“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” (Genesis 37:19-20)
What on earth was going on in Joseph’s head? It’s clear he hadn’t played baseball, because he clearly ignored the three strikes and you’re out rule.
Strike One: As the son of Jacob’s old age, he was clearly his dad’s favourite. That made his brothers jealous.
Strike Two: Sealing the deal on the favourite status, Joseph is the recipient of a top of the range, stylish jacket. This obviously marked him as a cut above the rest. That made already jealous brothers about to boil over with hatred. All they needed was a trigger.
In circumstances like that, it’s fair to say, if you know you are not a favourite
for your brothers, it’s best to keep your head down and do what you could not to make matters worse.
“I have a dream.” Evidently Martin Luther King wasn’t the first guy to get in trouble for having a dream. At King had the sense to make sure the dream wasn’t deliberately provocative to his brothers.
What on earth was going on in the mind of Two-Strike Joseph for him to share not just one, but two dreams that explicitly indicated he would be in charge over his already jealous brothers?
However ill advised it was for him to divulge the nature of his dreams, it set certain things into process. Chief of which being, although his father rebuked Joseph for suggesting his parents would also bow to him, Jacob kept these things in mind. As a younger sibling who rose to prominence himself, Jacob might have seen history repeating itself with his young son’s dreams.
What’s also noteworthy in this episode is that although there may be jealous and hateful brothers around, when God gives you a dream, it’s worth treasuring because the brothers may try to kill ‘that’ dreamer, but they can never kill the dream.
Joseph was not the first or the last to have God-given dreams. As we come across those who have crazy dreams of pictures of success, we are not to dismiss them. We are to seek the source of the dreams and when it is of God we look forward, in spite of the circumstances, to the realisation of those dreams for the glory of God.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 