So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat a meal. [Genesis 37:23-25a (NKJV)]
Back in 2015, after their Washington, D.C., home was invaded, a family of three and their housekeeper were held hostage and tortured for nineteen hours before being brutally murdered and their house set on fire. During the family’s incomprehensible ordeal, their captor had a pizza delivered and calmly ate it. Ultimately, it was DNA left on a piece of that pizza that led police to the killer. While discovering his identity was an astounding piece of detective work, what most astonished me is that, while holding four people hostage—people likely crying in pain and pleading desperately for their lives—someone could calmly eat a pizza! How could anyone have an appetite while committing such an atrocious and cruel crime? Yet, Daron Wint did! Convicted of 20 counts of kidnapping, extortion, and murder, he was sentenced to four life terms in prison without the possibility of parole.
As shocking as that story is, Daron Wint is not the only person who enjoyed a meal while his hostage pled for his life. That’s exactly what Joseph’s ten elder brothers did. You remember Joseph, the favored son of Jacob, the handsome one with the coat of many colors. When his jealous brothers conspired to kill him, thinking he could rescue his younger brother later, Reuben suggested throwing him into a dry cistern and leaving him to the mercy of the elements. After tossing Joseph like a piece of garbage into a pit, Scripture tells us the ten brothers then sat down to eat a meal.
Boys being boys, perhaps Joseph thought it was just a mean brotherly prank and his siblings would soon let him out of the well. “Come on guys, I’m hungry and thirsty,” he may have pled. “Help me up so I can have some lunch. I’ll even share my coat with you!” But, when Joseph heard his brothers coldly discuss selling him into slavery to some Ishmaelite traders and plot how they would explain Joseph’s failure to return home, it began to dawn on the boy that he was in serious trouble and his brothers weren’t joking.
Can you imagine the cries of the terrified youth once he realized what was happening and the danger of his situation? While Joseph begged for his life, his brothers ignored his cries and ate their meal. Can you imagine how he must have pled for their mercy, much as that Washington family probably begged for their lives? Unlike the pizza-eating criminal, however, Joseph’s brothers didn’t plan an outright murder. They left their brother’s future up to the slave traders. But, like that killer in D.C., they knew their victim’s anguish and refused to hear his cries.
Even though we’re not likely to invade a home and kill its occupants or throw a sibling into a pit and sell him into slavery, we’re not as different from Daron Wint and Joseph’s brothers as we’d like to think we are. Although we’re not plotting murder and mayhem while eating pizza or pita, I suspect we’re all somewhat guilty of ignoring the desperate cries of those in need.
Are we like the priest and Levite who ignored the cries of the dying man on the road to Jericho? While we probably can’t hear them with our ears nor see them with our eyes, we know they’re there. While calmly eating meals in the comfort of our homes, do we turn a deaf ear to the voices of the hungry in places like Sudan and Gaza? While enjoying an evening in our safe and cozy homes, do we turn a blind eye to the suffering and the devastation in war-torn countries like Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine, and Myanmar? Do we ignore the plight of refugees, the victims of injustice, and those whose lives have been torn apart by natural disasters? With callous indifference, have we turned our backs on our less fortunate brothers and sisters both here and across the globe? By ignoring their cries, do we condemn them to lives of strife, suffering, or death? How can we, as Christians, ignore the desperate cries of those in need? Let us remember that knowing the right thing and not doing it is as much as sin as is doing the wrong thing! [James 4:17]
I recently saw a sign on a church that read, “Be the Church—Fight for the Powerless.” We can’t do that for everyone but, chances are, we can do it for someone!
We must never minimize the suffering of another. Scripture’s mandate to us is, “Weep with them that weep.” [Billy Graham]
Wearing a stuffed backpack and carrying his Teddy bear, little Tommy walked past his neighbor’s house. A short while later, he walked by her house in the same direction. He disappeared around the corner only to reappear several minutes later. As he was passing her house for the fourth time, the neighbor asked him what he was doing. When Tommy explained he was running away, she asked why he was only circling the block. “Because I’m not allowed to cross the street!”
Things were going well for Moses in Midian: he was happily married, with a family, and tending his father-in-law’s sheep. Then God interrupted his comfortable life with a burning bush and a major task: free the Israelites. Moses reacted the way most of us would by questioning God. Who am I to do this? Who do I say sent me? What if they don’t believe me? He then told God he simply wasn’t up to the task. Not one to be thwarted, God responded to all of Moses’ concerns. He would be with him, provide the words, the proof, and even Aaron to do the talking. In short, God promised to provide and so Moses obeyed.
I still go online to read the newspaper from what was our hometown for over fifty years. Last week, it was filled with news about the events of Fiesta Days. With its Car Show, Big Wheel Race, Duck Derby, Beach Bash, Street Fair, Music Fest, Art Show, Parade, Fireworks, and Carnival (complete with rides and funnel cakes), the festival is one of summer’s highlights.
My summer beach novel began with a man having a heart attack on a commuter train. For the next several pages, I was privy to the thoughts of his fellow passengers who were annoyed by the train’s unscheduled stop for medical aid. Because they’d be delayed, they saw the man’s collapse as a tremendous inconvenience to them. As passengers disembarked to find another way into the city, their thoughts were not of the dying man and his wife but of themselves and how they’d been inconvenienced.
Isaiah heard the Lord ask, “Whom shall I send as a messenger to this people?” and responded, “Here I am. Send me.” When God commissioned him to be His messenger/prophet, Isaiah was acting as a scribe and had a family. Nevertheless, without hesitation, his was an unqualified, “Send me!” Isaiah didn’t know exactly what God wanted him to do or how he was supposed to do it. Even after God told him that the people wouldn’t listen, Isaiah never wavered. Many of Scripture’s heroes, however, weren’t as eager to do God’s work.
