BEAUTIFUL DREAMER
by Steve Zeisler
I would like to ask you to think this morning about an occasion when you
were chosen for something or other, or perhaps when you were not chosen.
I recently attended a Little League tryout where I watched a number of kids
going through their paces, hoping to be chosen by one of the coaches who
were watching. The kids were giving it all they had--hitting, throwing,
and running the bases, hoping they would be the ones selected. This is the
time of year also when many high school graduates are hoping their favorite
dates will choose them as partners to the high school proms. Some of you
may have found the house of your dreams and placed a bid on it. Now you
are living in hope that you will be the one whose offer is chosen. Others
of you have sent resumes to potential employers. You arc wondering if those
whose responsibility it is to select new employees will choose you or not.
These are but a few examples to illustrate the fact that we face many situations
in life when we are left wondering if we will be among the chosen or not.
Sometimes, of course, it is to our advantage to not be chosen. Take Selective
Service, for example. There is one group many would just as soon pass up
and not be chosen for. Then there is jury duty. I had to respond to that
call recently. I spent much of one day hoping I would not be among those
chosen to try a long drawn-out court case; not that I have anything against
the jury system, but because I already was very busy with other things.
In this series on the lives of certain Old Testament figures we are looking
at the life stories of four men who were chosen by God. Three of these men
were patriarchs and the fourth was one of the heads of the twelve tribes
of Israel. The salvation story began when God summoned Abraham to leave
Ur of the Chaldees and depart for a land which was unknown to him. God had
determined to reverse the tragedy caused by the fall of Adam by choosing
individuals through whom he would work out a plan of redemption for mankind.
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the first three men whom God chose to accomplish
his will. Today we will look at the story of the fourth individual, Jacob's
son Joseph.
Being chosen by God does not mean an easy life will follow. A case could
be made for saying that being chosen of God is more like being chosen by
the Selective Service board than being chosen for a Little League team.
At times, being chosen by God results in extraordinary hardship, difficulty
and danger for the one chosen. Abraham as living quite comfortably in Ur
before his call by God. He knew who he was and what was expected of him.
Then God chose him and Abraham was thrust out into the wilderness without
an idea of where he was to go or what God expected from him. Abraham had
to learn to trust someone other than himself in the dangerous years which
lay ahead. Jacob was an insecure, fearful man. God called him to a difficult
life also. To begin with, he had to live under his uncle's tyrannical rule
for twenty years. On one occasion he had to wrestle with the pre-incarnate
Christ and suffered a dislocated hip as a consequence. Then he had to return
home after many years and face his brother Esau whom he had cheated. As
one chosen of God, Jacob had to face many difficult circumstances in life.
We will discover that Joseph too had his difficulties. He had a different
set of issues to work on in his life. In order to accomplish that, God called
upon him to face hardship and suffering. As was the case with all four of
these individuals, responding to God's call can often mean that, rather
than receiving what we want for ourselves, we will instead learn of the
resources we need to live life.
I say all of this in part because I want to comment on the ongoing controversy
surrounding certain television evangelists. It seems to me that one of the
saddest things about the controversy surrounding Jim and Tammy Bakker is
how deeply this couple misunderstand what it means to be chosen by God.
Also, they seem to completely misunderstand what constitutes what they repeatedly
refer to as a "ministry." Ministry, first and foremost, is service.
To be a minister is to be a servant. It has nothing to do with being given
everything you want in life. It has nothing to do with growing richer and
healthier. It has nothing to do with prominence or high standing. A minister
is one who is chosen of God to serve others; and he draws upon the power
of God so that he may do good for others, very often to his own disadvantage
and cost. All of this angling for ministry which we are seeing reported
each day, as if ministry were a stepping stone to exaltation, is a very
sad thing. To be chosen by God means to be fitted by the hand of God as
an instrument which he will use for good in the lives of others. And this
call, as we have seen in the lives of the patriarchs, will always bring
with it both difficulty and blessing.
If you are chosen by God, for instance, one of the promises you inherit
is that you will have peace--the "peace that passes all understanding."
