An InvitationPhoto by bgrace
[One day] Israel said to Joseph, “Do not your brothers shepherd my flock at Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” And he said, “Here I am.” And [Jacob] said to him, “Go, I pray you, see whether everything is all right with your brothers and with the flock; then come back and bring me word.” So he sent him out of the Hebron Valley, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him, and behold, he had lost his way and was wandering in the open country. The man asked him, “What are you trying to find?” And he said, “I am looking for my brothers. Tell me, I pray you, where they are pasturing our flocks.” But the man said, “[They were here, but] they have gone. I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan.” And Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. Gen. 37:13-17
For as long as I can remember, Joseph has been one of my favorite Bible characters. Lately I’ve been turning his story over in my mind, thinking about how it must have been to actually be HIM, to be IN his story. So today I was reading and this portion of scripture stood out to me. It seems like an arbitrary bit of information. I mean, of all the things you might want to record and pass on to generations of believers, why this piece of the story? One thing I learned in seminary was to pay attention--that the writers of scripture were actually writers, and they knew what they were doing. They intentionally selected what details of the story to put in and what details to leave out. The pieces that the author chose to include tell us things he thought we should know because they are important to the meaning of the story. So this morning, at 6 AM, I’m reading this section of verses and I’m asking the author, “Why in the world would you tell us this? What is important about this information?”
Well, from what I can see, Joseph is being who he is supposed to be. Submissive to his father and willing to do what is asked of him, even check on his hateful brothers and make sure they’re ok. So Joseph does what he’s supposed to do and goes to the place he’s supposed to go. And yet, he’s lost. How does this happen? How can he go and do and be all that is right and still end up lost? Well, ironically he’s not lost. He just doesn’t realize it. His brothers were supposed to be there, supposed to be in the open country he’s wandering…but they had gone. Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes for a minute…can you see what might be going through his head? If it were me, I’d be saying something like this, “God, I’m trying to be submissive here and do what my father asked of me. Please help me to find my brothers. Please help me to find my way because I thought I knew where I was going but I’m obviously lost.” AND THEN…here it comes, can you feel it? The ANSWER; The PROVISION. Some random man comes out of nowhere and happens to know where his brothers are and decides to be helpful. I can hear Joseph’s heart soar. “God, you are so good to me. Thank you so much for hearing me and answering my prayer and bringing that man to help me to do Your will and fulfill my father’s request and show care to my brothers. Why do I doubt You?" Then, full of new energy, Joseph turns toward Dotham. Everything in me screams, “DON’T GO, Joseph! You weren’t lost. You were right where you were supposed to be. And that man who told you where to go…he wasn’t an answer to prayer…couldn’t be…because he’s leading you to horrible suffering. Where you are headed is the epitome (no pun intended) of lost. Turn around and go HOME!” Hours later, as Joseph sits in the bottom of the pit, I bet this little incident is going through his mind. What if he hadn’t met up with that man? What if he had just turned back? Then he would be safe at home. How could he have been so betrayed by God? He was just doing what was right. How could God have been the one answering his prayer, sending that man, helping him find his brothers? How could God have led him to this? It wasn’t God at all. He must have felt so stupid for crediting God with that blessing now. Maybe God was punishing him for thinking those dreams were real. Now he was really lost…maybe for good, maybe forever. Everything in me says WHY? Why didn’t God prevent that from happening? Why didn’t God simply keep the man from being helpful? Unless… God sent him. Unless being utterly and completely lost in this world was the first of many steps to Joseph’s being found. I find myself thinking how often our perspective changes depending on where we are standing. Wandering in a field, sitting in the bottom of a pit, or standing in front of your brothers who are bowing at your feet—you get different viewpoints. Maybe as I see the final picture I’m not so quick to stop Joseph from going to Dotham. I’m willing to consider the possibility that the man who turned his steps toward Dotham was a blessing from God after all. Just not the blessing Joseph thought. Ironically, once again, Joseph isn’t lost. He just doesn’t realize it. Would YOU keep him from it?
