“Now is the winter of our discontent”

Rachel, Leah and Jacob…probably one of the saddest stories in the Bible, don’t you think?  But I just read a couple of things that helped me think of this story from a completely different direction.  Very interesting!

Typically, each person plays an extremely stereotypical role:  Jacob is the love-blinded hero, just trying to do his best with the cards he’d been dealt; Rachel is the tragic love interest who cries a lot and dies young; and Leah plays the evil step-sister (ala Cinderella) by flaunting her blessings in front of poor Rachel.

But look at the story from the perspective of a gentleman named Richard L. Strauss (not the composer).  He’s a Christian author who has written a book called, Living in Love: Secrets from Bible Marriages, that covers thirteen important couples of the Bible.  Sound familiar?  Anyway, he has an extremely interesting take on the story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah.

(You can find the complete book, along with many of his other books, as well as a bunch of other interesting stuff, for free at bible.org)

To start things off, Mr. Strauss compares Rachel and Jacob’s initial relationship to that of the football hero and homecoming queen—that is, based on physical attraction and not much else.  The only salvation for the relationship at all was the enforced seven year engagement that forced them to get to know each other.  He also includes something that I’ve always felt:  that Leah really loved Jacob and that’s why she went along with Laban’s plan.  Imagine how she must have felt when she heard Jacob yelling at Laban about being tricked.  Ouch!

Now, something I’d never thought of before was that maybe God’s best will for Jacob was to be married to Leah only and that he should have accepted the trick as God’s will. But, Jacob being Jacob, he was going to get what he wanted no matter what it cost anybody.  Hm.  Something to think about.

It is under the stressful situation of a two wife household Strauss believes that Rachel’s true nature begins to show.  So, here’s Rachel who has been the favored daughter, the favored wife, the beauty of the family, wealthy and she tells Jacob, “Give me children or else I die.”  Genesis 30:1  According to Strauss, this is Rachel’s way of saying, if I can’t have what I want, when I want it, I’d rather be dead.  Never mind that Jacob was willing to work fourteen years to be allowed to marry her, she wanted what Leah had—children. 

The spirit of discontent governed Rachel’s life and, probably, made the people around her miserable as well.  Even when Rachel has a son, she names him ‘Joseph’ which means “may he add” and says “May the Lord give me another son.”  Genesis 30:24

“A beggar standing on a street corner commented to his friends, ‘“If only I had a hundred dollars, I would never complain again.’  A businessman walking by over heard his statement and interrupted the conversation.
“’Excuse me,’ the man said.  ‘Did you say if you had a hundred dollars, you would never complain again?’
“The beggar replied, ‘You heard right, mister.’
The man pulled out his wallet, handed him one hundred dollars, and said, ‘I’m glad I can have a small part in bringing happiness to the world.’
After the man walked away, the beggar turned to his friends and remarked, ‘I wish I had asked for two hundred dollars!’”  Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint

So, what does it mean to be discontent?  From the dictionary I get this definition:  “a restless desire or craving for something one does not have” and these synonyms: “uneasiness, inquietude, restlessness, and displeasure”.

At the same time, though, we have to be very careful to separate “good” discontent from “bad” discontent.  The “good” kind is what triggers motivation toward change and better things.  But the “bad” kind, well, it’s the basis for every sin, war, murder, or whatever other bad thing you can think of.  For example, why did Lucifer fight with God?  He had become discontent or dissatisfied with his place in the Heavenly hierarchy.   Why did Eve take the fruit?  Why did Cain kill Abel?  Why did Hitler invade Poland?

Guy R. Finnie classifies discontent as “carnal” and “spiritual”.  He defines “carnal discontent” as a person who is completely involve in himself (or herself).  This kind of discontent grows out of covetousness, craving what someone else has, even if what we have ourselves is actually better.

Satan has made sure that society today is built almost exclusively on creating discontentment.  What else is advertising?  If the advertiser shows us enough times that we can’t be happy if we don’t use a particular brand of some product, then we begin to believe that the advertiser is right.

