A Dysfunctional Family Series

If you think you’re job is hard, think about this… Just like an NFL quarterback, NASA will schedule the launch of a rocket in an open window. A launch window is determined for each rocket and the window has several factors. Imagine the complications in attempting to place a land rover on the planet, Mars. Nothing in space stands still. Everything is either moving or orbits around something else. In trying to determine your launch window, you must also account for comets or asteroids. And then, keep in mind that the earth – from where you’ll launch your rocket – is itself spinning 1,000 miles per hour! And lastly, NASA engineers even have to coordinate with the US Air Force so that the rocket doesn’t hit any other planes! Now, if it’s hard to launch an aircraft into space, marvel at the engineering of God as He moves one life on one purpose through the eye of million needles. This is a remarkable story of how God’s hand moves Joseph into place.

Today, we launch into a series on a most interesting life - the story of Joseph. This beautiful story has attracted a lot of attention through the years. Andrew Lloyd Weber thought so highly of the story that he developed the story of Joseph into a Broadway musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The story of Joseph has an intrinsic beauty. But few people in the modern day retelling of the story go beyond the surface to see the real beauty of the story.

Let the narrative draw you in. Get involved in the story and really work to understand it. If you do, you’ll look at your life differently. You’ll have a new understanding and a new perspective on your life. We think we know the story and have heard it all before. Yet, it’s because of this very familiarity that the meaning and beauty of Joseph’s story escapes us.

These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.”

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.