When The Levee Breaks

When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them…As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. Their father Jacob said to them, "You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!" Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back." But Jacob said, "My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the Sheol in sorrow." (Genesis 42:29-38)

Everywhere you look in the Midwest it’s a soggy mess. A deluge of rain in late May caused a bevy of levee breaks on the Mississippi River throughout the month of June. Wisconsin flooded first, then Iowa. Cedar Rapids literally lived up to its namesake. Illinois and Missouri are currently watching fields flood, streets submerge and dreams drown beneath rising water levels. In the wake lies a muddy path of destruction that will cost billions, whether you’re in the flood plain or not.

And just when it can’t get much worse, the forecast has rain looming again. Grab an umbrella or find the canoe, you decide.

The flooding has, no doubt, caused more than one Midwesterner to shake his fist at the sky and scream, “Everything is against me!” But I think we’ve all been there. We’ve all encountered those moments when nothing goes right. Nothing works. Nothing makes sense. Life’s storms blow away our blessings, drown our dreams and leave us vulnerable for desperate times and measures. We hang on, hold out, stay up, give in, look around and pray we live to see another day. A flooded life is soaked with either silent resignation or steeled resolve. Our pride keeps us paddling.

If anybody was drowning by life’s levy breaks it was Jacob. Years earlier he lost Joseph, his favored son supposedly to accident. Then a famine swept through Canaan creating drought. Jacob desperately sends his boys to Egypt in hopes the rumors that the Land of Pyramids is flush with food are true. Maybe he can buy enough grain to keep his family afloat. We don’t know how long the boys were gone but I suspect every day Jacob worried about their fate. Any father would. Egypt was the big dog and Jacob sent his own pups to bark up a business deal that might easily bite back. The family fortune could be confiscated. The ten brothers captured. It was a risk to send the boys to Egypt, but a hungry belly makes many fools.

So it’s easy to understand Jacob’s reaction when his sons return sans Simeon. He’s grateful for the grain, sure. The returned silver stumps him, true. He’s glad nine sons are back home safe. But the Egyptian request to now send Benjamin as guaranty is mystifying. “Over my dead body,” says dad. No way. Benjamin was Jacob’s last link to Joseph. What kind of father would risk yet another son? This whole situation smelled. Something was up. “No,” says Jacob, “Benjamin is the only one left.” Wait, stop the tape. The only one left? What about the nine sons desperately seeking dad’s absolution and approval? Ah, now the muddy picture clears. Jacob’s heartache had left him emotionally blind. He didn’t have eleven sons, he only had one (and ten stewards)! Simeon, like the other brothers, had little value to dad. Benjamin was “Joseph” in spirit.

This family’s fatal flaw was selfish pride. Jacob couldn’t let go of Joseph so he selfishly blessed Ben, forcing him to inherit a life he couldn’t possibly live. The ten brothers couldn’t win dad’s affection so they selfishly fed Joseph to the lions. Jacob’s pride masked the pain. The brother’s pride covered the crime. Is it possible Jacob worried more about his silver than his sons? I’m beginning to think so. He ultimately cared more for his fortune than his family (save Ben). Many of us do.

After all, pride always comes before a flood. It’s the original sin. And it’ll leave one muddy mess when life heads south. Joseph’s redemption was the pit and prison. He was now free to lead his family home.


NOTABLE QUOTABLES ON PRIDE:

There is no passion which steals into the heart more imperceptibly, and covers itself under more disguises, than pride. (Joseph Addison)

When pride thaws, look for floods. (Philip James Bailey)

How can there be pride in a contrite heart? Humility is the earliest fruit of religion. (Hosea Ballou)

I think half the troubles for which men go slouching in prayer to God are caused by their intolerable pride. Many of our cares are but a morbid way of looking at our privileges. We let our blessings get mouldy, and then call them curses. (Henry Ward Beecher)

Father, I am a man full of pride. I am crippled by its persuasion and crushed by its power. Forgive my arrogant attitudes, selfish sensibilities and haughty habits. I seek only the Freedom that rises in Your Humility. Amen.