Living in the Land of Resentment

Scripture: Genesis 37: 12-36

Sermon: Living in the Land of Resentment

Topics: Resentment, Dreams, Joseph

Preached: September 24, 2017 am Joseph Series #2

Rev. Mike Abma

Genesis 37: 12-36

Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem.¹³And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’

He answered, ‘Here I am.’ ¹⁴So he said to him, ‘Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.’ So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem, ¹⁵and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’ ¹⁶‘I am seeking my brothers,’ he said; ‘tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.’¹⁷The man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” ’ So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. 

¹⁸They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. 

¹⁹They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. ²⁰Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.’ 

²¹But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’²²Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. ²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; ²⁴and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

25 Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 

²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers agreed.

²⁸When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. ³⁰He returned to his brothers, and said, ‘The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?’ 

³¹Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. ³²They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said, ‘This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.’ 

³³He recognized it, and said, ‘It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.’ ³⁴Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son for many days. 

³⁵All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said, ‘No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.’ Thus his father bewailed him. 

³⁶Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

For my last year of high school, I attended a large public school.

I came from a small Christian high school with about 300 students, and went to a large high school with about 1300 students.

In Canada, almost every high school has a badminton team.

Badminton.

I know. You are thinking of that game kids play in the summer where they, bonk, bonk, bonk a birdie back and forth.

But badminton has a competitive side.

Like tennis, you play either singles, doubles, or mixed doubles.

Like tennis, there are some general expectations:

your best player is the number one singles,

and the rest of the team fills in the other spots.

I came to that badminton team as the new kid.

Before I even got there, it was assumed a certain player was going to be the number one singles player.

But there was a bit of a problem – I happened to be a pretty good badminton player. I beat that “best” player every time I played him.

When tournament time came, the coach always had me play mixed doubles, never singles.

I asked why – I was the better player.

The coach hemmed and hawed and said, “Singles is such a competitive category, you stand a better chance of advancing as a mixed doubles player.”

The feeling I felt was resentment.

I felt I was getting the short end of the badminton racquet.

Another person was being given favorable treatment.

It was not fair.

Resentment is not a nice feeling.

And seeing how I dredged this story from almost 40 years ago, resentment also lasts a long time.

GENESIS 37 — THE LAND OF RESENTMENT

When we enter the land of Genesis 37, we are entering a land of resentment.

The resentment has deep roots.

Way back when Jacob was younger,

he resented that his father Isaac favored his brother Esau over him.

When Jacob got married,

his wives, two sisters, Leah and Rachael, resented each other.

Leah resented the fact that Jacob clearly loved Rachael more than her.

And Rachael resented the fact that Leah kept on having one baby after another,

and she had NONE.

Leah did have a slew of sons:

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isaachar, Zebulun.

Rachael, in her rage and resentment,

shoved her servant Bilhah at Jacob and yelled,

“If I can’t give you children, maybe she can.”

And Bilhah did. She had Dan and Naphtali.

When Leah stopped having kids, she thought,

“Hey, if my sister can push forward a servant, so can I.”

So Leah pushed her servant Zilpah on Jacob.

And Zilpah had two sons: Gad and Asher.

Finally ……finally, Rachael became pregnant.

She had Joseph.

Later she had Benjamin, but while having Benjamin, she died.

Jacob never quite got over her death.

Perhaps that’s why he doted on Joseph so much —

Joseph was Rachael’s first son;

Joseph was his connection to her.

But Jacob’s doting on Joseph,

favoring Joseph,

was breaking all the cultural rules.

According to the cultural rules,

the oldest son was supposed to be number 1.

But Reuben is never treated as number 1.

When Reuben makes the big mistake of sleeping with Bilhah,

Jacob’s concubine – that just made a bad situation worse.

Reuben spends the rest of his life trying to win his father’s acceptance back.

Next in line were Simeon and Levi. But after their clumsy attempt to defend their sister Dinah’s honor by killing all those men in Shechem, father Jacob just shook his head and said, “Boys, boys, you have brought trouble to this family.”

That left Judah, Isaachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher – but by that time, Joseph was on the scene, soaking up all their father’s attention.

THE PLACE CALLED DOTHAN

Even before the coat,

even before the dreams,

the brothers had reasons to resent their little brother.

But the coat and the dreams simply made it so painfully obvious

that in this family,

not only did father Jacob favor Joseph,

but God seemed to be favoring him too.

