A few weeks ago on Things Unseen, I suggested that the reason Satan tempted Eve before

he tempted Adam was because the strongest leverage the devil has is often found in manipulating

God's best gifts.

That's what makes him so hateful.

He doesn't use discarded trash.

He uses the best to try to bring about the worst.

Think about marriage.

How is it that two people who couldn't bear to be apart from each other a few years

later can't stand being in the same house and get divorced?

The old Roman proverb was right, corruptio up to me pessimist.

The worst is the corruption of the best.

One of God's very best gifts obviously is family.

He sets the solitary in families we're told.

And we know that family life is one of God's greatest blessings to us.

But that's exactly why Satan seeks to corrupt and to destroy families.

And the dysfunctional family life that becomes so characteristic of the 21st century is

surely one of the devil's greatest triumphs.

But this week we've been thinking about a biblical illustration of a dysfunctional family

in the story of the family of Jacob and the story of Joseph in Genesis 37 through 50.

What a mess!

An unwise father, an naive and apparently self-centered youngest son, jealous brothers,

a potent cocktail of sinful tendencies that led to a great deal of misery for all of

...