Picking the Right Thread

Genesis 37:1-4

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.  2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.  Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.  3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Of Interest:
• 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Twelve sons and some daughters too makes the phrase “more than” a pretty important fact.  Joseph is way down in the birth order – second from the last and in the cultural succession of his father’s inheritance.  It’s hard to imagine this mixed up family;  sons by two rival wives, sons by women Jacob wasn’t married to, daughters that barely get a mention, a father, brother and father-in-law who have good reason to suspect Jacob’s motives.  A casebook of family relationships of deceit, dishonor and destructive behavior.  Wait a minute, that sounds like today!

If you go with that image of thread, it’s not hard to imagine those brothers feeling like Joseph is just a pesky piece of lint in their lives to be gotten rid of. God has a different plan.   The brother’s actions and motives are meant to ruin, and possibly destroy, Joseph.  Instead God picks him as the right thread to hold His plan together.  There’s the key…the right thread.

So many families are caught in that same deceit, dishonor and destructive behavior today.  It’s not a NEW thing that we have to overcome because it’s gotten so bad NOW; it’s a STILL thing.  Good News!  God STILL has a different plan.  Remember that scripture about the strong cord in Ecclesiastes 4:12?

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” 

That’s it!  God has given us the first two threads of that strong cord; Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Could it be possible that He has chosen us/me/you to be that third strand?  Are we meant to be the right thread that strengthens and holds His plan together today in our little corner of the world?