Joseph was not a daydreamer

Genesis 37:5-11

Are you a dreamer, a person who daydreams?  I am, I’ve always been, and often when I was very young, I dreamed that I was a super hero, and frequently I would save someone who was important.  I would dream I was the quarterback of the Roy Miller Buccaneers and win the game in the last seconds.  I was always the hero in my dreams; I was always successful and got the acclaims of the ladies and those who were important.  But I was not like Joseph I never shared my dreams with anyone.

Being the younger brother is always a challenge, and in my case, it was very often your older siblings who wanted you to stay away from them, especially when they had friends over.  They came up with signals and even a strange language, like pig Latin, and when that did not work, they would yell at mother, “Make him leave us alone.”  So I do have some understanding of what Joseph is up against.

One day Joseph had an outlandish dream, and because his brothers did not respect him, and he was daddy’s pet, and a tattletale, he thought, “I will tell my brothers how they will bow down to me, in my dream.”  Sharing the dream was not a wise move, it did not endear him to his brothers, and in fact it made them hate him even more.  This was the dream he shared with them; “He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaves arose and stood upright.  And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”  His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us?  Or are you indeed to rule over us?”  So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.”

Sometimes, the pet of the father, does not know when he is well off, and it seems as if young Joseph is not going to keep his dreams to himself, once more he tells his brothers and his dad about a new dream that he has had; “Behold, I have dreamed another dream.  Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”  But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed?  Shall I and your mother and brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”  And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.”

Unlike my many fantasies, and daydreams, Joseph dreams were from God, and God was telling him what would happen in the future.  What seemed to be a foolish act of pride was God using it to accomplish his plan.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice