Playing Games Genesis 37
I like games. They
keep life fun. Since I have to attend a lot of events for work, my co-workers
and I have fun little games we play; things like, how many people can you get
to say the word “chicken” or who can collect the most business cards. Well, fun for us.
I once was in a
conference for work when the speaker told us about a game him and his wife
play. His wife didn't like attending corporate events because she felt
inadequate to talk to the high profile executives her husband worked with. It was
very different from her everyday world. Enter the game.
At the party and see who could talk about
themselves the least. Thus eliminating her need to talk shop with his clients.
At first she didn’t’ think it would work. Then as she began to turn the conversation
back to other people, she found they loved it. She just played her own personal
quiet game. As they went from person to
person at the party asking questions everyone loved them. If the tables were
turned and they were asked a question about themselves "the games was
on". They would have to quickly get the focus off of themselves and back
on the other person while revealing very little about themselves in the fewest
words possible. They became very popular, and got invited to a lot more parties.
They were considered them highly intellectual.
Try it sometime!
Joseph in Genesis 37,
he does not seem to have acquired this skill. Joseph reveals every thought and
dream he has. He does a lot of talking and seem completely unaware of the
effect he has one his brothers or parents.
His parents doting on
him didn’t help him either. His mother was barren for many years before he was
born. His father Jacob loved his mother Rachel more than his first wife Leah. Poor
Leah had been forced on Jacob by her father. He had to take her to get Rachel.
Joseph’s bright eyed
bragging and favored spot in the family causes his brothers to hate him.
However God has chosen Joseph for a very special purpose. The rest of his story
will take us 13 chapters of Genesis to finish. It’s an amazing story and Joseph
learns the art of listening, trusting and waiting.
Romans 9:16-18
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort,
but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to
Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power
in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[d] 18 Therefore
God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to
harden.
Romans 9:19-21
New
International Version (NIV)
19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still
blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But
who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say
to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[a] 21 Does
not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery
for special purposes and some for common use?
TIDBITS
ON GENESIS 37
- V2 Joseph brings a bad report on his brothers to his father (he's a tattletale)
- V3-4 The coat that Joseph was given may have indicated that he was to be given the rights of the firstborn and receive a double inheritance, a fact bolstered by the fact that he was highly favored by his father and Rachel's firstborn son
- V8 The brothers react to Joseph's two dreams with hatred
- The brothers plot to kill Joseph however Judah and Ruben intervene and instead of being left in well to die they sell him to Egyptians. There are some parallels her to Jacobs deception and jealousy of his own brother and the birthright.
Love you mom, thanks for posting this.
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