GENESIS 37 SUFFERING LEADS TO GLORY There is more told about Joseph than any of the patriarchs before him. His story explains the development of the nation of Israel and reveals the sovereign operation of God in overruling evil and leading ultimately to victory. Truth and righteousness will prevail in spite of all the evil and wrong that happens. Personal character will be tested in many ways and suffering will have to be endured when a person is committed to God in their personal life and to righteousness socially. The life of a suffering saint like Joseph illustrates the Person of Christ when He was here found in fashion as a man. Each of the people of faith in the Genesis account, illustrates faith in a special way. Joseph’s faith is an example of the testing and results of faith. Faith triumphs over all opposition that comes against it.
Joseph stood in Egypt, where Abraham fell. Suffering conquers that which test faith. Suffering comes when an honest report of evil is given as in the case where Joseph reported the evil in which his brothers were engaged. One is judged for seeing the evil, and hated for reporting it. There is a price to pay for walking in the light. Walking in truth means one turns from evil and rebukes it. Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and was hated without a cause. He testified to the evil works of men of whatever nature it was. He came to His own, and was rejected by them. As He suffered, so will those who belong to Him and live godly lives in Christ Jesus.
JOSEPH IS A REPRESENTATIVE OF ISRAEL All down through the generations of the history of the Hebrew nation, there has been times of glory and times of suffering. As a people, the Jews have struggled with God and with man. Nations and individuals oppose Israel, and yet, they still stubbornly resist their true Messiah. The day will come when in humiliation and true repentance the nation will submit to the universal authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and they will look on Him whom they pierced. The account of Joseph and his family is a historical account of what happened to them and is like a prophetical account of what has happened, is happening and will happen to Israel as a nation.
All the nations of the world will have been blessed because our Lord Jesus Christ “came unto His own and His own received Him not.” From His wonderful story of grace to the Jews, there has come the blessing of the Gentiles also being accepted into the family of God when they put their personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer. Out of His willingness to save us, and because of His love toward us, He demonstrated His love by dying in our place upon the cross so that He could justly “bring us to God.”
Joseph’s Home Life, v. 1-4. Joseph would have been a small boy of four or five years of ager when Jacob left Haran for Canaan. The tensions between Laban and his sons and Jacob would hardly have been known by him. His older half-brothers would have been exposed to the jealousy, scheming and deception of both Laban and Jacob. The evil influence of people and places does have an effect on those who have been brought up in those circumstances. It is not uncommon for those who are exposed to evil practices when they are young, to think that is normal, and to do the same things themselves. How important it is for parents to protect their children from those things that defile their minds and pollute their character. We need to avoid any persons or things, whether they are relatives or not, who would wrongly influence our children. The differences between the young Joseph and his older siblings were obvious to Jacob who had a special love for Joseph. The garment he made for Joseph was an obvious statement, not only of personal preference, but of his position in the family. All of those who were older including Reuben the first-born, were passed by and Joseph was identified as the one who would take leadership in the tribe of Israel during his generation.
The hatred of Joseph’s brothers, caused by jealousy and bitterness of being perceived to be subservient to Joseph and “put down,” was directed toward the young teenager, not Jacob the patriarch, as this final drama of the narrative of Genesis begins at chapter thirty-seven. Joseph didn’t seem to be spying on his brothers who were well-known for the evil in which they had been associated in Canaan. The sons of Jacob already had a reputation for mayhem, murder, dishonesty and evil in the places where they lived. Apparently, they continued in their evil ways so that Joseph was simply stating to Jacob what was going on around him. Jacob was likely more isolated as an old man and just lived from day to day without a lot of awareness of life in the world around him.
In our lives there are times to be silent and times when we must speak out. When criminal activity takes place, we are obligated to report it to those in authority. Tale-bearing and gossip are always wrong, but when there is an honest report of facts that are given without malice, guile or exaggeration, that is right. A young boy making a report that was true against older grown men, and that report would reflect on the reputation of the whole tribe, would certainly made him the object of their hatred. It would have especially irritated them because he was pure in life and moral in the way he conducted himself in every situation. He was practicing in his young life what he had been taught and what the others sons had rejected in their lives.
