Jan 31 A dysfunctional family
31_A dysfunctional family Gen 37:Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 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. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And 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 bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. Gen 42:21 Then they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; for that reason, this distress has happened to us.” In the heart of a quiet forest, a tribal chief named Seattle once stood before settlers who sought to buy the land his people had cherished for centuries. His words echoed with wisdom: "How can you buy or sell the sky, the earth? This idea is strange to us. If we do not own the purity of the air or the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?" This is the right way to view our enjoyment of God’s free gifts. The Creator gives rain and sun and air and earth to the righteous and the wicked alike. Yet, human beings often manipulate the right to enjoy these blessings. They use them to buy or show favor and fuel selfish ambition, and to divide people into classes and sects. This tendency doesn’t just corrupt our societies. It can reach deep into the innermost spaces of our lives—our families. Jacob’s family was no exception. His deep love for Joseph, the first son born to his beloved wife Rachel, became the root of division and despair. It led to jealousy among Joseph’s brothers and to tragedy. To be fair, the seeds of dysfunction had been sown