Genesis 36-37

Day: 27

Genesis 36-37

Genesis 37:5-8

⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

 ⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

If God has given you a big vision for your life, don’t count on your family buying into it…  In most cases the opposite is true.  Joseph found this out quick when his brothers mocked him and tried to end his life.

¹⁹ “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. ²⁰ “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

After telling his family not one of them supported him.  Sure Rueben talked his brother’s out of killing Joseph, but He went along with the plan of his brothers to sell his brother to Midianite merchants…  Guess he went with the less of the two evils.

The importance of family to Jesus is revealed in his rejection of his own immediate family in

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”  ³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. ³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

The same thing is said in Matthew 12:46-50 and in Luke 8:19- 21.

 NO, NO, NO… I’m not trying to tell you your family does not love you or that they don’t love God!  That’s probably not the case at all. 

Whatever God has called you to do no matter how big or ridiculous it seems, you have to be willing to do it with or with the support of your family.  Don’t stop because they may not be onboard right away…  Don’t argue with your family about it either.  They don’t understand now, but they might understand later…