Look at some of the books we read and the movies and shows we watch.  A lot of them center around beautiful men and women with lots of money falling in love, never doing housework, not needing a job, and living happily ever after.  If we look at that kind of life enough, even though it’s imaginary, it can make our lives seem pretty drab and unhappy.  We become discontented with the way we’re living.  As a consequence, we overspend, we hate our jobs, our marriages end, and we want maids to do the housework.  In fact, we become very, very unhappy with what God has given us.  We start thinking more about ourselves and how to get happier, and that’s just not the way Jesus wants us to live.  “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”  Hebrews 13:5

Read this fable by Jackie McCune:

The Silver Shoes

Once, before this, in the Town of Discontent, lived a little boy named Saad.  Now Discontent was not always the name of the town; it was once known as Pleasant.  It was an unusual town because everyone who lived there always wore silver shoes.  You see, there was a shoemaker in Pleasant who made silver shoes for everyone and all he ever charged was a smile.The silver shoes were unusual because they never wore out.  Another unusual thing about them was that they were always the right size no matter how big the people’s feet were.  Whenever a new baby was born in Pleasant the parents would take the baby to the shoemaker and he would make a pair of beautiful silver shoes.  Somehow, as the baby grew, so did the shoes.But one day, another shoemaker came to Pleasant.  He opened his shop right next door to the maker of the silver shoes.“Come and try on MY beautiful shoes, he called to the people as they walked by his shop.  “They are gold and they have jewels that glisten like all the colors of the rainbow.”The people of Pleasant thought the shoes were indeed very beautiful.  Why, some pairs even had three or four jewels on each shoe!  Everyone rushed into the new shoe shop to buy shoes, but when they smiled at the new shoemaker and started to leave, he said, “That will be $10.00 please.”“The old shoemaker only charges a smile,” they said.“But his shoes all look alike,” the new shoemaker said.  “That’s true,” the people would say, and then they would pay the $10.00, take their shoes and rush home to try them on.Now when Saad was born, the town was still called the Town of Pleasant and Saad was named Happy.  True to his name, he was a happy little boy.“Lets take him to the NEW shoemaker,” said his mother.  “I like all the pretty jewels he puts on the shoes he makes; see how mine sparkle?”“Ten dollars is a lot of money,” said his father.  “But if that’s what you want, we will get them for Happy.”They took Happy to the new shoe shop and he was fitted with a beautiful pair of gold shoes with red and blue jewels.  But a few months later they were too tight and Happy began to cry because his shoes hurt his feet.“I don’t have $10.00 to buy another pair right now,” said his father.“But he must have shoes,” cried his mother.His father thought for a moment, “Well, we do have the money we saved for his new bed.  We could use some of that.”So back they went to the new shoe shop.  But when another few months had gone by, the second pair of shoes was too small, and Happy was not happy, because his feet were hurting again.“We must go back to the old shoemaker,” said his father.When they came to the place where the old shoemaker had been, the shop was empty.“Oh!” exclaimed his mother, “What will we do?”“There is nothing we can do,” answered his father.  “We have no money to buy from the new shoemaker and now the old shoemaker is gone.  Our son will have to be without shoes; and so shall we, for our shoes are wearing thin and it will not be long before we will have to throw them away.All the other families in Pleasant found themselves with the same problem for they too had been attracted by the sparkling shoes and, because no one came for the silver shoes anymore, the old shoemaker had moved on to another town.And so it was that the Town of Pleasant became the Town of Discontent and Happy became Saad.

And then there’s this to think about:

“There should be less anxiety for external appearances, but more earnest effort to secure practical comfort in every room throughout the house. … more time devoted to the training of the children, to the preparation of simple, wholesome food, and to the general economy and comfort of the household, would make happy hearts and pleasant faces in the home. … There should be less display of superficial politeness and affection toward strangers and visitors, and more of the courtesy that springs from genuine love and sympathy toward the dear ones of our own firesides.
 “…But it is so flattering to the pride of some persons to exhibit a certain extravagant and fashionable style of living for the benefit of occasional guests, that they are willing to sacrifice the peace and comfort of the household for this empty gratification. … They have no connection with the real joys of life; they interfere with domestic quiet, and unfit the mind for the homely but pleasant duties of practical life.“…Decorations of dress and houses do not make people happy; but the lowliest dwelling may be beautified, and the poorest family be made rich, by the possession of meekness, kindness and love. Pleasant voices, gentle manners, and sincere affection that finds expression in all the actions, together with industry, neatness, and economy, make even a hovel the happiest of homes. The Creator regards such a home with approbation; and the inmates, though they have not "that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel," have that which is far better.-- "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.""’Godliness with contentment is great gain.’ It is ‘profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.’ We should open our hearts and houses to the Lord. …It refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, and brings peace of mind, and in the end, everlasting life. {ST, October 2, 1884}

