Joseph
Man of Integrity
GENESIS 37 – 38
37:1-4
"Now Jacob dwelt in the land
where his father was a stranger, in the
This family dynamic pattern sounds familiar, does it not? It is an understatement to say that favoritism in the home is a very bad thing. We saw its awful effects in Isaac and Rebekah’s home. You will remember there that the scripture said Isaac loved Esau but Rebekah loved Jacob. In the end, their home was literally torn apart. Now, we see that this bad parenting model has carried over to the Jacob and Rachel home as well. Jacob had a favorite. His favorite was Rachael’s son, Joseph. This partiality would become the impetus for all the tragic events that were about to happen to the Jacob household. The match that started the fire was a report by young Joseph concerning the poor work habits of his four half-brothers, the sons of Jacob's two concubines. They were Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. Additional fuel for the fire had been provided by Jacob himself when he had lavished a beautiful new many-colored coat on his favorite son. Wearing it, no doubt, caused Joseph to stand out more than ever in the eyes of his brothers. Our text tells us that, as a result of these things, all of the other boys hated Joseph and could not speak peaceably to him. They didn’t like this kid at all! They couldn’t bring themselves to even speak civilly when addressing him.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
37:5-11
"Now Joseph had a dream,
and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So he said to
them, 'Please hear this dream which I have dreamed:
There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and
also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to
my sheaf.' And his brothers said to him, 'Shall you indeed reign over us? Or
shall you indeed have dominion over us?' So they hated him even
more for his dreams and for his words. Then he
dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and
said, 'Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and
the eleven stars bowed down to me.' So he told it to his father and his
brothers; and his father rebuked him and said
to him, 'What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and
your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?' And his brothers
envied him, but his father kept the
matter in mind."
At this point in human history, God often spoke through dreams. They were vivid and awesome communications. Joseph was shocked and filled with wonder by his dreams and he didn’t have the sophistication nor the maturity to keep them to himself. Keep in mind, at this time Joseph was only seventeen years old. Now, seventeen-year olds can be both extremely naïve, extremely obnoxious and extremely abrasive ... and all at the same time! However, I don’t believe that Joseph was flaunting his dreams although his brothers and father took it so. They really rankled the family. Joseph's dreams clearly proclaimed that Jacob and Rachael and all of their children would one day be under Joseph’s authority. As it turned out, this would be fulfilled to the letter. The dreams were a prophetic word from God. Jacob himself had had such dreams. Therefore, he took note and did not forget what Joseph had told him.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
37:12-17
"Then his brothers went to feed their father's
flock in Shechem. And
This reminds me of that verse that says, "The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord..." Young Joseph was just wandering around aimlessly, not knowing where to look and then there was a man who saw his predicament and then pointed the way for him.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
37:18-22
"Now when they saw him afar off, even before he
came near them, they conspired against him to kill him.
Then they said to one another, 'Look, this
dreamer
is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him
and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, "Some wild beast has devoured
him." We shall see what will become of his dreams!' But Reuben
heard it,
and he delivered him out of their hands, and
said, 'Let us not kill him.' And Reuben said to them, 'Shed no blood, but cast
him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him';
that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father."
What an awful and fearful moment in the history of
Joseph's brothers
Reuben, the eldest, heard his brother’s wicked plot and intervened saying, "No, let's not kill him ourselves. Let's just throw him in a pit and leave him there to die." His argument was that if they used that method to get rid of their little brother … technically, Joseph's blood would not be on their hands. Joseph’s brothers went for it. In reality, Reuben intended to save Joseph and return him to Jacob. Although we’ve read some bad things about Reuben up to this point, such as in the last chapter where he deliberately had sex with his father’s concubine, Bilhah ... here, he does good in trying to rescue Joseph. Shakespeare once said, “The evil men do lives on but the good is oft interred with their bones.” This man, Reuben, comes to mind in that regard.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
37:23-28
"So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his
brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic,
the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and
cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water
in it. And they sat down to eat a meal. Then
they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of
Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm,
and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. So
There was no mercy in these brothers of Joseph. Though they could
all hear their little brother's cries, they simply went about their supper as if
nothing had happened. As they ate, a caravan of Ishmaelites
passed by, heading for
Before we move on, let's explore a few questions here.
Where was God
in all of this? Shouldn't he have stepped in and protected young
Joseph?
Wasn't he aware of what was happening? The answer lies in the fact that, indeed,
God was in perfect control of the whole situation. In fact, this was God's plan
to get his people down into
"And we know that all things
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called
according to His purpose."
And again, in
Ephesians 1:11...
"In Him also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all
things according to the counsel of His will..."
