It's art class. The student potter, under the watchful eye of the artist-instructor, carefully fashions, spins, and shapes a lump of green clay into a beautiful Grecian chalice. The clay figurine is then fired, soon to be painted and glazed. The potter and the mentor watch through the glass door of the oven as the fire heats the new creation toward a hardy sturdiness -- durable and strong.
But then both apprentice and instructor notice, to their disappointment, cracks appearing in the chalice. The firing has exposed weaknesses in the clay and when the chalice is brought out of the oven and cooled, it shatters into useless shards.
Undeterred, the potter begins again and in a short time the potter's wheel is spinning with designs for a second, even more splendid and more sturdy Grecian chalice.
So in the story of Joseph and his brothers, the unity and cohesion of Jacob's family is broken. Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, unity, and good will, like the Grecian chalice, breaks into useless chards of clay.
The first crack in shalom is favoritism. Father Jacob gives to Joseph, the son of his old age and the son of his favored late wife, Rachel, a coat with long sleeves. The Septuagint calls it a coat of many colors. It is a coat reserved for royalty -- a mantle for a prince.
The Yahwist writer of Genesis reports that the brothers saw that their father Jacob loved Joseph more than any other. Jacob even appeared to love Joseph more than the youngest brother, Benjamin, who was associated with Rachel's death.
Favoritism, even the appearance of favoritism, strikes a deadly blow to the shalom of any family. Most every family, ancient and modern, knows and has experienced the disruption from favoritism. When one child is elevated above another by affection, gifts, or honor, that is a sure recipe for trouble. Even though it's only the perception of favoritism that is present when mom or dad appears to favor one sibling over another, the results are the same.
While favoritism provides the seed for trouble, Joseph unwittingly adds fuel to the fire. When Jacob sends Joseph to look after the "well-being" (shalom) of his brothers who are shepherding the sheep at Dothan, he tattles on his brothers. The brothers may or may not have deserved Joseph's negative report. Earlier, Joseph had bragged about two dreams he had in which he appears superior to his brothers. In the first dream the brothers' sheaves of grain got up and bowed down to his sheaf of grain and then in the second dream he saw the sun, moon, and eleven stars all bow down to him.
The dreams -- haughty, even nasty -- turn out to be in fact prophecies of what is to come out of "the now shattering family shalom." Joseph's dreams, however, are seen as a product of his own arrogance and not divinely originated about destiny and ultimate purpose.
The second crack in shalom is the ten brothers' envy. "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 ..." (Genesis 37:8).
Betsy Cohen, in her book The Snow White Syndrome, retells the old fairy tale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and sees envy as the hidden motive that drives the story along. The original fairy tale sees Snow White as a woman liberating herself from her evil stepmother and moving into the world of work and relationships by getting to know herself better. The story of Snow White is an example of a mother's extreme reaction to being replaced and surpassed by another's beauty and good fortune.
Envy is the feeling of discontent and ill will because of another's advantages, possessions, and status. It is being resentful and filled with dislike of another who has something desirable. Envy is wanting what someone else has and feeling badly about oneself for not having it. People rarely tell anyone they feel envy. People are taught to keep envy in the closet.
Joseph's ten brothers are smitten with envy and jealousy. They desire to have their father's love and not see his love and attention lavished on Joseph.
"If envy were an illness, the world would be a hospital," said the writer, Schoeck. To be human is to compare ourselves with others. People can be comparable in work, salary, status, looks, intelligence, and almost everything. Moliere in Tartuffe said, "The envious will die, but envy never." Envy is a sin against the ninth and tenth commandments. Exodus 20:17 says, "You shall not covet."
Envy also appears as one of the seven deadly sins in Dante's Inferno. Of the seven deadly sins (lust, sloth, wrath, avarice, gluttony, envy, and pride), only pride was considered deadlier than envy. With envy such a curse, we try to repress it and ignore it.
The source of envy is alienation from God and from one another. Envy comes from our low self-esteem, from our fears and our insecurities. It comes from an irrational idea that we need to be loved equally by all people and gifted equally like all people all the time or we will be unhappy. "Mirror, mirror, on the wall; who's the fairest of them all?"
As long as the stepmother queen remained youthful, the mirror always answered, "You, O queen, are the fairest of them all."
But the day the mirror replied, "No, Snow White is the most beautiful," the queen flushed green with envy. Envy turns into hatred and murderous plans.1 Likewise, envy eventually leads the ten brothers to plan murder.
The third and final crack in the family shalom is to get rid of Joseph. "They said to one another, ‘Here comes the dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams' " (Genesis 37:19-20).
Reuben, obviously possessing compassion for his brother, convinces the brothers not to kill Joseph, but just to throw him into a pit. Reuben would secretly rescue Joseph and return him to his father.
