Genesis 37:18-31 The Sinfulness of Self

4/6/10

Time Spent: 35 min

Main Idea: Reuben's "protection" of his younger brother Joseph not because of his care for him but rather to protect himself.

What I learned about God: Self-less righteousness is the only one that God desires; which was the picture of His Son (Mark 10:45)

Summary: As Joseph approached his brothers in the fields, they made their desires clear to kill him. Being a good older brother, Reuben steps in and says that they should not take his life, but rather throw him into a pit so that Reuben could retrieve him later (v. 22-24). While Reuben goes away, the other brothers decide to sell Joseph into a caravan of Ishmaelites as a slave. Reuben returns and instead of mourning the loss of his brother Joseph, he exclaims to the others "where shall I go?" (v. 30). The text does not seem to point at Reuben's great sense of loss, but rather that his actions from the very beginning were to protect his own self.

Application: There use to be a phrase for auditor's called CYA, which meant "cover your behind (euphemism)" that was used to make sure that we protect the best interest of ourselves and our company. It does not matter if the government or our clients took the blame; as long as we had maintained the dignity of our established accounting firm, nothing else had mattered. Does this type of thinking seep into the church? HECK YES!

I have noble motives of doing ministry and doing what's right, but when something goes awry I always try to point to something else to put the blame on; whether it be a person or an object, I feel I shouldn't have to take the blame for it. However, that exposes the heart of the problem does it not? That if we are so quickly to take the praise without the blame, we are in it for ourselves. The noble motive does not appear to be for God but rather for the furthering of ourselves and our kingdom. This is definitely a struggle I have when I preach sermons, that when I do a "good one" I like to take credit but when I deliver a real stinker, I'll point to circumstances or "business" which prevented me from delivering the one God truly wanted me to deliver.

What may help this process is if I spent more time in prayer for my ministry and sermon. I usually start sermon prep on Thursdays and begin praying for it then, but why not start right away? I should start praying for ideas, for my own holiness, and for my group from the very start of the week.