If I Had Absolute Power, Would I Take Revenge? (In secret, of course …)

I recently heard an excellent sermon on Joseph.

Of course, I’ve read Genesis 41 countless times. I’ve heard a great number of sermons and teachings about Joseph. And I’m a huge Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream fan. (What a blast! What a fun musical! Terrible biblical exegesis, but wonderful tunes. And Donny Osmund was fabulous in the 1990’s productions.)

But until this sermon, I never thought about the truth that when Pharoah appointed Joseph to his position and fitted him with fine linens, a robe, his signet ring, and the gold collar necklaces, Joseph went from absolute poverty and powerlessness to absolute wealth and power. And thus? Just think about the revenge he could have taken upon Potiphar’s wife and even Potiphar himself.

This is the point that I cannot stop thinking about. It reminds me of one of the little diagnostic tools I often use to help identify the heart idols of clients in a mediation, preschoolers on a playdate, or women at a retreat. I ask them what they would do if I could hand them over the “magic princess wand of all power” and they would suddenly be able to do anything or force anyone to do anything … what would it be?

I would make that (professing) Christian businessman honor his contract and his word so that our family would not be bankrupted and homeless.
My elder would remember my name—more or less pray for and shepherd me.
We could go back in time and my husband would not visit prostitutes and lose his pastorate (our only way to make a livelihood) and devastate his teenage son, all of our friends, and of course, our marriage.
I would have just one friend in the church. Just one. I don’t need a bunch. But oh, how my heart longs for even just one woman who really gets me and enjoys me and lights up when she sees me. I’m so sick of being misunderstood and only tolerated.
She would let me play Elsa for once (!). I’m sick of being Anna.

What about you? If you could do anything or force anyone to do anything … what would it be? If something comes quickly to our minds, I wonder how much we have given ourselves over to jealousy. Envy. Covetousness. I wonder how much we deeply desire revenge—even if only in secret, so our wicked hearts wouldn’t be exposed.

Just this morning, I was reading in Galatians 5 and I was struck yet again by how easy it is for me to list the Fruit of the Spirit, but not the works of the flesh. (Can you list the works of the flesh without peeking? I couldn’t.) And also, just look at how many works of the flesh are related to relational damage often tied to competitive, covetous heart idols (I’ve highlighted them in bold):

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21)

As we read Galatians 5, it can be so easy to focus on the sexual sins (and we should! they are serious); but how often do we fail to recognize the seriousness of our jealousy, rivalries, and envy. Especially when we are so incredibly rich! (We are. Some of us might not think we are, but that’s only because we have no idea what real poverty is. Today? I have no fear that my children will die of starvation. I have never had one day when I was afraid that I could not provide clean water, healthy food, shelter and clothing for my children. We have Bibles a plenty in this house and we have the freedom to gather and worship with the local church. Thus, I am rich. And I have no doubt that millions of mothers in the world would lay down their lives to be able to make similar statements. So everything else: books, toys, the opportunity to go to school, to serve my neighbor and help to rescue the orphan and slave—more or less computers and Internet access so I can read blogs by rambling mothers who are procrastinating a bit re: their Monday morning workouts? Well. See? I really am rich. And so are you.)

How do we use our riches and power? For mercy? Or vengeance? For God and others? Or for self?

The pastor in this sermon says that “it is easier to be faithful in the pit—in our suffering—than in power and pleasure.” In fact, he says that our greatest peril is actually the presence of power and pleasure in our lives. That satan doesn’t have to beat us and imprison us, he just gives us what we want so we are easily distracted by our pleasures. (We have full refrigerators and then we complain about what is in them. And we covet our neighbors stainless-steel fridge while despising our 1970’s white plastic—but still functioning—fridge.) We envy our neighbor’s education and career. And then we envy our neighbor’s husband and children. We compete over who has the nicest house and car, body shape and clothing; then we compete over who lives more simply and gives more away to the poor.

The pastor said that “Satan gets us to hell by popcorn and movies.” How true this is! We worship designer shoes, hip-coffee-house-brewery-evangelism, homeschooling (or public / classical / private / Christian schooling—just wanting to keep the peace there), being well read, successful, productive, simple, peaceful, grateful, efficient, effective, busy, contemplative. Then we group up with others who are just like us. And before you know it, we are given to pride, dissension, and strife. We judge. We hold grudges. We focus on this life and forget God. We are unforgiving and our lives are fruitless.

But not Joseph.

Even in the naming of his first two sons (not with Egyptian names, but Hebrew names), Joseph theologizes about the God who enables him to forget “all the troubles in his fathers house” (i.e., how his brothers hurt him). How easily Joseph could have given himself over to bitterness because of what he suffered at the hands of his brothers! Isn’t this exactly we are most vulnerable to lose our faith and hunker down into deep loneliness behind the towering emotional barriers we have constructed? When we are hurt by our brothers. Sisters. Mothers, fathers, fellow church members, church leaders. Our family lets us down and we respond by pulling back and keeping a list of wrongs.

But not Joseph.

Just as God’s forgiveness is expressed in the Old Testament as forgetting (Isaiah 43:25), Joesph “chooses to remember this sin no more.” He holds onto God’s promises and fixes his heart firmly in the disposition (position) of forgiveness towards his brothers. (Actual, transactional forgiveness and reconciliation would come later.)

How about you? Are you clinging to some hurt? Is a vine of bitterness strangling you? Strangling your faith? Remember the promises of God and forgive! Why? Because Christ has forgiven you and is on the throne.

Pharoah will fall. The person who has wronged you will one day die and either be held accountable for their transgression or be reconciled to you for all eternity because he or she is covered by the blood of Christ. There is nothing to be gained by being harsh, judgmental, unforgiving, and bitter in this life. Nothing. So let us turn today away from a life of whining, complaining, and discontentment. Let us forgive the hurts in our past ” just as in Christ we have been forgiven” (Colossians 3:13). Let us even repent of our hidden desires for vengeance—for that is the only real time we are repenting at all.)

Then, and only then, will we be like the name of Joseph’s second son: fruitful. The pastor in this sermon says that there really is no way for us to live a fruitful life if we are refusing to commemorate the works of God in our lives and refusing to forgive. Oh, that even this very day, we would remember. And obey.

With love from snowy Montana–

Your friend,
Tara B.

[a re-post from March 24, 2014]