200304 Sermon on Genesis 37:12-36 (Midweek Lent 1) March, 4, 2020 Since we will be looking at the story of Joseph during these midweek services, I think we should start with some background information.Joseph’s father is Jacob. Jacob is the grandson of Abraham. Abraham was the man whom God chose as his own. God promised to bless him and his descendants. They would own the land of Canaan. They would be numerous. The world would be blessed through them. Abraham passed this inheritance down to his son Isaac. Isaac was tricked by his wife and by Jacob into giving it to Jacob instead of Jacob’s brother Esau. Because Esau was extremely angry at what Jacob had done, Jacob had to flee. He went to his mother’s home country and stayed with his uncle Laban.Right away, when Jacob came to Laban’s territory he met Laban’s daughter, Rachel, and loved her deeply. He arranged to marry Rachel, but had to work seven years for Laban in order to get her. However, when the time was up, Laban tricked Jacob, giving him his other daughter Leah instead. Jacob had to agree to work for Laban seven more years in order to compensate him for Rachel again. This is how Jacob came to have two wives—Leah and Rachel. Jacob loved Rachel, who was pretty, more than Leah.God had pity on Leah, since she was not as deeply loved as her sister. He caused her to be fruitful while her sister was not. Leah had four sons. Rachel had none. This made Rachel deeply unhappy and so she made an arrangement with Jacob. She told him to sleep with her maid, Bilhah, and that Rachel would claim the children produced by this union as being her own. Two sons were born to Rachel’s maid. Leah, though, only thought that it would be fair that she also have this opportunity to enlarge her number of offspring. She arranged it so that Jacob also had children through her maidservant, Zilpah. Two sons were also born to Leah’s maid.So, in case you have not been keeping track of the race, here are the standings up to this point. Eight sons have been born. Leah has four. Leah’s maid has two. That makes six for Leah’s side. Rachel has none. Her maid has two. The score is six to two. The rivalry between these sisters was intense. Leah had more children, but Rachel had Jacob’s love.It came about after this that Leah’s womb was opened once more. She had two more sons and a daughter. Leah now had six sons. That makes the score eight to two. Finally, God remembered Rachel and gave her a son of her own. This was Joseph, whom we will hear about during these weeks. I’d like to speak some more about Joseph, but before I do, I’d like to finish the story of Jacob’s sons. The twelfth son was also born to Rachel several years later. Unfortunately, Rachel died after giving birth. This son was Benjamin, who will enter our story towards the end of our midweek series.Let’s speak a little more about Joseph’s family situation. There was a wide spread in age between the brothers. The four oldest were Leah’s sons. They were probably at least 10-15 years older than Joseph. Joseph was the only son from Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel. He also was the youngest son for several years until his little brother, Benjamin, was born.What we see here are the ingredients for jealousy and hatred. This is not unusual or surprising. Perhaps you’ve heard of what toddlers sometimes do when they get a new little brother or sister. The toddler used to have all their mother’s attention. Now with the baby, they have to share it. And so I’ve heard of little kids trying to push away their infant sibling, so that they get to be alone with mom instead of the baby hogging all her time and energy. You might think that we should outgrow stuff like that, but I’m not so sure. We might get better at hiding our hostility. We learn the social rules that we are supposed to follow. But there can be a lot of resentment from childhood that can plague families their whole lives.Since we are all born selfish, rivalry and resentment is almost normal. With Josep