Dream On

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 40 Listen: (2:59), Read: Matthew 1 Listen: (3:29)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Genesis 41 Listen: (7:30), Read: Matthew 2 Listen: (3:18)
Read: Genesis 42 Listen: (5:08), Read: Matthew 3 Listen: (2:17)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 40.7-8, 23

7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?” 8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

Reflection: Dream On

By John Tillman

From favorite to outcast. From a son treated like a prince to a slave treated like a criminal. From dream teller to dream interpreter.

The ups and downs of Joseph’s life sound exciting in a story but would be awful to live through.

Joseph was rejected, abused, and nearly killed for his dreams. After his brothers’ attack, the muck of the cistern, the shame of enslavement, the shock of sexual abuse, the scandal of false accusation and being imprisoned for something he did not do, he must have been questioning his and his family’s interpretation of his dreams.

Instead of the Sun, Moon, and stars bowing to him, Joseph is imprisoned. Instead of being the dreamer, he hears others’ dreams. Instead of sharing dreams that make others jealous, he hears others’ dreams and wishes for a similar outcome.

I’ve often wondered if interpreting the dreams of the prisoners was a flash of hope for Joseph or a mark of despair.

Was it exciting to use his skills? Or, was it a painful reminder of his apparent failure? Did it boost confidence that God would fulfill his dreams? Or did he wonder why these men’s dreams should be fulfilled within days while he waited years? Did he see them as encouragement from God? Or did he wonder why a pagan cupbearer’s dream should come true, when his dream, given by the one true God, seemed denied?

The repetition in the last verse of this chapter, I think, hints at Joseph’s mood. “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.” (Genesis 40.23) Repeatedly, Joseph’s hopes were dashed and his dreams crashed.

Do you feel unremembered? Forgotten? Have you been in a downward spiral away from the dreams you thought God had for you? Have you gotten cast into cisterns, mired in mud, mistreated, or thrown in a prison of doubt?

Joseph’s journey is a picture for us of the path of Jesus, our suffering savior. As we follow Jesus, we will walk this path too.

Joseph was not forgotten in prison. Jesus was not abandoned in the grave. Certainly we are not forgotten or abandoned when the ups of our lives turn to downs.

Let us remain faithful in the downs and humble in the ups. Not every dream is of God, but every dream from God will come true. All God’s promises are “yes,” in Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. — Psalm 40.14

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

Read more: Dream Like Joseph

Both of the Bible’s dreaming Josephs are sons of Jacob and lived for a time in Egypt.

Read more: Inaugurating The Era of the Servant

Jesus is the fulfillment of every era and every need. Today, his body, the church, is called to live out the era of love and service.

Dream on.

Not a Temptress but an Abuser

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 39 Listen: (3:08), Read: Mark 16 Listen: (2:34)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 39.10-12

10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. 11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

Reflection: Not a Temptress but an Abuser

By John Tillman

Joseph is deservedly held up as an example of the distinct sexual ethics demanded of those who follow God. Even when it would be advantageous or pleasurable to give in to wickedness, God’s people must follow a higher standard.

Potipar’s wife is often held up as an example of women being wicked temptresses or making false accusations against “men of God.” Men have been taught to avoid being alone with women so they don’t get attacked or slandered like Joseph. Defenders of sexually abusive pastors often accuse victims and whistleblowers of being like Potiphar’s wife.

False accusations do occur but are extremely rare. (In the over 4,000 years of history covered in the Bible, this is the only example of a false accusation.) It’s foolish to say false allegations never happen but more foolish to exaggerate their frequency to defend accused abusers.

Equating sexual abuse victims to “Potiphar’s wife” is reading the passage backwards. Potiphar’s wife is the abuser and Joseph is the victim. If anyone in this story is analogous to a sexual abuse victim, it is Joseph and if anyone in this story is analogous to an abusive pastor, it is Potiphar’s wife.

Modern society didn’t invent sexual assault and abuse by leaders like CEOs, moguls, or pastors. It has been around a long time.

Any sexual abuse victim would spot the familiar pattern Joseph faced: unwanted attention, comments, messages, and contact, followed by the attack. Like many victims, Joseph tried to avoid being alone with his abuser, but she created an opportunity to take advantage of him. Then she manipulated the evidence to accuse Joseph of being the aggressor and make herself the victim.

Scripture doesn’t record Joseph telling Potiphar the truth. Perhaps Joseph did. Perhaps that is why Potiphar imprisoned him instead of killing him. But it seems more likely that Joseph, like many abuse victims, feared that the truth wouldn’t be believed, and never reported what truly happened.

We should emulate Joseph’s personal commitment to holiness. Even when it harms us to resist wickedness, as it did Joseph, we should do what is right regardless of the consequences.

We should empathize with Joseph’s unjust treatment and imprisonment, and advocate for today’s abuse victims. Many have been unjustly “imprisoned” by being ostracized from churches and communities. May we also be inspired to ensure our spaces are structured to keep people safe from “Potiphar’s wife-like” leaders.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

The Lord is King; let the people tremble; he is enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth shake. — Psalm 99.1

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

Read more: No DARVO

How can we live in a world dominated by Sauls and Ahabs, the disciples of DARVO? How can we know what the truth is and who is telling it?

