What is God doing in the dysfunction? Where is God when we mess up, when others wound us, or when life falls apart?

Genesis 37 can help us answer that question.

Joseph’s story is about more than just Joseph - we're not just to mine for moral lessons but remember it is a smaller story pointing to a bigger story of all Scripture.

The importance of the Joseph story lies in the fact that it initiates the chain of events that leads to Egypt; it is the prelude to the drama of oppression and redemption that constitutes the overriding motif of biblical theology.

In Genesis 37 you see nothing but moral decline – you see a weak and wounded family, full of conflict.

We're supposed to just sit in that, feel the hopelessness of it all and ask where is God in their (and our) dysfunction?

JACOB:
------------
Genesis 37:3

Jacob's dysfunction was favoritism that was ultimately a result of father's wound and subsequent idolatry of Rachel and then of Joseph. This idolatry poisons the whole family system.

JOSEPH:
------------
Genesis 37:2

Joseph is depicted as morally good, but immature and bratty. His tattling, boasting, and robe parading inflames his brothers’ hatred against him. His dysfunction was a hubristic pride and unbridled ego.

BROTHERS:
------------
Genesis 37:4, 8, 11, 18-20, 23-25

The brothers dysfunction was seen in a progression of sin and a calloused conscience that escalated from sibling jealousy to expressed hatred to desired murder and climaxed in selling Joseph into slavery.

REUBEN:
------------
Genesis 37:21-22

Reuben dysfunction is a cowardly, conniving, leader who is ultimately concerned with securing his position and influence rather than using those things to benefit and lift up others.

JUDAH:
------------
Genesis 37:26-28

Judah's dysfunction is that he is greedy and self-centered with a seared conscience.

Where is God and what is He doing in the midst of dysfunction?
------------
- God is not mentioned once in the entire chapter.

- Does He abandon us in our dysfunction? Does He say, "When you get your act together, I’ll step back in?"

- No - He is silently orchestrating and purposing every free-will choice (even using the sin, evil and dysfunction) to secure their rescue and His intended outcome. He is sovereignly at work, weaving a story of redemption.

Even in Dysfunction God is Working Salvation:
------------
- No mention of God, but he’s in every detail working things for their salvation

- There is no greater comfort than to know that no matter how absurd, irrational or dysfunctional your circumstances may seem, God is sovereign and can use anything, redeem anything, purpose anything for good! He can take the mud and turn it into a masterpiece.

The hope for those of us today that are experiencing dysfunction, in their life or in themselves, is that, “When life looks like it’s falling apart, God may actually be putting His plan together.”

Even in Dysfunction God is Working Transformation.

“God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him.”
– Martin Luther

Whether you’ve done evil or had evil done to you, God’s not done with you. He can bring meaning out of the mess. He can bring purpose out of your pain. Salvation, redemption and restoration that comes through Jesus Christ is our only hope.

To the flawed: God’s mercy is bigger than your mistakes.

To the wounded: God’s presence is closer than you think.

To us all: Jesus is the greater Joseph - sent by the father, came to his own, his own rejected him, hated him, and anted to kill him. They stripped of his robe, sold for pieces of silver, but God would use all that to secure their salvation.