On the surface, this seems to be a story about a man named Joseph, the penultimate son of Israel and Rachel. But in truth, it is a story about God and His providence. In baseball parlance, I guess you could call this, That’s Why They Play Nine.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
You remember Joseph the dreamer? One of the great feel-good stories of the Bible. A miracle child given dreams of manifest destiny by God Himself, and they come true. The sort of story we all would wish for ourselves. But upon closer examination, through most of his story, we would not want to trade places with him for a moment. I guess you could say Joseph was playing most of the game being on the low end of the score, wasn’t he? That’s why you stay in the game and wait for the final at bat. And that’s why a true baseball fan never leaves the game early, because as they say, it ain’t over til the fat lady sings.
Let me explain myself. Baseball is one of the few team sports that does not use a clock. Along the way there can be many unpredictable variables. Pitchers can throw as few as three pitches in one inning and as many as fifty or more in the next one. Weather can cause a delay. Or an injury. Or, a batter can get into a stall war with the pitcher, each stepping out of their respective boxes over and over without a pitch being thrown. And even after nine innings, a tie game can go into extras.
That’s why baseball is not a sport for impatient people. It’s a sport for fishermen and statisticians. And momentum is awfully hard to predict. One swing of the bat can bring a sudden triple play or a grand slam home run. But most of the time, it’s just a routine out. And such is Joseph’s life, as we look at his story.
FIRST INNING
We tend to think of each event in life as either good or bad. The problem is, we can’t tell one from the other when we see through earthly eyes. Joseph’s life is a case study in bad being good and good being bad.
Joseph was the long-awaited son of Israel and Rachel, his beloved. They are old, and their ten others sons born to other women are already pretty well grown when at last Rachel delivers the news: she is expecting!
That’s good, right? The mandrakes have finally done their magic, and she is going to have that long-awaited son. Or maybe it’s bad. Just as Isaac had done with Jacob, so Jacob does with Joseph, and favors one son over the others.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Genesis 37:3-5
In baseball terms, Jacob lets Joseph pitch whenever he wants, and bats him cleanup every day. The brothers had been a complete team without Joseph, but now they feel unwanted. In comparison to Joseph, they felt somehow less than. Strike one.
Jacob gives Joseph that multi-colored warmup jacket. And it just adds to their hatred of him. Strike two. And then Joseph sees his brothers goof off, so Joseph brings “a bad report” to his father. Which is another way of saying he was a tattle-tale and a snitch, and his brothers hate him. Strike three. End of the first.
SECOND INNING
Joseph has a series of dreams, that are a central part of his story. It’s not the first or the last time that a person knows his dreams come from God, but those dreams shape his calling and his future.
He dreams that he’s going to be in the major leagues, and all his brothers will bow before him as MVP. Then he has a second dream in which he become a manager, better than his own father was. He wins the awards, and his own father and mother bow down to honor him as the greatest ever. In his dreams.
The old man doesn’t even bother to correct his son. Israel is, after all, still an old schemer., and he knows about how God sometimes favors a younger son. But not everyone in the family reacted that way.
Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. Genesis 37:5
It’s great to be an All-Star yourself, but when your whole team is made up of your half-brothers, it’s a dangerous place to be. Anger is cruel, and fury is overwhelming, but no one can stand before jealousy. It is what eats up all the brothers.
They have a problem. But it’s about to become Joseph’s problem.
His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Genesis 37:8
Joseph is doing well, but things are not looking good for Joseph on the home field. And there was the top of the inning, and the bottom of the inning, the second inning.
THIRD INNING
In the bottom of the third, the brothers all bully Joseph when there is no one around to witness it. They throw him into a pit and decide on what to do from here. Then, as it turns out, several circumstances fall into place, and they develop a foolproof plan. They can sell their brother into slavery, and then stage things to make it seem like a terrible accident has taken place. Then they don’t even have to lie about it!
And it just so happens that a caravan sponsored by their great-uncle Ishmael is just passing through. For twenty bucks, the Fighting Ishmaelites will take Joseph over the border and sell his contract to another team. After all, Grandpa Isaac is long gone by now, the Ishmaelites never come to the family reunions, so who’s going to know, right?
Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, "This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not." And he identified it and said, "It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces." Genesis 37:31-33
I’ll admit it looks like a bad scene for Joseph. The brothers think they have just pulled off a slick triple play! 1) They have gotten their little brother out of the picture. 2) They have guaranteed that his irritatingly-heady dreams could not possibly come true. 3) They have made some quick money on the side. 4) And they have covered their own tracks. That’s pretty slick! Maybe God was behind it all, it went so smoothly.
Remember Abraham and Isaac? Isaac was the apparent fulfillment of a longstanding promise from God Himself, and Abraham was asked to be willing to give it up. Joseph is facing a similar death to a dream, but it’s because of his brothers, not because God is testing him.
On the other hand, that slick triple play the brothers pulled off goes under review, and they find that they didn’t even make one out. Their daddy Jacob, the old schemer, is deceived by his own sons! He so much believes their story, that Jacob is inconsolable. And the brothers cannot dare to tell the truth now.
Of course, no one can break God’s principles without suffering consequences. The brothers in their jealousy never stopped to consider that Joseph’s dreams really were from God, so they will come true in spite of their efforts to stop them. The blood money will not last to save their lives from future troubles that they don’t see coming yet. And old Israel mourns inconsolably for his lost son, and thinks of nothing but mourning his lost boy. The brothers try to comfort him. But there is no comfort in a lie, no matter how softly it is told. Life has backfired for the boys.
Let me just step in here and say that the problem with real life is that we can’t read ahead to know if all will get better from here, or if we have truly reached the bottom. We just have to trust, and wait for the next chapter, to see what it will hold. Or if there will even be a next chapter for us.
Well, as you might know, Joseph is down, but it turns out he’s far from out at this point. So don’t worry.