July 5, 2020 BAILEY TABERNACLE CME CHURCH WORSHIP. Sermon: "ONE MORE THING" (video)

July 5, 2020, the Bailey Tabernacle CME Church worship experience is posted.   Engage. Share. Comment.  Rejoice in the Lord.

THANK YOU to all of you who continue to be faithful in supporting the ongoing ministry of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church.

Visit us at baileytabernaclecme.org  . You may use any the following options for tithes, offerings, and donations:

1)  From your computer or phone use the Givelify app or website for  BAILEY TABERNACLE CME    Click on or copy this link and paste it into your browser for Givelify:  https://giv.li/7xp90t

2)  From your computer or phone use Paypal.   PayPal.Me/BaileyTabernacleCME 

Click on or copy this link and paste it into your browser for Paypal  paypal.com/paypalme2/BaileyTabernacleCME

Or 3)  Mail your check or money order to:

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

P.O. Box 3145

Tuscaloosa, AL 35403

-  Anderson T. Graves II, is a writer, community organizer, consultant and the pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church 

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this blog with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

NO, IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE --- YET

blogging Exodus 12: 8-39

⁸ Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. ⁹ Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. ¹⁰ You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. ¹¹ And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover 

. . . ³¹ Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said. ³² Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”

³³ And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

³⁵ Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.

³⁶ And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

. . . ³⁹ And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves (Exodus 12: 8-39).

Be honest.  Sometimes you pray, “I trust you, Lord, but this right here: it don’t make no sense.”

I’m not talking about the moments when God asks you to do something extraordinary like face Pharaoh, or part a lake big enough to be a called a sea, or hit a boulder with a stick because that will produce --- water?. 

I’m talking about the mundane directions God gives that seem unrelated to the thing you’re praying about.  Like when you pray for a financial help and the Holy Spirit tells you to volunteer. 

“Lord, volunteering doesn’t pay anything.”

Like when you pray for marriage and God tells you to break up with your significant other and move out.

“Umm, Lord, I wanted to be married, not ALONE.”

Like when you ask God to emancipate you and your entire enslaved community  and grant ya’ll prosperity in the land of your ancestors, and God responds by telling you to season your food badly, eat it fast, burn the leftovers, and go into debt. 

with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it (Exodus 12: 8)

eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste  (Exodus 12: 11)

let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire (Exodus 12: 10)

. . . let every man ask from his neighbor and every woman from her neighbor, articles of silver and articles of gold. (Exodus 11: 2).

“Umm, Lord, I get the symbolism of blood on the doorpost, but why are we messing over perfectly good lamb meat?  And why I gotta be all uncomfortable when I eat my dinner?  And why did I go into debt, borrowing from the Egyptian folks when I can’t afford to pay them back.”

“I trust you, Lord, but this right here: it don’t make no sense.”

But then, while it was still night, when they Israelites had stuffed themselves with all the lamb they could stuff and gathered the leftovers to be burned, while they were mumbling, “What a waste,”  THEN, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lord as you have said.” . . . And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste.” (Exodus 12:31-33).

In the hours after midnight, word spread through the Hebrew slave quarters that every Hebrew man, woman, and child, along with all their flocks and your herds (Exodus 12:32), had to be ready to exit Egypt at first light. 

Why bitter herbs?

To remind them of their bitter days in servitude, but maybe also because God knew that the bitter herbs available in the area would help prevent digestive complaints when the fast meal was followed by hard travel.

Why stuff themselves with lamb in  one night? 

Because like distance runners and hikers, the Hebrew slaves needed to pre-load on calories and carbs because they’d be burning a lot of energy in the next few hours and days.

Why burn the leftover lamb? 

Because there was not time to properly dry, smoke, or cure the meat to make it safe for travel and without the explicit prohibition, many people would have carried mutton into the desert  to spoil, make people sick, slow their progress, and potentially spread disease through the tight camp.

