Evil Report

So in my studying yesterday I stumbled across a verse I had payed little attention to other than for its usefulness in chronology:

"These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report." (Gen 27:2)

I looked for references and footnotes, but I couldn't locate anything to clear it up. A few verses later I found this entry:

"And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words." (Gen 37:8).

It struck me that at this point in the chapter he had only relayed one dream and as far as other words we are given none. From the text and the personality of Joseph, it would seem that if this is connected with verse two's "evil report" then maybe like Nephi in the Book of Mormon, Joseph was trying to bring his wayward brothers into the path of righteousness. This would explain their anger a little more since it would make very little sense for a group of brethren to get to the point of fratricide over a coat and two dreams.

Linking it to the example of Laman and Lemuel, however, points to a more sure reasoning as to their hatred towards him. They hated him for his righteousness. He was making good choices and Jacob was rewarding and praising him for it. Then he shared his feelings with his brothers and like Laman and Lemuel they became upset and misunderstood what was intended.

This helps me a lot more with my comprehension of the man Joseph and what happened to him that day when he was 17 years old.

Forgiveness (version 1.0)

One of the most important parts of this study is Joseph's forgiving of his brethren. It was what Lemuel R. Pace used as the catalyst to my studying. This is attempt number one.

When I think of how Joseph spoke about the way his brethren had treated him as the will of the Lord I always think of how crazy that sounds. But today in New Testament I thought of a connection. This is like when Christ on the cross begged the Father to forgive his accusers and executors and said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," (Luke 23:29) Did they know what they did? I contend they did not. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul said, "for now we see through a glass, darkly" (1 Cor 13:12) referring to our understanding of charity and others. Without the pure love of Christ we don't see others in the proper context. We only think of self and don't really comprehend the actions and feelings of those around us.
Joseph's brethren were angry and jealous. We know from a letter to the Corinthians that charity "envieth not...seeketh not her own..." (1 Cor 13:4,5) so they didn't have charity and that means they didn't see Joseph in the right light. So their actions were not with full understanding.
What does this mean for us today? Elder Jeffrey R Holland tells us that "true charity, the absolutely pure, perfect love of Christ, has really been known only once in this world - in the form of Christ Himself, the living Son of the living God," (BYU Speeches of the Year, Feb 2000). Therefore we cannot honestly say that anyone has the proper perspective on anyone else. So when others do us harm we must step back and remember to, "forgive them, for they know not what they do."