This article is actually more about Joseph than his eldest brother, though it is Reuben who figures in the title to the exclusion of all other names. But since it is rarely if ever that Reuben gets a favourable mention in Bible stories, we will make an attempt to turn the spot light on him too, to see if there is something that we can pick up that is worthy of emulation or commendation.
Even among the lot who distinguished themselves mostly by display of murderous rage towards their brother and cruel insensitivity towards their father, there are – thank God – certain qualities which though not totally redeeming, are nevertheless significant.
The life of Joseph– mainly found spread over chapters 37 through 50 in the book of Genesis in the Bible – reminds one of the game of Snakes and Ladders: sometimes up and sometimes down; in that sense, not very different really from most other lives. But the fact that this guy straddles nearly 14 chapters in the Book of books makes him rather a special person. What makes him stand out?
We can look at Joseph in two ways
a. just another member in the family of God, although endued with some special gifts
b. as a type of Christ
The verse that hooked me to the story of Joseph, is the 21st verse of Ch.37, actually the first part of the verse: “and Reuben heard it”.
Some background information is needed to understand where I am heading.
What exactly did Reuben hear? Answer: the murderous plot of his brothers against Joseph, their younger brother.
And why were the brothers so incensed against Joseph? Why did they hate him so? Because he was his father’s favourite son (v.4).
I have heard it said that Jacob was having a lousy family life, like most patriarchs! The problem in his case was the number of wives: two legitimate + two others. Quite a handful! The favourite son of his mother Rebekah, in time has a favourite wife – Rachel – and a favourite son – Joseph – her first born. Talk about history repeating itself! May be there is a lesson here about playing favourites among children.
But that is not the only reason.
Joseph wasn’t particularly circumspect about sharing his dreams with his brothers – dreams that exalted himself at their expense. And they hated him the more (Vs.5 & 8). Unlike the first reason which was not of his making, Joseph could have kept his dreams to himself and thereby avoided enraging his brothers. But the fellow seems to be the very picture of naiveté, and unthinking in the manner he was reporting his brothers’ evil deeds to the father – a sure way of earning their disaffection. What is more, even his father didn’t think it funny that Joseph was merrily talking about another dream sequence wherein even the sun and the moon were making obeisance to him.
But the guy was guileless and was quite willing to seek out his brothers as his father’s emissary. The only problem was Joseph being Joseph, he chose to wear the badge of his father’s special love, the multi-coloured coat for this fact finding mission. Oh couldn’t he find some else to put on? Sartorial correctness among his loving fraternity wasn’t apparently Joseph’s strong suite.
Spare a thought as to what we wear. How often do we irritate or annoy, titillate or shock people with our choice of apparel? Are we sensitive to the occasion, the mood, the moment, to the cultural mores?
(credit: Toddler activities at home)
“And Reuben heard it”. Many a time that is how God operates, seemingly through events that in themselves may not be earth shaking. Through human agents who are in the right place at the right time and have their ears open. Somebody hears something and acts upon it to bring about a profound change in one’s life.
In a sense, one can hang the saga of Joseph on that single phrase: “And Reuben heard it.”
Now, in this world of injustice and oppression, we hear many things – the voice of jealousy, the voice of unreason, the voice of venom, the voice of venality, the voice of hatred, the voice of murder. And when these do fall into our ears, what is our response? Is it one of “weak resignation” as the hymn writer puts it or is it one of quite determination, a firm resolve to do something about it, to exercise our influence, use our power to do some good, prevent some damage, promote goodwill, build up rather than tear down.
It is so easy to join the chorus. The immoral majority. Here Reuben was standing alone, facing nine of his brothers and taking a principled, contrarian stand. The minority making itself heard above the din of deafening cries of hatred.
Yes, quite often, that is all it takes. One single voice of reason.
Will it be yours?
Where necessary, do we have it in us to do a solo? Can we make bold to give expression to what our heart knows to be right? Show some leadership, display of responsibility, under girder of values, sense of duty, moral obligation, compassion, care or even just plain good sense.
Well done, Reuben.
You realized that the privilege of being the first born comes with certain responsibilities: protection of your siblings and care for your parents.
Yes, we ought to thank God for the Reubens of this world.
With that lesson learnt, let’s take a step back and consider the story from a different perspective.
Does God have a plan for our lives? Or, are we mere creatures of circumstances, destined to become what we are by a variety of random factors? Merely making our moves mindlessly on the game board of earth at some arbitrary throw of divine dice?
David makes it clear in the Psalms that God’s plan for us goes back to the time when we were in our mother’s womb (Ps.22:9, 139:13). Jesus himself declares that all the hairs of our heads are numbered (Mathew.10:30). Then again in Isaiah (49:16) we read that God has engraved us in the palm of His hands.
Now we know nothing about Joseph’s godliness. His parents were not shining examples of godly lives. If his father Jacob was notorious for deceiving his own father and father-in-law, mother Rachel was not a step behind, deceiving her father (over the matter of the missing idol).
