JOSEPH THE DREAMER

Readings: Psalm 105:1-6,16-22, Romans 11:1-2, 29-32, Matthew 14:22-33, Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on August 7th 2011

A printable PDF version can be found here

Back in Joseph’s day, dreams were important. His father Jacob had been one whose life had been changed by that dream of a ladder with angels ascending and descending its rungs. Previously to Jacob’s encounter, Abimelech the King of Gerear (in Genesis 20:30) and also Laban (in Genesis 31:24) had received guidance from God in their dreams.

In Egypt and Mesopotamia the science of dream interpretation was a highly developed skill. An Egyptian papyrus that dates back to 1300 BC arranges dreams and their interpretations according to their symbol and meaning. It suggests that if we dream about a large cat then that is a good omen, for we shall be producing a large harvest. If however we dream of a deep well, that’s bad, for it is a premonition of being sent to jail.

If we happen to dream that we are wearing a pilot’s suit and being chased by a kangaroo through a field of Jello, then it means need to lay off the coffee before we go to bed at night.

Which is a round about way of stressing that there are dreams and there are dreams. Our subconscious likes to sort out the events of the day whilst we sleep. Sometimes, as this rearranging takes place, new insights may indeed come our way. The likelihood is, that whilst all of us dream, most of us will either awake with a confused recollection of our minds midnight ramblings or simply leave those dreams behind in our sleep and never recall them.

This morning we heard of the reaction of Joseph’s brothers to the dreams that he shared with them. At a later time in his life, his dreams would get him out of trouble, but right then, they were about to be his downfall. You have to be careful when it comes to dreams. As I say, there are dreams and there are dreams. The interpretation that you give to your dreams could lead to events that you hadn’t anticipated.

Joseph’s dreams appeared to be a two-edged sword. On the one-hand they did appear to be a communication from God, along the lines of what his father and the likes of Abimelech and Alban had received before him. They were certainly perceived as being enough of a ‘communication from the beyond’ that his brothers took these dreams to be a serious threat to their well-being.

The brothers also recognized that dreams were inseparable from the personality and goals of the dreamer. There was no doubt in the brother’s mind that Joseph, although he is their younger sibling, had it in mind to be the one in charge once their father was no longer around. After all, in his dream, Joseph pictured Jacob, his father, bowing down to him, as well as all of his brothers.

So the stage was set for a major confrontation between Joseph and his brothers. It had been coming for a while. Joseph’s father Jacob could sense it. One of the reasons he sends Joseph to meet his brothers is so that Joseph may make his peace with them. At first, in Shechem, Joseph cannot find them. Then through the help of a stranger he is directed towards Dothan.

I suspect that if he knew what was about to come his way, he would not have searched so hard. The brothers see him strolling towards them in that special coat his father gave him, and there, far from home, see their opportunity to put an end to his scheming and dreaming of domination over them.

For some of the brothers the decision to do away with Joseph had been made a long while back. It was simply a case of waiting for the opportunity. Others of the brothers, in particular Rueben, (who as the eldest would have to explain to the father what had happened to his favorite son), intensely disliked Joseph but felt that just removing him from their circle would be enough; that his death would accomplish no good purpose.

Joseph is set upon, his precious coat is torn into shreds, and he’s thrown into a pit whilst the brothers eat lunch and contemplate what they should do with him. Not a lot of love lost in that family!

Judah (an opportunist if ever there were one) sees the slave traders coming and sees a chance to benefit from Joseph’s misfortunes. Why kill the lad, when they could profit from his betrayal? Such a plan meets with all of the brothers’ approval. Rueben could have the satisfaction of knowing that they hadn’t murdered him, and the rest could be satisfied that Joseph was no longer a threat to their well being. All this and money in the bank!

The dastardly deed is done, and for the rest of the story.... well you know what became of him once he was taken into slavery. In the end he comes out on top. His dreams are fulfilled, but not in the way anybody could have predicted.

What can we learn from this account?

Sometimes life’s biggest setbacks turn out to be life’s great opportunities.

There’s a story about a man who becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Building for himself a small raft he eventually drifts to a desert island. There, in a wonderful Tom Hanks ‘Castaway’ fashion, he builds himself a shelter and survives on the food he had rescued for himself.

A ship appears on the horizon and he hastily builds a signal fire, pours the last remnants of fuel he has upon it, and desperately tries to signal the ship. But all in vain. The ship sails past.

Worse still, he has been a little too generous with the fuel oil. The fire gets out of control. Sparks fly onto the roof of his hut and it is only a matter of time before the little that he owned, the very supplies he treasured for his survival, are being consumed by a raging inferno.

All was lost. Without those essentials he reasoned that he probably couldn’t survive. Suddenly he noticed that the ship, which had earlier passed by, was now heading in his direction. He was soon to be rescued. Once on board he needed to thank the Captain. But he had a question.

“What made you turn around when you had already passed me by?”
“Why” explained the Captain, “we saw that impressive signal fire you made by setting your hut on fire. Good thinking that man!”

The very thing that seemed to seal his doom had turned out to be his deliverance. Was it the same with Joseph? Down in that pit his optimism must have reached an end. As he was dragged away by slave traders, he may well have been thinking that death would have been a kinder fate.

Yet over the period of the next few years Joseph became the means by which his people were saved from starvation and ultimately the nation was delivered from being absorbed into the pagan landscape that surrounded them. Despite the dysfunction in the family, the bad motives and thinly veiled ego’s, the cruelty and the favoritism, through Joseph, new-life came to a people of faith who had lost sight of what faith should be about.

It is hard to see anything good when crisis strikes our lives. We are no different than Joseph. Though it may well be our own fault that we end up in the mess we get into, still we fail to see the hand of God in our misfortunes. Only through the eye of faith can any sense be made of trials and suffering.

That eye of faith may well abandon us at our point of need. Our faith may well simmer or be overcome by the darkness of circumstance. We may well cry out against God or question why God has let us down.

Yet is this not the mystery of the Cross? There were no signs of glory on that dark day when they did away with Jesus Christ. Only pain and death and loss and darkness and grief. There’s a haunting line in Don McLean’s song, “American Pie”; “The Three men I admire most, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died”.

Was there ever a day that the music died more than upon than that day at Calvary? Was there ever a darker day than the crucified the One who came to save? Sometimes life’s greatest set-backs turn out to be life’s greatest opportunities.

Our Dreams are not always God’s Dreams

It was not the dream that God planted in Joseph’s life that caused his brothers to hate him. It was his arrogance in response to God’s calling and choosing that angered them. Maybe, if Joseph had the strength of character to see, that God chooses us as servants, not because of who we are, but in spite of who we are, there would have been a different story to tell.

Whilst the Bible speaks of the “Offence of the Cross”, I have a hard time believing that it is our authentic Christian lives, our faithfulness to Christ’s values that offends people. More often than not it is our assumption that when it comes to God, we hold all the high cards that turns people from God rather than towards them.

Like Jacob before him, it is only the grace of God that comes through for Joseph and his family and …his extended family… indeed for the whole nation. It is that same grace that is extended to us at the cross of Jesus Christ. His love is there for those who know they cannot deliver themselves, for those who are prepared to abandon their personal dreams in order dream great things for the kingdom of God.

Joseph will always be known as the dreamer. Yet he had to learn some important lessons about dreams. Learn the difference between his dreams and how God would fulfill God’s purposes. Learn to hold onto faith during times when the dream died. Learn that, at the end of the day, were it not for the Grace of God, there would be no hope in any persons dream.

May God help us dream dreams that guide us in the ways of true life, love and grace.

AMEN!