Why unleavened bread?

To represent simple holiness, but also because unleavened bread last longer, travels better, and is more practical for a community that has to get on the road quickly.

Why borrow all those valuables from their former masters?

Because between Egypt and Canaan, the Israelites would have no land, no farms, no crops, and no other way to resupply or construct the articles of their worship except with the gold, silver, and jewels they brought out with them.  And how were slaves supposed to get gold, silver and jewels?

And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians (Exodus 12: 35).

Passover night, none of this made sense to the Hebrews.  Passover morning, and it all came together.

Full, fully clothed, and stocked with travel bread and bags of Egyptian wealth, the Israelites jumped off of the straw mats in their slave huts, baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves (Exodus 12:39); grabbed their stuff; and exited Egypt. 

God told you to volunteer because God knows that you’ll make a connection there that leads to a better job than you’d find sending out a hundred resumes.

God told you to end that relationship because God knows that it prevents you from growing into an individual who’s whole enough to be a good spouse and who’s whole enough to recognize the right one when God puts him/her in your path.

This right here, that God is telling you: it don’t make no sense.  But God knows some things you don’t.  He knows that you’ll have to make some moves in the morning that you didn’t expect to make.  You know what you’re praying for, but God knows how to prepare you to receive the answers to your prayers. 

This right here, that God is telling you: it don’t make no sense; but trust the Lord.  It will.

---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 Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

INTO & OUT OF DARKNESS: Lessons from the 9th Plague

Blogging Exodus 10:20 – 11:8

²¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt.”

²² So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

²³ They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

^{. . . 27} But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.

There are 3 morals to this story, but we begin in darkness.  Terrible darkness.

Maybe it was the Khamsin, the "wind of the desert," a massive seasonal dust storm that blocks out light for days. 

GIANT DUST CLOUD FROM KHAMSIN STORM DESCENDS ON CITY

 Maybe it was a cloud of volcanic ash from a far eruption, possibly in the Sinai mountain range.

VOLCANIC CLOUD MOVING ACROSS ICELAND PLUNGES COUNTRYSIDE INTO DARKNESS

Maybe both, combined with an eclipse.  Maybe God just said, “Let there not be light.”   Probably all of the above and more. 

The ancient Egyptians didn’t understand the mechanisms either.  But when they woke at what should have been dawn, there was darkness, terrible darkness; and  it didn’t dissipate with the hours of the day.  The darkness was so absolute that it seemed tangible, weighty, an absence of light that pressed down on the senses and the soul so completely that the mind told the body to shrink, to slump under the pressure of shadow. 

Inside the darkness, swirling particles extinguished fires or resisted the flames’ attempts to cast illumination against the shadow.  Even those with burning lamps had to feel their way, to  grope for the wall like the blind,  to grope as if we had no eyes; to stumble at noonday as at twilight; to be as dead men in desolate places (Isaiah 59:10). 

They couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces.  They couldn’t see their husbands, wives, or children squatting on the dirt floor of the same hut or slumping on the sofa across the fine room of the great house.  They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days . . . (Exodus 10: 23).

They had no food, their crops and stores consumed by locusts and the preceding plagues.  Even if they’d had light there would have been no bread in the markets nor even grass to tend in a field.  All day, and the next day, and the next, they sat and did nothing.  For 3 silent, hungry days every person in Egypt could do nothing but sit, in the dark, and think. 

They thought about Moses, and Aaron, and the Hebrews, and their God.  Yahweh had done this.  There was no other explanation.  Someone had heard Moses proclaim it after leaving Pharaoh’s palace in anger.  The Hebrew God had done what Apophis (Apep), their religion’s world serpent could not.  Yahweh had defeated Ra and killed the sun, and now they were all going to die.

Darkness is terrible when you’re on the wrong side of God’s judgment.  In the midnight hours when the power’s out and the screens are off,  and it’s just you inside your own head, all the myths you told yourself die, and you’re left unable to ignore the realness of that still, small voice. 

