"The Best Way to Get Revenge"

Genesis 50:15-21

August 14, 2011 + Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

Has anyone ever badly betrayed your trust? Has someone ever hurt you deeply and unfairly? Have you ever been left “holding the bag” while someone who was as much or more responsible got off scot free?

Of course you have. We all have. But if you can honestly say you haven’t, then thank your lucky stars. You are a very unique person. But keep on listening to this sermon anyway. You never can tell when it might happen to you.

Last week I introduced you to Joseph, the favored, pampered son of Jacob’s old age. We pondered together why some parents and grandparents favor one child over another. For whatever reason, it can warp the life of the favored child and leave behind great anger and resentment in the other children of the family. So it was for Joseph’s older brothers.

While his ten brothers had to work hard in the fields with the flocks, Joseph was allowed to stay home doing little or no work at all. Like some pampered kids who know they have an “edge” with their parent, Joseph also became a tattle-tale, telling on his brothers when they did something wrong. To add insult to injury Jacob went so far as to make a special garment for Joseph, a robe with long sleeves, what earlier translations of the Bible called a coat of many colors. Such a coat cannot be used for work but only for leisure. Joseph’s brothers got the message “loud and clear.” In describing their reaction, the Bible has this telling verse:

“When (Joseph’s) brothers realized that their father loved him more than all of them, they hated him, and could not speak a kind word to him.” (DCB’s paraphrase of Genesis 37:4)

Then came the crowning blow. Joseph had two dreams. In the first, Joseph dreamed that he and his brothers were in the fields binding wheat sheaves at harvest time. Joseph’s sheaf stood upright and his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to it. “Do you really believe you are going to reign over us?” asked his brothers. Then Joseph had another dream. This time the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to him. He described the dream not only to his brothers, but also to his father. This was too much even for old doting Jacob. “Do you really believe your mother and I as well as your brothers will bow down before you?” While Jacob clearly is hurt, Joseph’s brothers are furious. They’ve “had it” with him. Now they are ripe for revenge. And the opportunity soon appears.

Like all nomadic herdsmen, Jacob’s sons must continually move the family flocks from place to place. This necessary process could keep them away from home for some time. While Jacob may have favored his younger son he clearly was concerned about his older sons. So he sent Joseph out to find them and see how they were doing.

When his brothers saw Joseph coming over the horizon they say to one another, “Look, here comes this dreamer. Let’s kill him, throw him into a pit, and tell our father that a wild animal killed him. Then we’ll see what will become of his dreams!” Brother killing brother. One of the oldest and most tragic stories in the human family. What is it that can push someone over the edge from furious anger to killing rage? Something snaps and we act violently toward those who should be nearest and dearest to us.

Joseph’s brothers came just that close to killing him. Fortunately, Reuben was able to control his anger enough to urge the other brothers not to ki8ll Joseph but simply throw him into a pit. As angry as the other brothers were they realized Reuben was right. So they tore off Joseph’s coat – that hated coat with long sleeves, the symbol of their father’s favoring love – and threw Joseph into a pit. We are told that Reuben planned to come back later, take Joseph out of the pit, and bring him home sadder but wiser. But while Reuben was away a Midianite trade caravan on its way to Egypt passes by. “Here’s the opportunity we’ve been waiting for,” says Judah. Why kill him when we can get rid of him and even make a little money into the bargain?” So Joseph is taken out of the pit and sold to the Midianites as a slave. When Reuben returns and sees what has happened, he and the other brothers decide to return to part of their original plan. They tear Joseph’s coat, smear it with animal blood, and bring it home to their father with the story that Joseph has been killed by a wild animal. Jacob is heartbroken and the brothers carry the terrible burden of their guilty secret for many years.

Joseph, however, is taken to Egypt where he is sold to a man named Potiphar, a high official in the court of Pharaoh. Here I have to pause and add another element to our story. We have already noted how parents and grandparents can sometimes favor one child over another. The Bible suggests that God sometimes plays favorites, too, particularly in the family of the patriarchs. God favors one son – nearly always the youngest – as the one who will be the bearer of God’s promises to the next generation. It doesn’t seem fair but Biblical theologians tell us it is God’s way of reminding us that God is always upsetting the normal order of things. You know what I mean. “The last shall be first.” The poor and powerless are favored over the rich and powerful. But even beyond our faith that God is forever changing the way we think things ought to be, isn’t it true that life itself seems to favor some people over others? Every parent knows this. While we love all our children deeply we know that some of them have more abilities than the rest.

While Jacob may have loved Joseph more than his brothers for many reasons, the story now makes clear that Joseph truly is an exceptional young man. He quickly becomes his master’s trusted servant. Potiphar puts him in charge of everything. We are also told that Joseph is extraordinarily handsome. Wouldn’t you know it? Some people have everything! But this particular gift is Joseph’s undoing. Potiphar’s young wife “has an eye” for Joseph. When he refuses to betray his master’s trust and his own morality, Potiphar’s wife denounces him to Potiphar. “He tried to rape me.” Ordinarily that would have been sufficient cause for Potiphar to have Joseph put to instant death. Think of what happened to black men in the South. The fact that Potiphar has Joseph thrown in jail clearly suggests that Potiphar understood very well what had actually happened, but he did not want to humiliate either his wife or himself by having the truth come out.

