Genesis
Genesis 37
In Genesis 37, we begin a journey with one of Jacob’s children, Joseph. Our story starts out with Joseph, at 17 years old [1], pasturing the flock with his brothers. Right out of the gate, we see favoritism rear its ugly and divisive head. Just as Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob [2], now Jacob is favoring Joseph. The other siblings saw this favoritism, and in verse four, it says, “they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.” Over the next few nights, God sends Joseph a prophetic dream. In the first dream, the interpretation is that Joseph’s brothers are bowing down to him, and Joseph is ruling over them. When Joseph relayed this dream to his older brothers, they were even more furious with him. The Bible says, “They hated him even more.” The next dream that God gives to Joseph has an interpretation of not only his brothers bowing down to him, but also his parents, too. Joseph tells his parents about the dream, and Jacob, his father, rebukes him. This is where it seems that maybe some pride in Joseph rises up. Joseph knows that he is favored by his parents because of how they treat him and the gifts he is given [3]. After telling his brothers about the first dream he had, he saw their explosive reaction. If that didn’t go so well…why tell your parents about the second dream? He had to have known the results were going to be the same, if not worse. I think pride arose inside of Joseph, and even though those dreams were from the Lord, I think he unwisely shared them prematurely. A good point here to use would be that you can’t share everything with everyone.
After this, the brothers are supposed to go to Shechem to pasture the flock. Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers. After going to Shechem and not seeing his family, Jacob begins to inquire as to where they are. He finds out that his brothers are in Dothan, which was a 10-15 mile walk west of Shechem. Joseph already has a history of telling his brothers when they misbehave [4], so he is sure to tell their father about this little detour. The brothers see Joseph coming from afar, and a crime of passion arises in their hearts. When they see him coming, they immediately start planning to kill him. Wow! At that moment, they didn’t plan to run from him, hide from him, or explain why they were in Dothan and not Shechem, they didn’t plan to hurt him or even threaten him; they planned on taking his life. Maybe this is why Jesus taught that if we are angry with someone, it needs to be addressed as soon as possible [5]. The longer hatred and anger are allowed to fester, they will breed something much worse than themselves. They planned to kill him, but one of the brothers, Reuben, convinced them not to end his life, but to take his coat, throw him in the pit, and leave him there. The brothers agreed…sort of, and when Rueben wasn’t around, they pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him to a group of Midianites as they passed by. The Midianites ended up taking Joseph to Egypt and selling him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh.
When Rueben returns to the pit and sees that Joseph is not in there, he rips his clothes in anguish. The brothers take Joseph’s coat and shred it into pieces. Then, they dip the coat in the goat’s blood to make it look like he’d been attacked and killed by a wild animal. They present this to Jacob, their father, and he believes their story. It is at this point where we see deception running in this family again. Just as Jacob and his mother Rebekah used deception on Isaac [6], now Jacob’s sons are deceiving him. I don’t want to jump ahead and give away future details, but God does intervene for Joseph, because God works all things for our good [7]. It doesn’t matter how messed up your family has been. God is not hindered by the sins that have entrapped us. If we turn to Him, confess, and repent of our sins, He will work all things out for good in us, too. Even though Joseph had been mistreated and abused, God’s hand and God’s plan were still in control. Don’t allow your current situation to lie to you. Don’t allow your current circumstance to make you believe God has left. Trust that God is at work, even when you don’t see it.
By Pastor Barry Ginn
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[1] Genesis 37:2
[2] Genesis 25:28
[3] Genesis 37:3
[4] Genesis 37:2
[5] Matthew 5:21-25
[6] Genesis 27
[7] Romans 8:28