What does your dysfunctional family of origin have in common with my dysfunctional family of origin? Well, the question says it all. The question is entirely answered in another’s dysfunctional mess of a family story; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is our modern version of this ancient story.
Joseph’s father’s obsession, just one of his dysfunctional characteristics, was how the family portrayed themselves to the world. His dad cared more about their family image than what atrocities the family’s boys had inflicted.
We see in this biblical family mess upon mess, insult upon injury, and imbalance upon outright off-centeredness. If you look up the word dysfunction in the dictionary you will probably find a picture of the “Jacobites,” all the boys, the sisters, the four moms, and of course Jacob himself. This is the home (tents) that Joseph grew up in.
Since foundations are critical; since beginnings often dictate the race; or as the idiom would say, “Once a cheater, always a cheater,” Joseph conservatively had the deck stacked against him.
All of that was in play before the story that we have come to know:
Joseph, the dreamer
Joseph, the big mouth kid
Joseph, the tattletale
Joseph, the favourite
Joseph, the hated
Joseph, the throwaway
Joseph, the left for dead
Joseph, the sold
Joseph, the …deck stacked against, come from a mess, sold into a mess; somehow became second in command in the Egyptian Dynasty/Empire, dream fulfiller, and vision caster.
What a story.
What a metaphor.
What a future; that we can mine hope out of these ancient pages.
Genesis chapters 34 – 45.
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