The problem and promise with dysfunction

I got to re-reading the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37.  It will be one of the Scripture readings for this coming Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Lent.  Maybe it’s my age that makes me notice things that look and sound off.   It seem we get that way as we age.  It’s been called “crotchety,” but I prefer to think of it as sage perception – or just living long enough to learn some things.  Anyway, things jumped out at me again in that story that indicate no small amount of dysfunction in Joseph’s family.

Family dysfunction #1.  As the chapter opens, Joseph is the seventeen year-old son of Jacob.  Joseph’s grandpa was Isaac and his great-grandpa was Abraham.  Joseph’s mom was Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel.   Yes, who read that right.  Jacob had more than one.  Joseph had brothers born to three other women, too:  Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah.  All four of those women were in Jacob’s house at the same time. That means Jacob exceeded God’s plan for marriage by 3 wives.  Like that wasn’t going to be a problem.  It was.

Family dysfunction #2 was Jacob’s parenting.  Genesis 37:3 states matter-of-factly, “Now Israel [Jacob] loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a fully ornamented robe for him.”  That favoritism was plainly evident to Joseph’s brothers.  I mean, how much more could Jacob advertise it than with an extra special robe just for the favorite son?  As you can imagine, that caused a good bit of resentment against Joseph – and against Jacob, too. Stay tuned for the problems that brought.

Family dysfunction #3 came about because Joseph had trouble keeping his mouth shut.  God had some extra special plans for Joseph that would involve his brothers.  He communicated that to Joseph in a series of dreams.  But rather than keep that between himself and God and wait for the plan to unfold, Joseph had to tell his brothers all about it.  Now they were really bent out of shape with Joseph.

Dysfunction #4 was the way they handled it.  No heart-to-heart with Dad about how hurtful the favoritism stuff was.  No conversation with Joseph about the need for a little humility and team spirit.  They first planned to murder him, thought better of it, and sold him to some slave traders heading to Egypt.  The cover-up would be to dip the fancy robe in lamb’s blood and tell Dad that a wild animal got Joseph.  It appears they both wanted Joseph permanently gone and they didn’t hesitate to break Dad’s heart in getting that done.

I suppose a person could read all of this and draw the conclusion that since God did not step in when these things were going on he must approve.  People make that mistake all the time – mistaking God’s patience for permission. Of course, God didn’t have to step in and lower the boom on this family for all that willful dysfunction – their very dysfunction was taking care of that at every turn.  The hurt and anger and brokenness of this family were the natural results of the hurt and anger and the family was inflicting on one another.  Sin is often like that.  It often carries its own built-in consequences in the here-and-now, not just in the hereafter.  If that’s where the story ended, it would be a really sad tale.

But it didn’t end there because God did have a plan – remember the dreams of Joseph?  As the story turns out, Joseph ended up in Egypt as a slave.  But through a series of events that God guided, he was elevated to second in command in Egypt, answerable only to Pharaoh himself.  He was put in charge of a disaster preparedness plan to position the nation well for a coming famine.  God blessed that plan so well that not only did Egypt have plenty of food for all for the lean years, but they could even offer assistance to people around them.  Some of the people who came to Egypt to buy grain were – you guessed it – Joseph’s own brothers.  At first they didn’t recognize him.  When they did realize who it was, they were terrified...for obvious reasons.  Joseph’s answer, however, reveals that he finally understood what God had been up to:  “Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 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. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 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. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come.’” (Genesis 45:4-11)

Do you see?  Even though Dad Jacob and Joseph’s brothers and Joseph himself had messed up, God was able to overcome that and even hammer that junk into something useful for his plan.  That’s not to minimize their sin, but it does magnify God’s wisdom and grace.

That’s a good reason to take some time in this Lenten season and think about our own sins.  What have we learned from the guilt and consequences of them on ourselves and on others?  How has God used the heartbreak and school-of-hard-knocks lessons from them to shape us to be a better instrument for his glory?  What have we learned about God’s amazing grace? – that he has so patiently born with us in our dysfunction and so fully and freely forgiven us for Jesus’ sake? 

God has a plan for you.  Ultimately, it is to bring you safely home to heaven by grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus.  But between this day and that one, keep your eyes and your heart open for how God will put you in the right place at the right time to share his wonderful deliverance in Christ with someone else who may be caught up in the dysfunction that is so much a part of this broken world.