In jail Joseph’s abilities once again are clearly recognized. He becomes the “trustee” of the prison and has virtual charge of all the prisoners. In that capacity he meets two new prisoners, Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker. Both have been thrown in prison for some minor offense. Royalty can exercise whimsical power. Both hope their stay in prison will be brief. One night each of them has a dream. When they describe their dreams to Joseph he interprets what they mean. In a touch of black humor, both interpretations turn on the phrase “Pharaoh will lift up your head.” In the case of the cupbearer, Pharaoh will lift up his head, will take him out of prison and raise him to favor once more. Sadly for the baker, Pharaoh will also lift up his head. His head will be cut off and put on a pole. Things turn out exactly as Joseph predicted, but we are also told that once the cupbearer was restored to court he completely forgot his promise to try and get Joseph out of prison.

Joseph’s story might have ended there if Pharaoh himself had not had two troubling dreams. He dreams of seven ears of grain, plump and good, devoured by seven thin and blighted ears. He also dreams of seven fat and sleek cows destroyed by seven ugly and thin cows. Pharaoh senses that his dreams are some sort of message about the future but neither he nor the court magicians and wise men have a clue as to what they mean. At this point the cupbearer suddenly remembers Joseph. “While I was in prison, I met someone who could interpret dreams, mighty Pharaoh. Things turned out exactly as he predicted.”

Joseph is hurriedly sent for. He interprets Pharaoh’s dreams as a warning from God that Egypt is on the verge of having seven years of plentiful harvests followed by seven years of famine. But Joseph goes beyond dream interpretation to suggest that the prudent course will be for Pharaoh to choose some able administrator to be sure that enough food is stored against this coming famine. Highly impressed with the young Hebrew Pharaoh says the ancient equivalent of “You’re my man! You’ll be my prime minister and handle all the details.” With that Joseph is invested with incredible power and authority, given enormous wealth, and married to the daughter of an Egyptian priest. The next time Hollywood decides to film the Joseph story I suggest this for a title: “From the Pit to the Palace.”

Remember at the beginning of this message I asked if you had ever been badly hurt or betrayed by someone? When that happens it is only natural for us to imagine what we hope will happen to these people. I remember when I was betrayed by a man I thought was my friend. While I didn’t actually pray that God would give him what I thought he deserved, I wouldn’t have been disappointed if God decided to do it on Her own. Have you ever had an experience like that? Sure you have. But usually we can only imagine what we hope will happen to our enemies. We don’t have the opportunity or power to cause them injury.

But Joseph did. The famine that struck Egypt also struck Palestine. In the midst of their suffering word reached old Jacob that there was food for his family in Egypt. He sent his ten older sons down to Egypt to buy grain. Thus it was that one day Joseph had the exquisite pleasure of seeing his ten brothers before him on their knees begging for help. At first they didn’t know him. Later, Joseph even has a bit of cruel fun at their expense, insisting they must prove the truth of their family story by bringing their youngest brother Benjamin down to Egypt. When that happens Joseph engineers a false accusation of theft against Benjamin and threatens to keep him in prison while sending the other brothers home. This is too much for the older brothers. They cannot face the prospect of going home and telling their father he has lost another son. The memory of what they did to Joseph floods over them again. (They still do not recognize that this Egyptian official is actually their brother.) Judah, the very brother who had suggested selling Joseph as a slave, says that he is willing to be a slave in Egypt himself if Pharaoh’s prime minister will let Benjamin go home to his father.

At this point it is too much for Joseph to maintain the deception any longer. He breaks down and tells them, “I am Joseph your brother. Is my father still alive?” Understandably, the brothers are filled with both amazement and fear. They can only assume that Joseph will take revenge upon them in a terrible way. Instead, Joseph forgives them. He brings all his family to Egypt and establishes them there in peace and prosperity. But there is a postscript to this wonderful story. A few years later old Jacob dies. Once again the brothers are terrified. “Maybe Joseph only spared our lives because he didn’t want to hurt our father. What will he do to us now that Jacob is dead?” But Joseph reassures them once again in some of the most matchless words in all the Bible: “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good . . .” (Genesis 50:19-20)

“What you intended for evil, God turned to good.” Against all our human desire for vengeance, God offers us the opportunity for forgiveness and reconciliation. Why should we do that? Simply, for this: what we do to others we do to ourselves. If we nourish feelings of anger, bitterness, hatred toward others, those feelings stain and tarnish and pollute our lives. Whether those we hate are hurt by these feelings, there is no doubt that we are hurt by them. Believe it or not, when we cannot bring ourselves to forgive our enemies, to pray for those who have used us badly, to wish those who have betrayed us well, then they have the ultimate triumph. They win a double victory. Forgive them and we win, too.

We could end the story of Joseph and this sermon on that wonderful note. We should forgive others as we wish to be forgiven ourselves. But can we – dare we – hold God to that same standard?

There is a hot debate going on these days in conservative churches over a little book entitled “Love Wins” by Rob Bell, the pastor of the Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In his book Bell has the audacity to suggest that death doesn’t cut us off from the love of God. Bell cannot believe in a God who would torment us eternally for the things we did in the few years of our earthly lives. In other words, human beings have created hell, not God.

Amen, Brother! I couldn’t agree with you more. I have sometimes said that God has to be at least as nice as I am and I cannot imagine condemning even my worst enemy to an eternity of torment. No, God has challenged you and me to forgive the same way God forgives, without limit or measure. And wouldn’t it be a heavenly world if we all did that? And an end to the hellish world we have created.