Our story this morning takes us

far from father Jacob,

far from Hebron,

far from home.

Our story takes us to the land of Dothan,

where the brothers feel safe to let their resentment boil to the surface

so that Joseph knows how they really feel.

While Joseph is still at a distance,

wearing that ridiculous robe,

the older brothers say to each other,

“Here comes that Dreamer.

Let’s get rid of him,

and then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams.”

They didn’t simply want to take the Dreamer Down.

They also wanted to take their father down a few notches –

enough so that he might notice and appreciate them for a change.

So here is this family

that lived in the land of resentment,

a land where everyone felt as if they were being treated unfairly –

father Jacob

the mothers

the brothers —

everyone.

Then in this place called Dothan,

where the brothers

thought they could act in secret,

thought they could be mean and cruel without consequences,

In this place called Dothan

they grabbed their brother.

They stripped off his robe.

They threw him into a pit,

and left him for dead as he was hauled to Egypt.

OUR LAND OF RESENTMENT

Isn’t it true that we live in a culture of resentment?

Isn’t it true that we live in a culture in which

many people feel like they are getting the short end of the stick.

A culture in which people,

resent immigrants because hey they are taking our jobs;

resent the elite because, hey, they are just spoiled brats;

resent the media because, hey, they never tell the truth;

resent the government because, hey, they can’t do anything right;

resent the police because, hey, they’re just protecting themselves.

It is out of that resentment that people

justify challenging the police,

justify cheating on our taxes,

justify dismissing journalists,

justify blaming elites,

justify protesting against immigrant.

OUR PLACE OF DOTHAN

But this is more than simply a cultural thing, isn’t it?

It is also a personal thing.

When do we find ourselves in Dothan?

When do we find ourselves in a place

where we think we can unleash our resentments

in a flurry of meanness and cruelty?

A place where we think we are hidden

and that there will not be consequences?

When do we find ourselves in Dothan?

I think we find ourselves in Dothan

when we are looking at a screen

and are about to write a review, or a blog, or something online …..

a review of a service center that we think over-charged us,

a review of an airline we think over-delayed us,

a review of a professor who happened to give us a B+

a review of a coach who was too dumb to know who the best

player is.

We are going to write a review

and we are going to be blistering – it is going to be a sick burn.

Why?

Because this resentment is growing out of the soil of righteousness!

We have been treated unfairly, and we will not stand for it!

THE BELOVED SON

Into this land of resentment

came a son – a beloved son:

a son dreaming of a greater kingdom;

a son speaking of the love of the Father;

a son urging a better way of living together.

But this son was betrayed for a handful of silver.

This son was seized by his brothers —

brothers who were filled with resentment,

This son was stripped of his robe,

and instead of being thrown into a pit,

he was hoisted on a cross

as people chanted “Death to the Dreamer.”

But this beloved son of the Father

does not compete with us for his Father’s love.

This beloved son of the Father

is his Father’s love.

With his blood-stained body,

that sank deep into the pit,

he connects us with his Father’s love.

With his resurrected body that rose to become King of all Creation,

he gives each of us a coat, our own coat –

the covenantal coat of baptism:

a coat that says we are accepted;

a coat that says we are the Father’s beloved as well;

a coat that says we also belong to him as his sons and his daughters.

CONCLUSION

So how do we get out of the land of resentment?

How do we avoid the dangers and temptations of Dothan?

Well – and this is getting a little ahead in the story –

but we need to make a trip

out of the land of resentment

and through the territory of repentance.

We need to travel through the territory of repentance

where resentment for what we do not have has died,

and gratitude for what we do have has come to life.

We need to travel through the territory of repentance,

to the land of resurrection,

a land where we know who we are:

that we are loved and accepted by our Father through his beloved Son,

and therefore can love and accept all others.

That is where we need to be living — in the land of the resurrection,

A land where we are freed from constant comparisons;

A land where we are freed

to find joy

in the success

in the happiness

in the blessings

of other people.

People of God

the next time you find yourself in Dothan,

the next time you find yourself on Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram or

whatever else

and are looking, from a distance,

at photos of

friends with fantastic families

old college roommates going on fantastic vacations

family members living in fantastic houses.

Remember…

Remember

Who you are

Remember

Whose you are

Remember

What land you are living in. Amen