Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Death in the family

Friday, March 1, 2002

Genesis 37 (various verses)
3 Now Israel (also called Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him...
12 His brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them."
"Very well," he replied.
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.... 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 "Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. ...
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe--the richly ornamented robe he was wearing--24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt....
His brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites....
31 Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."
33 He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.

Killing members of the family started a long time ago. Cain killed Abel, his brother. Joseph was as good as killed by ten of his brothers. Parents wail the awful wails of inconsolable grief, but the deed is done.

Police the world over dread getting involved in domestic disagreement more than any other violence. And more police are killed trying to handle family fighting than in any other way. Emotions are never stronger and more uncontrollable than in my love, and my anger, toward my family.

Yesterday, on a tragic afternoon that may well soon become nationally known, a pediatrician-mother in Champaign stabbed her two sons Adam and Matthew, aged ten and six. Involved in very positive ways at school and at their synagogue, she is remembered by everyone interviewed as a good mom, a fine person. But her son Adam is already gone, and Matthew is hanging by a thread. She's arraigned for murder, while her husband, a wonderful well-known surgeon, weeps and weeps and weeps. Refusing to be comforted.

Always, the emotion comes so quickly, rushes into action, and fades away. The mother's phone call to the police..."she had killed her children and wanted to be killed by the police..." Devoid of hope, awful regret, her rage ripped and broken on the razor edge of physical violence - what is left to think, to do, to say? What is left to pray?

So we pray for her, and her husband and her child, as we are told to do in James 5:14. And wait to see what happens next. And ask God to protect us, surround us with his angels ... protect us most of all from ourselves.

Father, please fill the hearts of your children, broken and bleeding. Let us lie down to sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make us dwell in safety.

Devotions Archive

Death in the family

Friday, March 1, 2002