DOMINION AND DESTINY

DOMINION IS DESTINY!

Jacob, now Israel had a favored son.  The story of Joseph is one of the most well-known Bible stories, and it is instructive.  Dominion was a long time coming for Joseph.

Israel received his dominion at Bethel in Canaan:

"God said to him, '"Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel."  (Genesis 35:10)

"And God said to him, I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number.  A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.  The land  I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."  

(Genesis 35:11-12)

None of us has been so fortunate as to have God Himself sit down with us and explain that He is giving us our dominion with such specificity.  Israel memorialized the time and the place accordingly, and after three thousand years, this place can still be visited. Part of establishing dominion is memorializing it for future generations.  Whether it is an heirloom, a road named after a hard-working ancestor (there is a lot of that here in North Carolina), or a given name that appears in each generation--I am the current William-holder in my fam--it is important to bring the efforts of past lives into the present for the future.

Corbett Athletic Facility, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.

Just because you get dominion, doesn't mean things get easier.  The next thing that happened to Jacob after he got his new name and the promise of dominion was that his beloved Rebekah died in childbirth.  Then his eldest, unloved Leah's child and Israel's firstborn Reuben, "went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it." (Genesis 35:22)  In the Bible days. a son slept with his father's concubines to establish dominion.  David's son Absalom did it with ten wives on a rooftop, in front of the entire city of Jerusalem.  He thought he was going to be king.  

Reuben did it as a sign of disrespect for his father, and to tell the world that one day he was going to be the leader of the tribe.  Dominion can be stolen, but not usurped.  Apparently Reuben disregarded what God told his father, and decided that he could just work around the Sovereign Plan.  Israel didn't mention it until much later.

Meanwhile, Esau also had twelve sons.  It says in Genesis 36 that Basemath was the "daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nabaioth."

  

The Mystery of Esau's Wives

This blog goes a long way in helping to sort this out!

The rivalry between Israel and Esau was NEVER concluded.  It rages on, after a fashion, to this very day.

Seventeen years later, Joseph began to learn the same hard lesson.  Achieving dominion is never easy. He was his father's favorite.  His brothers knew it.  So it did not help when he snitched on them at the beginning of Genesis 37.  Then, "Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more."  (Genesis 37:5)

Joseph's dream was one of dominion.  God told him that he would rule over his brothers.  Joseph never thought that maybe he should not tell them that.  When your dominion arrives, not everyone will be happy for you.  It is best to be prudent.  Better yet, just proceed to live it out, and don't say anything about it to anyone!  

"Here comes that dreamer!" They said to each other.  Come now, let's kill him...then we'll see what comes of his dreams."  (Genesis 37:20)

Reuben wanted to save him; Judah wanted to sell him.  "after all, he is our brother," said he. (Genesis 35:27)  So they waited for a caravan, pulled the young man out of the cistern where they'd imprisoned him and sold him for twenty silver shekels. Stripped him of his beautiful robe--the signifier his father's favor.  Reuben was not there to prevent it, and though he had impugned his father most grievously, he went and broke the news. Joseph was gone from them.  They  took the robe they were so jealous of and dipped it in goat's blood.  They likely ate the goat they'd slaughtered to supply the fake evidence, and then went and told Israel the story they'd manufactured.   It was a lie, but Reuben's distress was genuine.  

One can only guess at how Joseph felt:  first in the dark cistern, a dry well that flooded and stayed full after a rare desert rain--often for years; then callously sold by his brothers, and finally, carted off to an unknown land.  He was sold yet again, and wound up in Egypt.

As a practical matter, you could be anywhere along this dominion continuum.  You could be basking in the glow of learning that God has big plans for you.  You could be impetuously, imprudently bragging to your haters about those plans.  Or, you could be carried away on a swift tide of unforeseen events, traumatizing happenstance designed to prepare you for your destiny.  Dominion could appear far away on a dim horizon.  You could spend years trapped in oppressive circumstances.  Someone could take advantage of your brains, your looks, or your assets--and you might be helpless to stop them.

Just don't give up on dominion.  Stick to your values and your principles, as Joseph did.  Don't give up on helping people when opportunity presents itself.  Like Joseph, if you persevere, your dominion will come.

Your dominion can overtake you at any point in your life.  Joseph was a young man with a bright future.  Circumstances led him to his dominion and his destiny.  He was prepared by adversity to meet them when they arrived.

We will talk more about Joseph's road to dominion.

Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.