Dream Catcher: Reflections on the Joseph Saga

By Randy L. Hyde and John Killinger

Joseph, the Dream Catcher, is often overshadowed in Hebrew Scripture by more famous patriarchs such as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. Yet, his story serves as the axis upon which the early Jewish narrative is depicted. Fascinating in its detailed twists and turns, the Joseph saga speaks to issues as current as our daily news. Join with the author in exploring how Joseph's long-ago dreams can speak to your own.

Randy Hyde provides study/thought questions in each chapter that can be considered by individuals or in group sessions. Journey with the author as you examine the gripping tale of the one who dared to dream.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Feb 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666722505

Book preview

Privileged Son

Now Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any other of his children . . . 

 Genesis 37:3 

Perhaps you are familiar with the Dream Catcher of Native American lore. Thought to have originated with the Ojibwe people, the dream catcher is a handmade object based on a willow hoop on which is woven a loose net or web. It is then decorated with objects considered to be sacred, such as feathers and beads. If you’ve ever traveled west, no doubt you’ve seen them.

There is an ancient legend of a Spider Woman known as Asibikaashi. She was the caretaker for the tribe, and was known to keep evil spirits and bad dreams from reaching the children. Eventually, the Ojibwe Nation spread to the four corners of North America, and it became difficult for Asibikaashi to be present to all the children. What could they do when she wasn’t available to help protect them? The mothers and grandmothers in the tribes wove magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew. In their way of thinking, the dream catchers would filter out all bad dreams and allow only good thoughts to enter their minds. Once the sun rose, all bad dreams would disappear.¹

The fortunes of the ancient nation of Israel began with a dream, and with Joseph, the next-to-last son of Jacob, the Hebrew patriarch. Joseph was the original dream catcher of Israel. He didn’t necessarily filter out all the bad dreams, we will discover as his story unfolds, but dream he did. And he could interpret dreams for others, a gift that both liberated him and got him into a great deal of trouble.

Are you a dreamer? I have dreams, as we all do, but I must admit they are pretty mundane in most respects. My mother liked to have us share our dreams around the breakfast table. Once we had all related ours, my dad, the down home Mississippi philosopher-poet, would always respond by saying, Know what I dreamed? I dreamt I was awake, and when I woke up I found out I was asleep! When it came to dreams, that’s about as deep as it ever got in our family. So I tend not to spend much of my time trying to figure out what my dreams might mean.

That’s not true of everyone, to say the least. My former professor and friend, John Killinger, has vivid dreams that have often found their way into his sermons and books as he interprets their meaning, not only for himself but for those with whom he shares the gospel. It is a rare gift, in my mind given to few, given to those who have more of a mystical side, perhaps.

Evidently, Joseph had the gift in spades. He didn’t always know how to handle this gift appropriately, especially when he was young, creating an ever-deepening rift with his brothers. We are told that Israel (the name given to his father Jacob when he wrestled with God on the banks of the river Jabbok) loved Joseph more than any other of his children (43:7). Despite his privileged status in the family, Joseph vexed his father, not only with his dreams but with his eager willingness to interpret them, even when nobody else wanted to hear about them.

You see, it is one thing to interpret dreams. It’s quite another when you make yourself out to be the hero of all your own narratives; and that is exactly what the adolescent Joseph did. It wasn’t entirely his fault. Joseph came by this naturally. After all, his father Jacob was a dreamer too.

Years before, when Jacob fled the wrath of his brother Esau after cheating him out of his birthright, Jacob fled to Haran where his mother Rebekah had family. Perhaps they would be sympathetic to Jacob’s plight since Jacob’s mother, their kinswoman, had been the schemer who put him up to it in the first place. Along the way, Jacob spent the night, using a stone for a pillow. As he slept, he dreamt of a ladder reaching from earth all the way up to heaven, with the angels of God descending and ascending upon it (Gen 28:10–12).

Seeing this as a sign from God, Jacob declares that this place–a place to be known thereafter as Bethel, which means sanctuary–is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven! (Gen 28:17). Jacob believes that his dream is nothing short of a gift from God, and he uses it as encouragement for the journey before him.

And could it be that years before, when Jacob’s grandfather Abraham heard the Lord say to him, Go from the land of your fathers, that it was also in a dream? If so, we should not be surprised that Joseph would be a dream catcher. It is in his blood and in his bones. A dream catcher is all he can be, and interpreting dreams is all he can do.

When we first meet Joseph, he is seventeen years old. Do you remember seventeen? It is a very natural thing for seventeen year-olds to be totally self-absorbed. In fact, parents of teenagers could tell you that having a seventeen year-old might be theologically construed as God’s divine punishment upon them. Added to this is that we are told Joseph is the favorite, privileged child of his father Jacob. It makes up a perfect mixture for volatility.

This is how the explosion comes about . . . 

Being as young as he is, Joseph is confined basically to domestic chores as a helper to the sons of two of his father’s wives. What we know of Joseph suggests that he used his situation as an opportunity not to do much in the way of labor while keeping an eager eye on his brothers in order to catch them in doing less than they should do. Joseph observes their work ethic (or lack thereof, at least from his perspective), and when their behavior is not what he thinks it ought to be, he rats on them. As the scriptures put it, Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father (Gen 37:2). We are not told what Jacob does about it, but it isn’t hard to imagine the resentment this caused among the brothers. That’s the first part of the mixture: the building resentment. And, it is the perfect introduction to an explanation of the family’s dysfunction.

The second part of that volatile mixture has to do with Jacob’s love for his son Joseph. Pure and simple, Jacob loves Joseph more than his other sons, and makes no bones about it. This is not an isolated dynamic. It happens in many families, even today. In fact, I have been told by one of my older brothers–who shall go unnamed!–that mom loved me best. I don’t think it was true, but my brother evidently believed it, at least at one point. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have ever brought it up.

In Jacob’s case, it was quite true. He held more affection in his heart for Joseph than he did for his other sons. We can see why, even if we don’t agree with it. They had so much in common, Jacob and Joseph, and the father evidently does nothing to hide this fact. Not only that, Joseph is the firstborn son of Jacob’s much-beloved wife Rachel, who died giving birth to Benjamin, Joseph’s younger