The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 19: Joseph and his Brothers (2023)

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

Fr. Mike zeroes in on the dynamic between Joseph and his older brothers and shows us how the sin of envy is a distorted desire to be loved. Today's readings are Genesis 37, Job 27-28, and Proverbs 3:25-27. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, I'm Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we will read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day 19, so let's keep on going. Today we're reading actually only one chapter of Genesis, Genesis chapter 37. It is the beginning of the story of our friend Job. Our friend Job is there, our friend Joseph. And we're also reading Job chapter 27 and 28, and then Proverbs chapter 3

verses 25 through 27. If you're interested in getting this Bible in a year reading plan that we are going through, you can just go to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year, and you can download that, have it right in front of you. You can put it in your Bible and you can follow along with us every single day. I am reading from the revised standard version, Catholic edition of the Bible right now. And I'm using actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. It's just really, really good, especially when it comes to some of the Bible right now. And I'm using actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. It's just really, really good, especially when it comes to some of the details regarding notes, some of the details when it comes regarding maps. And also when it comes to the whole actual Great

Adventure Bible timeline, this Great Adventure Bible is really, really helpful. You can subscribe to this podcast by just clicking subscribe. It'd be super good if you did that, because then you would get the updates without any extra work from yourself. If you want to get an e-report on our email list, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777. Once again, as I said today, it is day 19, reading Genesis 37, Job 27 and 28 in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 25 through 27. Genesis chapter 37. Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan.

This is the history of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers. He was a lad with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought an ill report of them to their father. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers,

they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. Now, Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers, they only hated him the not speak peaceably to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they only hated him the more. He said to them, Hear this dream which I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brothers said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us us or are you indeed to have dominion over us so they hated him yet more for his dreams and for his words then he dreamed another dream and he told it to his brothers and said behold i have dreamed another dream and behold the sun the moon

and 11 stars were bowing down to me but when he told it to his father and to his brothers his father rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Now his brothers went to pastor their father's flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, are not your brothers pastoring the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, here I am. So he said to him, go now, see if it is well with your brothers and

with the flock and bring me word again. So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron and he came to Shechem. And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, what are you seeking? I am seeking my brothers, he said. Tell me, I beg you, where are they pasturing the flock? And the man said, they have gone away, for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him afar off. And before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.

They said to one another, Here comes the dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we shall say that a wild beast has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams. But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood. Cast him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand upon him that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his

father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore and took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat and looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm and myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?

Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers heeded him. Then Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, The lad is gone, and I, where shall I go? Then they took Joseph's robe and killed a goat and And said, wild beast has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, No, I shall go down to

Sheol to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. Job chapter 27 and 28. Job maintains his integrity. And Job again took up his discourse and said, As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. Far be it from me to say that you are right. Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

Let my enemy be as the wicked and let him that rises up against me be as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? I will teach you concerning the hand of God. What is with the Almighty I will not conceal. Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves. Why then have you become altogether vain? This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage which oppressors receive from the Almighty. If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring

have not enough to eat. Those who survive him the pestilence buries, and their widows make no lamentation. Though he heaps up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay, he may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent shall divide the silver. The house which he builds is like a spider's web, like a booth which a watchman makes. He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more when he opens his eyes and his wealth is gone. Terrors overtake him like a flood. In the night a whirlwind carries him off. The east wind lifts him up and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place. It hurls at him without pity. He flees from its power in headlong

flight. It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place. Surely there is a mine for silver and a place for gold, which they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth and copper is melted from the ore. Men put an end to darkness and search out to the farthest bound, the ore in gloom and deep darkness. They open shafts in a valley away from where men live. They are forgotten by travelers. They hang afar from men. They swing back and forth. As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon's eye has not seen it. The proud beasts have not trodden it, the lion has not passed over it.

Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks and his eye sees every precious thing. He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle and the thing that is hidden he brings forth to light. But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living.

The deep says, it is not in me, and the sea says, it is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal.

