Sometimes it is the small and seemingly irrelevant details in a Bible passage that can prove the most interesting. Take, for instance, the example of Joseph from the Old Testament.
You will almost certainly remember his brothers selling him into slavery when they got the opportunity to do so. That opportunity arose when they were grazing their flocks miles away from home, near a place called Shechem, and Jacob, their father, sent Joseph to find them.
In the middle of this story comes a seemingly unnecessary detail. Joseph gets to Shechem but can’t complete his task because the brothers have moved on and he has no idea where they are or how to reach them. He ends up wandering aimlessly, unsure of what to do.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. (Genesis 37 v. 14-17)
Who is this man? Is he human or an angel? Is it just a random meeting? Or is it set up by the Holy Spirit to keep Joseph on his appointed path? Nobody knows. This is all the detail we have and its inclusion is unnecessary for our understanding of the story. It could have been left out – we could just have been told that Joseph found his brothers – and it would have felt like we’d missed nothing of importance. So, if this encounter is included in the story, what if anything can we draw from it?
One thing God has been saying to me recently, as I’ve reflected upon these words, is that they describe the situation facing many of our churches in these uncertain and changing times. Just like Joseph we have been sent out into the world with a task given to us by our Father and just like Joseph we find that the circumstances of life around us have changed.
Do you empathise with Joseph as he wanders, desperately trying to work out how to get his mission back on track? Do you ever feel like that? That we have been given work to do by Father God but the world now is so different to how it was when we started out as Christians many years ago? So much has changed. Our brothers (and sisters) are still out there but it can feel like we’ve lost our sense of how to reach them. Do we, like Joseph, need a redirection that leads to reconnection?
If that is so, then may we listen for the voice of that man. We don’t know who he was but God spoke through him. His words kept Joseph on his appointed path, a path that Joseph would eventually come to see as being God ordained, and God has never stopped speaking to those who will listen – in every way imaginable.
“What are you looking for?”
I pray that our answer may be that we are striving to re-establish contact with the brothers (and sisters) to whom God is sending us. Lord God, give us all the redirection that we need. Amen.