Butterfly Effect

Commentary on Sabbath School lesson for 4.23.11

“On an ordinary winter day in 1961, an MIT meteorologist named Edward Lorenz ran some routine experiments and found some unusual results. Lorenz discovered that seemingly tiny and insignificant changes in his data could produce huge differences in the final result. At first, Lorenz and other scientists in the field of chaos theory called this ‘the sensitive dependence on initial data.’ Fortunately, later on Lorenz used a simpler term—‘the butterfly effect.’ In 1972, Lorenz presented a scientific paper entitled ‘Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?’ According to Lorenz's theory, the butterfly's wing-flapping doesn't actually cause a tornado, but it can start a chain reaction leading to giant changes in world-wide weather patterns. In others words, even tiny, insignificant movements or actions can produce huge changes that affect millions of people.

“The Bible often describes a similar "butterfly effect" for the spiritual life. According to Jesus, the spiritual butterfly effect occurs when we do small things—making a meal, visiting the sick, befriending the lonely, opening our home to a guest, praying with a friend—for ‘insignificant’ people, which makes a huge difference in God's eyes. But according to Jesus, there's also a reverse butterfly effect: consistently failing to display small acts of kindness (i.e. living an unkind lifestyle) has a profound loss of opportunity in the spiritual realm.”[1]

Way back in the early 1900’s, a boy, probably around 14 years old and his little sister were about to be confirmed into the Lutheran church in Central Illinois, just like their older brothers and sisters had.  Except that the boy, Carl, just felt like the things he was learning weren’t right, somehow.  As he and his sister, Mary, discussed what they were learning, she agreed the things didn’t fit together the way they should.  When the time for confirmation came, Mary went through with it, not knowing what other options there were.  But Carl refused, based on nothing more than a feeling.

Needless to say, his father was furious, but life went on.  A few years later, Carl was apprenticed to a carpenter in Chicago and went to live with his older sisters there.  The carpenter was a Seventh-day Adventist.  Through that carpenter, Carl became a Seventh-day Adventist and then, he brought his immediate and extended family.  Because of Carl’s decision, three generations of family are part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

“Life, as we all know, doesn’t come sealed off in distinct and separate categories or sections. Everything impacts just about everything.  In fact, Einstein’s theory of general relativity teaches that all matter in the universe has a gravitational pull on all other matter. That is, your body exerts a gravitational pull not only on your neighbor but on the sun and everything else in the created world, as well.

“Of course, we don’t need a lesson in physics to recognize the reality of how the deeds and actions of one person can radically, and even tragically, impact others, even generations later. Who we are, where we are, why we are what we are—these all have been affected to some degree by the actions of others completely out of our control. Thus, we need to be careful regarding the things we say and do; for who knows the impact (short-term and long-term, and either for good or for ill) that our deeds and words will have on others?” [2]

What a huge responsibility!  When Jacob gave Joseph the coat, do you think it would have made any difference to him if he had known just how much resentment his older sons were already holding in their hearts? 

“Had Jacob known the real feeling of his sons toward Joseph, he would not have trusted him alone with them; but this they had carefully concealed. …
“His brothers saw him approaching; but no thought of the long journey he had made to meet them, of his weariness and hunger, of his claims upon their hospitality and brotherly love, softened the bitterness of their hatred. The sight of the coat, the token of their father’s love, filled them with frenzy. ‘Behold, this dreamer cometh,’ they cried in mockery. Envy and revenge, long secretly cherished, now controlled them.”[3]

Mrs. White says earlier in the passage that the same spirit that had motivated Cain was also working in the hearts of those older brothers.

What those brothers did next was horrible.  They only wanted to be rid of their pesky little brother, but their actions have been felt by everyone, all the way until today.  Their actions changed them, their father, Joseph.  Those could all have been very negative changes, but thankfully, God was there to turn what could have been an absolutely tragic set of circumstances into a huge victory for His chosen people.

“And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  ‘So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.’”  Genesis 45:5-8

What we do affects not only ourselves, but the people around us…not just today but every day between now and when Jesus comes.  It’s a huge responsibility, but thankfully, we don’t have to carry that responsibility by ourselves.  If we’ll ask, the Holy Spirit will direct our intentions and actions – perfecting and filtering as we go through our daily lives.

