Scandalous Times
Posted on April 27, 2010
Yesterday on a TV entertainment program, I saw reported a scandal, which surprised and saddened me. Of course, you never know at first the truth of what you read or see, but I was shocked because the scandal involved someone at my own Church. I play the organ the second and third Sundays in Los Angeles, where there are some high profile individuals in my congregation. Our Sunday School lesson just happened to be on the story of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt. Talk about a twisted, dysfunctional so-called family, full of chaos and scandal! I guess I just have to remind myself to read the Bible in order to see that craziness has been going on since the beginning of time!
The entire story of the house of Israel is packed with deviancy. There’s deceit, trickery, adultery, infidelity, incest, illegitimacy, prostitution, kidnapping, murder (someone, please stop me anytime now) and the list goes on and on! And these people weren’t heathens, pagans or non-believers. They were those who had been taught the law and the prophets and supposedly knew God!
What a remarkable character Joseph was. In spite of all this commotion swirling about him, he was devoted to God and had a spiritual relationship with Him. Even before he was beaten up, thrown into a pit and sold into Egypt by his brothers (at age 17) he had developed a great ability to turn lemons into lemonade. The first of Joseph’s dreams occurred when he was around the age of twelve. I think it’s clear that these dreams, visions, revelations - whatever we want to call them - facilitated his relationship with God. He knew God was real; he trusted Him; he recognized that whatever afflictions may arise, in God’s grand plan there must be a reason for them; and he realized that all things would work for his good and would eventually bring about his salvation.
After he was sold into Egypt, over approximately the next 13 years, Joseph suffered the pains of slavery, false charges of seduction (for rejecting the advances of Potipher’s wife), consequently, imprisonment, and then abandonment. After Joseph interpreted the dreams of two fellow inmates, one of them (Pharaoh’s butler) was released from prison but then forgot about him for two more years. It wasn’t until Pharaoh needed a dream interpreted that the butler finally remembered Joseph, still stuck in the dungeon. Fianlly, Joseph was summoned by the Pharaoh to interpret his dream, which prophesied seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of drought. Joseph proposed a grain storage program; after thirteen years in bondage, Pharaoh made him ruler over all Egypt; he married an Egyptian princess and they had two children; Joseph ended up not only saving from starvation all of Egypt and the surrounding lands but eventually recovered his family from Canaan, thereby saving the whole house of Israel. At the end of Genesis, Joseph concluded that his real troubles began when his rotten brothers sold him as a slave but that ultimately God meant all those tribulations to eventually be the means of his own salvation, as well as, the salvation of so many other people.
So, the moral of the story is that life is nuts and people are crazy! But it’s an interesting tale (full of symbolism) that tells of one person who made a difference in life and that represents One Person who made possible Salvation for all and Eternal Life with God and with their families for the repentant.
The entire story of the house of Israel is packed with deviancy. There’s deceit, trickery, adultery, infidelity, incest, illegitimacy, prostitution, kidnapping, murder (someone, please stop me anytime now) and the list goes on and on! And these people weren’t heathens, pagans or non-believers. They were those who had been taught the law and the prophets and supposedly knew God!
What a remarkable character Joseph was. In spite of all this commotion swirling about him, he was devoted to God and had a spiritual relationship with Him. Even before he was beaten up, thrown into a pit and sold into Egypt by his brothers (at age 17) he had developed a great ability to turn lemons into lemonade. The first of Joseph’s dreams occurred when he was around the age of twelve. I think it’s clear that these dreams, visions, revelations - whatever we want to call them - facilitated his relationship with God. He knew God was real; he trusted Him; he recognized that whatever afflictions may arise, in God’s grand plan there must be a reason for them; and he realized that all things would work for his good and would eventually bring about his salvation.
After he was sold into Egypt, over approximately the next 13 years, Joseph suffered the pains of slavery, false charges of seduction (for rejecting the advances of Potipher’s wife), consequently, imprisonment, and then abandonment. After Joseph interpreted the dreams of two fellow inmates, one of them (Pharaoh’s butler) was released from prison but then forgot about him for two more years. It wasn’t until Pharaoh needed a dream interpreted that the butler finally remembered Joseph, still stuck in the dungeon. Fianlly, Joseph was summoned by the Pharaoh to interpret his dream, which prophesied seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of drought. Joseph proposed a grain storage program; after thirteen years in bondage, Pharaoh made him ruler over all Egypt; he married an Egyptian princess and they had two children; Joseph ended up not only saving from starvation all of Egypt and the surrounding lands but eventually recovered his family from Canaan, thereby saving the whole house of Israel. At the end of Genesis, Joseph concluded that his real troubles began when his rotten brothers sold him as a slave but that ultimately God meant all those tribulations to eventually be the means of his own salvation, as well as, the salvation of so many other people.
So, the moral of the story is that life is nuts and people are crazy! But it’s an interesting tale (full of symbolism) that tells of one person who made a difference in life and that represents One Person who made possible Salvation for all and Eternal Life with God and with their families for the repentant.