the first time you thought about being able to drive; I mean really thought about it. You might have been 15. Waiting a year or six months seemed like an eternity.

The Bible isn’t really clear how much time was spent as a slave/hostage of the Ishmaelites, how much time was spent in Potiphar’s house, and how much in jail, but the fact remains that he didn’t meet Pharaoh until he was approximately 30.

I think the only thing I could claim I have suffered with for thirteen years is a mild case of ADD. Or maybe being clumsy. Everything else has been short-lived (and for the most part self-inflicted).

Most of us simply have no concept of perseverance.

We watch TV, or read stories online or in the news, and we tear up at people who endure through amazingly difficult circumstances.

Read Joseph’s story again.

A seventeen year old boy, second youngest of 12, is assaulted by his brothers and thrown into a cistern/well. While they decide whether or not to kill him (probably within earshot), someone says he should be sold to these passing strangers.

So his “brothers” drag him out of the cistern, and hand him over to these strange men for a few coins.

They arrive in Egypt and sell him to someone else. This guy “buys” him. Joseph is a slave. The seventeen year old boy, who days ago was chasing his brothers and the sheep down for his dad, is a bought and paid for slave.

He works his way up through the house of Potiphar, eventually taking over everything he touches, but just when it seemed like things were going right, Potiphar’s wife accuses him of rape.

He spends years in jail. For nothing. A young man, he wins the favor of everyone in the jail, much like in potiphar’s house. He eventually leads as second in command in the jail (still a prisoner for no good reason).

He meets two men (both close to Pharaoh) and helps them in a time of distress. All he asks is that one of them remember him on the outside. He doesn’t. Joseph, in the prime of his life rots for two more years in jail.

But lo and behold, through his perseverance he succeeds.

If this story was on a network or Disney or ESPN, we would all be bawling and beaming with pride.

That is perseverance.

So the next time I’m whining about some suffering that I’ve blown out of proportion (time or severity), someone please remind me about Joseph and tell me to get a little perspective.