Joseph--Part I, "The Doors of History Swing on Some Mighty Small Hinges"

A dysfunctional home—made so by a father, Jacob, who himself was a product of a dysfunctional home.  In this case loving one son, a child of his old age and born of his favorite wife, above all the other children.  Further fouling family relations, as a demonstration of that love, Jacob gave to this favored son, Joseph, a coat of many colors, itself a symbol of nobility.   

Now mix in a notable dream; actually two.  In the first all the brothers were pictured bowing down to Joseph; in the second, along with the brothers the father and mother were shown bowing down to Joseph.  This dream Jacob is not about to discount simply because of the powerful impact a dream had on him as a young man at a place he called Bethel, recounting God’s Covenant Plan (Gen. 28:10-16).  So while the dream caused consternation among the brothers, Jacob hid it in his heart.

Combine these elements with the lack of wisdom on Joseph’s part in both flaunting the coat of many colors and freely telling and re-telling the dream one might see a storm brewing.

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Here, in this family we have a clear picture of how God can use anyone and anything to accomplish His purposes.  Jacob came from a dysfunctional family where his mother loved him; and his father, Isaac, loved Jacob’s brother, Esau.  Deception was also a family pattern.  Jacob deceived Isaac, claiming a spiritual blessing which should have gone to Esau as the older.  This deception would be played out again, in this family by the brothers with their father, Jacob.  But God had a plan.  This plan involved Jacob’s entire clan going to Egypt to be settled in a favored part of the land, Goshen.  There for 430 years they would be more or less isolated and allowed to grow into a nation of about 2 ½ million people.

Just as Moses would one day lead them out of captivity in Egypt, someone must lead the family there.  It would be Joseph.  But how would he get there?  How would the family come to follow him there?  How could he come to the place where he would so ingratiate himself to Pharaoh to be appointed Prime Minister of Egypt?

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It all began with a dream, a coat and a dysfunctional home.

Do not "The Doors of History Swing on Some Mighty Small Hinges"?

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