Scripture Notes: Joseph the Dreamer (Genesis 37)

The Patriarchs were so very human. There is always a temptation to put these great men on a pedestal, and indeed they were great, but they were also messy. They had a fallen human nature just like us. And they made wrong decisions. And they sinned. And they had to deal with the consequences of their choices and repent of their sins and reach out for God’s mercy, just like we do. They are models of intimacy with God, yes, but sometimes they are also examples of what not to do.

In Genesis 37, the adolescent Joseph has two prophetic dreams. In the first one, he is out in the field with his brothers, binding sheaves, and he sees his own sheaf stand up tall while his brothers’ sheaves bow down to it. In the second one, he sees the sun and the moon and eleven stars all bowing down to him. These are pretty spectacular dreams even though Joseph really has no idea what they actually mean.

Just having them, though, makes Joseph quite proud of himself, and he runs off to tell his brothers all about them. The young man apparently thinks that his brothers will be pleased to hear the news, and if so, he is deceiving himself badly. On the other hand, perhaps Joseph simply wants to get in a dig at his older brothers, kind of an adolescent “Ha, ha, guys! See what I dreamed!” He is already his father’s favorite son, and his brothers are already jealous, so needless to say, Joseph’s dreams do nothing to endear him to them.  

In fact, the brothers get so angry and envious that they decide to get rid of this kid once and for all. Reuben stops them from killing Joseph outright, suggesting they just throw him in a pit in the wilderness (and meaning to come back for him later). But when Reuben steps away for a while, Judah comes up with the plan to sell Joseph to a nearby caravan. So off goes Joseph to Egypt!  

God has a hand in all of this, of course, and later Joseph recognizes God’s plan for him and realizes what his dreams really mean. He has to grow up quickly, and he is still far from perfect. But he does end up saving his entire family (and much of the world along with) from famine through his wisdom and courage. 

Scripture Notes: Driven by Fear, Part 3 (Genesis 26)

Abraham may have learned from the consequences of his double lie, the two times when he tried to pass off Sarah as his sister rather than his wife. But their son, Isaac, ends up doing the exactly the same thing. The lie passes down to the next generation (yet another consequence that Abraham did not foresee).

Isaac and Rebekah are living in Gerar, under the rule of the king Abimelech. Now Abimelech had proven himself to be a pretty good guy the first time around with Abraham. But Isaac experiences the same kind of fear his father did, the danger of a beautiful wife and the risk of getting killed if someone else wants Rebekah for himself. So Isaac lies and says Rebekah is his sister.

Poor Abimelech! He looks out the window one day and sees Isaac and Rebekah doing something that is decidedly not brotherly or sisterly. At that point the king knows his guests are definitely a married couple. He must experience a bit of deja vu as he asks Isaac why he lied and listens to his response of fear. Once again Abimelech is rather hurt. This could have brought down a great sin and a great guilt and a great calamity upon his people.

But just as before, the king does not get angry. Instead, he warns his people not to touch Isaac and Rebekah, and the couple is able to prosper in the land. This prosperity does not, of course, come from Isaac’s lie but rather from God’s protection and Abimelech’s mercy and patience.

Scripture Notes: Driven by Fear, Part 2 (Genesis 20)

Abraham does not learn the first time. He has already claimed that Sarah is his sister when they sojourned in Egypt during the famine. Now, not horribly long afterward, he tries the same trick again. This time they are in Gerar in Canaan, a placed ruled by the king Abimelech. And once again, Abraham is frightened that Sarah’s beauty will get him killed. So he tells Sarah to say she is his sister.

And once again, Sarah ends up in the king’s harem, in danger of being violated. Her husband, fearing for his own life, essentially hands her over, risking her purity. The man who is supposed to protect and honor her fails a second time.

But God comes to the rescue, appearing to Abimelech in a dream and warning him that Sarah is a married woman. Abimelech is truly horrified, for in spite of Abraham’s suspicions, he would not have taken Sarah had he known she was Abraham’s wife. He says as much to God: “In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” God responds that He knows, and that is why He prevented Abimelech from sinning. He tells the king to restore Sarah to Abraham, which Abimelech does right away the next morning.

