I.
With today’s reading we begin a new series of lessons. This month and for the next two months our theme will be “Love for One Another.” In the first four lessons we will focus on Joseph.

With that theme in mind, let’s begin our journey with Joseph.

II.
Genesis 37:2-11

This is the story of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Genesis 37:23-24

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Genesis 37:28

When 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.

III.
While the verses included above give the highlights for this week’s reflections, some things are missing. You probably want to read the entirety of Genesis 37 and notice Reuben and Jacob in what transpires in the family.

IV..
Love?

Where is love in this passage?

What kind of love?

What do you see as the “family dynamics” in Joseph’s family. What could you take away as a model for how a family relates to one another?

Is there anything in this description of how a family relates to one another that you can identify with or have seen in your family or families you know first hand?

Charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}