Tag: leadership

Joseph

Dancing in the Kingdom – Table of Contents

Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom, Chapter 5 – Patriarchs

Discipline and character development

[Bible references: Genesis 37:1-11, 28-36; 39:1-20: 50:20]

Of Jacob’s 12 sons, Joseph was the most notable. Between being treated as Israel’s favorite son and then having a sense of self-importance, he created a sense of jealousy among his brothers. So, on one occasion while out tending flocks on one opportune occasion his jealous brothers sold him off to merchants traveling to Egypt. In Egypt, he was sold to a captain of the Pharaoh’s guard as a slave. While he was a slave to the captain, Yahweh caused Joseph to prosper in whatever he took care of, inspiring the captain to trust everything to Joseph. However, an unjust charge by the captain’s wife caused Joseph to be imprisoned.

Bloom where you are

[Bible references: Genesis 39:21-23; 40; 41]

While Joseph was in prison, Yahweh continued to cause Joseph to prosper, inspiring the warden to entrust many things to Joseph. A couple of the prisoners had dreams to which Yahweh gave Joseph the interpretations. The predictions Joseph revealed to the prisoners did come true. Sometime later, when the Pharaoh had dreams that he wanted to have interpreted, he was informed about Joseph. Through the help of Yahweh, Joseph was able to interpret those dreams. This led to Joseph being put in second-in-command to the Pharaoh through which he was able to oversee the harvesting and storage of grain in preparation of a coming 7-year drought.

Dreams come true

[Bible references: Genesis 15:12-14; 15:12-21; 42-46; 50:15-21] The drought extended up to the Promised Land, Canaan, where Israel was living. This gave the opportunity for Joseph to invite Israel and all the rest of the family to come to Egypt where Joseph could see they were supported. Joseph was able to see that while his brothers had intended to harm him, Yahweh was able to use for the good. In fact, this provided the setting that Yahweh had revealed to Abraham in a troubling dream, that “your descendants will be strangers in a land not their own.” For a moment, Egypt seemed to be promising, but it wasn’t the final destination. It particularly wasn’t the promised land. More than that, God warned that dark times lay ahead before they would arrive there.

Reflect

In academic disciplines, we train our minds in order to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. These disciplines are usually evaluated by written tests and practicums. What are some spiritual disciplines and how do we evaluate our progress?

Observe

Read Genesis 37, 41, 40. Joseph’s discipline involved finding God in the midst of difficult circumstances and discovering how God could use him there. Are there any difficult circumstances you struggle with? (NOTE: One goal in the Benedictine order is stability. The idea is that God is everywhere and if you can’t find him where you are then you won’t find him anywhere. deWaal, Esther. “Seeking God”)

Reflect

Complaint is the usual response to unjust treatment. But although Joseph was enslaved, he took his stewardship responsibilities and then when imprisoned he was open to God’s interpretation of dreams. What do you think Joseph learned?

Observe

Read Genesis 37; 39-41. Because Joseph was the oldest son of Jacob’s favorite wife, Jacob made Joseph his favorite son – and spoiled him. It didn’t help when Joseph flaunted some dreams in front of his brothers who then found an opportunity to sell him as a slave. How did the hardship of slavery mold Joseph’s character?

Reflect

What are your visions of what the future will look like?

Observe

Read Genesis 50:15-21. Back in Canaan, Joseph used his dreams to put down his brothers, who responded by selling him into slavery. But when it came time for the dreams to be re-enacted in real life, he had a different attitude about those dreams. How does Joseph’s experience affect the way you view the events of life?

Jacob

Dancing in the Kingdom – Table of Contents

Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom, Chapter 5 – Patriarchs

Deceit instead of faith

[Bible references: Genesis 25:29-34; 25:23; 27:1-40]

The biblical descriptions of Jacob and his twin brother Esau are not flattering. Esau is the older twin brother, but for a pot of porridge Esau was willing to give up his birthright. To seal the deal, Jacob and his mother, Rebekah, would conspire to deceive Isaac: They would take advantage of Isaac’s blindness by deceiving Isaac and setting it up for Jacob instead of Esau to receive the primary blessing from Isaac. This deceit happened even though when Rebekah was pregnant with the twins that Yahweh had told her that “the older would serve the younger,” so it is curious that Isaac still insisted on giving the primary blessing to Esau instead of Jacob and that Rebekah saw fit to use deceit to help Jacob receive that important blessing.

A higher order

[Bible references: 1 Samuel 3-4, 15-16]

The case of Jacob and Esau is not the only example where Yahweh would choose to upset the common order of things. In this case, it was side-stepping the normal primogeniture and instead have the older sibling serving the other sibling. In other times it would be stronger serving the weaker, the sons being displaced by someone outside the family. This pattern of displacing the normal order of primogeniture and inheritance is repeated later in Samuel following Eli instead of his sons Hophni and Phineas and in David replacing Saul instead of Saul’s son Jonathan. And in all these cases, we see God preparing someone new to lead while he arranges to end another’s leadership.

