Weaving Good

Genesis 37:3-8, 17-22, 26-34 and 50:15-21

“Weaving Good ”

25 September 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            Little brothers are so annoying at times. They get all the special treatment and attention, relaxed curfew rules, and if there is ever an argument or fight the younger brother always comes out smelling like roses because he would never start an argument.

            Well, that’s at least what us older brothers would like everyone to believe. Disclaimer: my brother and I had our moments, but we get along just fine and I hold no ill will against the favoritism he received J

            Joseph does nothing to dispel these stereotypes. The Joseph we meet in in Genesis 37 is a certified brat. He tells his brothers on multiple occasions they will all bow down to him because he is the greatest of the bunch. His father keeps him home while the rest toil in the fields and even gives Joseph a special cloak, the famous Technicolor Dreamcoat.

            I don’t blame his brothers for holding a bit of a grudge and wanting to teach Joseph some humility. But, they went a bit far in their endeavor to bring their annoying little brother down a notch or two.

            I may have threatened my own brother with shipping him off myself, but it was nothing more than threats. I’m pretty sure I also frequently tried to convince him he was adopted, because who would let this annoyance into our family? We may have also had a few fights where some good-natured roughhousing got a bit out of control or what seemed like a good defense of personal space or property was taken too far. But, I never actually thought of throwing him in a ditch or selling him to someone (maybe I did think of selling him off).

            Good thing Ruben spoke some sense into the family mob and told them to not kill Joseph and just leave him in a pit for a while so he could go and clean up the mess later. However, his brothers were a step ahead of him and went back to the pit to sell him off, but some other wanderers had already found Joseph and sold him where he eventually lands in Egypt.

            Joseph’s story includes a bit more suffering. He becomes a member of Potiphar’s household, does quite well in his role actually. For someone who really hadn’t worked a day in his life, he becomes the head of Potiphar’s house running the day-to-day helping Potiphar prosper. Potiphar noticed that Joseph had a special blessing and continued to rely on Joseph.

            Potiphar’s wife becomes jealous and covetous of Joseph, eventually accusing him of sexual assault. Potiphar, without even asking for the whole story, throws Joseph into jail. Again, in the midst of that suffering and tragedy, people are put under Joseph’s care and he takes care of his fellow prisoners. In prison Joseph is correctly interpreting dreams, the same thing that got him into this whole mess. Wword gets back to Pharaoh about Joseph’s dream reading ability.

            Correctly interpreting Pharaoh’s dream about an upcoming famine, Joseph is put in charge of preparing Egypt for the famine. Again Joseph is influencing people outside of Israel. Eventually, his brothers come to Egypt looking for relief from the famine because Egypt is the only nation that properly prepared and has so much grain stored up they can sell to other nations.

            Joseph gets back at his brothers a bit and requires them to bring their youngest brother to Egypt with them. Despite the pleas of Jacob to let Benjamin stay in Israel, the family returns with Benjamin and learns that Joseph never died but that his being sold into slavery worked out for the good of Joseph, his family, and the nation of Israel.

            Nice, neat, and tidy. Just the way we like our fairy tales to end. However, this isn’t a fairy tale, it’s a story of how Israel is able to survive almost any circumstance because God is at work in every situation.

            Just looking at the news every day, we know that happy endings for those in slavery are not the norm. There are many happy endings, but there are many more that don’t end this way. So, it may be hard to see God at work in the darkness of the world. How do we make sense of this happy ending when we know what happens in the world around us?

            There are many ways to translate the Hebrew word that gives us the word intend in verse 50. One way to read this verse is “Even though you planned to harm me, God considered/wove it for good.”

            If we read it this way it changes our interpretation from where God is the one who lets bad things happen or causes them to occur to a reading where God can work good through what the world intends for ill. God has the ability to take horrible things and weave them into something beautiful through the redemptive power of God’s grace.

Will this always occur? No. But, the possibility of that redemption, even if the metamorphosis occurs without our knowledge is what nourishes a hopeful life.

            A situation that looked close to unredeemable at the time became something unexpected. I can find that transformation not just in Joseph, but throughout the story of Israel. But that’s not just Israel’s story, it is our story. 

            The wandering Abraham finds a lasting home, the murderer Cain is protected by God, barren women like Sarah and Rebecca have children, Hagar and Ishmael get a nation, the devious Jacob is renamed Israel, and even arrogant Joseph is humble and forgiving of those that made him suffer immensely. John Newton goes from slave trader to writer of Amazing Grace. Horatio Spafford pens It is Well With My Soul while sailing over the route where his family perished in a sinking.

Christians are a weird family, completely different in almost every way but united through our faith. We, in the line of Israel, are a family full of deception, jealousy, hatred, gossip, wishing of ill will, ignorance of social ills, the list goes on. However, our family is resilient, ultimately reliable, and most important, redeemable. For we are all redeemable regardless of what we have and haven’t done.

            What we intend for harm and ill will is not beyond the reach of God’s grace and redemption. No matter the evil in one’s heart, it cannot overpower the love and grace of God. I may never see the battle won on a grand scale where all pain is washed away, but I can see the small victories of grace over despair each and every day. At times, it may feel like despair is winning the day in my own life, but my faith in God’s grace and love gives hope for the next breath, the next step, the next day. So I too can be like Joseph and open for God to redeem any situation I find myself to reflect God’s glory and power to the world.