Joseph
Joseph, the dreamer, was hated by his brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt; yet years later when he rose to a high position and his brothers came to Egypt to buy food, he had the opportunity to help them in their distress. Joseph’s troubles with his older brothers, and their eventual reconciliation, mirrored Jacob’s life-long struggle with his older brother Esau.
But Joseph is also a story of a godly man rising to a position of great power. Unlike Jacob, Joseph had the power to get revenge on his brothers, and indeed he used it to discomfit them and make them admit their former crime. Yet in the end he forgave them and helped them, because he saw some goodness in them—that they truly cared for their father Jacob.
Father Moon identifies with Joseph’s life of misfortunes and supposedly chance encounters that turned out to be part of a larger divine plan. He is particularly interested in Joseph’s motives for forgiveness, and he applies it to his own situation, as a leader who has endured persecution from his Christian “brothers.”
1. Joseph the Dreamer
World Scripture
When Joseph said to his father, “O my father, I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon—I saw them making obeisance to me.” He said, “O my son, do not tell this dream to your brothers, lest they devise a plan against you. The devil is indeed an open enemy to man. And thus will your Lord choose you, and teach you the interpretation of sayings, and make His favor complete to you and to the children of Jacob, as He made it complete before to your fathers, Abraham and Isaac. Surely your Lord is Knowing, Wise.” Verily in Joseph and his brothers there are signs for the inquiring.
When they said, “Certainly Joseph and his brother (Benjamin) are dearer to our father than we, though we are a company. Surely our father is in plain error.” (One said), “Slay Joseph or banish him to some other land, so that your father’s regard may be exclusively for you, and that after that you may be accounted a righteous people.” Another said, “Slay not Joseph, but if you must do something, cast him into the bottom of the well. Some travelers may pick him up.”
They said, “O our father, why won’t you trust us with Joseph, when we are good friends to him? Send him with us tomorrow that he may enjoy himself and play, and we will take good care of him.” He said, “In truth it saddens me that you should take him with you, and I fear lest the wolf devour him while you are heedless of him.” They said, “If the would should devour him while we are so strong a band, then surely we should have already perished.” Then when they led him off, and were of one mind that they should place him at the bottom of the well, We inspired in him (Joseph): You will tell them of this deed of theirs when they do not know you.
And they came to their father at nightfall, weeping and saying, “O father! We went off racing with one another and left Joseph by our goods, and a wolf devoured him. You won’t believe us, though we are truthful.” And they came with false blood on his shirt. He said, “No. Your minds have beguiled you into some matter. My course is comely patience. And God it is whose help is to be sought about that which you describe.”
And there came travelers, and they sent their water-drawer. He let down his bucket into the well. He said, “Good news! Here is a youth.” And they concealed him as an article of merchandise, and God was Cognizant of what they did. Then they sold him for a low price, a few pieces of silver, for they attached little value to him.
Qur’an 12.4-20
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Joseph once told his parents about a dream in which the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. Years later, this dream came true.
You also have dreams, don’t you? If you have a vivid, unusual dream that you cannot forget even after three years, I want you to know that it is a revelation from Heaven. Any of you who ever had that kind of dream, raise your hands.
Long before you met the Unification Church, some of you had dreams of meeting an Oriental man and following him. Later, after you joined the church, you recognized him as Reverend Moon.
These phenomena occur when the spirit world descends and tries to teach you. It may employ one of several distinct types of messages: God or Jesus may appear, an angel may convey a message, or one of your ancestors may appear and speak to you. It is not always easy to understand the meaning and significance of such dreams.
(91:274, February 27, 1977)