The king is, however, rather hurt, and tells Abraham so. Abraham makes his excuse of fear. But Abimelech is not buying it. He tells Abraham that he has brought a “great sin” on the kingdom, and indeed, there are consequences, for the people of Gerar have been prevented from bearing children on account of Abraham and Sarah’s lie. Abraham prays, and God heals Abimelech and his people.

Indeed, through that prayer, Abraham finds healing as well. He seems to finally realize that he does not have to lie, that God will take care of him and his wife, that He would indeed fulfill His covenant promises. Abraham does not try to deceive anyone after this. He is no longer driven by fear.

Scripture Notes: Driven by Fear (Genesis 12)

As famine spreads throughout the land of Canaan, where God had told Abram to go, Abram decides that he must leave and head for Egypt where there will be food. He is frightened, and while he obeyed God in going to Canaan, there is still a part of him that does not completely trust this Deity Who has spoken to him.  

As Abram and his company are about to enter into Egypt, he turns to his wife, Sarai, and tells her that she must say that she is his sister rather than his wife. Abram is scared that someone will take the beautiful Sarai from him and kill him in the process. So he comes up with a lie.

This might actually seem quite reasonable to us fallen human beings. We can sympathize with Abram and his fears as he enters into a new place filled with potentially hostile people that he does not know and does not trust. But he is forgetting something, and so are we. God has already promised Abram that He will make him a great nation and a great name, that He will give Abram many descendants, and that through Abram all the nations of the world will be blessed. God does not lie; He always keeps His promises. So He is definitely not going to allow Abram to be killed in a foreign land (whether or not Abram is supposed to go there to start with).

But Abram, apparently, could not or would not see that and believe it. So he comes up with his lie, and Pharaoh takes Sarai for his harem, thinking, naturally, that she is Abram’s sister. And God, in turn, dumps “great plagues” upon Pharaoh and his house. This is more of a message for Abram than for the bewildered Pharaoh, who figures out quickly enough that Sarai is Abram’s wife. God is showing Abram the suffering that comes from falsehood. Sarai has ended up in a harem, bringing down plagues upon the Egyptians, and all because Abram was too scared to tell the truth.

Pharaoh could probably have had Abram killed for such an offense, but he merely sends him away, another sign that God is protecting Abram. We might think that Abram would have learned a valuable lesson from this little incident, but actually, he does not...not yet. He continues to be driven by fear.

Scripture Notes: A Missing Boy, Part 2 (Luke 2)

In the last post, we reflected on the twelve-year-old Jesus going missing during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Mary and Joseph finding Him in the Temple having a detailed theological discussion with the teachers there. But questions remain: Why does this event happen? What is the significance of it? What does God want to teach us through it?

First, the three days Jesus is missing foreshadow another three days, the three days that Jesus is in the tomb. At that point, Mary’s sorrow and grief reach unknown proportions as she mourns her Son, even knowing that He will rise again. She remembers finding Him in the Temple when He was twelve, for she has kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. He has promised that death will not hold Him, and it does not. She finds Him again, in an even greater way than ever before.

Second, this little incident of the missing Jesus shows us something about what we must do during those times that we wonder if we have lost our Lord. We must look for Him in the Temple. But where is the Temple for us? It is in the Church. It is in the Mass and the Eucharist (where Jesus is really present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity). It is in the Scriptures (the Word of God in print). It is in the writings of the saints, that great cloud of witnesses. It is in prayer, where we speak to God and listen to Him. And it is in our own hearts, where our Lord is longing to meet us.

Jesus never leaves us. We sometimes leave Him. But He is always seeking us, always loving us, always reaching out to us. All we have to do to find Him is to turn to Him in faith, hope, and love and seek Him in the Temple.