Though we have no clue as to his nurture in the ways of Jehovah, the reading of the passage makes is clear that God took a special interest in Joseph. I do not want to touch the minefield of pre-election, but here we begin to see that God has a plan for Joseph’s life. And Joseph too must have feared God but there are no indications in his early life. There is, for instance, no description of him praying. In fact there is no mention of God or Lord at all in Ch.37 but wasn’t He orchestrating everything from behind a screen, as it were?
From later sections of the story, we see that Joseph was a wise man. Since we know that
“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”( Prv.9:10), we can derive that he was indeed a God fearing man.
Now let me read that passage again in my own version. “As luck would have it, Joseph’s eldest brother Reuben heard it……”
I think many a time we fail to acknowledge God’s hand in our lives. And we put it down to fortuitous circumstances or our own clever handling of matters or whatever.
It would be interesting to raise another question here: What do you think of the role of luck or chance in a Christian’s life?
Luck is best confined to the field of sports. Life is a far too serious business. I have heard several stories of how people escaped being part of the tragedy on 9/11 and I am sure so have you:
“ the head of a company survived because his son started kindergarten that fateful morning”
“another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts”
“one woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t go off in time”
“somebody missed his bus”
“one went back to answer the telephone”
“ and there was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,
took various means to get to work, but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. So, he stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today”
The foregoing led someone to declare that “Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone…all the little things that annoy me, I try to think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment.”
I know there is a danger in carrying this too far and start looking for meaning in all sorts of ordinary happenstance. No doubt God is with us all the time, but we need to pray that God will give us discernment and a sense of proportion of events that affect us.
As for Joseph, he didn’t put his misfortunes down to chance. He probably was not aware of what was happening at that time but years later he acknowledges God’s wonderful plan. “God sent me before you to preserve life….It was not you, but God” (Gen.45:5-8).
What a gracious thing to say! What spiritual maturity on display! He sought to relieve his brothers of their feeling of guilt arising from the enormous harm they did to him.
“And Reuben heard it”.
There are other like verses in the Bible which I call commas and semicolons or even parenthetical statements in the lives of God’s children. I discovered another one in the same story. “Peradventure it was an oversight”: Jacob speaking in Gen.43:12, when it was discovered that the price money for the grain was back in the sacks. Indeed!!
What is “peradventure” at this point becomes perfectly clear later. Yes, these puzzling, confusing, disconcerting developments in one’s life – unexpected and certainly unplanned – will have to wait for the whole story to unfold before we know the whys and wherefores. And that, sometimes will only happen in eternity.
Time now for another probing question.
Is it possible for God’s plans to be thwarted?
Early in the story, we know nothing about God’s plans for Joseph’s life except for what was revealed in his dreams, that one day he will rule over his brothers and also that even his parents will do him obeisance. Joseph obviously thought there was something in it but the whole thing looked so very outlandish and fanciful at that point in time. Jacob rebuked him but he pondered over the matter. Those were the days of dreams and visions and his brothers too did not take them lightly. Indeed they set out to frustrate God’s plan as they understood it. In fact there was defiance in their attitude:”we shall see what will become of his dreams” (Gen.37:20)
Sometimes instead of cooperating with God or at the least allowing Him to work out His purposes, we run counter to it willfully and end up paying the price. We all know the story of Jonah. God is capable of fulfilling his plans through one or the other of his agents or servants (we see that notably in the words of Mordecai, in the book of Esther 4:14) But there is great danger in defying the will of God. It is a zero sum game …no negative. You end up losing far more than you gain.
And another vexatious question.
Do God’s plans for his children always include suffering?
The short answer is, “Yes”. It pleased God to perfect the captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings (Heb.2:10). Indeed it is a prerequisite to become a saint of God. Before the crown comes the cross. Here of course we are talking about unmerited suffering – suffering for the cause of Christ, for the sake of righteousness, truth ..etc., not punishment for one’s crimes.
God did not spare Joseph from his share of troubles. If anything he experienced more trouble than most normal people. Thrown in to a pit by his jealous brothers, sold as a slave to strangers, deported to a foreign land, cast into prison on trumped up charges.. he suffered for his integrity.
Well may we ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
The oft quoted Romans 8:28 answers this but obliquely. God is in control ….and He is moving in his own mysterious way his wonders to perform. We have no option but to cling on in tenacious faith..and trust.
It is instructive to look at Joseph’s character as it manifests itself in the narrative.
Looking back, Joseph acknowledged that God sent him before to preserve his father’s house. He could see God’s hand in all that happened to him and refused to blame his brothers, as we just saw. (Proverbs 3:6: In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path.)
We touched on this earlier but an encore would do no harm. Many a time it takes hindsight to see God’s work. While it is happening, you do not know why or even what is happening. And there are distressing times when God doesn’t seem to do anything at all, and He remains a silent spectator while his people go through hell. Doesn’t answer, doesn’t seem to care. And if He is going to move at all, we are completely in the dark as to His timing. We are only called upon to “wait patiently for the Lord” (Ps.27:13,14). And again, “Be still and know that I am God” ( Ps.46: 10 ). Joseph complied.
