Do we?
January 14, 2009 (Wednesday)
Jacob had many sons, but he loved two of them more than the others. Joseph and Benjamin were the sons of Rachel, the only woman he ever really loved. Benjamin was too young to help his brothers, so he stayed at home that day when Joseph went out towards Dothan to help his brothers tend the sheep. “Hate” is too mild a word for the emotion his brothers held for him. They threw him in a hole in the ground, made up their minds to kill him, and sat down to eat.
Do you see the picture? Their young brother is weeping and wailing and calling for help a few feet away from their makeshift dining area. They stuff food into their mouths, and talk about how they are going to kill the little upstart their father loves so much. Ugh! (Turns out they didn’t kill him; they sold him into slavery instead).
Many years before, Cain had killed his brother, Abel, and when God talked with him about it, he sneeringly asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In other words, “I don’t know where he is and I don’t care.” Echoing his heartlessness, Jacob’s sons hate their brother Joseph so much that they can enjoy their meal undisturbed by his plaintiff cries from his dark, solitary prison in the ground.
Years and years later, the Apostle Paul, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, bemoans the fate of his kinsmen, and cries out, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved!” Quite a difference in attitude, wouldn’t you say?
Paul had experienced that hatred himself, persecuting Jews who followed Jesus, but one day he met the resurrected, living and powerful Jesus, who changed his heart and his life. Paul became a new man, concerned for those he had despised.
Today, as you sit down to your dinner, do you hear the cries of those who are suffering? Has Christ made a difference in your heart?