Tag: Genesis

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.

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.

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

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 32 Listen: (4:40), Read: Mark 10 Listen: (6:42)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Genesis 33 Listen: (2:59), Read: Mark 11 Listen: (3:59)
Read: Genesis 34 Listen: (4:18), Read: Mark 12 Listen: (6:10)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 32.9-12, 24-28

9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”

24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

“Jacob wrestled the angel and the angel was overcome.” — U2, “Bullet the Blue Sky”

Reflection: Wrestling Prayers

By John Tillman

Canaan was unsafe. So Jacob fled to Paddan Aram. Paddan Aram became unsafe. So Jacob fled to Canaan.

An old preacher joke I remember about Jacob at this point in his life is that he was “stuck between Iraq and a hard place.” However, on a more serious note, many today would identify with Jacob’s situation. He was a man with no country and no safe place to go.

From one perspective, Jacob’s mess was of his own making. He stole an inheritance and lost his home. He produced great wealth but at great cost and harm to others. His schemes enriched his family, yet made enemies that threatened their safety.

From another perspective, Jacob’s gains were part of God’s promises and Jacob’s deceptions part of God’s justice on Esau and Laban.

Esau was an impetuous, foolish man, ruled by his desires and showing no restraint in appetites for food, sex, and violence. Esau’s lusts led him off the path of God’s blessings and away from “the dew of Heaven.” (Genesis 27.38-40) Over centuries, his descendants followed in his footsteps.

Laban, the trickster and manipulator used everyone for financial gain. Everything and everyone was a source of profit or a cause of loss, including his daughters. Laban was victimized by his own venality. Being tricked by Jacob was a taste of Laban’s own medicine.

God helped Jacob outmaneuver Esau to take on Abraham’s blessing and helped him liberate ill-gotten gains from Laban’s wealth. However, God’s use of a deceptive person is not approval of their actions and God has a habit of paying back people who used wicked methods, regardless of whether those methods achieved God’s purposes. Jacob later experienced this. (Genesis 37.32-34)

Jacob alienated everyone, cheated everyone, wrestled with everyone—eventually he wrestled with God. The “man” Jacob wrestled was more than a man—it was God. (Genesis 32.30) The wrestling was more than physical conflict—it was prayer.

The prayer Jacob prayed (v 9-12) and the overnight wrestling match (v 24-31) were two parts of the same desperate, wrestling prayer: “Bless me as you promised! Be true to your promise despite my sin! Have mercy on my messes!”

None of us are innocent and many of our messes are of our own making. Yet, we can still grasp hold of God’s mercy and rely on his promises and character.

Don’t let go. Wrestle in prayer. And when the time comes, wrestle in action.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come, let us sing to the Lord;…for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. — Psalm 95.1, 3

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

Read more: From Esau to Jacob

God loved us when we were like Esau—sinners, rebels, and persecutors..we can become children of Jacob and brothers and sisters of Christ 

Read more: Running to Forgive

May we also be willing to rush that forgiveness to those around us. Let us be faithful. Let us be just. Let us run to forgive.