Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more . . . He had another dream and told this one also to his brothers . . . When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded him: “What’s with all this dreaming?” . . . They (his brothers) spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns . . . We’ll see what his dreams amount to.” Genesis 37: 5, 9, 10, 20, MSG.
Father in heaven, today we bow before You in the study of Your Word. We ask Your help in preserving our dreams. Please teach us how to do this, despite our circumstances. In the blessed name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Dreaming is a sure way to prove that we are alive! This is true both physically and spiritually. Ecclesiastes 9: 5 & 6 reads, “The . . . dead know nothing; they have no more reward, . . . never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun.” (Emphasis provided). Many who are physically alive, are not really living. They have lost the ability to dream. Like the demoniac, in Mark 5, they live “among the tombs” (3). Some give up their dreams, others have their dreams taken from them. Today, I am impressed to encourage you, not to give up your dream(s)! For this, let us take a brief look at the life of Joseph to see what we can learn.
He was only seventeen years old. He had lost his mother to death, at a very tender age. He had a father who loved him, and showed preference to him, over his other half-brothers. This did not benefit him in any way. The Scriptures read, “they hated him” (4, NRSV). When his father gave him a special coat (3) the Hebrew meaning of the term used for the coat is uncertain; the Greek term means, “a coat of many colors,” (margins, NRSV), we are informed by Scripture, that “they hated him even more” (5). Caveat number one: There are circumstances over which we have no control, that may threaten our dream(s).
We know that Jacob had served a total of fourteen years for Rachel, Joseph’s mother (Genesis 29: 20, 27, 28), the love of his life. So Joseph was special to his father because he was his “love child.” We are also told that Joseph was a “helper” to his half-brothers, and sometimes the report he took to his father was not the best (2). This certainly did not help his situation. But understand this, he is still very young. He is obviously not a child that is street-wise. After all, he is the “apple of his father’s eyes.” He is “the son of his old age” (3). He is pampered and protected. He had circumstances stacked against him even before he started dreaming! Caveat number two: You may come to your dream(s), under adverse circumstances.
When Joseph shared his dreams with his brothers, you know, they were not happy about it! “As if he has not done us enough harm; telling us about his dreams! The heart of this young man, who does he think he is anyway? Coming into our lives and taking from us everything that is worth living for, the love of our father; the hope of one day being in charge of our father’s estate, and being looked up to. If it had not been for him, we too, would have hopes of a ‘dream come true.’ But now . . .” “Now Jacob, we will have no more of this nonsense! Do you expect that one day your mother and I will be bowing to you? Stop your day-dreaming, and go search for your brothers!” (My expanding of Genesis 37: 8-11). Caveat number three: Not only your enemies will try to discourage your dream(s). Even those who love you might not agree with your dream(s).
We will continue this conversation tomorrow.