Wandering Toward Promise - Week 10: When Dreams Collapse

 The Season of Pentecost & Summer Sermon Series

These stories aren’t about perfect people. They teach us to trust God even when we cannot see the path ahead.  

Today we are going to study a story filled with jealousy, betrayal, suffering, and Providence.  And a technicolor dream coat.    

The story of the coat of many colors and the fall and rise of Joseph has been part of our cultural imagination for some decades because of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.  

The theme of the musical is to never stop dreaming, no matter what happens in your life, whether it be betrayal, abandonment, hardship, terrible circumstances, unjust accusations, and more.  It's a story of rising and falling... rising and falling again... and rising finally to be who you were meant to be.  

But for the part of the story we will be studying today, there is no certainty of rising again after a traumatic fall.  

GOD REMAINS PRESENT EVEN IN THE SEASONS WHEN OUR LIVES FALL APART

Genesis 37:1-4; 12-28

Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. 2 These are the descendants of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him an ornamented robe.4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

• The story starts with Jacob and his favoritism toward Joseph. 
• Why Joseph was favored by his father—a theory.  
• The coat of many colors, an explanation. 

However it is translated, the garment would set Joseph apart from his siblings: In that era when dye was not easy to procure, any colorful garment would be rare and extremely valuable, and clothing that was embroidered or had long sleeves would be impractical for agricultural work like tending flocks. 

• We see Joseph as a tattletale, but there’s so much more (dreams). 

Joseph had dreams about his brothers bowing down to him.  He had dreams about his entire family giving him honor.  This did not go over well, even with Jacob.  

12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” 14 So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem, 15 and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” 16 “I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” 17 The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. 18 They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them they conspired to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. 

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornamented robe[a] that he wore, 24 and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

• The plot thickens—kill or not to kill. Reuben has a plan. 

25 Then they sat down to eat, and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. 28 When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

• They decide to sell him to passing merchants—unclear which.  
• Then they cover Joseph’s coat in blood, and lie to their father.  

Joseph’s dreams collapsed in the pit.  But sometimes the pit is where God begins a deeper work.  

Some Thoughts

• When Joseph’s dreams collapse, there’s plenty of blame to go around. 

All the years he spent struggling could be traced back to his own pride, which has to be worn away.  But there is also the bitterness over what his own family did to him, the betrayal by others...  

• There are times in our lives when the way out of the pit feels worse.  

Joseph may have been raised out of the pit, but his journey led to slavery.  So many of us may see the pit as at least something we know.  

• What we learn about ourselves and God during these seasons can shape the course of our lives.  

Can we face the uncertainties of life and the terrible seasons of loss and failure with courage?  Can we discover ways to surrender our outcomes and let go of our pride?

Can we forgive those who have wounded us, and be released from bitterness?  Can we keep dreaming?

GOD REMAINS PRESENT EVEN IN THE SEASONS WHEN OUR LIVES FALL APART