Genesis 37:1-11
At one level we are embarking on the story of a family. It was not the last family to have its life disrupted by a family member who has a dream. Families – including church families – would probably manage better without those with dreams to disrupt the normal order of things.
Visibly it is Joseph against the others, but of course Joseph is not the author of the dream. The dream is the stirring-things-up work of the Lord. The dream from the Lord will preside over the ensuing story.
Jacob dotes on Joseph as the one “added” (Genesis 30:24-25). With the brothers this has a predictable effect. Even Jacob is unsettled, understandably, but the content of Joseph’s dreams.
Prayer:
Lord, you surely still bestow dreams. Help us know the difference between your dreams and personal ambition. Give us those with whom to share both, to work them out together. Through Christ. Amen.
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1 comment:
when martin luther king jr said 'i have a dream!' was he dreaming god's dream or his own? who's dreaming god's dreams these days? was it god-sent when george w. bush said "I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did."
i don't mean to ask this question rhetorically or facetiously. there's a real possibility that god told the president to do this. but it just seems so old-testament, like god using the armed might of nebuchadnezzar and cyrus the great to bring about god's purpose.
it's just that when god decided to come down to earth and do things in person, in the person of jesus, there was a radical paradigm shift in methodology. a radical and eternal shift.
but i don't know. i don't know. here i am, a protestant christian of anglo-saxon origin on this north american continent, the heir to centuries of genocide, bloodshed, warfare, and torture, much of it supposedly god-inspired and dreamt.
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