But if you’re on the right side of God’s judgment, darkness isn’t scary.

 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. . . You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,       nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. . . Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked. . . No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling  (Psalm 91:1 – 10).

When you’re in a spiritual place where God’s presence is welcome, the darkness isn’t frightful.  It’s just another place where you can meet and hear from your Father. 

When I remember You on my bed,  I meditate on You in the night watches.

Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.

My soul follows close behind You;  Your right hand upholds me (Psalm 63:6 – 8).

If you're a child of God abiding in His mercy and grace of God,  dark hours are an opportunity to fully focus on that still, small voice. For the people of God, darkness is illuminating.

My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word (Psalm 119:148.)

Somewhere in those days of darkness, somebody checked Goshen.  Pharaoh sent dispatched one of the precious few remaining horses imported for the military stables, and the scout forced his thin, frightened mount through the darkness, finding its footing by instinct, until they emerged from the clouds into light, into Goshen.  Somebody reported that the shadow skirted the boundaries of the slave quarters. 

But all the children of Israel had light in their dwelling s(Exodus 10: 23).

The powerful were in darkness, but the oppressed saw the light. 

Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, “Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you.” (Exodus 10: 24).

It was Pharaoh’s greatest concession, but it wasn’t enough. 

But Moses said, “You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind. For we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God, and even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” (Exodus 10: 25 – 26).

Sometime around this exchange the weighted darkness lifted off the geography of Egypt, but it remained heavy on the heart of her king. In desperate anger, he ended negotiations and pronounced a death sentence on the prophet if he tried to restart talks.

Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!” (Exodus 10: 28)

But Pharaoh had missed his opportunity to intimidate Moses.  Moses had seen the light, and the former fugitive with the speech impediment who’d been too afraid to speak defied the monarch of the most powerful empire in their world and gave an unauthorized closing speech.

Then Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.

But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the Lord does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’

And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.”  Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger (Exodus 11:4 – 8).

An up-jumped slave threatened the life of Pharaoh’s heir and then just dropped the mic and walked out, and nobody did a doggone thing to stop him.

That’s FAVOR. And favor isn’t a simple thing.  Consider that to place Moses in a situation where he was powerful enough to say what he said and keep his head, God had decimated A NATION.  When Moses prophesied the death of the first-born, the Egyptians were reeling from the psychological effects of 72 hours of absolute darkness (which, by the way, the Egyptians hadn’t know would last 3 days and not forever) and still trying to process the complete destruction of everything of value that except stone, sand, and metal. All they knew was that every time they opposed Moses, they suffered.  Thus, God made Moses mightier than Pharaoh. 

And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people (Exodus 11:3).

And so we come to the morals of the story: 

1.  Sometimes favor seems to come out of nowhere because sometimes favor comes out of darkness you weren’t a part of.   

2.  When you find yourself sitting in darkness, don’t despair; seek the light by seeking the still, small voice of God.

3.  When God tells you what He wants from you, do it because you’re going to do it, even if God has to direct you into His will by taking you into a dark place.

---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 Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

I CAN'T STAND IT (a lesson from the 6th plague)

Blogging Exodus 9:8-12

⁸ So the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.

⁹ And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”

¹⁰ Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven. And they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast.

¹¹ And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.

¹² But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

  

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

At every previous confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh, vers 11 implies, Egypt’s chief magicians had accompanied the king of Egypt.  The magicians had tried to discredit the existence of Moses’ God, but Moses had produced credible miracles.  They’d tried to minimize the Hebrew God’s power, to make Him look like a minor new addition to the north African pantheon, but Yahweh’s serpent dominated and devoured theirs.  The magicians had offered alternative facts for the miracles plaguing their country, but after replicating some of the effects, they’d had to admit that the complexity and precision of the phenomenon could not be explained other than “This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8: 19).

