Understanding Pain

Liberty Baptist, Sermons 6 Minutes
8/13/2023

Message Title: Understanding Pain
Theme: Made to Be
Season: Ordinary Time
Main Text: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Scripture Reading: Matthew 14:22-33
RCL Scripture: Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Psalm 105: 1-6, 16-22, 45b; 1 Kings 19:9-18; Psalm 85:8-13; Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33
Focus: Jacob’s favoritism leads to animosity between his children.
Function:  To start searching for the cause of pain rather than treating the symptoms of our pain.
Other Notes:

SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 14:22-33 22 Right then, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side of the lake while he dismissed the crowds. 23 When he sent them away, he went up onto a mountain by himself to pray. Evening came and he was alone. 24 Meanwhile, the boat, fighting a strong headwind, was being battered by the waves and was already far away from land. 25 Very early in the morning he came to his disciples, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” They were so frightened they screamed. 27 Just then Jesus spoke to them, “Be encouraged! It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” 28 Peter replied, “Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water.” 29 And Jesus said, “Come.” Then Peter got out of the boat and was walking on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when Peter saw the strong wind, he became frightened. As he began to sink, he shouted, “Lord, rescue me!” 31 Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him, saying, “You man of weak faith! Why did you begin to have doubts?” 32 When they got into the boat, the wind settled down. 33 Then those in the boat worshipped Jesus and said, “You must be God’s Son!”

INTRO: 

  1. Audience engagement:
    1. Are there rules in comedy? Are there certain topics that you can’t talk about in comedy?
      1. I’ve heard “Punch up not down”
    1. What about in joke battles?
      1. “yo mama” jokes
      1. “Roast Me”
      1. Rap Battles
      1. don’t laugh challenge
  2. PHOTO: Last March, Chris Rock was doing a monologue for the Academy Awards and made a joke about Jada Smith’s bald head. Will Smith walked up on stage and slapped Chris Rock. Smith’s reaction was not about the joke- Rock speculated about the source of Smith’s pain.[1] Smith had not addressed his pain. His internal pain became Rock’s physical pain.

TRANSITION: In our text for today, we will also see the trickle down of pain.

TEXT: Gen 37:1-4, 12-28 Jacob lived in the land of Canaan where his father was an immigrant. 2 This is the account of Jacob’s descendants. Joseph was 17 years old and tended the flock with his brothers. While he was helping the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, Joseph told their father unflattering things about them. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was born when Jacob was old. Jacob had made for him a long[a] robe. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him and couldn’t even talk nicely to him…. 12 Joseph’s brothers went to tend their father’s flocks near Shechem. 13 Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers tending the sheep near Shechem? Come, I’ll send you to them.” And he said, “I’m ready.” 14 Jacob said to him, “Go! Find out how your brothers are and how the flock is, and report back to me.” So Jacob sent him from the Hebron Valley. When he approached Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering in the field and asked him, “What are you looking for?” 16 Joseph said, “I’m looking for my brothers. Tell me, where are they tending the sheep?” 17 The man said, “They left here. I heard them saying, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. 18 They saw Joseph in the distance before he got close to them, and they plotted to kill him. 19 The brothers said to each other, “Here comes the big dreamer. 20 Come on now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns, and we’ll say a wild animal devoured him. Then we will see what becomes of his dreams!” 21 When Reuben heard what they said, he saved him from them, telling them, “Let’s not take his life.” 22 Reuben said to them, “Don’t spill his blood! Throw him into this desert cistern, but don’t lay a hand on him.” He intended to save Joseph from them and take him back to his father. 23 When Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped off Joseph’s long robe, 24 took him, and threw him into the cistern, an empty cistern with no water in it. 25 When they sat down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with camels carrying sweet resin, medicinal resin, and fragrant resin on their way down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother and hide his blood? 27 Come on, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let’s not harm him because he’s our brother; he’s family.” His brothers agreed. 28 When some Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern. They sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph to Egypt.

EXPLANATION:

  1. context: Okay, quite a bit of time has passed since our passage from last week.
    1. Jacob and his 12 sons are back in his home land near his brother. reunions have happened and forgiveness has been poured out. 
    1. aside: I won’t go into the whole family drama around the only identified daughter of Jacob being assaulted and pursued by her assaulter. There is too much there to get into in one series.
    1. Rachel gave birth to Benjamin and passed away directly after. read: Jacob’s favorite wife is dead.
      1. PHOTO: The mothers of Jacob’s 12 sons (Genesis 35:22-26) are:
        1. Leah, mother of: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun
        1. Rachel, mother of: Joseph, Benjamin (Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin)
        1. Zilpah (Leah’s maid), mother of: Gad, Asher
        1. Bilhah (Rachel’s maid), mother of: Dan, Naphtali
  2. into the text: 
    1. To Jacob’s 10 older sons, it is very clear Jacob preferred his children from Rachel, his preferred wife. Jacob shows partiality to Joseph, the oldest of Rachel’s two sons. (Rachel’s sons are the youngest.)
    1. Joseph receives dreams that he interprets to mean eventually his brothers and family will bow down to him. Naturally, this goes over as well as a lead balloon.
    1. The jealousy already present in his brothers is exacerbated by Joseph’s words. Honestly, Joseph seems to be pretty clueless or potentially malicious in his lack of tact by sharing his dreams.
    1. His brothers plan to kill him but choose to sell him into slavery instead.
      1. Next week we will see the brothers’ reunion after many years. How did his brother’s handle their decision? Scripture won’t make that explicit until we get to our passage next week.

INTERPRETATION:

  1. Although Jacob has the new name of Israel and has called his family to follow God, he still is a work in progress.(vs 4) The brothers hurt Joseph because of the pain they experienced from their father’s favoritism.
    1. Jacob’s preferential treatment breeds another generation of animosity between brothers.
      1. Jacob & Esau – J was mom’s fave and E was dad’s fave
      1. Ishmael & Isaac – Sarah rejected Ishmael as Abraham’s son after her son was born. Ishmael (and his mother were kicked out).
  2. HURT PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE.
    1. The brothers were pointing fingers at Joseph (who did behave wrongly) but the cause of their pain was Jacob/Israel. To find relief from their pain, they needed to sort the problem out with their father. NOT kill their brother.
    1. The brothers were looking at the symptom not the cause of the problem.
      1. Their pain poured out on the next person (Joseph). Joseph chose to behave differently – we’ll touch on that next week.

APPLICATION: To start searching for the cause of pain rather than treating the symptoms of our pain.

  1. AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT: How are you hurting?
    1. What is the source of your pain today?
      1. How is your pain impacting others?
      1. Consequences from your own actions?
      1. Consequences from another’s actions?
  2. God is not the source of our pain. God does not behave the way earthly parents (or even biblical parents) behave.
    1. PS 103:13
    1. John 3:16 – God loved the world so much that he gave his only son
    1. Acts 10:34 – God shows no partiality to on group over another
    1. Romans 2:11 – God doesn’t have favorites
    1. 2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord isn’t slow in keeping his promise… he wants none to perish…

CONCLUSION: can we name the cause of our pain? Are we brave enough to address it?

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/mar/05/it-still-hurts-chris-rock-speaks-about-will-smith-slap-for-first-time

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Published by Rev Meriah J Tigner

ABCUSA Pastor. Wife. Toddler Mom of 2. For sermon videos, check out @LibertyBapitstTiptonIndiana on YT.

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