Dear Reuben,
You were the eldest of Jacob’s sons and Joseph was one of
the youngest. I am guessing for a long while you would have been one of Jacob’s
favourites and so understood something of the difficulty Joseph had in terms of
being a son who was loved more than others.
Was there a relationship between the love of a son and who
the mother was? It seems that this is the case with Joseph, I am wondering if
the children of Leah, such as yourself, were also favoured more than those born
to the concubine.
Whilst this is a story of sibling rivalry which may seem
difficult for us to apply to today’s society, I think that you would have had a
lot in common with many people today. We have a number of children in our
society who are born to the same mother from different fathers, or conversely fathers
who have a number of children from different mothers. Our society does not have
polygamy but it does have serial monogamy and unfaithfulness within it.
I am interested that you appear to be the one who acts as a
protector trying to ensure that Joseph can be rescued at a later point.
How did you feel about the dreamer? He was arrogant but I
feel that he struggled to know how to communicate effectively. I am not sure
how old he was in these dreams but I am guessing he could not have been that
old.
I relate to the not knowing how to communicate appropriately
sometimes. Having moved into a new home in a strange and somewhat complex context
I am finding myself having to negotiate a new set of norms and explain myself
and my hopes for the next two years to people who don’t know me. I am struggling
with this and making mistakes in the process. I suspect that Joseph was also
struggling to know how to communicate and making mistakes which pissed people
off in the process.
Your father was clearly distraught about Joseph’s loss. How
did you cope with that. Did you carry a lot of the guilt as the eldest?
No comments:
Post a Comment