July 19, 2020: Between the Pit and the Promise
Genesis 37:1-28
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Blevins
July 19, 2020
Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. This is the story of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. 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. Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words. He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: 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 kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.” So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” “I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed. When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
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It’s good to be back with you after a social-distanced vacation with my family in the mountains. While we weren’t fishing or hiking or floating down a cold mountain stream, it’s possible you could find me in front of a television enjoying my new obsession: Hamilton.
I have long been a fan of Broadway, but haven’t been able to take in too many shows of late, because, you know, children. I’ve heard rave reviews of Hamilton on stage and wanted to somehow find my way to a theater to see the show (back when we did that kind of thing), but haven’t had the opportunity. And then, Disney released Hamilton on the big screen on July 3. Today is July 19, and I’ve already watched it three (hundred?) times. It’s genius—every song inspired, and better than the last. The last time I forced my husband to watch it (hew tells me he needs a break) after nearly every song I looked at him exclaiming, “That’s my favorite song!” I’ve never been much of a history buff, but this show makes me want to dust off my American history books, recognizing there’s apparently a great deal I missed along the way.
Hamilton, you may know, tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of our nation’s founding fathers. But more than that, the show tells the story about the dream of a new nation—a nation with liberty and justice for all. A dream that would not come easy. In the way that most dreams worth having don’t come easy.
Today in our scripture text we read about the uneasy dreams of young man named Joseph. The most beloved of his father’s sons, his older brothers were jealous when Daddy Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful garment—a coat of many colors. And when Joseph started having dreams about his brothers all bowing down, subservient to Joseph, his brothers couldn’t take it. So one day, far from their father’s house, they conspired to kill Joseph. One of the brothers, Reuben, took pity on Joseph, and convinced the brothers to merely throw Joseph into a pit—a dry cistern—from which there was no way out. When Reuben stepped away, the other brothers devised a plan to profit off of Joseph’s misfortune—so they lifted him out of the pit and sold him to some merchants passing by. Sold their own brother as a slave. Now, I have a brother. We haven’t always seen eye to eye. But he’s never sold me into slavery. So, that’s something. Joseph had no such luck.
Can you imagine? Sold by your own brothers into slavery. The brothers bloodied Joseph’s special, colorful garment with animal blood, showing it to their father, leading Jacob to believe his favorite son, Joseph, had been mauled by wild animals.
Fast forward thirteen years, Joseph is living as a slave in Egypt this whole time. And it’s hard to say what the low point of Joseph’s life was: being thrown in a pit, being sold into slavery, or being cast into an Egyptian prison after being falsely accused of attempted rape. All this to say, after that day he was thrown into a pit, Joseph’s life was “the pits.” So much for his grandiose dreams of his brothers bowing down before him, subservient to him. So much for glory. So much for dreams.
We know a little something of thwarted dreams in the year of our Lord 2020, don’t we? Me? I was going to get down to my high school weight (ha!). I was going to write a very important book (ha!). I was going to become “Ms. Hospitality” inviting all manner of people into my home (ha!). In fact, at the beginning of the year, I created a “vision board” to set my intention toward what I felt God leading me to do, in part, with the 366 days granted to us in 2020. (And, by the way, wouldn’t you know that this most challenging year would have an extra day?) So much for my “vision” for 2020 (ripping my “vision board” in two)!
How have your plans and dreams been thwarted this year? I know people who have had their cruises and European vacations cancelled. I know some other who lost their jobs. I know still others who have had significant medical setbacks, including COVID. What dream or goal has been sidelined, put on the backburner, deferred for you of late? Is there something you believe God has laid on your heart that seems dead? Out of reach? This year, many of us are having to wait for our dreams to be realized. And waiting is never easy. In fact, waiting can be “the pits.”
Just ask Joseph. Living between the pit and the promise. From the dungeon of an Egyptian prison, his dreams of standing in authority over his brothers probably seem ridiculous at this point. Heck, it’s doubtful he’ll ever even see his brothers again, let alone wield power over them. “Give up your ridiculous dreams, Joseph. Dreams are the stuff of children. You’re never going to see your brothers again, let alone rule over them.”
But wait just one minute. In the words of Luke Powery, “A dream deferred is not a dream denied.”[1]
While we never read of Joseph dreaming again, we read of him skillfully interpreting the dreams of others. Eventually he is brought in to interpret the Pharaoh’s dreams, and Pharaoh is so impressed that he makes Joseph, an imprisoned foreign slave, second in command over all of Egypt. Joseph becomes the COO to Pharaoh’s CEO. In. Charge. Of. Everything! Joseph begins storing up grain during years of plenty, having interpreted Pharaoh’s dream to indicate that years of plenty would be followed by years of severe famine. And it happened just as Joseph predicted. Joseph’s grain was the only food not only in Egypt, but in that whole part of the world, including Canaan, home of Jacob, home of Joseph’s brothers. 0
So Joseph’s brother’s travel to Egypt to buy grain. And who do they find themselves bowing down to, humbly asking to buy grain for their family? You guessed it. Joseph.
“A dream deferred is not a dream denied.”[2]
So what about your “dreams deferred?” Just because you can’t see how you’ll realize the dreams God has placed inside you doesn’t mean they’re dead. Think back just a few moments ago when I asked you, “What dream or goal has been sidelined, put on the backburner, deferred for you of late? Is there something you believe God has laid on your heart that seems dead? Out of reach?” What was it that came to mind?
(Picking up pieces of the ripped “vision board.”) “A dream deferred is not a dream denied.”[3]
Waiting can be “the pits,” but a vision for what waits for us on the other side of waiting can give us hope, and the will to press on.
This concept was developed more fully by Viktor Frankl in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl was a victim of the Nazis, and he spent time in various concentration camps during the Holocaust. A trained psychiatrist, he observed in the camps that one of the primary tools of survival for those who would survive was a sense of hope—that something worth living for awaited them on the other side of the imprisonment. Frankl, himself, survived the camps, and would go on to develop his theory more fully in Man’s Search for Meaning.
So my friends, just because the dream God placed on your heart has not happened yet, does not mean it will not happen. In fact, staying hopeful, keeping the dream alive might be one of the most important tools in your 2020 survival kit. We may not know how long we’ll be in “the pit,” but holding out hope for what waits on the other side might be just what the doctor ordered for keeping our wit in the pit.
So pick of the pieces of the dream God placed in your heart (taping up the ripped up vision board). “A dream deferred is not a dream denied.”[4] I close with the words from a song of another musical—“A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman:
I think of what the world could be,
A vision of the one I see,
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take—
A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make!
[1]Luke A. Powery, The African American Lectionary, 12/31/2008
http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=61
[2]Ibid.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Ibid.