Read more: Woe to Abusers and Victimizers

God will bring justice to victimizers and abusers…They will be the ones naked and exposed and shamed.

Women Interrupting History

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 38 Listen: (4:24), Read: Mark 15 Listen: (5:16)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 38:26-27

26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

Ruth 4:11-12

11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Reflection: Women Interrupting History

By Erin Newton

The story of Tamar interrupts the narrative of Joseph. It is a jarring interruption at that. The scandalous nature by which the men withhold their duties of levirate marriage and her tactics are both perplexing as well as sordid.

The narrator doesn’t cast much of a critical shadow over the actions. Was such behavior acceptable in the ancient world or did the author simply prefer to focus on the greater purpose of the text (to tell the history of Israel’s genealogy)?

The outcome of Tamar’s plan is clear in the text. She conceived not just a child but twins. In a culture that did not fully grasp the concept of eternal life, “living forever” was generally seen in one’s offspring. Not only was Tamar’s lineage continued but it was doubled, a blessing for this once discarded woman.

Laying aside the ethical questions of Genesis 38, the birth of the two boys is seen generations later as a blessing on par with the offspring of Rachel and Leah.

Once again the question of levirate marriage is in focus in the story of Ruth. The elders of the city speak of Ruth as a blessing for Boaz. She is not marked by her foreign identity or her status as a widow. She is a woman that can bring blessing.

Women are not often named in the Old Testament and even less are they given central roles in the telling of Israel’s history. But the story of Tamar interrupts the narrative and, I think, intentionally.

The next story returns to Joseph but with his own trouble with a scheming woman. Joseph is not like Judah; the reasons for their situations are different. Joseph is portrayed as honorable and full of integrity. Judah is marked as self-serving and untrustworthy. Even the women are seen differently.

The interruption of Tamar’s story calls attention to her. But such attention to foreign women is nothing new in the Old Testament. It is Zipporah, Moses’s wife who rushes out to save their son Gershom. It is Rahab who saved the Hebrew spies. It is Ruth the Moabite who enables the line of David.

The two distinctions that should have placed Tamar outside or on the periphery of the narrative—being foreign and being a woman—are honored by God and highlighted by the narrator.

We serve a God who honors that which the world dismisses.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.

Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. — Psalm 126.6-7

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

Read more: Tamar’s Story

Tamar is not defined by the abuse she suffered at the hands of men or by her assertive (and questionable) actions…She is a matriarch of Jesus.

Read more: Ruth’s Story

Ruth stands in the spotlight…Boaz redeemed her, but Ruth’s character is the focus…she decided by faith for “your God” to become “my God.”

Truth in the Cistern

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.

From Pejorative to Promise

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 35-36 Listen: (9:33), Read: Mark 13 Listen: (4:32)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 35.9-10

9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

Reflection: From Pejorative to Promise

By John Tillman

The number of people with name changes in the Bible is long and many of the changes are significant.

Abram and Sarai are renamed Abraham and Sarah.
Ben-Oni is renamed Benjamin.
Naomi renames herself Mara.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are renamed Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
James and John are called Boanerges, the Sons of Thunder.
Simon is called Cephas or Peter, the rock.
Joseph is renamed Barnabas.

And, of course, Jacob’s name is changed by God to Israel.

All of the examples above, a changed name meant a changed identity. They said something about how they thought about themselves, how the world saw them, and about their God.

The name, Israel, doesn’t seem to stick the first time, so God comes to Jacob again, repeating the name change and the promise that goes with it. Jacob was a pejorative, meaning “heel grasper.” Israel is a blessing, meaning “contends with God” or perhaps a promise, “overcomes with God.”

Names still have power. We name ourselves and others. Twitter and Instagram handles, gamertags, and many other names function as self-description. The names we give ourselves can be encoded with inside jokes or vague pop culture references.

We also engage in damaging name-calling. Instead of validating a part of one’s humanity, name-calling strips it. Name-calling has been used heavily in politics of late, but its roots go much further back. Name-calling is an attack on the image of God in others and Jesus compared it to murder. (Matthew 5:21-22)

Dealing with a few famous name-callers would be bad enough. Some of us, however, are our own name-calling bullies. We bully ourselves with names like, Stupid, Fat, Worthless. These hurt us more than any other person’s name for us could.

The Bible tells us that Jesus has a name for us. (Revelation 2.17; 3.12) It is not a pejorative but a promise. When Jesus names us, he doesn’t badmouth us, he blesses us. Jesus, rather than call us names like “loser” or “deplorable,” give us new and good names.

He became a loser in our place when he died on the cross. He erased our deplorable sins, paying for them by his sacrificial death. He gives us new names of victory and holiness that only we may know. We can come to know his name for us by coming close, wrestling with him as Jacob did, holding on to him until he lovingly names us as his child.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; hearken, O God of Jacob. — Psalm 84.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Identity Lost, Identity Gained

In Jacob’s preparation to fool his father he put on qualities that his father loved, covering his own unloved qualities.

Read more: Suffering for Our True Identity

It is not all right to be a Christian. And if we ask why, the answer is a sad one; Christians have given Christianity a bad name. — Madeleine L’Engle