Can we overshare God's revelations to us? Lessons learnt from Joseph's dreams. Part 1

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"Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed"
Genesis 37:6

How careful we need to be! Has the Lord spoken to us personally, or revealed something to us in a dream? What wisdom and grace we need in speaking of it to other people.

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These words, 'Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed', were spoken by a young lad, Joseph. Eager to share his dreams with his family, Joseph was unintentionally feeding the flames of jealousy towards him.

Already bitter from having seen Joseph receive their father's preferential treatment, his brothers took matters into their own hands, resulting in Joseph having many years of hardship far away from the father who loved him so much.

All this was overruled by God - as Joseph later told his previously cruel but now repentant brothers, 'Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good' (Genesis 50:20).

But does this have a lesson for us in considering how much we should share with others of what God has said to us? Can we overshare? Let's spend a few minutes looking at this and other lessons from Joseph's dreams.

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Firstly, the danger of preferential treatment.

Joseph was the favourite son of Jacob's favourite wife, Rachel. We read that Jacob (later called Israel) 'loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours' (Genesis 37:3).

Joseph's ten older brothers had no doubt been aware to some extent of the rivalry between their mothers, vying for Jacob's love and attention. Now the brothers were experiencing the same sense of being less loved, watching as their father gave Joseph preferential treatment.

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Not only did they hate Joseph for this favouritism, but Joseph had also told tales about them to their father, which no doubt increased the division between him and them, and between them and their father.

This loss of favour didn't need much encouragement, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, already having murdered a city of Canaanite men through a deceptive plot, causing Jacob to fear for his life.

He told them, 'Ye have troubled me to make me to stink (obnoxious) among the inhabitants of the land...and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house' (Genesis 34:30).

Another brother, Reuben, had disgraced himself by having a relationship with one of his father's concubines (Genesis 35:22).

In the midst of this turbulent family we see Joseph, going around in his special coat, telling his father of his brother's bad behaviour, and then quite openly calling them all to come and listen as he recounted a dream to them.

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Let us pause here and consider whether we have noticed any envy, jealousy or hard feelings towards us, or in our own hearts to others? Are we doing anything provocative to make others envious or angry? Are we causing jealousy among our children by giving one preferential treatment over another? Is there somebody who is feeling less loved, less worthy because of how we treat them?

Perhaps the key to noticing this may not be in ourselves but in how a child or person is behaving. Perhaps we need to sit down with them and ask what is wrong, and prayerfully go to the Lord if they accuse you of being unfair. Have you unknowingly been giving preferential treatment?

It is so much easier to favour a person that is nice to you, or who appears more attractive, rather than a difficult or poor looking person, but God is no 'respecter of persons'. The Apostle James reminds us of this and that we should love all our neighbours as ourselves without partiality (James 2).

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Secondly, risks of oversharing

But let us return to Joseph as he shares his dream with his brothers.

It was not just any dream - it was one in which they were all tying sheaves in the field, and then Joseph's sheaf stood upright and his brothers' sheaves all came and bowed down to it. It was almost as if he said he saw his brothers all bowing down to him.

Being proud of our experiences

Was this wise of Joseph we wonder? Was there any pride in his calling them all around him or was it the innocent excitement and wonder of a teenager? Did he realise it was a God given dream?

I am reminded of a minister recently speaking of Jesus' disciples - how excited they were to come back to Him and tell Him of all the miracles they had been doing in His name. But Jesus has to remind them not to rejoice in what they were doing - these gifts they were using - these miracles which could only be done through Jesus' name and not from anything in themselves - and rather rejoice that their names were written in heaven.

But to return to Joseph, how his telling of his dream fed the anger and jealousy of his brothers, who already couldn't say anything nicely to him.

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And then, Joseph calls all the family around him again to listen while he recounts another dream, this time one which signifies his whole family bowing down to him.

On hearing this dream even his father told him off and it yet further increased his brothers' envy towards him. Perhaps they were all aware of Jacob's own revelations from God in dreams, and now it appeared that Joseph was being further singled out for preferential treatment - by God himself.

Danger of oversharing

Perhaps Joseph innocently thought that his family would be pleased that he too, like his father, Jacob, was having remarkable dreams, but what danger it brought him!

After telling him off we read that Jacob, 'observed' or thought about what Joseph had said. So, the dreams weren't 'wasted' on him, although we don't hear whether he thought back to them at any later point when Joseph seemed to all appearances to have been killed.

But then we think of how sharing his dreams brought further envy and hatred on himself. It fanned the flames of jealousy and anger, and we wonder if Joseph should have kept them to himself, or just quietly shared them with his father. If this had been the case though, the impact of their prophecy of what would happen would have been lost.

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Sharing brings honour and glory to God

Sharing what God has revealed to us may be for his glory and honour as was the case here, for how true Joseph's dreams were!

The whole family would be witness to it, when approximately twenty years later, they would come to Egypt and bow down before the Governor of Egypt, dependent on his goodwill for their lives, little knowing that this apparent stranger was actually their own brother, Joseph.

I once read of a Muslim lady who had long been searching to know in her heart that God existed and loved her.

After Jesus spoke to her in dreams she was so happy that she told her family, thinking they too would be delighted to share in her happiness and also believe - little realising at that time how her very life would be endangered by those she loved so much.

But her sharing was a witness to them and later used by God in their conversion. The very brother, a much loved brother, who all but held a gun to her head being also led to Jesus in later years.

Again, this was used for God's glory and honour. If she had kept quiet she would have been disobeying God's commands to her - and to us - to witness to our fellow humans, and tell them about Him.

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What wisdom and discernment we need in sharing these precious revelations - prayerfully asking God to guide us to know when we should speak.

We want to be kept from any pride in what God has revealed to us - for it isn't in our power, but purely from His favour to us. We are to glory in knowing God, not in boasting of how much we know.

I think of the Apostle Paul who tells us he was given a 'thorn in the flesh' to stop him becoming proud of God's revelations to him - to keep him in a right place of humility before God.

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But dear reader, if God has revealed something to you, something special, something precious and you have never yet shared it, is it something you should be sharing with God's church?

Is it something which tells you of God's everlasting love to you, which you should be publicly declaring, not only for God's glory but for the encouragement of your sisters and brothers in Christ? This is not oversharing! This is obeying Jesus.