If God could bring good out of Joseph’s story, He can bring good out of our stories as well. We can’t anymore be perfect than Joseph’s father and brothers could be, but 

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”  1 John 2:1-2

Scientists might use the Butterfly Effect to explain parts of the chaos theory, but I’m so glad that my God is not a god of chaos but of order.  He knows the end from the beginning and He will guide me every step of the way.  There is nothing chaotic or mysterious about God’s plans for you and me…

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”  John 3:16 The Amplified Bible

---

[1] Kenneth Chang, "Edward N. Lorenz, a Meteorologist and a Father of Chaos Theory, dies at 90,"  NewYorkTimes.com (4-17-08)

[2] Alan Hecht, “The Coat of Different Colors”, The Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, page 42

[3] E.G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 210

What Goes Around…

Do you find the story of Jacob, Rachel and Leah confusing?  Disturbing?  Just plain sad?  There are so many people to feel sorry for.

Look at Jacob; he’s finally getting on the right track, but he’s got Laban trying to cheat him all over the place.  Have you ever worked for someone like that, always changing the rules?  Just when you think you’ve figured out what they want, they announce that they didn’t ask for that at all.  You must have misunderstood them; what they really wanted was this other thing.  It’s very confusing and frustrating to be accountable to a person like that.  When I was in a situation like that, I began to doubt my own hearing and sanity.  I wondered if maybe I was speaking another language because no matter how hard I tried, I never got the task right.  It was maddening!  Now imagine working for that person for twenty years!  Added to the working situation, Jacob had the home situation that was probably even rougher than dealing with Laban.  He was married to the woman he loved and to a woman he didn’t.  The Bible doesn’t tell us exactly how he felt about Leah. I mean, they might have been pretty good friends before the wedding.  On the other hand, Jacob and Leah might have detested each other.  Either way, waking up married to someone he didn’t love and never intended to marry can probably take all the fun out of even the best friendship.

Poor Jacob – Poor Leah – Poor Rachel

What about Leah?  Do you think she loved Jacob?  Or was she in on the scheme?  Was she the ugly sister?  Or just not the one Jacob was in love with?  What do you think she felt when her father pulled her aside to explain his plan?  Maybe she thought she could teach Jacob to love her?  Maybe she wanted to get back at Rachel for being prettier?  What ever she thought, I don’t think her actual experience was anything like what she had imagined.  I’ve always felt so sorry for Leah.  Every interaction, everyday must have been like having her skin rubbed with sandpaper.  Whether Jacob and Rachel meant to or not, their very presence reminded Leah they were in love with each other, and she was an outsider.  God blessed her with sons; was that enough? Or was she jealous?  Did she take out her feelings on Jacob?  On Rachel?  What do you think life was like after Rachel died?

Poor Leah – Poor Rachel – Poor Jacob

And then there’s Rachel.  In many ways, she should have been happy.  She had the man she loved and who loved her, and if Leah hadn’t been living right there having babies, she probably would have been relatively fine.  But there was Leah having one son after another, and Rachel was not.  Have you ever known a woman who wanted to have children but couldn’t?  Maybe you have experienced that ache yourself.  From all I have seen and heard, it is a devastating, isolating experience.  Compound that with watching, ultimately three, women living with you getting pregnant and having children, while you aren’t.  Could you be happy for them?  Could you listen to their endless stories about who was taking his first steps, or saying his first words?  Even if they didn’t mean to show off, it would be a painful experience.  Imagine if they wanted to be ugly about the whole situation.

Poor Rachel – Poor Jacob – Poor Leah

And what about all those kids?  There was a whole lot of conflict in that family – between the women themselves, between the individual women and Jacob, probably between the children and Jacob and the children with the other women who were not their mother.  I don’t believe you could even begin to map those relational trouble spots!

Anyway, some of the things I read this week implied that this was mostly Jacob’s fault.  What do you think?  Can all of this chaos be traced back to Jacob stealing the blessing and the birthright?  If that’s true, then I guess we have to keep following the path back to Isaac’s polarized family and on to Abraham’s lapse of faith that created Ishmael.  Admittedly, these guys did keep repeating their father’s mistakes.  Hmmm.  Maybe there is something to that.  How many of us have said to ourselves as we grow up, “I will NEVER do things like my parents do!”  And then we’re standing in the living room at age 32 and we realize that we have become either both or one of our parents.  That’s a real eye-opener!  It’s not always a bad thing though.  At that point we realize that our parents weren’t as clueless as we thought they were when we were teenagers, and that’s a good thing.  But it works the other way too.  What about the child of an alcoholic or a violent person, or someone who is mentally ill?  Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of our parents as well as the good things?  I pray that my children are not stuck with my mistakes!