From Dotham, the pit, Potiphar, Potiphar's wife, prison, the second in command of Egypt? Would I? I don’t know, it’s so hard not to try to save him from all that he will have to endure. And yet, it is his path to being found. And maybe being found had more to do with what kind of ruler he was than how high up. Maybe God is the only One who can love us that much, enough so that when we finally reach our destination we will have become the person we need to be in order to enter into what awaits us there. It lends a different light to Matthew 15: 4-7 doesn’t it? You know the parable, but look at it again:
Well, from what I can see, Joseph is being who he is supposed to be. Submissive to his father and willing to do what is asked of him, even check on his hateful brothers and make sure they’re ok. So Joseph does what he’s supposed to do and goes to the place he’s supposed to go. And yet, he’s lost. How does this happen? How can he go and do and be all that is right and still end up lost? Well, ironically he’s not lost. He just doesn’t realize it. His brothers were supposed to be there, supposed to be in the open country he’s wandering…but they had gone. Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes for a minute…can you see what might be going through his head? If it were me, I’d be saying something like this, “God, I’m trying to be submissive here and do what my father asked of me. Please help me to find my brothers. Please help me to find my way because I thought I knew where I was going but I’m obviously lost.” AND THEN…here it comes, can you feel it? The ANSWER; The PROVISION. Some random man comes out of nowhere and happens to know where his brothers are and decides to be helpful. I can hear Joseph’s heart soar. “God, you are so good to me. Thank you so much for hearing me and answering my prayer and bringing that man to help me to do Your will and fulfill my father’s request and show care to my brothers. Why do I doubt You?" Then, full of new energy, Joseph turns toward Dotham. Everything in me screams, “DON’T GO, Joseph! You weren’t lost. You were right where you were supposed to be. And that man who told you where to go…he wasn’t an answer to prayer…couldn’t be…because he’s leading you to horrible suffering. Where you are headed is the epitome (no pun intended) of lost. Turn around and go HOME!” Hours later, as Joseph sits in the bottom of the pit, I bet this little incident is going through his mind. What if he hadn’t met up with that man? What if he had just turned back? Then he would be safe at home. How could he have been so betrayed by God? He was just doing what was right. How could God have been the one answering his prayer, sending that man, helping him find his brothers? How could God have led him to this? It wasn’t God at all. He must have felt so stupid for crediting God with that blessing now. Maybe God was punishing him for thinking those dreams were real. Now he was really lost…maybe for good, maybe forever. Everything in me says WHY? Why didn’t God prevent that from happening? Why didn’t God simply keep the man from being helpful? Unless… God sent him. Unless being utterly and completely lost in this world was the first of many steps to Joseph’s being found. I find myself thinking how often our perspective changes depending on where we are standing. Wandering in a field, sitting in the bottom of a pit, or standing in front of your brothers who are bowing at your feet—you get different viewpoints. Maybe as I see the final picture I’m not so quick to stop Joseph from going to Dotham. I’m willing to consider the possibility that the man who turned his steps toward Dotham was a blessing from God after all. Just not the blessing Joseph thought. Ironically, once again, Joseph isn’t lost. He just doesn’t realize it. Would YOU keep him from it?
From Dotham, the pit, Potiphar, Potiphar's wife, prison, the second in command of Egypt? Would I? I don’t know, it’s so hard not to try to save him from all that he will have to endure. And yet, it is his path to being found. And maybe being found had more to do with what kind of ruler he was than how high up. Maybe God is the only One who can love us that much, enough so that when we finally reach our destination we will have become the person we need to be in order to enter into what awaits us there. It lends a different light to Matthew 15: 4-7 doesn’t it? You know the parable, but look at it again:
“What man of you, if he has a hundred sheep and should lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness (desert) and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his [own] shoulders, rejoicing. And when he gets home, he summons together [his] friends and [his] neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep which was lost. Thus, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one [[c]especially] wicked person who repents ([d]changes his mind, abhorring his errors and misdeeds, and determines to enter upon a better course of life) than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.”
When I think of the Shepherd going after the sheep, rescuing it from the briers of life, I tend to have a superficial viewpoint of what that might look like. Help me find my way, help me to get out of trouble, carry me home. But what if it actually means He carries us away from the path we thought we were supposed to be on and takes us directly through trouble? By the time we reach home we might have a whole new way of looking at the world? What if in the process we become the type of sheep who trust the Shepherd, who have the strength to deal with trouble, who understand how blessed it is to be wherever He leads us, and have become what we need to be to fully enter into home? Maybe God is a whole lot less concerned about where we are and where we end up than who we become through the process. Maybe He'll make sure we end up where we're supposed to be when we are ready to be there. Maybe we feel lost precisely because we are on the way to being found…we just don’t realize it.
