Whose to blame?
January 24, 2008
If anyone wants an example of dis-functional families, all they have to do is look at the book of Genesis. It starts off with Adam and Eve and Cain and Able, goes on to Noah and his family, then Abraham, Issac and Jacob and their families. The worse being Jacob and sons. Like his dad, Jacob, later known as Israel, had his favorite child and gave him more than the others. And when this child, Joseph, put himself above the others, dad did not do anything about it. In the end, the brothers tried to damage their brother.
Genesis 37:26-30 BBE
(26) And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in putting our brother to death and covering up his blood?
(27) Let us give him to these Ishmaelites for a price, and let us not put violent hands on him, for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers gave ear to him.
(28) And some traders from Midian went by; so pulling Joseph up out of the hole, they gave him to the Ishmaelites for twenty bits of silver, and they took him to Egypt.
(29) Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was not there; and giving signs of grief,
(30) He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone; what am I to do?
Someone in the group of 10 brothers wanted to try to break the mold. He was going to rescue Joseph, but he was too late, the other nine had sold him to slavery. Reuben wanted to stop the dis-function in his family.
Now the question is who is to blame? Reuben did not rescue him in time. The brothers tried to kill him. The dad had a favorite. His mom and dad had favorites in their family. And Abraham lied a lot to save his hide. The whole clan was messed up. Who is to blame?
The one to blame is yourself. The brothers had the choice to not do it. In fact they wanted to be free of the blood on their hands if they killed him. They had the choice. They can say they came from a family that was all messed up.
In our lives, we can choose to do what is right and wrong. We must take responsibility for our actions. They chose what was wrong. God used it for the best, but we still have to be responsible.