Joseph’s Dreams, v.5-11. On top of all the hatred those men had for Joseph, was the dreams he told them that had a meaning they could not miss. Perhaps he was naïve or maybe he was just being honest, but the implication of the dreams that both they and their father and mother would bow to Joseph whose own mother had died, infuriated them. Their animosity at what they considered his pride and haughty way, increased. The spiritual ideals by which Joseph lived as an older child, and the spiritual intuition that God gave him, held the promise of an honorable and influential life that was very different from the rest of the family of Jacob.
Joseph’s Responsibility, v.12-17. The herds and flocks of Jacob’s tribe made it necessary that they move across the miles of Canaan to find feed for the animals. When they had gone all the way from Hebron to Shechem, about sixty miles, Jacob had every right to be concerned. It was at Shechem two of his sons had killed every man and taken captive the women and children and all their possessions. No wonder he sent Joseph who he could trust to tell the truth, to see how things were going.
To be trusted by others with anything, calls for a commitment to the truth and for personal integrity on one’s own part. Obedience and a willingness to respond to directions given by those in authority is expected of any child of God. It may be inconvenient to us to drop what we are doing, to do what others who have authority over us ask, but it is right to act with promptness and without complaint.
Joseph’s Brothers, v.18-28. When our Lord Jesus was here, He said that believers in Him should not marvel because worldly people hate them. “They hated Me before they hated you.” The godly are characterized by love for others and for God. The ungodly want what they want, even if it means to put down or get rid of people who get in their way.
That was the way it was with Joseph’s brothers. Just to see Joseph coming their way, stirred up their anger to the extent they made plans to kill him. Some of them had killed before and they were prepared to kill again – even their half-brother, because of their deep-seated jealousy against him. Before Joseph even got to them, they had a simple plan to kill him and cover up their evil deed with a logical explanation. The heart of man is only evil continually.
Reuben as the first-born felt some responsibility toward Joseph. He may have had children of his own around Joseph’s age. So, he stood up against the others and had Joseph put in a dry pit intending to take him back to his father. While the brothers sat and ate, Joseph pled with them to let him out. Those same brothers years later, spoke about that time when he wanted them to spare his life but they had paid no attention to him. Reuben’s intention was to get him home against but there was a moral weakness in the older brother.
Judah seemed to have some leadership qualities and could see a profitable alternative that would satisfy the blood-thirsty among them, and the more civilized brothers. Sometimes the circumstances of life seem so bad that it is hard to determine if there is any solution at all to the problems we face. It is not possible for us to determine what is right depending only on circumstances. They can be a danger as well as an opportunity. We have to make our decisions in life from a higher source of authority even though we can take into account some of the events that happen to us. Our will should always be obedient to the will of God, even though we don’t know what is ahead of us.
The Result of the Actions, v.29-36. Reuben must have been away when Judah made the proposal to sell Joseph into slavery. The deception was carried out when the blood of a goat was used to cover the action taken, just like Jacob had done years before. Jacob believed what he was told when he saw blood on the special garment he had made for Joseph. The shock of bereavement and sudden death can lead a person to where they are beyond consolation.
Joseph’s brothers got what they wanted. The Midianites got what they wanted, and Potiphar, an official of the government of Egypt got what he wanted – all at the expense of an innocent young man of seventeen years of age. There sometimes is a high cost to righteousness that we must pay. When that happens, look up and beyond the question of, “Why did this happen to me?” to a far more important question, “What do I do now?”
The sin of man is the root of all the evil and trouble in this chapter. Temptation will confront every believer in one way or another. Envy is sin against people or a person. Covetousness is sin that makes us want things. When a person is dissatisfied with the way things are with us, we are in danger of both envy and covetousness. Envy leads to “every evil work” and is like “rottenness in our bones.”
The grace of God is in contrast to the sin of man. God was not first in the lives of Joseph’s brothers, but He was in the life of Joseph. Love and grace come from God to those who know Him, trust in Him, delight in Him and find it a great joy to serve Him. When these are active in our lives, we are protected from envy and covetousness.
God’s grace, also is greater than sin and overcomes it. When sin is defeated in an individual, God’s plans for us can be accomplished even though we may not even know what is happening and why. Sin can hinder the goal being reached right away, but God’s grace and purposes will ultimately defeat sin. Good really does not come out of evil, but good can come in spite of evil. Joseph’s brothers, with all their evil schemes and actions, could not defeat the objective God has in all those events that took place in this final part of the story of this family. Jacob’s seed had been chosen by God to bring blessing to the world through our Lord Jesus Christ, and it was going to happen in spite of the sinful evil practices of Joseph’s brothers.