Monday, August
14, 2017
Some time later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the
cistern. When he discovered that Joseph
was missing, he tore his clothes in grief.
Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone! What will I do now?” Then the brothers killed a young goat and
dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood. They
sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?” Their father recognized it immediately. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces!” Then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed
himself in burlap. He mourned deeply for
his son for a long time. His family all
tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave mourning for my
son,” he would say, and then he would weep.
Genesis 37:29-35(NLT)
The father
in this story is Jacob, a man whose ambition got the best of him on more than
one occasion. He deceived his twin
brother Esau, and his father Isaac, to take what didn’t belong to him. His life’s practice was to appear righteous, but deep
down, whenever his character was put to the test Jacob’s default was to
manipulate the truth to fit his plans and what he wanted most.
And in his
twelve sons, with the exception of Joseph, that character trait of deception, and
shifty untrustworthiness ran strong!
Joseph’s brothers sold their little brother to a band of slave traders,
and then staged it to look like a wild animal had eaten him. Their evil deception brought deep grief to their
father Jacob’s elder years.
If you take
apart the whole issue of deceptiveness in relationships you find a slithering
snake’s nest of words which describe a dark character: lies, malice, envy, bitterness, ambition…the
list is a veritable stockpile of human character and integrity unravelling!
Integrity
is tied to the old saying about character:
say what you mean, and mean
what you say! To be a person
of integrity means much more than doing
the right thing no matter who’s looking; being a person of integrity means not
resting unless the truth is held sacred, no matter the personal consequences.
Joseph’s
brothers burned the bridge of integrity when they withheld their guilt from
Jacob. If they hired a skilled attorney
the brothers could have gotten a hung jury on out-and-out lying, because they
never actually said a false
word. But they withheld the truth from
the old man, and truth obscured by silence supports the growth of evil!
For You Today
You will
say thousands of words today; a champion of human integrity will make sure each
one of those words supports truth!
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