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Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Healing in 3 Acts: ACT 1


 Blogging Genesis 42-44

ACT 1: LISTENING


[SHOUT OUT:  I'd been blogging through the book of Genesis but some weeks ago I hit a block. Actually, it was more like falling into a well.  I was drowning in thoughts about the story of Joseph and his interaction with his brothers.  So many ideas that every blog draft came out a 10 page paper.  In those weeks of rewriting and overthinking, my cousin Tiffany Williams started posting about healing.  Tiffany is an actress, scholar, entrepreneur, and all around awesome woman; and her posts helped me order my thoughts into a 3-part series within my blogging Genesis series.
So, shout out to my lil' cuz!
You inspire us all.

Now.  Read my blog.]


Genesis 42. Crops the last 2 years had been so miserable that a loaf of bread was rarer than gold.   If not for their stash of dates and almonds, Jacob’s entire clan might have starved.  

So, when Jacob (aka Israel) learned that the Egyptians had warehouses full of grain, he called all of his sons and told them the news.  They didn’t believe it.  Or, maybe that didn’t trust each other so they were trying to plot out which brother would go to Egypt and which would stay behind.  Either way, their hesitation got on Jacob’s nerves and Jacob said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another; . . . go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die.” (Genesis 42:1-2)

In Egypt the 10 oldest sons of Israel met Zaphnath-Paaneah (Genesis 41:45), the handsome, rich, and powerful “Egyptian” in charge of grain distribution. 


They fell on their knees before him and then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them . . . (Genesis 41:9).

The Lord had delivered his enemies into his hands.  He could throw THEM into a pit.  He could sell THEM into slavery.

Now, I know that the Sunday School-VBS version of the story is that Joseph saw his brothers and forgave them, but the real life version told in the actual Bible is more complicated.


Joseph was rich, successful, and powerful.  Every day he saved lives and grew richer with every life he saved.  Meanwhile his brothers were starving to death in Canaan.  Joseph had won.

Joseph had won, but he was still wounded.  And he might not have known it until he saw his brother again, but, success had not healed his trauma. 

The stitches on Joseph’s emotional wounds broke and anger bled out. 

Hitting all your career benchmarks doesn’t fill the void in your soul.  Even seeing your childhood dream manifest may not be enough  to erase the scars on your spirit from what they did to you.

Joseph didn’t respond to his brothers with compassion.  He reacted with vengance and deception.    He charged his brothers with espionage, which typically carries the death penalty.   

Jospeh said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land!”
And they said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. We are all one man’s sons; we are honest men; your servants are not spies” (Genesis 41:9-11).

“Honest?!” Joseph thought.  “Do honest men attack their little brother like a band of thieves falling on a traveler?  Do honest men toss him into a pit where he simultaneously languishes in darkness at the bottom, roasts in the heat of the sun-baked walls of the well, and half-drowns every  few seconds from sinking in the miry clay around the fountain head pouring water up up to his feet, his waist,  threatening every moment to rise above his head, all while listening to the echoing voices of his own brothers laugh and debating how to cover up his murder? 
“Is that,” silently seethed the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt “what ‘honest’ men do?”

But he said to them, “No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land.”
And they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more.”
But Joseph said to them, “It is as I spoke to you, saying, ‘You are spies!’ (Genesis42:12-16).



“Prove it,” demanded the prime minister of Egypt. “Bring me this alleged little brother living with your so-called ‘father.’ But let me give you some time to think about it.”

So he put them all together in prison three days (Genesis42:17).

Ahh!  Sweet revenge!

Then Joseph said to them the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God: If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house; but you, go and carry grain for the famine of your houses.
And bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.”
And they did so.



Joseph---- sweet, compassionate, save-everybody-from-famine,  what-you-meant-for-evil-God-meant-for-good, Joseph ---- was gonna rescue his baby brother and then extract 15 years of payback from the rest of his siblings.

But then, Joseph started listening.

His brothers didn’t know who he was.  They thought he didn’t understand their language.  So the conversation he overheard was completely honest.   Joseph learned that they were
genuinely sorry for what they’d done to him.   Joseph heard them talk about their daily guilt over betraying him.  He heard them accept every past and present misfortunes divine punishment for crimes against the brother they didn’t know was hearing their confession.

Then they said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us” (Genesis 42: 21).

Joseph listened and learned that their betrayal hadn’t been unanimous.

And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen?”

Joseph listened and learned that they hadn’t come looking for him because they honestly thought he was dead.

“Therefore behold, his blood is now required of us” (Genesis 42: 22).

Joseph listened and his hatred began seeping away, and he turned himself away from them and wept (Genesis 42:24).  Those tears marked the beginning of his healing. 

Hurt narrows our vision and stops our ears, but if you’re going to heal, you have to open yourself up to see and to listen. 

I hear you saying, “I don’t need to hear any more.”

But look at it like this:  If all that you know isn’t enough to give you peace, then maybe you need to know more.    Maybe what you won’t hear remorse.  Maybe you won’t hear guilt and confession from those who hurt you.  Maybe you and they will never reconcile.   
But maybe you hear enough to finally get free.

Joseph didn’t go to his brothers and beg them to talk it out with him.   He didn’t cry in front of them (at first), and he didn’t lead with a group hug. 

In the first act, Joseph just listened and focused on healing himself.

Your job isn’t to relieve their guilt or to grant them closure. 

Listen TO them, but listen FOR you. 

Healing is a 3-Act play. 

Stay tuned for the 2nd act. 


--Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

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