The magicians had  turned all of their occult skill and spiritual expertise against Moses and failed, but the magicians were true Egyptians, patriots.  The unlettered peasants might be bowed by this abominable shepherd turned prophet, but they would stood by their president  Pharaoh. 

Until they didn’t.

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

When the water turned to blood, the magicians and other members of the Egyptian elite had drunk wine and milk for a week.  When frogs and flies infested the land, the magicians and other wealthy Egyptians had slaves to sweep and fan away the pests.  When lice spread, the unshaven peasants couldn’t afford the best ointments and treatments available to the magicians.  When livestock died, the members of Pharaoh’s magical cabinet could supplement their losses with bailouts confiscated from the surviving stock of slaves, peasants, and immigrants.  So, they had stood by their Pharaoh and defied the prophet of God.

Until they couldn’t. 

Until, the finger of God penetrated their wall of privilege and the elite, the initiated, the magical minority suffered just like all the regular people.   

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

They stood against the prophetic word until heroin was on the private school kids like on the urban schools.   They stood against the convicting word of God until the mass shooters were killing people in evangelical Baptist churches and “good” suburban schools.  They stood against the preaching of justice and liberation until police started shooting their neighbors and getting away with it.  Until their blonde-haired, blue-eyed granddaughters started telling the world that “it happened to me, too.”  Until the finger of God penetrated their walls of privilege.

Until they couldn’t stand it anymore. 

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

What are the magical walls of privilege behind which you have waited out the moving of God?

What makes you feel like it can’t happen to you?

What makes you feel so superior to those people over there? 

Mark that line in the sand where your self-righteousness is drawn.  Mark it well because God will step over it.  

 The righteous God wisely considers the house of the wicked,

 Overthrowing the wicked for their wickedness.

Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor

Will also cry himself and not be heard. (Proverbs 21: 12-13). 

Remember the Pharisee who prayed his privilege and religious exceptionalism:  God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess (Luke 18: 10-11).  Remember that Jesus condemned the Pharisee and justified the tax-collector, the government employee who standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’  (Luke 18: 13, 14).

Feel how you feel about that.  Feel how angry the thought of a religiously right man condemned while an admitted sinner and government employee --- probably in a union--- is “justified.”  Do you feel like . . . . you can’t stand it?

And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.   

 --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 Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401

LESSONS FROM AN ARMY OF ANCESTORS

A message  about history, His-story, and the power of faith to change a nation.  The title is LESSONS FROM AN ARMY OF ANCESTORS.

Listen well and leave a comment.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

 --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 Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar. 

Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

P.O. Box 3145 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35403

DON'T BE A JERK

Blogging Genesis 37

1 Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

² This is the history of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.  

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 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 . . . (Genesis 37)

Genesis 37: 2 says “This is the history of Jacob.”

By this point Jacob was an old man, the father of 11 adult sons, some with wives and children of their own.  Grandfather Jacob had been to foreign countries, wrestled with angels, and buried the woman he loved. But never mind the previous decades, the history of Jacob, also called Israel, only REALLY begins here with the story of his favorite son: Joseph. 

It’s touching to think how a  child can mark the beginning of its parents’ real story.  But if you have 13 (or more) kids, and your story didn’t get started until the 11^th son, it’s not so much sweet as sad. 

Sadly, Jacob played favorites with his children .  Actually “played” isn’t an adequate word because Jacob seriously loved his two sons by Rachel and seriously disdained all his other kids.  Jacob’s favoritism was apparently so deeply etched into the family history that the written record in Scripture reflects the patriarch’s partiality. 

Or maybe the author of Genesis 37:2 didn’t mean Jacob, aka Israel, the man, but Jacob, aka Israel the nation. 

THIS is the history of  Israel.   

It is a history of jerks.

Jacob was a jerk.  His oldest sons were jerks.  His favorite son Joseph was a jerk.  The mass of their collective buttholery nearly destroyed the messianic line.

