Joseph has a dream!

October 10, 2009, 12:27 pm by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 37:1-11

Well folks, the next 14 chapters of Genesis are all about Joseph.  So, please, just bear with me, it’s going to be difficult for all of us.  I will do my best to finish in 16 posts.  The most interesting thing that will most likely happen is that I will find out how the Traditions of Men differ from the Word of God!  So far, I have discovered many differences; I do not expect the story of Joseph to be any different.  So many movies have been made about this story, and you know that each director has taken artistic liberties.  We shall just have to see, here goes!

The first account of Joseph is when he is 17 years old.  If he was like teenagers today then the following saying probably held for him:

Attention Teenagers:  Move away from home now, while you still know everything!

The second verse of the chapter seems to be missing something.  It seems to be leading to something, and then nothing!  The subject is changed.  He was bringing a report about his brothers to Israel…then we read about how much Israel loved Joseph.  What was the report?  Is this how YHWH thinks stories should be told, without middle, or an end?  What was the report, that they were lazy, that they had run out of water, that they were fighting of wild beasts, or maybe that they were teasing him?  What was the report! 

For some reason Israel loved Joseph even more than Ben-Oni (yes I am using his dead mother’s choice of names, out of respect).  His reason for loving Joseph was Joseph was born in Israel’s old age.  Israel was even older when Ben-Oni was born!  Some of these peoples’ reasoning skills are lacking something.  I could believe that Israel loved Joseph more because he was the 1^st born of Rachel, the wife he loved more than his other three wives.  Just to show how much Israel loved Joseph more than the other sons, Israel made Joseph a robe that we have no idea what the adjective describing the robe means.  Way to go YHWH for keeping the Word inerrant!  Since it is not easy to translate the adjective describing the robe, we can know for certain that it is not “multicolored” as some Traditions of Men claim.  The editors of the NIV use “richly ornamented”, which is vague enough to cover just about anything the adjective might mean.  Well you can image how the other 11 sons felt, they hated him!  Good thing those Israelite laws have not been written yet:

Lev 19:17 Do not hate your brother in your heart.  Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.

Joseph continues to egg his brother’s ire:  twice he tells them about dreams that he has had.  Both dreams are similar, his family will worship him!  You would think that after the response to the first dream, Joseph would not be so foolish to repeat the same mistake twice.  But he does, and his brothers went from hating him to being jealous of him.  But I guess that since YHWH is both an angry god and a jealous god it’s ok for Joseph’s brothers to feel the same way!

Psalms 78:31 God’s anger rose against them; he put to death the sturdiest among them, cutting down the young men of Israel.  I guess the saying “Like father, like son” fits.

Exodus 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

His father rebukes him, but Israel kept the matter to himself. 

One interesting thing comes to my mind when I read about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams.  Obviously YHWH Jealous knows exactly what is going to happen. Not just events like the famines, but how individual lives will turn out.  YHWH Jealous knowing what will happen to Joseph is one thing, but later the dream interpretations cover two of the Pharaoh’s men as well.  These dream interpretations are a clear sign that man does not have freewill!  YHWH Jealous knows exactly what will happen to each of us, whether we follow him or not! 

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