Hope for Imperfect Families From the Story of Josephნიმუში

Day 3: A Father’s Favorite

Read Genesis 37:1–11.

As we pick up Joseph’s story, he has grown from a baby boy to a young man. His mother Rachel was dead, and his father Jacob was raising his family in the ancestral homeland where his father Isaac had lived, and where his grandfather Abraham had pitched his tent in obedience to God’s call.

According to verse 2, one of the things that Moses, the author of Genesis, hoped to capture with his writing was “the generations of Jacob.” One shift that can happen when we intentionally study the story of Joseph is that we learn to resist the temptation to gloss over family language in the pages of our Bibles. It’s everywhere! Among other things, it communicates God’s care for our families and His work across generations.

Genesis 37 also tells the story of a family coat . . .

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors (v. 3).

And oh the rift that it caused . . .

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him (v. 4).

Joseph walked around, day after day, with an outward sign of his status within the family. Jacob didn’t try to hide his favoritism toward his son. If one thing is true: that Joseph was his father’s favorite, the inverse must also be true: his brothers weren’t.

Surely all of us can understand why this would eat at them, especially as their highly favored younger brother ran around tattling on others and sharing dreams about being bowed down to.

It’s tempting to point fingers.

·Israel caused the issue by choosing favorites.

·Joseph caused the issue by being immature.

·The brothers caused the issue by letting their annoyance and jealousy metastasize into hate.

But these are just symptoms of a sickness that all of us suffer from.

Read James 1:14–15.

Sin is serious. Deadly serious. Every member of your family is a sinner. From the widdlest baby to the greyest-haired grandpa.

What does Romans 5:12 reveal about sin?

Adam’s sin has been passed to all people in every generation since the Garden. Sin goes well beyond something we do; it’s our nature (Eph. 4:22). Our pervasive and persistent sin problem has a profound effect on our families.

Recognizing the results of sin in our families can be overwhelming, but it also helps us aim at the right target. Instead of fighting against each other, we can rightly square our sights at Satan, the one who tempts us toward sin while he seeks to take our families down.