Holding in a...Surprise!

Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph!  Is my father still living?"  Genesis 45:3a

Holding in a... Surprise!
By Rev. William Dohle

Ever had something that gnawed at your bones?  A surprise that you just couldn't wait to reveal?  Something so good that hiding it was virtually impossible?

This past summer we discovered such a surprise.  We found out that Jenny, my wife, was pregnant with our fourth child!  It was, as I have told others, a surprise but not a shock.  We hadn't expected this news...but it wasn't entirely unwelcome either.

After our initial discovery, we took time to discuss how we would tell others about this.  We started with our kids.  My oldest was at Scout camp at the time, so we decided to wait until he was back.  Coming back from Scout Camp, we bought them all ice cream and told the kids our news.  Their reaction was mixed.  Lynne loved the idea of having a sister.  Matthew was a middle grounder.  William looked at us as if he'd been shot.  "Why did you have to tell me this after scout camp," he asked us.

Then it was a matter of telling our congregation.  And that was a bit trickier.  We didn't want to announce anything that wasn't unconfirmed.  But good news is hard to keep quiet.  It has a tendancy to leak out.  First to the office staff...then to a few close friends...then to others.  Finally, one day in June, I announced our big news.  The response was overwhelming!  And still is!  It's amazing what happens when people hear good news!

But there were some who had a harder time with our news.  My parents, for instance, had difficulty getting "on-board" with it.  I think it truly came as a shock for them.  "Huh..." my mother said.  "Great..." my brother trailed.  Only my sister seemed completely happy with our news from the start.

Such was the reaction I think to Joseph when he finally tells his brothers the good news.  "I am Joseph!" he says.  You can almost hear a pin drop in the room.  Judah's face goes white with fear.  Reuben starts moving from one foot to the other, and all the brothers are afraid.  Afraid because, as the text says, "But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence."

This "good news" wasn't good for the brothers.  They expected retribution.  Even when Joseph comforts them:

“Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 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. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. "  (45:5-7)

It takes awhile for Joseph's brothers to get "on-board" with his good news.  Even years later they're still afraid something bad will happen because of it.

But letting go of this news gives Joseph peace.  Before his announcement, Joseph was known to something of a cry baby, weeping uncontrollably as he tried to hide himself from them.  Now, with everything out in the open, with the good news of his rescue fully known, now Joseph can be Joseph.  Now all can be made right.

Good news is something we have all been given, not to keep to ourselves, but to share.  The word that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, died and is raised, can give us and others hope.  It can dispel the shadows of fear that surround us.  It can help us face life...and death.  It can give us faith in the face of hopelessness.  It can help us love others.

It is good news...not to be kept to ourselves, but to be shared.  As Joseph shared the good news of his salvation.  As we shared our good news of new life growing in our midst.  You too must share the good news of Jesus Christ with the world, not matter what their reaction to it is.

Almighty God, king of the universe, as your servant gave his brothers the good news of his life, help us too share the good news of your life, the news of our lives in you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Sweet Revenge? Or Something Else?

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?"...Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, "You are spies!  You have come to see where our land is unprotected!"  Genesis 42:7,9

Sweet Revenge??  Or Something Else??
By Rev. William Dohle

Shakespeare wrote, "Revenge is a dish that is best served cold."

And if you've ever been wronged, you know how true that is.

Something happens to us when someone wrongs us.  First we feel the hurt.  The pain of the wrong done to us hits us in the chest, like a knife.  We feel betrayed and slandered...and it hurts!  Then we feel anger.  Dealing with the pain of what happened, we lash out at them, usually with other people in the audience.  Finally, we come to a crossroads.  A road divided into two sides.

We can either... punish them and exact our revenge.
Or we can forgive them... and move on.

Now most of us I imagine are religious enough to know which road we SHOULD take.  We SHOULD forgive...

But which road do we USUALLY take?  And how does that feel?

Joseph, in Genesis, wrestled with this very question.  When faced with his brothers who had sold him into slavery.  His brothers who had mocked him as a child.  His brothers who had abused him as only brothers can do.  When faced with them...do you know what Joseph does??

He takes his revenge!!

... Not the answer you were expecting, huh?  But read it for yourself.  Through the 42nd through the 45th chapter of Genesis, Joseph makes his brothers pay for the wrong they did!

He begins by not revealing himself to them...speaking harshly to them...and throwing them into prison.
When he does send them home with food, he tells them to return ONLY if they bring Benjamin(their youngest and beloved brother) along with them the next time they come.
When they return again with Benjamin Joseph slips a silver cup in their bag and then frames his youngest brother for the theft.

When all is said and done... Joseph...son of Jacob...ends up blackmailing, framing, and humiliating the brothers that had wronged him.