Your fears and your brokenness will be ministered to in a very personal
way by God himself. That, finally, was Jacob's experience. Being chosen
by God also ensures that we will grow in holiness; that we will live lives
of increased moral beauty. We become what we really want to be: men and
women whose lives are characterized, as Jesus' life was characterized by
purity and humility. Also, if we are chosen by God, we are promised his
continuing presence with us. He will never leave us or forsake us, Scripture
promises.
But, on the other hand, we are not promised certain things. We are not promised
wealth or prominence. We are not promised healthy bodies that will respond
to all situations with grace and beauty. God does not promise continual
harmonious family relationships. He does not promise that we will be considered
great among our peers. On the contrary, we will often be rejected, even
by our friends. God promises to his chosen, peace, holiness, and a sense
of his presence with us. He will make us his instrument to do something
good and salutary in our world. He will use us to bring others who do not
know him to himself, and to help bring our fellow-believers to maturity.
Let us look, then, at the fourth individual in the line of Abraham's descendants
who was chosen by God. We will see in the life of Joseph the twin results
of blessing and difficulty which accrue to being among the chosen of God.
Genesis 37:
Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned,
in the land of Canaan. These are the records of the generations of Jacob.
Joseph, when seventeen years of age, was pasturing the flock with his brothers
while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of
Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought back a bad report about them
to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because
he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic. And
his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers;
and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.
Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated
him even more. And he said to them, "Please listen to this dream which
I have had; for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my
sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around
and bowed down to my sheaf." Then his brothers said to him, "Are
you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over
us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said,
"Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon
and eleven stars were bowing down to me." And he related it to his
father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him,
"What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and
your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?"
And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in
mind.
There are some similarities in the stories of the lives of Jacob and Joseph.
For instance, dreams and prophecies played a part in the story of God's
choosing of both of them. Rebekah, Jacob's mother, learned before they were
born that the second of her twin boys Esau and Jacob would be the son upon
whom God's favor would rest. Joseph, as we have just read in Genesis, himself
had strange dreams that had to do with his calling and choosing by God.
But the stories of their upbringing are quite different. Unlike Joseph,
Jacob as a boy had to deal with his father's rejection of him in favor of
Esau. Throughout most of his life he suffered from the consequences of that
rejection. He became a mother's boy, and seemed unable to succeed in a man's
world; he was taken advantage of by his uncle. Jacob spent much of his life
struggling with understanding how could God possibly be for him when so
many things in life were set against him.
Joseph, by contrast, was a "golden" boy. He was his father's favorite.
He was the favorite of all indeed, with the exception of those who had to
compete with him. As we will see later, he was a very handsome man. He was,
in fact, an extremely talented, brilliant man. Joseph was successful in
everything he put his hand to. He was a natural leader who always was sought
out for his wise counsel. He was favored by both God and man. No Little
League tryouts for Joseph! He was everybody's number one draft pick. He
didn't have to agonize over whether he would have a date for the senior
prom or not. He had his pick of the girls; all he had to do was ask. Failure
in any endeavor was something Joseph never had to deal with. He was the
ultimate "golden" boy.
As a freshman in college, I had to struggle with the fact that a "golden"
boy was living in the room right down the hall from me. I seem to recall
that he had a perfect SAT score of sixteen hundred. He was a starter on
the freshman basketball team; he regularly played chess with the head of
the math department; and he had the good looks of a blond-haired surfer
type from Southern California--the whole bit. He was altogether intimidating
to me and others until we got to know him.
Joseph was like that. He was a winner at everything he attempted. He was
the youngest son for a time before Benjamin was born), and as such was his
father's favorite. He also was the son of Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife.
According to the text, his father made him a beautiful robe once, a rich
garment that set him apart from others. You would have thought that Jacob,
himself all unfavored child, would have learned from his own childhood to
not pick favorites. Even the jealousy between his wives, who were continually
bickering over who was his favorite spouse, did not seem to teach him much.
The turmoil of his older sons over this obvious favoritism did not seem
to dawn on Jacob. He went ahead and displayed his bias by giving Joseph
a beautiful robe. But it was Joseph's own idea, not his father's, to wear
the robe everywhere he went. Even when he traveled miles to find his brothers,
as we will see later, he wore this robe which set him apart and which announced
to all that he was his father's favorite son. He didn't have to do that.
