Genesis 37:21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes what we think and say when we follow our first impulse is not always the best course of action? We have a tendency to overreact, go too far, spike too high, die more of a reaction than the circumstance deserves. There is a higher emotional level than the circumstance deserves.
If you don’t notice that in the other people around you, perhaps it is you that overreacts! I notice this happens when people are run by their emotions. In other words, their emotions are in the driver’s seat. But we are heart and mind, emotions and intellect. Our whole beings need to be involved in decisions, not just our emotions.
Our text today is taken from the beginning of the story of Joseph, the favored son of Jacob, renamed Israel. He is the long-anticipated son of the woman he loved, for whom he ended up working fourteen years to pay the bride price. Fourteen years of service and she had difficulty getting pregnant.
Jospeh was the eleventh son of twelve. Reuben was the first son, the son born to the loved wife’s sister. I know, this is really messed up. Sisters marrying the same man. Different time, different culture. And just because it is in the Bible doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do. Disobedient things are recorded here as well.
All of Joseph’s brothers hate him. He is a bit of a tattle tale, spoiled young man, thanks to a father’s love and bias. So the brothers make fun of him and despise the special place Joseph has in the family.
Joseph is sent by his father to check up on the brothers. Why was Joseph not sent out with the brothers to do the family work? So he goes to bring back a report about what they are doing. The brothers see him coming and all that jealousy and hatred comes out in their words. They want to kill him!
Do you hear the overreaction? They jump right away to murder and skip over ‘pantsing’, wedgies, shoe polish on the binoculars, water in the bowl as he sleeps, cellophane over the toilet in the middle of the night. All those Camp pranks get skipped, and they go for murder.
Reuben, who is the firstborn of all the children speaks with some clarity. He sees they have gone too far in their talk. He knows the place Joseph has in his father’s life and wants to spare his father the grief. So he tries to rescue him. He hatches a plan.
But as so often happens in the narrative of Scripture, the easy rescue plan rarely is executed in the planned manner. Things pop up. In this case it is some traveling merchants looking for a little trading. These traders see the value of a healthy young man as capital to be sold at their next destination, Egypt. They are glad to trade the trinkets they have, perhaps some food or drink for the brothers to use in their celebration of ridding themselves of Joseph.
Reuben must have been out on an errand, because when he enters the scene again, Joseph is missing! What have they done with him? We can’t run after the caravan and get him back. We have eaten all the profit of the sale. We have nothing to rebuy him.
So they hatch a plan to cover their own foolishness. Remember, they had to keep up this lie with their father for years, the lie that he had been eaten by wild animals. Think of it. Every time Jacob brought up Joseph, they each had to swallow hard and keep silent. Such a burden to carry.
The Arnold Journey 