Sound like forgiveness??  Not to me.  Sounds to me like vengeance.

And yet, Joseph also reveals something else.  He reveals the price of revenge.  After Joseph speaks so harshly to his brother, the text says: "Joseph turned away from them and began to weep..."  He does this, not just once, but three times before he reveals himself!

Vengance comes at a horrible price and that road exacts its toll on you.  Without forgiveness, there can be no peace.  Without forgiveness,  you too will spend your time weeping uncontrollably.  One moment you'll feel a sense of elation like: "Yes!  They're getting what they deserve!"  And the next moment you'll burst into tears.  It is truly only with forgiveness can you find peace.

That's what Joseph learns too, I think.  When at last Joseph reveals himself to them, a river of peace opens up for them all.  The family is reunited again, not because old wrongs have been righted, and not because anyone apologized either(Joseph's brothers never once say they're sorry), but because vengance has been set aside and forgiveness has taken root.

So where do you on the journey of Joseph, between vengeance and forgiveness?  And what wrongs do you have to forgive to have that same peace?

God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, help us set aside vengeance on our journey in this life and embrace your forgiveness, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

More Favorites??

But Jacob said, "My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left.  If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow." Genesis 42:38

More Favorites??
By Rev. William Dohle

Every family has them.  The infamous "favorite child."  You know who they are.  They are the child who gets everything they want.  And doesn't have to do anything for it.  They're the one who can get away with anything...because they're "perfect."  At times they're the informant, or the tattle-tale.  At other times they're the receiver of good gifts.  They're the "favorite child" of their parents and the bane of their siblings.

You might be the favorite in your family... or you might know the one who is.  In my family...that station is up for debate.

It could be me...the oldest who my siblings seem to compare themselves to.
Or it could be my sister...who does so much with my family.
I think it's my younger brother... who my father once told me would be the richest out of all of us.
Or it could be my youngest brother...the one still living at home at 27 years old.

And my immediate family has them too.

Our oldest son...gets lots of responsibility and gets asked to do everything.
Our middle son...gets away with lots because he can hide behind his older brother.
And my daughter...well, you could say that she's a daddy's girl!

Yup.  Regardless of how much we try to love our children equally and treat them all the same, "favorites" creep into family dynamics.  Like a part of nature.

Favorites are especially prevalent in families with large families...even today.  Louis Tverberg in her book "Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus" describes what one African man said about favoritism.  "[It is] this way in polygamous families.  The second wife is usually favored over the first, and the father spoils her children and wants them to be his heirs."(Tverberg, 135).

Jacob does that very thing.  He has favorites.  So much so that when his first favorite, Joseph, is thought to be dead, he moves that station to Joseph's younger brother, skipping all the other children that he has.  It is for that reason that Jacob keeps Benjamin(the youngest son of his favorite wife, Rachel) back from going to Egypt with the rest of them.  Protecting his favorite from the dangers of Egypt.

When Benjamin is forced to stay in Egypt, Jacob sends word back to Joseph again.  "You know that my wife bore me two sons.  one of them went away from me and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces."  And I have not seen him since.  If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him,
 you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery."(Genesis 44:27-28)

It seems strange to me that Jacob doesn't realize he has other sons!  Aren't there MORE people in his family?

And haven't we talked about this already??  I can hear that question in your mind.  If you've followed this devotion, you will notice we have talked of favoritism before.  With Jacob and Esau in fact!  There we had a classic story of favoritism.

And here it is again!

In fact, you could say that the whole Bible is one BIG story of surprising favoritism.  Favoritism...of God!  God throughout Scripture chooses a favorite.  And it's never the person we think it should be.

So far in Genesis... God has chosen Issac...the second born.
Jacob...a deceiver, manipulator and another second born.
He chooses Judah, son of Leah the shunned wife of Jacob, to be the line of kings.
He chooses Tamar...and all that happens with her...as the great-great-great grandmother of King David...and eventually of the Messiah himself.

In fact, God's whole story is a story of choosing favorites.  And of choosing the least likely person to be the favorite in the story.

Joseph...sold into slavery, Hebrew turned Egyptian.
Moses...excuse maker and studderer.
David...youngest son of a whole herd of boys.

Need I go on?  And what's even best is that God has chosen YOU.  YOU ... who were nothing in the eyes of this world.  YOU!  God has chosen YOU!  As Paul writes:

"...think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential' not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things to silence the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to silence the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him."(1 Corinthians 1:26-28)

YOU are God's favorite!  YOU are God's chosen.  Not because you did anything special or perfect.  But because of Christ Jesus.  For in Jesus, the favorite, beloved, Son of God's company, we are all God's favorites!

Open our eyes, Lord God, and help us see that you have chosen us to be your people in this world.  May we extend that invitation to those we find around us, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.