This is true.  Also, when your own children are calling you all sorts of
names and such you can look at parents from the bible and say to yourself
"just look at that.  Now, I am not such a bad parent after all".
----- Original Message -----
From: Kathy Du Bois <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 6:55 AM
Subject: Poor Reuben


> Hey, while you guys are talking about the contributions of Judah and
> Leah, as I have been re-reading the same story, my heart has gone out
> to Reuben, for the first time.  When you think about it, that guy
> really got a raw deal.  I mean, think about it!  He was the first
> born.  He should have received the blessing, the birth right and up
> to half of the inheritance, according to Eastern custom.  But, Jacob
> didn't really like his mother so he ignored the boy.  I suppose that
> Reuben was a teenager when he decided to get it on with Bilhah, but
> chances are, that could have been an act of desperation, and
> frustration on his part.  It was kind of an, in your face, I'm a man
> now too, sort of thing.   Maybe a kind of "peeing on the father's
> turf," kind of challenge.  Chris went through that kind of an
> attitude a lot with us.  Not  toward me necessarily, I just mean that
> pack mentality attitude  of challenging the leader.  Some boys are
> just like that.   Then, as he gets older, he is the first brother to
> plead for Joseph's life and is secretly hoping to be able to sneak
> Joseph back to Jacob and come off as a hero so that, maybe Jacob will
> finally notice him and love him and recognize him as a person, but
> no, that is not to be.  Then, in the end, he gets nothing.  Jacob
> won't even acknowledge him on his death bed except to say, you
> screwed up and I'll never forgive you for it, even with one foot in
> the grave.  Reuben must have ended up a very bitter person.  He had
> to suck up to his little brother just  to stay alive.  Jacob was
> really a lousy parent, you know that?  Incredible.  I'll say one
> thing for the bible, it doesn't hide the truth!
> Kathy