The price of wisdom is above pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. From where does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. Abaddon and death say, we have heard rumor of it with our ears. God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the end of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and meted out the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then he saw it and declared it. He established it and searched it out. And he said to man, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

Proverbs chapter 3 verses 25 to 27. Do not be afraid of sudden panic or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it. God, you are good and we give you praise. Thank you so much for your word. We ask that you please send your Holy Spirit to enliven our minds, to enliven our hearts as we belong to you more and more this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So you guys, here we are. Only one chapter from Genesis, but today we get introduced kind of for the first time, basically. We heard his name once or twice before this, but for the first time, we hear the story of Joseph, and he is beloved by Israel because he is the son of Rachel.

And Joseph is not only that little brother, apparently, who is not necessarily entirely well-liked by his brothers. Actually, I'm laughing about it, but at the same time, we realize this is the brokenness that happens. Gosh, is that like the key word? I brought it up every day in our journey of these last 19 days in the scripture is the word brokenness. But here's what we have. We have Joseph being 17 years old. So his older brothers are quite older, quite a bit older. They can be. And what happens is because Israel loves their little brother more than them, here is jealousy. Here is envy. And this is kind of the key, isn't it? When there is something unjust, at first we're maybe righteous in noting that this is wrong. This isn't how it should be.

But then something can happen and something can twist inside of us where it's not, we're not merely fighting for justice anymore, but now we're fighting for, um, uh, fighting out of a place of resentment, fighting it out of a place of jealousy or envy. And that's what we see happen. You go from a place where like, okay, here's our little brother who, I mean, gosh, at this point, he's the youngest son at this point, he's the 11th. So Benjamin hasn't been born yet, as far as we know. And here is, because later on, Joseph's going to find out, oh, there's a little brother named Benjamin. I didn't even know him. His brothers go from this place of Joseph, who is not going to have a lot of power. He's not going to have a lot of authority. He's not the firstborn. He is the 11th born. And yet, because of this distortion,

because of this jealousy that turns to envy, that turns to resentment, there seems to be no stopping what we will do when we feel resentment, when we feel that someone else has something that we believe is ours. That in so many ways is the root of resentment. When we believe someone else has something that we believe is ours or should be ours. In this case, it was their father's love. So they're not wrong. They're not wrong, but they are wrong in choosing to be resentful. And that resentment leads them to the place where they're literally willing to kill, to murder their youngest brother, a 17-year-old.

And you think, I would never do that. I could never get to that place. And yet, jealousy distorted into envy, distorted into resentment could lead us to do anything. And so as we just read this story, one of the things we do, we pay attention to the brokenness, not to say, oh my gosh, I can't believe they were so broken back then. We read these stories so we know our family tree, but also so we know our own hearts. Because this is where God not only reveals his heart to us in his word, it also reveals our hearts to ourselves because we recognize that if I leave my, I recognize if I leave my jealousy unchecked, it becomes this envy that can become resentment that

can become deadly. And I don't want to be that kind of person. And I know that you don't want to be that kind of person. So what do we do? We say, okay, Lord, if that, if that jealousy has come up, if the envy has, has, has taken root in my heart, if resentment, where I think that someone else has something that ought to belong to me, then what I need to do is I need to turn to you. I need to tell the truth. And that truth is that their life is a gift. And it is not something

that I can say is owed to me. And in so many ways, the love of the people around us is not something that I can say is owed to me. When it is given, it just has to be received with gratitude. But it can't be something that is asserted or claimed or demanded. Just like this life. I can't believe that this life is something that is owed to me. It is merely something that I can, when it's given to me, I can receive it with gratitude, but I can't demand it. I can't force it. It is simply a gift. So today is a gift for all of us, for every single one of us. And so as we launch forward into this day on this 19th day of this Bible in a Year, Catholic Bible in a Year podcast, we just give thanks to the Lord because

the cure for resentment, the cure for jealousy and envy is gratitude. And so Lord God, thank you. Thank you for this day. If you want to follow along, you can download the Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. If you want to get updates, just text the words Catholic Bible, but with no spaces, Catholic Bible, all one word to the number 33777. And as always, please pray for each other. Please pray for each other.

You are not alone. And yet, you know, we know that we can feel alone pretty easily, pretty darn easily. And so another day, God's word. I was going to say, my name is Father Mike. It is because that's my name. My name is Father Mike. And I am so grateful that we are taking this journey together. I'm praying for you and I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.