May the mumbling commence!
My mother calls it “the green-eyed monster”. Jealousy can make us do some monstrous
things. Just look at what Joseph’s
half-brothers did to him. Read from
Peterson’s The Message:
His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their
father’s flocks. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are with the flocks in Shechem. Come, I want
to send you to them.”
Joseph said,
“I’m ready.”
He said,
“Go and see how your
brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back a report.” He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem.
A man
met him as he was wandering
through the fields
and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
“I’m
trying to find my
brothers. Do you have any idea where they are
grazing their flocks?”
The man
said, “They’ve
left here, but I overheard them say, ‘Let’s
go to Dothan.’” So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers
down, and found
them in Dothan.
They
spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to
kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here
comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him
and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what
his dreams amount to.”
Reuben
heard the brothers talking and intervened to
save him, “We’re
not going to kill
him. No murder. Go ahead and throw
him in this
cistern out here
in the wild, but
don’t hurt him.” Reuben planned
to go back later and get him out and take
him back to his father. (Genesis 37:12-22)
Now read the same passage from the NIV translation:
Now his brothers had gone
to graze their
father's flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, "As
you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I
am going to send you
to them."
"Very well," he replied.
So he said to him, "Go and see
if all is well with your
brothers and with the flocks, and bring word
back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem,
a man found him wandering
around in the
fields and asked him, "What are you looking for?"
He replied, "I'm looking for my brothers.
Can you tell me where
they are grazing their flocks?"
"They have moved
on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'"
So Joseph went after his brothers
and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance,
and before he
reached them, they
plotted to kill him.
"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other.
"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."
When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him
from their hands. "Let's not take his life,"
he said. "Don't shed any blood.
Throw him into
this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him."
Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. (Genesis
37:12-22)
From the passage we read yesterday, we know that Joseph
was apt to tell stories on his brothers and get them in trouble with their
father. When Israel (And it does say
Israel rather than Jacob here!) sent Joseph to check in on his brothers, Joseph
was champing at the bit to go (“very well” in the NIV and “I’m ready” in
Peterson’s work). I have no problem with
either the NIV or Peterson’s work in this case.
However, there seems to be quite a difference between
Joseph “tracking his brothers down” (Peterson) and “going after his brothers”
(NIV). Peterson seems to assume a
willful intent to disparage his brothers.
Indeed, perhaps that was the case… but I think Peterson is being unduly
harsh.
Then the green-eyed monster of jealousy rears its ugly
head in a plot to murder a brother. Do
you hear the echo of the conflict between Cain and Abel here? I can.
“Let’s see what comes of his dreams… what they’ll amount to.”
But Reuben kept his head. He was the firstborn of Jacob. He was the oldest, so Reuben took it on
himself to save his brother from certain death.
Perhaps Reuben learned a valuable lesson the hard way when he disappointed
his father by sleeping with his father’s concubine. Reuben no longer wanted to disappoint his
father.
May we be as good at learning from
our mistakes!
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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