Downtown Houston

Crime and Punishment 

Joseph, Lesson 7 

Who can understand the death of one’s child? Who can know what it is like unless you have gone through it? What pain and anguish it must be? Do you ever recover? Time heals, I suppose, but never completely. 

So they took Joseph’s tunic, and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood; and they took the vari-colored tunic and bought it to their father and said, ‘We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.’ Then he examined it and said, ‘it is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!’ So Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, ‘Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.’ So his father wept for him. 

The treachery of the brothers brought (apparent) death to the supreme object of the love of their own father. The mourning of Jacob was deep and long-lasting. The brothers had to continually live with their father in guilt, mired deep in their deception and unable to find mental relief. They could never tell the truth and inflict even deeper pain upon their father, so they suffered the guilt and remorse of selling Joseph, lying to their father and living in the unknown state of Joseph’s whereabouts and his state of living.

God has created man to bear the consequences of sin through mental conscience, guilt, remorse and regret. Crime and Punishment. Often, the nagging guilt of sin is the worst consequence. For this manner of consequence, the phrase ‘he can’t live with himself’ was created.  

He has also created natural laws of cause and effect that bring physical consequences resulting from sinful behavior and evil decisions. Sin gives birth to both mental and physical consequences. Extreme sin gives birth to extreme consequences.  

The brothers had to endure the mental pain of guilt. They were reminded of their treachery every day when they saw the face of their father, Jacob. They would try to comfort him primary because their guilt was heightened everyday longer that Jacob mourned. 

But there’s an additional consequence of ‘reaping what you sow’ in this story as well. It’s not quite as apparent unless we look back at Genesis 27. When Jacob was much younger, his father, Isaac, clearly loved Esau more than Jacob. God had told Isaac’s wife that the second born of the twins, Jacob, was to receive the birthright. But Isaac ignored God’s words and favored Esau. Funny that Jacob suffered from extreme favoritism from his father and then did the same with his sons. 

When Isaac was blind and near death, Jacob took advantage of Isaac’s weakness and deceived his father into blessing him and granting Jacob the birthright. This is what God had intended the whole time but Jacob, with the coaching of his mother, took the matter into his own hands and deceived his father, Isaac. Many years later, in our story today, Jacob the deceiver of his father was deceived by his sons. The consequences of sin are sometimes delayed. 

Father, this is a sad story of hatred, treachery and guilt. What do you want to teach us today? None of us would ever stoop to such lows. Nevertheless, we pray that you would keep our hearts and minds free from jealousy and disdain for others. If others bring us pain and ridicule, guide us to not take action into our own hands but turn it over to You. For You are the great Sovereign of the universe and nothing escapes your notice or moves outside of Your plans. We rest in you today. Amen!