Families matter

In the first part of a new series looking at the life of Joseph, the Very Rev Colin Sinclair considers Genesis 37:1-11

FAMILIES matter. Understand a person’s family background and you have an important key to who they are. Family does not determine your life, but it will certainly impact it on all sorts of levels, whether you copy it or react against it. The popularity of the BBC programme Who do you think you are? suggests that one of the most important choices we make in life is already made for us, namely, our family.

The end of Genesis is devoted to a family story that connects it with its sequel, Exodus, showing how the children of Israel ended up in Egypt. Its focus is on a teenage boy called Joseph, “a man for all seasons”. We will marvel at his faith in the remarkable ups and downs he encounters. We will become aware of the faithfulness of God who watches over him. However, you miss a whole dimension if you do not see how Joseph, in all he faced, never forgot his family.

Joseph was born into a severely dysfunctional family. It was a large family in which he had 12 siblings (11 brothers and a sister, Dinah) Large families have their own group dynamics. However, the complication was that his elderly father, Jacob, had four wives! Within this blended family, Joseph, the twelfth child, was the elder son of Jacob’s favourite wife, Rachel, and he had a younger full brother, Benjamin.

Jacob was not the “fine example of a family man” the musical suggests! Favouritism was part of this family’s DNA and it had caused havoc through the generations. In his great-grandfather’s time Ishmael had felt excluded by Isaac.

Tension had divided his grandparents when Rebecca had favoured Jacob, and Isaac had favoured Esau. Now, by Jacob’s foolishness, the seeds of division were being sown in a third generation. It created an unnecessary barrier between Joseph and his brothers. It did no good to Joseph either, for it turned his head, making him insensitive to them. When we first meet him he comes across as a spoilt young man, flaunting the special coat, (whether it was an amazing technicolour dream-coat or simply one with long sleeves!), his father had made for him, telling tales and speaking without thinking about his dreams. Trouble clearly lay ahead in this unhappy family, for every child longs for love from their parents and seeks their approval and affirmation. They do not want to be a disappointment or be simply overlooked. Joseph’s brothers felt that somehow, in their father’s eyes, they didn’t “measure up” and that hurt.

Yet there was more to Joseph’s DNA and time would reveal it. He had Abraham’s dignity and stickability, Jacob’s cleverness and buoyancy, his mother’s beauty and charm, and, most importantly, the family’s faith. He knew about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and it seems clear that he trusted God, believed God had his hand upon his life and they would face life together. For this is God’s story, and the change he makes on lives and on history. Mark Twain wrote “There are two great days in a person’s life - the day we are born and the day we discover why.” Joseph thought he was meant to be a shepherd but God had much bigger plans, as we shall see. ¤