Listen, Speak

DEVOTION

GENESIS

LISTEN, SPEAK

Gen 37:1-11

37:1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 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.

NIV

Here we are introduced to Joseph, a major player in the plan of God for all of Israel. We will be with Joseph for many days to follow and surely lessons for us will be readily available. In this beginning narrative we are told that Jacob loved Joseph more then all his other sons because he was born to him in his old age. Yet didn’t Benjamin come even later in his old age? Could it be that Jacob did not look that favorable on Benjamin because his birth also took the love of Jacob’s life, Rachel? Nevertheless this love for Joseph may also have been the plan of God all along for he would bring Israel into Egypt. We have to know God had a plan, even much later in this story of Joseph’s life he confesses that what his brothers intended as bad, God intended it for good. But of course we are getting way ahead of ourselves here. First we should deal with the situation at hand between Joseph and his brothers. Because Jacob showed favoritism to Joseph all his brothers were jealous of him. We would think of all the people, Jacob would not have shown favoritism. He was raised with his brother Esau being their father’s favorite. He knew how that all turned out, yet here he is favoring Joseph to the point of making him a coat of many colors. That is how the Hebrew text reads and what the playwrights used. Then to make what seems to be matters worse, Joseph has these dreams, visions. Again from the rest of this story we know these dreams were sent to Joseph from God. They were indeed prophetic messages. But his brothers hated him even more because of their content. We do not know the spiritual well-being of all the sons of Israel. We do not know their faith or connection to God. But what we do know is they were not happy about Joseph having this contact with God, having these dreams which indicated they would be bowing down to him. It does serve to show us the dislike people can have for one who is connected to God. We are not sure with what kind of tone Joseph told his dreams. Was he boastful about them? Was he tender, humble, kind in his manner when expressing what God had revealed to him? We simply do not know how he told these dreams, but the result was more hatred toward him. Although we are not told of his tone this could be our lesson. When we express any truth about God, about salvation, about revelations which God has revealed to us, do we verbalize it with humility or with boastfulness? What is our manner when we speak about God? Do we act like a know it all? We can be certain what Joseph told was the truth, there could be no other way of seeing it. But when we talk about the truths of God, it seems everyone has their idea of what the truth is. There was no debating with Joseph about the interpretation of his dreams, they all understood what his dreams meant, although they did not like them. Today everyone has their own truths and somehow we all are somewhat unwilling to accept the others rendition of the truth. There is but one truth, which is for certain. Who has that truth should be able to express it in a manner others will not reject it, or become violently opposed to it. That also applies to how we share the gospel message. It might not be the best approach telling people they are going to hell. It also might not be the best approach telling them God loves them. The idea here is that Joseph received a dream from God and was telling his brothers what the dream was. Whenever we express words about God, we should first hear from him. It is one thing to share our ideas of what the truth is, but it is entirely a different thing to express what God has revealed to us. It is far better to speak from a revelation from the Spirit then from an idea of the mind. Listen to God first, then speak.