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Blue Mountain Academy

Eric Walsh

Dance of the Broken

Our scripture reading, Psalm 34, 17 through 19, as was just read, The righteous cry, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.

The Lord is nigh, meaning he's close, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and save such as be of a contrite spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, The Dance of the Broken.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Once again, Lord, I just ask that you make me a nail on the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Let me not be seen or heard today, Father.

Instead, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

If you have your Bible, go with me to the book of Genesis.

We're actually gonna start in Genesis chapter 37, give you a little background before we get to the story that we're gonna really pull the lessons from.

You would remember Jacob was kind of a trickster, and because of that, he got himself into some trouble.

And later on, Of course, when he went to get married, he had some problems.

Now, because of that, his kids had problems.

Verse 1 of Genesis 37 says, and Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives.

And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

The story starts with Joseph, the child of his father's favorite wife.

His brothers did not like him, and because of his father's decision, there was always contention in the home.

There was always a problem, and here his brothers are acting out.

The brothers do not feel the love that Joseph feels.

They understand that in a sense, they are second to Joseph, and so they act out, and Joseph goes and tells his father what's going on in other words he's a bit of a snitch so he goes and tells on his brothers Do you think his brothers are happy about that?

Verse 3 gives the, kind of goes deeper into it.

It says, Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children.

Because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors.

It was not just that he was the son of his old age, he was the son of his old age because the last person, 1 of the last children he had, he would have Benjamin after Joseph, but it was with his favorite wife.

And because of this, Joseph was favorite.

Jacob was mixed up in the head about this.

All of his kids knew what he thought of them.

They were broken because of family dynamics.

And you could argue, in fact, 1 of the evidences that the Bible is a book you can trust is because the Bible, unlike many other holy books from around the world, puts stories like this in it.

Stories that make the hero, in this case Jacob, not only human, but even at fault.

Verse 4, and when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.

In response to how Joseph was treated, God gave him a dream.

Verse 5, and Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told his brethren, and they hated him yet the more.

So Joseph doesn't have the gift of tact and diplomacy.

His brothers already don't like him and Joseph gets a dream and he has to tell his brothers, well here's the dream.

Verse 6, and he said unto them, here I pray thee this dream which I have dreamed.

Now his brothers are probably sitting over the cereal at the breakfast table like this guy again.

Verse 7, for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field and lo my sheaf arose and also stood upright and behold your sheaves stood around about and made obeisance to my sheaf." In other words, your sheaves bowed down to mine.

You think his brothers are happy at this?

Verse 8, and his brethren said to him, shall thou indeed reign over us?

Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?

And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.

You think, okay, if Joseph has a fault maybe he shouldn't tell them everything.

And he dreamed yet another dream, and told his brethren and said, behold, I have dreamed a dream more, and behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me.

And he told it to his father and to his brethren and his father rebuked him and said unto him what is this dream that thou has dreamed shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to thee ourselves to thee to the earth and his brethren looking what the Bible says his brethren envied him but his father observed the same why would his brothers envy him in this situation I want to submit to you that something in the brothers knew that there was truth in his dreams.

They envied him because they understood that despite their hatred of Joseph, Joseph was going places.

They didn't know exactly what, but they did not like Joseph more, and this is different than the jealousy they had because of his favoritism.

Here they envied him because his brothers were people going nowhere and Joseph had a plan, at least it seemed to them, had a plan that he would be somebody.

And even his father after rebuking him, the Bible says here, his father observed the same.

I'm gonna fast forward through a part of it then jump to the part where we're gonna kind of get to the meat of this.

Well his brothers go out into the field, his father sends him out there, he goes out to his brothers, they see him coming alone, you can almost hear him running.

That's 1 of the things that is very sure from the story of Joseph.

No matter how terribly they treated him, Joseph loved his brothers.

They are mad that he told on them before.

They're mad that he told them these dreams.

And as he's coming, his brothers plot his death, his murder.

That's a serious family problem, isn't it?

So you think your family's bad, this one's rough.

And as he's running out towards them they hatch this plan and they set up and they're ready to kill him.

They throw him into a pit, but 1 of his brothers, Judah, I believe it is, actually steps in and says, no, don't kill him.

So they sell him into slavery to the Ishmaelites and they take off with him.

I want you to imagine what it would have been like to be Joseph on the back of that caravan looking back at his brothers as he is being pulled into the distance as his brothers get smaller and smaller as more distance is created and Joseph hanging on to the back of that chariot or walking attached to the back of that chariot is crying, don't do this to me.

And his brothers didn't have to hatch a lie and kill an animal and make blood and take his coat of many colors back to his father and tell his great lie.

His father never really recovers from what happens until he sees Joseph again, but I want to submit to you that his brothers go to an extreme to try and eliminate the problem, first and foremost because his brothers are broken.

And in the process they would break Joseph.

In fact, the story goes on in Genesis chapter 39 we fast forward to when he lands in slavery.

Bible says, and Joseph was brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him off the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither.

And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man, and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.

And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.

Now you got to remember Joseph had every excuse, this is important to get from the story and the lesson for all of you here.

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Dance of the Broken

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