Ride the Truth High and Deep

Ride the Truth High and Deep

 

Genesis 37:2-36

 

(3^rd-person narrative)

 

The title of my sermon is “Ride the truth high and deep.” A true Christian’s life is like riding the truth high and deep. You may associate this with the image of a surfer riding a giant wave at the Waikiki beach in Hawaii on a stormy day. But here, it is not riding waves but riding the truth. Some people may think that Christian life is boring. That is not true. In fact, our life journey is full of excitement and with some risk, like surfing a giant wave, soaring high and diving deep. How can it be so? How can we change a boring Christian life into an exciting and somewhat dangerous adventure? The answer is ‘by riding the truth.’ What does it mean to ride the truth? How can it transform a Christian life into such an adventure? Let me explain this using the story of Joseph in Genesis chapter 37. It may be better to hear the story from Joseph himself. Let me introduce Joseph.

 

(1^st-person narrative from Joseph’s perspective)

 

Hi! My name is Joseph. My official job is a shepherd. I am the eleventh son of my father Jacob, and the first son from my mother Rachel, my father’s most beloved wife. I had ten elder brothers and they were all real men with gut and muscle. Compared to them, I was merely a pretty boy. Even worse, my father made a colorful long robe for me, just for me. When my brothers walked pompously in their easy shepherd clothes and with a sword on their side, I, in the colorful robe, followed them with quick and short steps. People could distinguish me even from a long distance. I thought that I looked funny. But I didn’t take off the costume. I knew that it was the symbol of my father’s love to me. He loved me and I was never ashamed of his love and therefore of his gift, the colorful garment. To be frank, I sometimes felt uncomfortable with the luxury, but I kept wearing it almost always, even when I had to have a long travel.

 

As you may expect, it was not easy for me to mingle with the masculine elder brothers. I knew that they sometimes went out late at night to have fun at the nearby village. Then I also put on my beautiful clothes in order to be with them. But they never allowed me to join their fun, saying, “Oh, boy! No, this is an grown-up business. Go home to your daddy and ask him to tell his ancient stories.” Then I was left alone with my father, and he smiled at me and led me to his tent. Then, even before I asked, he opened his mouth and told me many amazing stories that I had never heard from anyone else. I remember most of them like how he bought the birth right from his twin brother Esau, how he snatched the blessings of my grandfather Isaac, how he saw the vision and heard the voice of the Lord in his dream at Bethel, how he met his beloved wife and my dear mother Rachel, and how he wrestled with the angel of God. Whenever I heard his stories, I asked him, “Dad, will the Lord also appear in my dream?” “Dad, will I also meet a beautiful woman by a well?” Then, my father held me close to himself, and gazed at my face intensely into my eyes. He looks at me in silence, and all of a sudden I realize that he is not looking at me. He is looking at somebody in me, probably Jacob himself, or his beloved Rachel, or the future of Israel. I couldn’t figure out what his deep eyes were telling, but at least I felt that I was part of his life.

 

And one day, something happened to me. While I was sleeping at the father’s tent as usual, I had a dream. The dream was extraordinary. In the dream, my brothers and I were binding sheaves of grain out in the field. Then, suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright and my brothers’ sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it. The dream was so vivid that even I could count the grains one by one. Another strange thing was that my family had never had a field and I had never bound sheaves in the field before. The scene in the dream seemed to be in a foreign land where I had never been. I told my dream to my brothers. Then they got angry at me, saying, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” I didn’t mean to hurt them, but anyway they were hurt and hated me because of the dream. After many days, I had another dream, in which the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. Hearing this dream, they got angry again and hated me all the more.

 

I know my dreams were very extraordinary and what it could mean. However, I couldn’t understand why my brothers were so sensitive to the dreams. I thought that they would ignore my dreams as they had despised me as a papa’s boy and ignored my words and deeds in the past. But this time, they seemed to believe that the dreams would become a reality in the future. Later, I asked one of the brothers about it. He told me that when the brothers heard the dream they were terrified. “Why?” I asked back, and he answered, “Because you always tell the truth!!!” Hearing this, I understood why they isolated me so stubbornly. They didn’t want me to see what they were doing. They felt naked before me. In fact, I loved them and I wanted to share with them whatever I had in my mind. Still they avoided me, and stopped talking if I approached them.

 

I didn’t mind because I was happy enough with my father, my younger brother Benjamin, and many works to do from early morning to late night. Although my brothers called me “a dreamer,” I was rather a hard worker than a dreamer. If my father told me to do something, I didn’t stop working until I finished it perfectly. That was another reason that my father loved me. Actually I had a wish, I mean, my personal dream, which was too big to be realized to me. What is it? It was traveling in Egypt, the greatest kingdom in the world. I had heard many awesome things about the kingdom like the vast land, the great river, colossal monuments, all kinds of exotic products carried by traders from remote regions, and most of all, the king of Egypt called Pharaoh in his majestic palace. Wow! How exciting it would be if I can travel there! But it was an impossible wish to me, because my father never allowed me to travel such a long way. Even when my brothers had to go to a far-away land for the flock, my father kept me at home. But I believed someday God might hear my wish and make it happen to me.

