by Charles R.
Swindoll
Read Genesis 37:5-35
This is a good time to call to mind several lessons we can learn
from Jacob's family and Joseph's adversity.
The first is obvious. No enemy is more subtle than
passivity. When parents are passive, they may eventually discipline, but by
then the delayed reaction is often carried out in anger. Passivity waits and
waits until finally, when it can wait no longer, it comes down with both feet!
When that happens, children are not disciplined, they are brutalized. Passivity
not only blinds us to the here and now, it makes us inconsistent.
There's a second lesson we learn from Joseph's teenage struggles.
No response is more cruel than jealousy. Solomon was right when he
said, "Jealousy is cruel as the grave" (Song of Solomon 8:6, RSV). Jealousy, if
allowed to grow and fester, leads to devastating consequences. If you allow
jealousy to rage within your family or between your children, you are asking for
trouble. At some point, it will manifest itself in detrimental ways.
Enough of the negatives. Let's find in all this at least one
magnificent lesson of hope: No action is more powerful than prayer. I
realize that the biblical story does not state that Jacob turned to God in
prayer, but surely he did so! How else could he have gone on with his life?
Where else could he have turned for hope?
The same can be said for you and me. Prayer brings power to
endure. Those who are older are a source of wisdom for young parents and for
children and grandchildren. Single men and women also have much to offer,
whether within their own extended families or within the family of the church.
Broken, hollow lives can find new strength to recover. It's at this point I
would say that Joseph, without question, turned his situation over to God, even
as the caravan made its way toward Egypt. Surely he knew, even at seventeen,
that his only hope would come through God's faithful intervention! Surely he
cried out to the One who, alone, was in sovereign control of his future! And so
must we!
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