So the murderous plans are thwarted. Joseph is stripped of his robe and thrown into a dry pit. Reuben, Jacob's firstborn and son of Leah, possesses more sense and much more compassion than the other brothers. Though Reuben was guilty of gross misconduct earlier (Genesis 35:22), he was not with them when they sold Joseph to the Midianite Ishmaelites. When the brothers found themselves in Egypt twenty years later, Reuben was quick to remind his brothers that he had not agreed in their plot to take Joseph's life. When Jacob was reluctant to send Benjamin to Egypt, Reuben offered two of his sons as a pledge that he would bring Benjamin safely home again. Surely Joseph noticed and in future years would remember the compassion of Reuben.
Joseph does not belong in a waterless pit! One can imagine the dread he felt as he tumbled down into this dark prison. As he lays on the damp earth he wonders how long it will be. What will happen next? "My brothers are filled with hatred. If only I had toned down telling about my dreams. If only I had not been so showy with my new robe." Reflection brings regrets and new fears.
Many today are experiencing waterless pits in their lives. Families are falling apart due to infidelity, immaturity, selfishness, and lack of marriage.
One can sense the pain of Jay Bakker's (son of television evangelist Jimmy Bakker) experience as he watched his family fall apart with the collapse of PTL (Praise The Lord Ministries). Jay is the author of Son Of A Preacher Man and a presenter at youth gatherings where he reflects and teaches based on his dreadful experiences.
A waterless pit spells trouble. In John Irving's novel The Hotel New Hampshire, a favorite family dog is named "Trouble." When Trouble dies, he is stuffed so that he can continue to travel with the family. So Trouble never leaves. During a shipwreck, all the luggage is lost, Trouble floats and does not go away.
Trouble is that way. It does not go away; it shifts to new locales and terrain. It seems the nature of the human predicament, intertwined with sin.
We are in a waterless pit when we are consumed by hatred. Gehlek Rimpoche, a Tibetan lama and author of Good Life, Good Death, wrote, "We say we want to destroy Osama bin Laden, but we also have to destroy our own Osama bin Laden. Your hatred, my hatred is our own Osama bin Laden, hiding in the mountains of our hearts."2 When we feel forsaken, let go from a company we were faithful to for many years, abandoned by a husband or wife, neglected by parents and/or children, lonely and isolated in a new community, we are experiencing life in a waterless pit.
Difficulties are knives that serve you or slay you. Take hold of a knife by the handle and it serves. Take hold of a knife by the blade and it slays you.
A little boy was taken to the dentist. The dentist discovered that he had a cavity that would have to be filled. "Now, young man," asked the dentist, "what kind of filling would you like for that tooth?"
"Chocolate, please," replied the youngster.
We wish that all our fillings would be chocolate, but life in a waterless pit doesn't promise anything. Saint Paul said, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed ..." (2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
Whereas favoritism, envy, hatred, and murderous plans tear a family apart, the twine that binds and builds shalom is compassion, forgiveness, and love.
In addition to the sensible reasoning and compassion of Reuben, Judah also shows the tender side. "Then Judah says to his brothers, 'What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.' "
This duo, Reuben and Judah, show a gleam of human compassion, set against so much that is cruel and malevolent. Joseph is lifted out of the waterless pit and sold for twenty pieces of silver. Though this was the beginning of salvation for Joseph in a long, long saga, the bond of brotherhood is still very cheap. Twenty pieces of silver for a brother's life?
The prophet Amos in 6:6 bemoans and connects the poor who are afflicted with the suffering of Joseph. "Alas ... for those who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph."
Joseph and his story forecast a type of one to come. Joseph is a tupos (Greek), a prefigure, a shadow of Jesus, who would be sold for thirty pieces of silver, betrayed, and abandoned on the cross for the sins of the world!
No one is innocent in the shattering of shalom, even Joseph the primary victim fuels his own troubles. Everyone contributes to the mess. So what will bring the shards of the clay Grecian chalice to life again?
From a literary perspective, the story of Joseph, Jacob's son is a novella with a plot that moves to a resolution. It is about the fortunes and misfortunes of Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel. But on a higher and broader level, the story of Joseph is about the emergence of Israel's family as Israel, the People of God. To the untrained eye, Joseph's story is a tale with a happy ending, but to the trained eye it is not an Horatio Alger rags to riches, but it is an overview of God preserving a family which in turn preserves a nation, which in turn preserves from its royal line the Messiah, the Savior.
This scripture from Genesis 37 is not the end of the story. There is a discernible yearning for shalom, a wish that the dreams of Joseph could some day come true.
An unknown author described some of the ingredients that make for shalom:
On This Day
Mend a quarrel.
Search out a forgotten friend.
Dismiss a suspicion and replace it with trust.
Write a letter to someone who misses you.
Encourage a youth who has lost faith.
Keep a promise.
Forget an old grudge.
Examine your demands on others and vow to reduce them.
Fight for a principle.
Express your gratitude.
Overcome an old fear.
Take two minutes to appreciate the beauty of nature.
Tell someone you love them.
Tell them again,
And again,
And again.
1. Betsy Cohen, The Snow White Syndrome, (Basingstoke Hampshire, England: Macmillan Publishing, 1986).
2. Gehlek Rimpoche, "Tracking Osama Inside Your Heart," AARP Magazine, May/June, 2002.