Nation of wrestlers

[Bible references: Genesis 31:25-45; 28:3-4; 27:42-45; 28:10-22; 32:22-32; 35:22-26; 30:21; 32:1-5]

After the deception of Isaac, Jacob’s would continue his pattern of deception. Yet, despite that character flaw, God would continue to bless Jacob with success just as he had blessed Abraham and Isaac. Jacob’s deceit with Isaac and Esau forced him to leave home and visit his uncle Laban, in Haran for many years. On the journey to Laban, Yahweh shared with Jacob the promise he made with Abraham and with Isaac, that “all the people on earth would be blessed through you.”

While staying with Laban, Jacob would continue his deceit to take advantage of Laban. Then years later, when Jacob left Laban to return to the promised land, God saw fit to engage with Jacob on both the journey to and from home. On the journey home, Jacob now has two wives and two concubines, thirteen children and a great wealth in flocks, herds, and servants. On that trip home, Jacob finds himself in a wrestling match with a man that Jacob learns was God.[1] During that struggle, Jacob was forced to confess his character by admitting that his name means “deceiver,” but then was given a new name, Israel (which means “wrestles with God”). Wrestling with God would become a hallmark of Israel’s descendants (that is, the nation of Israel) and is evident throughout the Old Testament.[2]

[1] Sproul, RC “A Wrestling People” ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/wrestling-people.

[2] Although there are many examples of people questioning God, the Psalms contain many examples.

Reflect

What things in our life do we tend to “help God with” rather than figure out what his ways are?

Observe

Read Genesis 25:21-34; 27:1-40. The family dynamics in Isaac’s family were typically messy and complicated as many real families are and yet God will carry out his purposes. How can we use the example of Isaac and his family to give us confidence that God is able to carry out his purpose for us?

Reflect

Sometimes what looks like chaos to us is actually a pattern that we haven’t figured out. One example is encoded messages – we can’t read them without knowing the underlying order. What patterns from God confuse you?

Observe

Read 1 Samuel 3-4; 1 Samuel 15-16. These passages illustrate how God continues to carry out his will despite the messiness of our lives. How does that affect how you pray?

Reflect

God is able to fulfill his purposes as we wrestle with him. Do you feel compelled to wrestle with God about anything?

Observe

Read Genesis 32:22-28. God would rename Jacob to Israel, which means “wrestles with God,” which would eventually become the name of the nation descended from Jacob, and the nation through which the Messiah would come. Can we be strong in our faith in God, if we have not wrestled with God?

Sovereign and Servant

Dancing in the Kingdom – Table of Contents

Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom, Chapter 2 – The God who created

[Bible references: Proverbs 1:20-23; 3:19; Isaiah 52:10-15; Romans 11:33-35; Philippians 2:1-11]

There is a contemporary name for this juxtaposition of attributes: servant leadership. In this case, the one who is the creator and sustainer of all things does not wield that power in a self-centered way but uses that power to serve the needs of the very beings he created – even though they defied his authority and it cost him much anguish.

When the Creator decided to make creatures in his image, creatures that had the ability to love (and therefore the ability to choose whom to love or whom to not love), he imbued these creatures with the ability to make independent decisions. Doing that required releasing some control and then providing enough space be given so that those creatures would be free to make choices.

However, those creatures violated that love and incurred an awful penalty. Fortunately, the Creator did not just mete out the penalty, but with compassion, and at great cost to himself, put in place a plan that would restore his relationship with his image-bearers. This costly plan would highlight an attribute that already had been revealed, the attribute of servanthood in which the Creator acts on behalf of his creatures.

Not to be overlooked, the ability to create and sustain the universe needs tremendous knowledge and wisdom as does the ability to create creatures in his image and then to guide them amid their missteps and varied circumstances. Were God to simply control each and every action in the universe, that would be difficult enough, but although God can control things directly through his sovereign will, there are actions which he desires but he gives us the option to obey or not.[1] We cannot even begin to understand the vast knowledge and wisdom that God needs. In fact, wisdom is so pervasive, not only in creation but as part of the many ways God interacts with us, that Wisdom is metaphorically portrayed to us in Proverbs as a person.

[1] Piper, John, “What is the Will of God and How Do We Know It” Desiring God, 22 Aug 2004, http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-is-the-will-of-god-and-how-do-we-know-it

Reflect

God’s rule is contingent on God’s love. His power is not focused on controlling but on releasing his image-bearers to participate with him in taking care of his creation and of each other. In what ways do humans misuse their power over others?

Observe

Read Isaiah 52:13-15; Philippians 2:5-11. If Jesus is our example of leadership, what should our leadership look like in practice?