Family Patterns

Dear Friends,

Today we are commencing a new series on the person of Joseph in Genesis 37-50. This story is about God continuing to develop a people to be His own and to serve Him in the world. Jacob and his children comprise a very dysfunctional family and it is no surprise because Jacob’s own parents – Isaac and Rebekah – showed favouritism to Jacob and this family pattern has been carried over to his children. Joseph is Jacob’s favourite because he was born to Jacob’s favourite wife – Rachel – before she died. So many characteristics, both good and bad, are passed onto our children! We must exercise quality control over the way we relate to our children to ensure that the good things in our life are passed on.

The most important thing to pass on is our faith. However, sin is also passed on. We see that manifest badly in the lives of Joseph’s brothers who hate him. In this first section, it is said three times that the brothers hate Joseph (v 4,5,8). It is not a promising picture and yet we see as this story unfolds that God can work with the messiness and failures of our lives and build something beautiful. Joseph receives two similar dreams and this teaches us that God is in charge and has a plan which includes raising up a leader like Joseph and building a people. The development of Joseph requires that he learns to trust God in difficult times.

God’s blessing, Rev. David O’Mara.

From the AM Pastor’s bulletin, 26 September 2021.