Can you trust him for the things that occur in your life? I believe that Joseph did. There is not one word recorded in the Word of God of Joseph ever complaining or doubting or blaming his God for what happened to him. Would to God that you and I could trust him with such unwavering faith, aye?
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." Porverbs 3:5-6
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
37:29-36
"Then Reuben returned
to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he tore
his clothes. And he returned to his brothers and said, 'The lad
is no more; and I, where shall I go?' So they took Joseph's
tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.
Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and
said, 'We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?'
And he recognized it and said, 'It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured
him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.' Then Jacob tore
his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but
he refused to be comforted, and he said, 'For I shall go down into the grave to
my son in mourning.' Thus his father wept for him. Now the
Midianites had sold him in
Reuben was absent when the brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites. He had planned to rescue him. When he found out that it was too late, Reuben was in despair. Furthermore, he feared what his father would do to him for he, being the oldest, would be held responsible. Then, the brothers devised a plan as to what to tell father Jacob. It was quite clever, actually. They dipped Joseph's beautiful coat of many colors in some lamb's blood and then took and showed it to Jacob. Their story was that they found it that way and that the boy must have been killed by wild animals. The plan worked … but Jacob was inconsolable. It is ironic that the one who tricked his own father with a baby goat’s skin was himself now tricked by the blood of a baby goat. In Jacob's life, the old adage, "What goes around, comes around", was realized on more than one occasion.
Can we step aside here for a moment? The text says that Jacob was
inconsolable. It is not a good testimony for a child of God to be inconsolable
after the death of a loved one, beloved. It presents a picture to the world of hopelessness that only
those who have no hope should exhibit. As you have it in I Thessalonians 4:13...
"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others
who have no hope."
There is certainly nothing wrong with sorrow over the death of a loved one. But we believers are not to carry on like those who have no hope. Our sorrow should be far less and it should be of shorter duration than the ungodly. After all, we know the truth about death and about Heaven and the resurrection and the world to come and just exactly where our loved ones actually are after they die. Take, for example, David's grief over the death of his baby in II Samuel 12:15-28. Jacob didn't do very well in this department. The loss of his favorite was deep and, in his mind, horrendous.
The chapter ends by informing us that Joseph arrived in
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
38:1-10
"It came to pass at that time that
Here, in the beginning of chapter 38, we find a
different story, seemingly sandwiched
into the story of Joseph that, at first blink, seems totally unrelated. However,
it was of great importance and chronologically fits here. That is so because, at the
same time
that Joseph was settling into Potiphar’s household
down in
Hirah, the Adullamite,
was
It was the custom, later incorporated into the Law, that if a woman was widowed and her husband had a living brother, that brother was obligated to marry his brother’s widow and give her a child so that the deceased brother’s name could be carried on. When Er was killed by the Lord, Onan inherited that responsibility. He was supposed to take Tamar in and he was to give her a baby. However, when Onan was having sex with Tamar, he selfishly and disobediently ejaculated on the ground rather than to allow his brother's widow the opportunity to raise up an heir to carry on his brother’s name. Onan’s self-centered and stubborn rebellion in this respect was the straw that broke the camel’s back and subsequently brought God’s judgment on him as well ... and, he too was killed by the Lord. We have just the outline of it here. If you and I would have personally known Onan, I believe we would have concurred that he needed killing as well. We should not be shocked by these frank statements in the Bible, by the way. This is history. It is as it really happened. I, for one, am glad that the Bible consistently gives us all the facts straight up. It pulls no punches when it speaks to the facts of history or the condition of sinners or what they have done. It tells us what we really are and everything that we need to know. Its faithful words are an offense to some but a blessing to others.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
38:11-18
"Then
Having lost Onan, Tamar was then promised to a
third son of
Why is this story here? It is because Messiah would come through the
tribe of
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
38:19-26
"So she arose and went away, and laid aside her
veil and put on the garments of her widowhood. And
When
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
38:27-30
"Now it came to pass, at the time for giving
birth, that behold, twins were in her womb. And so
it was, when she was giving birth, that the one put out his hand; and the
midwife took a scarlet thread and bound it on
his hand, saying, 'This one came out first.' Then it happened, as he drew back
his hand, that his brother came out unexpectedly; and
she said, 'How did you break through? This breach be
upon you!' Therefore his name was called Perez.
Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand. And his
name was called Zerah."
Although Zerah was technically Tamar’s firstborn, Perez astounded the midwife by seeming to take charge and come out first. I believe that this unique happenstance was from the Lord. It was a statement of the importance of this ancient grandfather of Christ. Perez's genealogy is also given in Ruth 4:18-22...
"Now this is the genealogy of Perez:
Perez begot Hezron; Hezron
begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab;
Amminadab begot
Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon; Salmon begot
Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed;
Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David."