The Life of Joseph, Part 1
In this first of a series of sermons on Joseph, Pastor Shane introduces us to young Joseph, who is shown favor by his father and naively reports badly on his brothers and bears the consequences. Click here for the recording of this 6/2 Service, and you can fast-forward to 26:50 to get to the start of the sermon.
Our text is from Genesis 37.2-11
Joseph, when he was 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.
3Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a multicolored tunic. 4And 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.
Introduction
There are few people in the OT about whom little to nothing is written negatively- such are the lives of Joseph and Daniel, both of whom lived well, under difficult circumstances
Joseph’s name means God will add (Zondervan, 3.692)
Joseph’s father Jacob was married to Leah, by whom he had 7 children
Jacob was married to Bilhah (Rachel’s slave), by whom he had 2 children
Jacob was married to Zilpah (Leah’s slave), by whom he had 2 children
Joseph was the first son of his father’s favorite wife, Rachel, who also bore Benjamin
Do you notice anything?
Three points need to be clear
God never approved of polygamy in the Old Testament - this was a cultural issue
He used the culture, in spite of its dysfunction, for His own purposes
He also uses people like you and I, whom He knows to be imperfect
What we learn from the text
The family dysfunction Joseph found himself in was there long before he arrived- the 11th of 12 sons, by 4 women
The “bad report” only added fuel to the fire; given his later reputation, it was likely truthful; given his age (17) he may not have known to keep quiet
Jacob’s favoritism only made the family dysfunction all the worse; the siblings saw this
Their family dysfunction was evidenced in their communication with each other
How this applies to us
Whenever we step outside God’s plan for family, there will be a price to pay, sometimes several generations over
This bleeds over into other relationships- church, school, government, culture
Innocent children suffer from family dysfunction; they grow up and either heal, or perpetuate the dysfunction
God can redeem bad family decisions and dysfunction
It usually takes a lot of work, and a long time, to heal family dysfunction
Some in the family will actively resist healing; denial, painful, not wanting to put in the work
The local church, if it is healthy, can, and should, act as a surrogate family to help people become whole; thus, we must be healthy ourselves
