Lent 2025 Day 6: Tue 11 Mar
Genesis 37:18-28
18 [Joseph’s brothers] saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19 ‘Here comes that dreamer!’ they said to each other. 20 ‘Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.’
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. ‘Let’s not take his life,’ he said. 22 ‘Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.’ Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe – the ornate robe he was wearing – 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, ‘What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.’ His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
Joseph’s brothers certainly did not like Joseph. Joseph didn’t seem to have a filter when it came to telling them about the dreams he’d had that he would rise above all of them. Not to mention the fancy coat their father gave him. He was really annoying, and they resented him deeply. They were not to know that Joseph’s crazy dreams would come to pass, and in a way that would truly amaze kings.
They resolved to kill him. That should stop his dreams and aspirations. They weren’t quite of one mind, however. Reuben did speak up, hoping to save him from death, but he didn’t actually stand up to be counted for Joseph. Judah’s solution was no better.
While the brothers may have stepped back from killing Jacob they still were compelled to create a false story to bring to their father. Sin is sin –there are no degrees of sin, as any sin offends God.
They ate their lunch against the background of a brother screaming to be released, and then they sold him off, thinking he’d be gone forever. Job done? With thoughts back to Adam and Eve – after sin comes the cover-up.
Should Reuben have made an unequivocal stand against his brothers regarding Joseph?
Have you let someone down by your inaction?
Have you ever saved yourself, only to cause another person more grief?
Father God, I pray that in your righteousness and justice I have courage to stand against wrongdoing. Shine your light on me that I may see my own unrighteousness and unjust attitudes and behaviour. Amen.
24:50 Herr, bin ich's? (Chor)
9d. Evangelist And they were very troubled and began, each one among them, to say to him:
9e. Chorus I Lord, is it I?
10. Chorale
It is I, I should atone,
bound hand and foot in hell.
The scourges and the bonds
and what you endured,
my soul has deserved.
11. Evangelist He answered and said:
Jesus He who has dipped his hand in the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will indeed pass away as it stands written of him; yet woe to the man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for him if this man had never been born.
Evangelist Then Judas, who betrayed him, answered and said:
Judas Is it I, Rabbi?
Evangelist He said to him:
Jesus You say it.
Evangelist While they ate, however, Jesus took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples and said:
Jesus Take, eat, this is my body.
Evangelist And he took the cup and blessed it, gave it to them and said:
Jesus Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I say to you: from now on I will not drink again from this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink again with you in my Father's kingdom.
Ends at 28:53
Paul