 

Then one day, my father Jacob called me and said, “Joseph, will you go to Shechem and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flock?” I answered immediately, “Yes, papa.” But my father’s face was full of anxiety. “What’s the matter, dad?” I asked. “Now I am sending you to Shechem, the land far from home.” The land of Shechem! My family has a bad history with the town. Around 10 years ago when my family returned from Haran to Canaan, we settled near the town, and there our sister Dinah was violated by Shechem, the son of the ruler of the area. Infuriated by this, my brothers deceived all the men in the city into having circumcision and, led by Simeon and Levi, my brothers killed every male and looted the city completely. Frightened by what the sons had done there, my father ran away from the town to Bethel and then to Hebron, here our current home. Now my father was worrying about the safety of the brothers. “Don’t worry, Dad! They are all warriors as you know. And I will go and see how they are!” Still my father’s face looked anxious. “Do you have any other problem?” And he said, “I am worrying about you.” “Daddy, don’t worry about me. Now I am strong enough to defeat any wild beast.” My father smiled at me faintly but the smile was quickly shaded into a concerned face.

 

Leaving home, I rushed to Shechem, which was about sixty miles north of my home. When I arrived at the town, I found that they had already moved to Dothan, 14 miles north of Shechem. Without stopping, I kept running until I could see them from afar. “Reuben! Simeon! It’s me, Joseph!” I shouted at the top of my voice. I could see that they were recognizing me and responding excitedly. But when I was approaching, their faces were not what I expected. They looked upset and angry. Instead of hugging me, they stripped me of my coat, and dragged me and threw me into a pit in the desert. At first, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then, I remembered my father’s concerned face. He was worrying not because of wild beasts. He was worrying because of my brothers. After a long debate among them, they sold me to a group of Midianite traders. The traders brought me to Egypt and sold me to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

 

On the way to Egypt, I trembled and cried in silence. I thought that everything was over and I was dead. It was dark. In the deepest darkness, I couldn’t see any light. Can I see my father again? Can I wear such a beautiful coat again? Can I be treated like a prince again as my father did to me? These questions made me extremely sorrowful. At night as I crouched down beside a tree and fell asleep, I dreamed a dream in which I saw my father wailing miserably. Then for the first time in my life, I called the Holy Name from my deep heart, “Lord! Where are you, Lord?” After a short while, I heard a voice in darkness, “I am with you. I am with you now and I will always be with you!” And the Lord told me, “It’s me who is sending you to Egypt. Don’t forget the dreams I showed you before.” Then the night was not dark any longer. I could breathe. I rose up and I worshipped God and praised Him.

 

(3^rd-person narrative)

 

From the narrative in Genesis 37, we know that Joseph’s brothers slaughtered a goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in the blood. Then they brought the blooded coat to Jacob and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.” They covered up their sin by preparing false evidence and telling a lie to his father. As a result, Jacob had to suffer an unbearable despair. We can imagine how difficult it would be for the brothers to tell the truth to their father, especially considering the father’s love to Joseph. If they told what had happened as it was, they might see the father’s flaring anger. Their sin and the father’s flaring anger against the sin were the waves of truth that they had to ride now. But they could not risk the danger. They didn’t have the courage to face the truth and tell the truth to their father. So they turned their face away from the truth not just one or two days but for 22 years, and lived such a long time “peacefully” as if nothing had happened.

 

In contrast to the brothers, Joseph was a man of truth. When he was loved by the father, he exhibited the love publicly. When he received visions from God, he shared the visions with others. Trusting Joseph, Jacob gave him the mission to go see the brothers and the flock and to bring back some reports. Joseph knew that his being truthful was inviting the brothers’ jealousy and hatred, but he did not try to cover up the truth in order to live a “peaceful” life with his brothers. He revealed the truth and endured the consequent waves.

 

God always wrestles with the world through his people. God thrusts his people deep into the world in order to show his truth and his love. Then, a few receive the love and the truth gratefully but many turn away from the truth and reject God’s love with hostility. Caught between God and the world, God’s people have to endure the raging waves caused by God’s wrestling with the world. Living as God’s people in the world is like riding and staying on the truth when the tide is high and low and when the time is good and bad, even inviting higher and deeper waves by being true without making compromises. Joseph lived such a life. He never denied who he was before God, and revealed the truth and love of God to his brothers even until he was hated and sold by them. In fact, this was the life of Jesus who witnessed the truth and love of God until he was killed on a cross.

 

Prayer: “Father, give us the courage to face the truth even if it reveals our sins and even if it invites trials and sufferings. Help us ride the truth courageously and faithfully until we see your salvation and your glory.”