What God Can Do With a Dysfunctional Family

There was a boy from a family, a dysfunctional family. His father had multiple children with multiple women. His was married to some of them and some of them he wasn’t.

Sibling rivalry was always an issue. The kids were constantly vying for their father’s attention. The boy just wanted his older brothers to accept him, but they never did.

He was better off for that. His brothers would have led him down the wrong path. They were really no good. One his brother’s slept with his Dad’s wife. Two of the other brothers were wanted for murder. One was a crook, always looking to take advantage of someone. Another brother had a baby with his daughter-in-law.

His sister got mixed up in the wrong crowd and got raped by a guy. She shouldn’t have been where she was, but she didn’t deserve to be raped. That threw the family into a mess because rather than calling the cops they decided to just revenge against the guy and his family.

When the boy was a teenager his brothers resented him so much that they staged his murder. They told their father that he was dead.

But he wasn’t.

He got taken in by a rich family. Things seemed to be going OK for him. He missed home. He missed his mom and dad. But he was doing OK.

Then his new family got messed up too. The wife kept asking him to sleep with her. What? He couldn’t do that. He didn’t want to ruin this. He liked living here, but she wouldn’t stop. One day she tried to make him sleep with her but he said no so she wrongfully accused him of attempted rape.

Who would ever believe an unwanted teen over a prominent woman in the community?

Nobody.

He got locked up.

Nothing could ever fix this mess.

This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus, the Messiah, a descendant of David and Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. 

The story of this boy named Joseph is found in Genesis 30-50. And that brother who got his daughter-in-law pregnant, well… he became part of the lineage of Jesus the Christ.

When you think your family is beyond repair, remember Joseph and his family. The God of Joseph can redeem any mess we make. Give it to him and just watch what he can do!

 And he (Jacob) blessed Joseph and said,