Jacob enforced his favoritism with no regard for the harm it did to his children.    When 17 year old Joseph snitched on his siblings, Father Jacob publicly rewarded him by making him

supervisor of the older, more experienced brothers.  

Jacob assigned his 10 oldest sons to life in the pastures.  They  spent months at a time away from their wives and children, exposed to the elements, and in peril from predatory animals and more viciously predatory people.  . They slept under the sky, or in caves, or in tents stitched and re-stitched to keep out the rain.  They clambered up mountain paths looking for that darn stupid goat.   They pulled night watches wrapped in old cloaks, and their father didn’t care, but here came little Joseph, precious Joseph in a brand new coat, expensively dyed in multiple colors.   

. . . they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him (Genesis 37: 4).

. . . they hated him even more (Genesis 37: 5).

Literally, everything Joseph said pissed off his brother more.

And then Joseph started having dreams.

He said, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf” (Genesis 27:6-7).

Joseph also dreamed that their parents, represented by the sun and moon and his brothers, represented by 11 stars, all bowed down to him.

Now don’t forget that Joseph’s mother was dead.  So, the moon in Joseph’s dream represented Jacob’s OTHER wives.  Joseph basically told his brothers, “Your mama’s gonna bow down to me.  And your mama’s gonna bow down to me.  And YOUR mama’s gonna bow down to me.”

Now I don’t know if Joseph was insensitive or just stupid.  Seventeen year-old males tend to be both.  His brother were older than him, stronger than him, regularly braved conditions their dad thought were too dangerous for him, had literally murdered an entire city before, and they didn’t like him --- at all.   But, Joseph actually told THOSE dreams, out loud to THOSE men. 

So yeah, next time Joseph came around in his Armani coat “supervising” they seriously considered murdering him.

Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him.  Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming!   Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!” (Genesis 37:18 – 20)

Ultimately they didn’t kill him, but what they did brought about 13 years of suffering for everyone in their family.   13 years of pain because each man involved chose to be a jerk. 

Reuben could’ve stood up to his siblings when they wanted to get rid of Joseph.  He could have been a genuine hero, but he decided to double-cross his brothers and ended up deeper in his father’s disfavor.

But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.”  And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father. . . Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he tore his clothes. And he returned to his brothers and said, “The lad is no more; and I, where shall I go?” (Genesis 37:21-30).

Judah could have used his influence to redirect his family away from violent dysfunction but he wanted to make money off his little brother’s misfortune so he continued on a path mean-ness and betrayal that his own sons followed to their deaths. 

So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened (Genesis 37:26-27).

Jacob could have ended the 3 generation old cycle of parental favoritism and sibling rivalry.  Instead he perpetuated and exacerbated the cycle costing him decades of anxiety, depression, paranoia, and absence.

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” Thus his father wept for him (Genesis 37:34-35).

And Joseph.  Good ole Joseph.  In later days he would become a great man.  God would take what was meant for evil and use it for good.  But at this point in the history of the family and nation Israel, all they have is the self-inflicted evil.  From this point in the history Joseph spends the next 13 years as a slave and prisoner in the equivalent of solitary confinement in a federal penitentiary because he was obsessed with his favor, his authority, and his dreams with no empathy for the dreams, authority, or needs of anyone else in his family. 

Being jerks cost them more than they could have imagined. 

And the moral of Genesis chapter 37 is:  DON’T BE A JERK.

You may have been bullied and mistreated, but DON’T BE A JERK.

You may have been passed over for a promotion that was rightly yours, but DON’T BE A JERK.

You may have been denied love and forgiveness, but DON’T BE A JERK.

You may have prophetic dreams of a great divine destiny, but that’s no excuse for being a jerk.

It may in the end all work out for good because you love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.    Cool.  But that won’t undo the suffering that your buttholery causes in the meantime. 

Just, DON’T BE A JERK.

 

--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

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064