A Weekly Meditation of Pastor Chang (September 13, 2009)

<The Greatest Statesman in Human History – Joseph in the Bible> (2)

When Joseph turned to be 17 years old, he was a handsome young man. One day his father Jacob thought that it was about time to release this young man out to see the world. He called Joseph and said to him, “As you know, your brothers are gazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them. Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.”

When Joseph left home, his father did not give him a farewell blessing, because no one expected anything would happen to this young man. Nevertheless, this was the first but also the last journey for Joseph from home, because since then, he never went back home again.

Unfortunately, when he arrived Shechem, Joseph could not find his brothers and he got lost. Suddenly a man (who was he?) found him and asked him, “What are you looking for?” Joseph replied, “I am looking for my brothers.” This man said, “They have moved on from here. I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” (What a good coincidence that this man knew the answer. Was he not an angel? Possible, wasn’t it? God knows and is in control of everything.)

Joseph went to Dothan and found his brothers there. But before approaching them, they saw Joseph and they began plotting to kill him. How pity they were! Jacob’s sons were like barbarians without a little bit of brotherly kindness they wanted to kill their own brothers. Did they not follow their father to believe in God? I doubt! The father’s old evil characteristics – trickery had totally past down and exposed upon the sons. Why did they hate Joseph so much? Probably it was a revenge for the past anger that they got scorned by their father when Joseph reported their bad behaviors; it could be because of Joseph, the rest of brothers could not get enough love from their father; or they thought that Joseph was only a day-dreamer; he even thought that he would rule over them in the future. No matter what, they just hated him.

One can tell, sin has the power to pass down to another generations. If parents do evil, the children could learn and repeat from their parents. Jacob now tasted the bitterness of the fruit of deceiving his father when he was young, now he was deceived by his sons.

Although Jacob was changed to become “Israel” and his life was renewed later on; however, his sons still never got this kind of change. It shows that parents’ “faith” cannot be inherited by children automatically, unless parents intentionally do it, because faith needs to build up by oneself individually. For example, Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, unless one has encountered with Him, it will be difficult for anyone to commit oneself to Him. Therefore, I would like to urge our parents, please pray for your children always, if you think that “faith is the most important issue in their life.”

Now let us see the scheme of Joseph’s brothers. First of all, when they saw him from afar, the first notion was: to kill him and lie to their father that Joseph was devoured by a ferocious animal. But the oldest brother, Reuben wanted to save him and suggested to throw him into a cistern. So when Joseph arrived, his brothers stripped him of his robe (the richly ornamented robe – a symbol of their father’s love, and they hated it.)

Probably while they were still eating the food that Joseph brought to them, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead to Egypt. The fourth brother, Judah, got an evil idea: Why not sell Joseph? Four good reasons: 1. they didn’t need to kill him; 2. they had money to share; 3. perfectly clean; and 4. easy to lie to their Father Jacob – tore off the robe and dipped it in the blood of a goat. A perfect scheme was done. They all agreed and did it. With 20 shekels of silver, they sold their brother Joseph to strangers.

When Rueben came back (probably he just went away) he found Joseph was gone. He painfully accepted the fact. The only way to do was to join his brothers and lie to their father together. The poor old Jacob heard the news tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days and refused to be comforted. Jacob never thought, while he was young, he and his mom lied to his father, Isaac; now it was his turn, to be lied by his sons. How pitiful it is that sin has the power of recycle. Who can get rid of this curse?

Thanks be to our God! When human being cannot get ride of the power of sin, but by the grace, power, righteousness, and love of God, we as human can be released from this shackle of sin. Through Jesus Christ, we are able. God is still on His throne – He is our only hope. By His grace, the curse can be transformed to be blessings…