Furthermore, the dreams which Joseph had which foretold his future prominence
did not have to be paraded before his family. He never received instructions
in his dreams to tell everybody that he would one day lord it over them.
But he did it anyway. And not only were his brothers angry at what his dreams
foretold, they were furious at the way he told them about it (verse 8: "they
hated him for his dreams and his words"). There was, apparently, a
degree of arrogance in his voice and that infuriated them. To rub salt in
their wounds, he repeated the hurt by informing them that he had had another
dream, and it seemed to portend even greater things for himself in the future.
Joseph was a chosen instrument of God all right, but, despite all of his
natural attributes, he was missing something. He was lacking in humility.
He would have to learn that it was not enough to know what was true, and
to be brave enough to declare it, unless he was humble enough to know what
effect his words would have upon those listening to him. Christians are
to "speak the truth in love," Paul counsels in his letter to the
Ephesians. It's just not good enough to point out error, or misjudgment,
or inadequacy, or whatever. If we cannot share such things in love, if there
is not some attempt at empathy with the one being confronted, then we really
are not ministering as God would have us minister.
Learning that lesson would occupy Joseph for quite a while. When the Lord
finally was done with him, he would be able to do both. He would be a fit
instrument. Failure was one thing he never had to deal with. Unlike the
kid who is last to be picked by the Little League coaches; unlike the high
school student who waits almost in desperation for an invitation to the
prom; unlike the job applicant who never gets answers to his resumes, Joseph
never had to worry about whether he had what it takes, whether he was loved
or not. "Do nothing from selfish advantage or empty conceit,"
Paul says in Philippians, "but with humility of mind let each one of
you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look
out for your own personal interest, but also for the interests of others.
Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, that though
he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied himself..." Have the same mindset as Jesus,
in other words. He deliberately chose to not exalt himself, but to mingle
with the hurting and needy, and minister to them.
The convicted rapist Laurence Singleton has found it impossible to find
a community of people in California who will allow him to be paroled among
them. Last weekend the governor of the state arranged it so that Singleton
may spend the rest of his time on parole, living in a trailer home on the
grounds of San Quentin prison. In one community where a man carried a sign
saying Singleton deserved a break, the man had to be taken into custody
for his own safety. As I have followed this case, I have asked myself what
would be my response if this man were paroled in Palo Alto. Would there
be a way to combine truth with love, righteousness and compassion in this
instance? As Christians and citizens, we will be increasingly faced with
decisions with regard to people who are infected with AIDS. It is easy to
voice an opinion about rights and wrongs, but it is possible that the voice
of self-righteousness will cry louder than the voice of compassion and acceptance.
Joseph had to learn a way to not only tell his brothers that they were messing
up--and to tell his father that they were doing so--he would also have to
find a way to minister to them in the process. God will see to it that he
will learn those skills. When he finally achieves prominence, it will not
be the prominence of one who seeks to lord it over all others, but the prominence
of a servant who blesses others because God has taught him how to be a blessing
to others.
The story of Joseph continues with our hero being sent out by his father
in search of his brothers.
And Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing
the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them." And he said
to him, "I will go." Then he said to him, "Go now and see
about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock; and bring
word back to me." So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he
came top Shechem. And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the
field; and the man asked him, "What are you looking for?" And
he said, "I am looking for my brothers; please tell me where they are
pasturing the flock." Then the man said, "They have moved from
here; for I heard them say, "'Let us go to Dothan."' So Joseph
went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
Joseph's brothers were occupied in shepherding the family's flocks. They
had apparently driven the animals north, as far as Shechem. Jacob became
concerned for them for it was at Shechem they had attacked and taken violent
revenge on the local villagers for their sister Dinah's seduction. This
is why Jacob sends Joseph to inquire about his brothers.
It seems to me though that Jacob's ten sons, far from being in danger, are
themselves a clear and present danger to anyone they came in contact with.
These brothers were the "shoot-first-and-ask- questions-later"
badmen of early Biblical history, the James gang of their era. They were
violent, trigger-happy individuals who allowed no one to come between them
and what they wanted. No wonder the man whom Joseph met knew of the brothers'
whereabouts. "Oh, those guys. Yes, they left here some time ago. I
heard them say they were going on to Dothan. Are the locals ever glad."
