Joseph Lives on the Edge

January 22, 2009

Today's Reading: Genesis 43-44 and Matthew 15

There's somethin' wrong with the world today
I don't know what it is
Something's wrong with our eyes

We're seeing things in a different way
And God knows it ain't His
It sure ain't no surprise

These are lyrics of a song called “Living On The Edge” by Aerosmith. A song that is about the general state of the world today, and the chorus states: “You can’t help yourself from falling”.

I would be amiss to tell you that the world is a bad place. If you haven’t figured out that yet, then I want to live in your world.

The key is not letting the world get to us. We have to live in it, we have no choice. Sometimes, we can live on the edge. Take Joseph for example, I’m sure there are a lot of Christians who probably think that Joseph was doing something very “un-Christian” when he led his brothers on like that. “Yes, Joseph should have just forgave his brothers the moment he saw them. There was no reason to leave silver in their sacks, making them more nervous”.

I’ve heard that Joseph is the one person in the Bible with no known sin, but I’m surprised he would keep it together with this elaborate “get back at you” prank. Even though it isn’t in the reading, it was clear that Joseph knew when to quit. It was as soon all the brothers realized that they were willing to be slaves forever, Joseph had what he wanted. The brothers paid their debt.

In a way, it reminds me of something that Jesus said when he “what goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean’, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean’.

In other words, we live in a sick world, but that is not what makes us sick. If Joseph had chosen to go along with the whole situation, he could have put all of his brothers to death all at once. But he gives them all mercy.

Sometimes it is difficult to do the right thing in the midst of a wrong world. There are times when we stumble into the world, have bad things happen to us, and we want to blame ourselves. The problem is God doesn’t want us to have this mindset.

We are not responsible for all the crap that happens to us, unless we caused it. Chances are, you probably didn’t cause it. The key is to rise above it, do something about it. Joseph chose a weird way of dealing with the junk in his life. Maybe that’s what we need: a little Godly creative thinking.