Another quality we see in Joseph’s life is that he never schemed or manipulated events to his personal advantage. In fact control over his life was largely taken away from him. No career planning. I have heard successful managers hold forth on the virtue of carefully charting out your career graph, your course in life. No such luxury for Joseph. Others were calling the shots concerning him,.. were in fact plotting and scheming and conspiring against him.
Yet he became Prime Minister of a foreign country at a very young age of 30. Wow!
So, what do you think of the role of career planning in a Christian’s life?
Though we do not see ‘pushiness’ in his ways, Joseph did play a game later on that brought his brothers to their knees as it were when he made them realize the enormous folly of their ways. He did it in a way that fulfilled his childhood dreams but my point here is that when it was in his power he confronted wrong without finding fault.
Smart, eh?
(Credit: Cross and cutlass)
The naïve, callow youth, the tattle tale of yore had at last mellowed to an extent of employing stratagem in statesmanship.
And there is more. Though the Egyptians knew Joseph was a foreigner, a Hebrew, curiously his brothers were convinced he was Egyptian. Why?
He spoke the language (Gen.42:23), He learnt the culture (ibid 43:32). He dressed like them. He integrated well – linguistically, culturally and sartorially (ring a bell?). The fact that he married an Egyptian helped.
Joseph feared God. He says that himself in a play acting scene (Gen.42:18).
He was diligent in business and he stood “before Kings” (Prov.22:29)
God was with him at every step. In fact God went to prison with him (Gen.39:21), the first time God was incarcerated!
God prospered him. He blessed Potiphar because of Joseph. In short Joseph was a blessing in a foreign land (Gen 39:5). We read that Pharoah acknowledges the Spirit of God(Gen:41:38) residing in Joseph.That is tremendous! What a testimony!
That’s one for all those sojourning outside their native land! But in a sense, all of us are (1 Pet.1:14). And we’ve heard the man with the golden voice – Jin Reeves – sing “This world is not our home”.
Yes, people (and the Government) should know we are Christians by our love, by our discretion, by our understanding, by our behaviour, by our conduct, by our character. Let’s extend this to the somewhat difficult area of paying taxes and obeying traffic rules!
How do we drive?
Much as there is to emulate in the life of Joseph, he was not a perfect model. No human is.
He had his failings. I think it would be instructive also to look at these.
He flaunted his special gifts to the annoyance of his brothers. As we noted earlier on, he could be faulted with a wardrobe dysfunction.
And he was a squealer (Gen.37:2), was insensitive to the feelings of his brothers and father and showed little tact or diplomacy.
Some people take great pride in being blunt, calling a spade a spade etc., but many a time they end up being regarded as brusque. Even conceited. Paul counsels moderation in everything (Phi.4: 5) and talks about speaking the truth in love (Eph.4:15). Otherwise you might end up driving people away from you with your attitude of “I am OK, You are not”.
Joseph had a tendency to dance with the devil.
I might be wrong but I think Joseph was fully aware that there was no man in the house when he entered Potiphar’s house on that fateful day. I won’t go so far as to suggest that he engineered it, but I think he enjoyed a bit of flirtation (like we all do). But in this case, it was like playing with fire. He put himself into a compromising situation.
You think you can handle it on your own strength and can get out before it hurts, but the devil is smarter. He is out to get you. It is not for nothing that the Lord taught us to pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”.
Joesph paid the price for his indiscretion. I am sticking my neck out here but to my mind, it wasn’t God’s original plan that Joseph should languish in jail for years. This was the result of his own sin or sinful tendency. This should serve as a warning to us.
Yes, sin has consequences.
While God punished him, He did not leave him. Whether in the palace or prison we can experience God’s presence.
Earlier we saw that Joseph did not scheme or manipulate things to his own advantage but when he is in gaol, he asks the chief cupbearer to put in a good word for him to Pharoah.
I don’t think he was forgetting God but he was certainly slipping from his own lofty standards. In that sense, he seems to have lost some of the fellowship he enjoyed with God. But he had to learn the lesson “not to put his trust in princes, nor in son of man”(Ps.146:3 ).
You cannot rely on human beings to come to your rescue. Nothing happened for two long years.Pharoah slept soundly and dreamlessly!
We almost forgot but we have to look at Joseph also as a type of Jesus.
1. He was his father’s beloved son (Gen 37:3)
2. His father sends him in search of his long missing children (Gen 37:13)
3. Joseph readily obeys (Gen 37:13)
4. He searches for his brothers and goes after them (Gen 37:17)
5. He finds them (Gen 37:17)
6. But his brothers reject him and sell him for 20 pieces of silver (Gen 37:28)
7. His soul was in anguish (Gen.42:21)
8. His brothers decided to kill him and figuratively did just that (Gen 37:20,31)
9. He was brought out of the dungeon (Gen.41:14)
10. He was elevated to great pomp and splendor (Gen.41:42)
11. He forgave his brothers (Gen.45: 5)
12. And he prepares a place for his brothers (Gen.45: 10)
13. And takes them unto him (Gen.46:29)
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