Jacob's concern for his sons' welfare was misplaced, to say the least.
Verse 18:
When they saw him from a distance and before he came closer
to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. And they said to
one another, "Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill
him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured
him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!" But Reuben heard
this and rescued him out of their hands and said, "Let us not take
his life." Reuben further said to them, "Shed no blood, cast him
into the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him"--that he might rescue
him out of their hands, to restore him to his father. So it came about,
when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic,
the varicolored tunic that was on him; and they took him and threw him into
the pit. Now the pit was empty, without water in it. Then they sat down
to eat a meal. And as they raised their eyes and looked, behold, a caravan
of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic
gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to bring them down to Egypt. And Judah
said to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother
and cover up his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and
not lay our hands on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh." And
his brothers listened to him. Then some Midianite traders passed by, so
they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the
Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into
Egypt.
Now Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in
the pit; so he tore his garments. And he returned to his brothers and said,
"The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?" So they took
Joseph's tunic, and slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the tunic in the
blood; and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father
and said, "We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your
son's tunic or not." Then he examined it and said, "It is my son's
tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!"
So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for
his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort
him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, "Surely I will go
down to Sheol in mourning for my son." So his father wept for him.
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's officer,
the captain of the bodyguard.
The sight of these ten brothers sitting around a campfire preparing their
evening meal while Joseph lies at the bottom of a pit must be one of the
most hardhearted scenes in all Scripture. Then a twinge of conscience enters
the picture. It is Reuben, who disgraced himself in a sexual liaison with
his stepmother, and who still feels the sorrow he had caused his father
over that incident, who experiences the first twinge of guilt. Judah is
the next one whose conscience begins to bother him. He suggests that they
not kill Joseph, but rather sell him as a slave. His is not a very impressive
twinge of conscience, but his solution nevertheless seems a lesser evil
to him. The James gang of Genesis at last seem to recognize that there are
solutions to problems that do not involve wiping out people. In chapter
42 we learn that the cries of Joseph in the pit were still ringing in their
ears many years later. The still small voice of conscience had by then become
a shout.
But what a sorry scene this is! The brothers first plotted Joseph's destruction.
Then they changed their plans and decided to sell him as a slave, thereby
exposing him, for all they knew, to a fate even worse than death. They then
crafted a lie to tell Jacob, their father. What a hard-nosed bunch of outlaws'
A comment they make during the planning stage of their operation becomes
almost a prophecy. Fed up with Joseph's arrogance, his "golden boy"
abilities, his self-important dreams, they decide to put an end to this
irritant. Having thus decided, they say, "Then let us see what will
become of his dreams!" As we will see, the story of Joseph does not
end here. They will indeed see what becomes of his dreams.
Abraham had to believe God in the face of utter uncertainty as to what the
future held for him. He went on to become a model of faith for his and all
generations to follow. Isaac had to overcome personal lethargy and ease
of life. He had to learn instead that it was worth taking a certain stand
in pursuit of something. Jacob had to learn to overcome inadequacy and fear
and to take God at his word. For his part, Joseph had to overcome insensitivity
and arrogance. By the end of each of these men's lives they had become instruments
through whom God worked in the lives of others. The story of Joseph must
be read through to the end, to the culmination of his brothers' cynical
comment, "Let us then see what will become of his dreams!" Let
us follow his dreams through to the end and see if they are indeed redeemable
by God. As we will discover, they are.
Do you battle, like Abraham, with uncertainty? Perhaps you battle, as did
Isaac, with lethargy and sloth. Are you, like Jacob, insecure and doubting?
Or perhaps you are like Joseph, insensitive and arrogant? Perhaps you suffer
from a combination of all of these negative traits. If you are indeed chosen
by God, he has called you into a relationship with himself. He is headed
in a certain direction with you, and he will not fail you. Let us see what
becomes of the dream of each life represented here. Let us encourage one
another as that dream is realized. God did not choose us so that we might
be exalted before others. He did not choose us so that we might be wealthy
and have high standing in our communities. He chose us rather so that he
might make us effective servants in his behalf. Let us see what will happen
to all of the dreams represented here this morning.
Catalog No 4043
Genesis 37:1-36
Fifth Message
Steve Zeisler
May 31,1987
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