"Tough Break"

Some people seem to be inundated with tough breaks…one after another. Many look back over their lives with the "If only…" perspective of "What would have happened to me if this or that hadn't happened…" Sometimes their tough breaks are circumstances that didn't go as planned or disadvantages dealt them in life. Recently, we've defined a new category of tough breaks by uncovering the dysfunctions in our families to explain our inabilities to cope with life. I'm not sure what is resolved when we search for all the tough breaks, disadvantages and family disfunctions except to prove to ourselves that we really didn't deserve to turn out any better than we have.

What is really neat, though, is to hear of someone who was dealt an inordinate number of adversities and obstacles-and did well in life in spite of them. Few biographies can rival the number of tough breaks, disadvantages and family dysfunctions that one of the prominent figures in Israel's history faced…Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel.

First…his family. His grandmother and his father were crooks, conspiring against his grandfather and uncle to steal his uncle's inheritance; afterwards, his uncle announced he would kill his father. His maternal grandfather was a liar who repeatedly cheated his father and encouraged him to enter a polygamous relationship by offering Jacob his two daughters in marriage. In a sordid power struggle in the marriage, the two sisters-Joseph's mother and aunt-convinced his father, Jacob, to repeatedly have sex with each of their maids. Because of this sexual deviancy, his half brothers outnumbered real brothers 10 to 1. One of his half-brothers decided to live up (down) to his father's sexual standards by having an affair with the mother of his half-brothers, one of his father's mistresses. Two of his brothers were murderers, killing all the men in a city in retaliation for one of the men raping his half-sister.

Even the things that could have been an advantage turned south on him; Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was born to him in his old age. Because Jacob showed his favoritism to Joseph by giving him more material things than his brothers, his brothers hated him. Their hatred came to a peak when Joseph told them about a dream he had in which they would bow down to him as their ruler one day.

His brothers devised a plot to kill him. At the last minute, one of the brothers suggested instead that they sell him as a slave to a caravan of traders headed for a distant land. After the sale, they covered their tracks by soaking Joseph's coat with the blood of a goat and convincing their father he was killed and devoured by a ferocious animal.

Joseph had enough family dysfunction to successfully defend himself in a therapy session for any aberrant behavior imaginable. If Joseph had blamed his pitiful life at age 17 on his family and the tough breaks, many would say he had due cause. But-he didn't. Why?

Somewhere along the line, his father Jacob had told him about God. Joseph could have laughed at his father and said, "God?!?! Who are you to talk about God? Look at you-your life is a wreck-and you want to tell me about God?" But Joseph didn't. He chose instead to develop his own faith in God. It was the one thing Joseph had that no one could take away from him.

He was taken to Egypt, where he was bought by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials. The Lord was with Joseph and caused him to prosper in everything he did. Potiphar noticed and began to put him in charge of more and more of his personal affairs, until Joseph was in charge of everything Potiphar owned.

Just when things were just beginning to look up, we read: (Genesis 39:6: "Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, 'Come to bed with me!'" For a Hollywood screenplay, the story would have an obvious direction at this point. Or…for a person who had an ample supply of sexually dysfunctional excuses in his family to fall back on, the next step for Joseph would be toward Ms. Potiphar. But Joseph was not your average 'Blame It on the Bossa Nova' kind of guy. Instead, his faith in God raised him out of his genetically predestined response. He replied to Ms. Potihar: (Genesis 39:9 NIV) No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"

So, he made a smart decision and everything turned out O.K., right? Not right away; Ms. Potiphar didn't appreciate being turned down, so she lied and told her husband Joseph had made sexual advances toward her. Joseph ended up in prison. But, that would be one of the last times Joseph was dealt a tough break. Before long, he was running the prison. Through a bizarre, and divinely orchestrated, series of events, Joseph would eventually become a very powerful leader in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh in authority. I encourage you to read Genesis chapter 40-50 to see how Joseph rose above his circumstances.

Whatever happened to his family? His father, Jacob, came to be known as 'Israel'. He and his eleven brothers became the heads of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Not too impressive if you consider life from a dysfunctional perspective, but very impressive when you consider that God can accomplish His will through any of us-regardless of our imperfections.

We all have our unique set of tough breaks, disadvantages and dysfunctional legacies trying to pull us under. The question is whether we see them as excuses for our failures or use them through faith in God as stepping stones through the river of life.