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
If it came
to a trial, Joseph’s brothers could have hired a lawyer who didn’t have much of
a conscience; at worst they’d have gotten off with a slap on the wrist. Showing their father, Jacob, their brother’s
coat, dipped in goat’s blood to look like a lion’s napkin, and then allowing
the father’s grief to overwhelm the rest of his life was a master stroke of
manipulation. They hadn’t spoken
untruth; their breech of integrity was to let the truth lie unspoken, while the
lie savagely destroyed their own father’s heart. Technically they hadn’t lied; but the
emptiness in Jacob’s heart said otherwise.
For You Today
Pain follows wherever truth is hidden.
Title and other image ∞ Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on this text see: Burning the Bridge of Integrity
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