Scripture Notes: A Missing Boy (Luke 2)

Imagine how Mary and Joseph must have felt when they looked around their caravan for twelve-year-old Jesus and realized He was nowhere to be found. Mary herself described the feeling as one of pain and suffering and grief (what the Greek word used here actually means). She and Joseph were distressed and anxious, wondering what had become of their Son.

Three days later, when they finally found Jesus in the Temple, the relief must have washed over them like a wave, but at the same time, they wondered why. Why did Jesus do this? Mary even asked her Son that very question. Jesus response may seem odd to us: “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?”

The first thing we have to realize is that Jesus did not mean any disrespect with those words. He would be the last one, after all, to break the commandment about honoring His father and mother. His point lay elsewhere. Jesus already knew, even at age twelve and probably long before that, that He had a mission. He was on this earth to do something quite specific, and that mission was more important than anything else. He loved Mary and Joseph with a love we cannot even imagine, but His Father’s business would always come first. It had to.

So Jesus remained in the Temple, talking to the teachers, asking questions, listening, and responding. And those teachers were amazed. This foreshadows the amazement of Jesus’ audience years later during His public ministry when they exclaimed that He taught with authority. Jesus already would have taught with authority and deep insight even at twelve years old. While His human mind was still developing, His divine mind was perfect. He understood and expressed far more than many of the teachers in the Temple could or would grasp.

Yet when it was all said and done, Jesus returned to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and was obedient to them. The time was not right yet for Him to start His mission. And Mary “kept all these things in her heart,” pondering everything in faith, open to her Lord’s will in all things.

Scripture Notes: The Divine Physician (Mark 2)

Jesus had just called Levi (also know as Matthew) the tax collector to follow Him. At those two words, “Follow Me,” something in Levi woke up or became whole or both. He didn’t think twice. He got up, left everything behind, and followed after Jesus, becoming one of the Twelve Apostles. Levi’s whole life changed in an instant. He had been touched and healed by the Divine Physician.

Levi’s first action after his miraculous conversion to a new life was to share his joy with others. He threw a party for his friends, mostly other tax collectors and people the Jews considered sinners. He wanted them to know Jesus and to experience the same healing that had just entered his life. Jesus gladly sat with all of them, eating and conversing and touching who knows how many other hearts.

And the Jewish leaders had a fit. “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they asked Jesus’ disciplines. But the disciples did not answer; Jesus, overhearing their indignant question, did. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” Jesus explained. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus knew exactly who needed Him the most: those who were suffering, those floundering in sin, those who understood deep down that there was something more for them besides their misery and their separation from God. The leaders, on the other hand, thought they were perfectly fine. They were not sick and sinful, or so they believed. They were righteous...but only in their own eyes. In reality, they were just as sick as those tax collectors and sinners. They needed Jesus just as much, but they didn’t know it and wouldn’t accept it. So they missed out on a life-changing encounter with the Divine Physician.

Scripture Notes: Overconfidence (Matthew 26)

Poor Peter. We all know how he must have felt. He honestly, truly loved Jesus, so when Jesus told the disciples that they would all fall away that very night, the night on which Jesus would be arrested, Peter was horrified. He could not imagine himself doing such a thing. “I will never fall away,” he insisted.  

Jesus knew better. He understood Peter better than Peter understood himself. He could see Peter’s weakness even though Peter could not. So Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times.” It was not an accusation; Jesus was not angry. It was simply a statement of fact.

Peter refused to believe it. “Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You,” he firmly maintained. And he meant it. He really was sincere. But he was also overconfident. He did not realize what would face him that night. He did not comprehend the fear and the horror. He did not know himself well enough to properly predict how he would respond.  

But Jesus did. And Peter learned a tough lesson about himself. He did indeed deny Jesus three times that very night, just as Jesus had predicted. But Peter repented. He learned humility through his fall, and he discovered the risks of overconfidence. He also experienced Jesus’ great mercy and forgiveness, and all of this helped him as he assumed his role as leader of the infant Church.