Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 37 Listen: (4:56)), Read: Mark 14 Listen: (8:37)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 37.1-8

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

​​23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

Reflection: Truth in the Cistern

By John Tillman

Joseph and Jeremiah could tell you that, even without water, the bottom of a cistern is caked in thick, mirey mud.

During the siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was thrown into an empty cistern and sunk chest-deep. The depth of mud in Joseph’s cistern is unknown, but there is little doubt that he would have been mired in mud. Death would have been slow—immobilized by the muck, struggling to breathe, succumbing to cold and starvation.

A sympathetic official sent thirty men to rescue Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 38.4-13) Joseph’s one sympathetic brother planned a rescue for Joseph but arrived too late. By the time Rueben got there, Joseph was sold into slavery.

Joseph and Jeremiah share something else in common other than being held prisoner in a cistern—telling the truth put them there.

The brothers’ hatred began when Joseph gave Jacob a bad report about them. It grew when Jacob honored Joseph with preferential treatment. It peaked when they realized what Joseph’s dreams meant. They didn’t need Joseph to interpret; they could interpret dreams, too. (Genesis 37.5-8)

Joseph probably wasn’t a blameless hero. There is biblical evidence that Joseph told the truth in ways that offended his brothers and even his doting father. (Genesis 37.10-11) But the brothers consistently followed a villainous path and one doesn’t have to be innocent to be a victim. Joseph could have been the world’s biggest braggart and the brothers’ actions would still be unjustified.

Do you feel like tossing someone in a cistern? Have you blamed someone’s “tone” for rejecting the true things they said? Have you been angered by or tempted to deny the truth?

Or do you feel like you have been tossed in? Have you been targeted for telling the truth? Have you told the truth, but in a way that brought offense rather than edification?

We must tell the truth despite consequences, but not without consideration. If we are attacked for telling the truth, let us have a clear conscience, knowing we communicated with sensitivity, mercy, and grace.

If we find truth offensive, let us examine our hearts to ensure that we are not, like the brothers, following our biases and hurt feelings. As surely as Joseph was stuck in the cistern, the brothers were stuck in their guilt for decades.

Whatever muck we end up in, God can pull us out. The only way to come clean is the truth.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Happy are those who act with justice and always do right! — Psalm 106.3

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Vengeance, Arrogance, and Partiality

Were the brothers vengeful and jealous? Was Joseph insensitive to the effect of his privileges? Was Israel blind to his partiality? Yes, and so are we.

Read more: Jeremiah, the Unpatriotic Prophet

Bonhoeffer foresaw the church would have difficulty speaking truth to power if patriotism became more highly valued than Christ.