And that’s where I believe we have to send everyone else across the river and meet God, wrestle with Him, gain His blessing and be given our new name – be reborn as children of God.  There’s our hope for breaking the cycles of sin.  Satan wants us to give up and accept our inheritance, but we don’t have to!  Jesus is ready, impatient even, to make us into His new creations.

Fractured Family

Think about the way the story of Jacob and Esau as it has been told.  Each character fits into a neat little stereotype:  Rebekah is the pushy, conniving mother; Jacob the greedy trickster, but kind of a momma’s boy; Esau the jock, not too bright but a good guy; and Isaac, the innocent dupe.  I think I can look past those roles for the first time.  Unfortunately, I learned that nobody was innocent.  Each of these four had his or her own plans, motives, and desires.

Have you ever thought that you’d like God to tell you specifically what was going to happen in the future?  I have.  I always think that that would make life so much easier, but did knowing help Rebekah and Isaac?  It seems like knowing made their lives much, much more difficult.  Rebekah took what God told her and openly favored Jacob.  And from everything I’ve learned in psychology, a parent picking a favorite child, and openly demonstrating that favoritism, sets up all kinds of bad things, even if nothing else is going on.  The first thing that usually happens is that the other parent tends to compensate by favoring the other child, giving us what they call a polarized family.  We can really see that pattern set up in Isaac’s family!  The Bible doesn’t tell us any specifics about all those growing up years before Esau sold his birthright, but can you imagine?  I’ll bet supper in their tent was a fiasco!!!  And once the boys became adults, things got really ugly!

Rebekah took a kind of pride in God’s message that Jacob would be more important that Esau.  It colored all of her actions with her twins, and toward her husband as well.  Contrast that to the way that Mary took the news that her Son would be the Messiah.  Hmmm.

Did Jacob know the prophecy that God gave Rebekah?  I kind of always assumed he did, but I read something this week that implied that he didn’t know.   Does it make any difference, in the long run, whether or not he knew?  Probably not, I was just surprised to read that.  Whatever Jacob knew or didn’t know, he was more that willing to get the best of Esau in anyway he could.  And he started with the birthright.

The birthright was kind of a big deal in that time.  In Patriarchs and Prophets, pages 177 and 178 where Ellen White explains why it was so important.  Jacob and Esau 

“were taught to regard the birthright as a matter of great importance, for it included not only an inheritance of worldly wealth but spiritual pre-eminence.  He who received it was to be the priest of his family, and in the line of his posterity the Redeemer of the world would come.”   

Well, that sounded pretty good to Jacob and Rebekah.  But Esau just wasn’t that interested!  Why?  Because there were responsibilities that came with the good stuff, and apparently, Esau would rather be hunting.  The same quote from Ellen White says, 

“On the other hand, there were obligations resting upon the possessor of the birthright.  He who would inherit its blessings must devote his life to the service of God.  Like Abraham, he must be obedient to the divine requirements.  In marriage, in his family relations, in public life, he must consult the will of God.”

Esau definitely didn’t want that kind of responsibility.  In fact, he kind of went out of his way to avoid a lot of the stuff that his family thought was important.

So then, what was Isaac thinking when he decided to bestow the birthright blessing on Esau.  He knew what God had said, and he still planned to bless Esau.  Rebekah talked with him and tried to convince him to change his mind, but his mind was made up.  I can see, at that point, that Rebekah and Jacob could convince themselves that they were just protecting Isaac from making a big mistake, from going against God’s will.  Rebekah and Jacob decided to help God.  

Can you think of a time in the Bible,, or in your life that that plan worked?  From what I have read, trying to help God accomplish something He said would come to pass almost always ends badly.  In this case, Isaac’s distraught, Esau is devastated, Jacob has to run away so that Esau doesn’t kill him, and Rebekah never sees Jacob again…plus, she has to live with Isaac for however many more years (because he didn’t die like he thought he was going to).   Can you imagine what that would have been like?  I can’t think that that would have been a very happy situation…a lot of silent evenings by the fire.  Ouch!

And all of this pain and anguish for what?  What convinced each of these people that he or she was doing the right thing?  Did it turn out like they planned?  What did they learn from this whole experience?  What should we learn?

I learned there’s hope for all of us.  We’re never so far from God that He isn’t waiting to reconnect with us as soon as we ask.  The vision of Jacob’s ladder/stairway truly tells us that God is always looking out for us, and Jesus is always connecting us to God’s love.

Have you ever felt like you were outside of God’s love because of something you had done?  I think most of us have – we know we’re not living in a way that God wants us to, but have that nagging feeling that God doesn’t want us back.  I think that’s where Jacob was when he has to sneak away from his family.  He was heartbroken, lonely, and homesick.  And even after everything he’s done, God sends Jacob a dream that lets him know that God loves him and is taking care of him.  Angels moving between heaven and earth, taking care of people who lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, covet, break the Sabbath, and all kinds of other things.  I’m so glad that Jesus bridges the gap that I make every time I mess up, aren’t you?

Is the Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?

Have you ever met someone who keeps living and re-living all the terrible things that happened in his or her past? People like these seem almost handicapped by their past. Then you know people who have survived horrific events, and yet, have been able to let go of the hurt and move on.  What do you think makes the difference?

Joseph is a good example of that second group.  When you read his life story, you find he has a lot that he could hang on to and be pretty bitter about.  His early life was pretty easy, really, except that his brothers all hated him.  Admittedly he didn’t mend any fences by telling them about his dreams of them all worshipping him, but I always thought of him as a basically sweet natured person. But one of the studies I listened to this week portrayed him as more of a spoiled brat who kind of taunted his brothers with these dreams.   And of course, dad didn’t help at all when he gave Joseph his new coat.  I kind of like my sweet little boy better than the spoiled brat, but I’m not sure that in the long run it really makes any difference which Joseph we start with.  What matters is the Joseph we end up with.

 Joseph certainly had the opportunity to build up some pretty good anger and bitterness toward his brothers, Potiphar and his wife, … even God.  But he didn’t.  Why not?

His brothers, themselves, seem to be bitter, angry men and they really had not experienced anything so difficult as Joseph did.  What did they have to be bitter about?  I don’t know if I could prove this anywhere, but it doesn’t seem like Joseph’s brothers had any real relationship with God.  Not like you’d expect from children of Jacob, anyway.  Did Jacob not spend the time with them that he did with Joseph?  Whatever happened in their childhoods, the outcome was very, very different.

Imagining that all other things were equal, what made the difference between Joseph and his brothers?  Was it simply that Joseph’s temperament was different and so he approached life differently? (The old is the glass half empty or half full argument) Could genetics have had something to do with the outcome?  Was the introduction of Rachel’s DNA enough to make Joseph and Benjamin that different from the others?  Was it that God had already decided how things needed to end up to save the Hebrews and so He just made sure that it all worked out that way?  I have to say that sometimes it looks that way, because my human mind can’t imagine any other way for things to have worked out.  One thing the Bible tells us, more than once, is that God was with Joseph.  OK, so does that mean that He wasn’t with the brothers?  Did Joseph have any choice about whether God was with him or not?

And that’s where I think the difference comes!  When things got tough for Joseph’s brothers, what was their response?  Pretty often it looks like their motto was, “Don’t get mad, get even.”  And God doesn’t come into that.  What was Joseph’s response to being sold into slavery?

In Patriarchs and Prophets, Ellen White says that his first response was despair.  But the second thing he did was to think about the lessons his father had taught him. 

“Joseph believed that the God of his fathers would be his God. He then and there gave himself fully to the Lord, and he prayed that the Keeper of Israel would be with him in the land of his exile.

His soul thrilled with the high resolve to prove himself true to God--under all circumstances to act as became a subject of the King of heaven. He would serve the Lord with undivided heart; he would meet the trials of his lot with fortitude and perform every duty with fidelity. One day's experience had been the turning point in Joseph's life. Its terrible calamity had transformed him from a petted child to a man, thoughtful, courageous, and self-possessed.” p.214

WOW!  There it is!  Joseph gave himself to the Lord and asked Him to be with him.  Ellen White says that “one day’s experience” had turned Joseph around…but it was that one moment’s decision that laid the foundation for the change.  Because, think about it, there was a distinct possibility that Joseph would look at what had just happened to him and decide that God wasn’t doing His job and he wasn’t going to trust God ever again.  If that had happened, we wouldn’t read about Joseph probably.  We’d read about whoever it was that did turn to God.

So, what happens when things don’t go the way WE expect?  Do we decide that believing in and trusting God isn’t worth the effort and start building grudges to hang onto?  Or do we give ourselves “fully to the Lord” and ask Him to keep us during the hard times.  Do we start blaming other people for the bad things that happen to us?  Or do we remember that old saying, “You can’t hate a person you’re praying for.”? 

We all “Dare to be a Daniel”, but do we strive to be like Joseph?