The Bible tells us that "Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age." I'm sure that's true. But I kind of think Joseph was special, because he was born of Jacob's union with Rachel. It was the living symbol of their love. That may be the romantic in me. But ...
Now I'm sure the other brothers knew this, because dad treated Joseph special. He gave him a coat of many colors. Funny how intense love on one part always strikes hatred into someone else's. Of course, that's probably fear on their part. Fear that they won't be loved, too. Or loved as much. Remember grade school? Whenever two close friends got together, it was loads of fun. Or when it was a great big group. But when it was three people, someone always felt left out. I think that's what happened with the brothers. Each of them wanted to feel special too.
But Joseph's biggest problem was that he shared his dreams with his brothers. And these weren't just Joseph's dreams. These were God's dreams for him. These dreams showed him being in power over his brothers, and the boys didn't take well to that. And then their jealousy and hatred got the best of them, and they plotted their revenge.
They were all set to kill Joseph. Except Reuben. He went along with the crowd, but he planned a way to rescue his little bro. Unfortunately, Joseph was sold into slavery before he could take care of the rescue.
Whenever we share our dreams for our lives, some people react well and others don't. They may not understand why we want to travel around the world. They may be jealous of the attention we get from others. They may wish they had the same dream.
But God didn't give all of us the same dream. Each of us has a different path to travel. But I do hope I can share what's in my heart with others and find something other than jealousy. I hope I can celebrate others' good fortunes. For me, that's the lesson to learn from these sons of Israel. How to embrace the dreamer in all of us. But of course, more on that as the story continues tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment