Beginning
Sunday July 3
Saturday/Sunday, July 2, 3, 2016
Jeff Lampl
On Sunday we
begin the story of Joseph, one of the most compelling life stories in the
Bible. Joseph’s life (and yours) is a
“movie” not a scene. The best movies are
full of scenes, some horrible, some beautiful, some dramatic, some full of
grace. Take a few moments to read the
first chapter of Joseph’s life and then follow it for the next four
Sundays. Read the first chaotic chapter of Joseph’s life
here.
Genesis chapter
37 (from the paraphrase, The Message)
“The story continues with Joseph, seventeen
years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These
were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and
Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.
3-4 Israel (the other name for Jacob, Joseph’s father, son of Isaac,
son of Abraham) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the
child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When his
brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate
him—they wouldn’t even speak to him.
5-7 Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated
him even more. He said, “Listen to this dream I had. We were all out in the
field gathering bundles of wheat. All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up
and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine.”
8 His
brothers said, “So! You’re going to rule us? You’re going to boss us around?”
And they hated him more than ever because of his dreams and the way he talked.
9 He
had another dream and told this one also to his brothers: “I dreamed another
dream—the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me!”
10-11 When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded
him: “What’s with all this dreaming? Am I and your mother and your brothers all
supposed to bow down to you?” Now his brothers were really jealous; but his
father brooded over the whole business.
12-13 His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing
their father’s flocks. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are with flocks in
Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them.”
Joseph said, “I’m ready.”
14 He
said, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back
a report.” He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem.
15 A man
met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, “What are you
looking for?”
16 “I’m
trying to find my brothers. Do you have any idea where they are grazing their
flocks?”
17 The
man said, “They’ve left here, but I overheard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”
So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan.
18-20 They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them
they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here comes
that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we
can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.”
21-22 Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him,
“We’re not going to kill him. No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern
out here in the wild, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben planned to go back later and
get him out and take him back to his father.
23-24 When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat
he was wearing, grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry;
there wasn’t any water in it.
25-27 Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a
caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with
spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. Judah said, “Brothers, what
are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence?
Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not kill him—he is, after all, our
brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 By
that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out
of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who
took Joseph with them down to Egypt.
29-30 Later Reuben came back and went to the cistern—no Joseph! He
ripped his clothes in despair. Beside himself, he went to his brothers. “The
boy’s gone! What am I going to do!”
31-32 They took Joseph’s coat, butchered a goat, and dipped the coat in
the blood. They took the fancy coat back to their father and said, “We found
this. Look it over—do you think this is your son’s coat?”
33 He
recognized it at once. “My son’s coat—a wild animal has eaten him. Joseph torn
limb from limb!”
34-35 Jacob tore his clothes in grief, dressed in rough burlap, and
mourned his son a long, long time. His sons and daughters tried to comfort him
but he refused their comfort. “I’ll go to the grave mourning my son.” Oh, how
his father wept for him.
36 In
Egypt the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials,
manager of his household affairs.
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