April 24 Sermon: The Peril of Joseph
Consider these questions from this week’s message from Genesis 37:12-36:
1. In the story of Joseph and his brothers, we see jealousy, deception, and cruelty among siblings. How does this account resonate with your own experiences or observations of sibling dynamics?
2. Reuben tries to save Joseph from being killed by his brothers but ends up inadvertently contributing to his sale into slavery. How can good intentions sometimes lead to unintended negative consequences, and how can we navigate such situations in our own lives?
3. Despite the hardships and apparent tragedies in Joseph's life, the passage emphasizes that God is in control and ultimately uses these circumstances for His divine purpose. How can we trust God's sovereignty in difficult situations and find hope in the midst of adversity?
Transcript:
We have all seen instances where siblings aren’t necessarily so nice to each other. It is a normal thing. I enjoy leading people on when they don’t know about my life. I will let on that I have a sister and I’ll add that I don’t ever remember having a fight with her when I was a kid. People will look at me in disbelief. Often they will tell me that I’m lying to them. I insist that I’m absolutely telling truth. I leave them on the hook a little for fun and then I let them know that we are 15 and a half years apart and I honestly really don’t remember her living at home other than coming home from college. But, as I’ve mentioned in the past, it is something that I have observed as a child through my friends and quite honestly I was very happy that I didn’t have to go through that. As much as you want a sibling for great things like playing catch or other enjoyable activities I never once envied my friends having siblings close to their age when they were torturing them.
As we return to our journey through Genesis after a break for Palm Sunday and Easter we find ourselves in a passage that tells us of one of the most famous stories of sibling cruelty that there is. A few weeks ago we dropped into Genesis 37 and found ourselves moving on from the story of Jacob and getting a better insight into the stories of his children. We saw a bunch of familiar names from earlier in Genesis but now we are getting insights into their lives and seeing how the promise of God will continue into the next generation. Specifically we are getting to know Joseph and we have seen his status of favorite child in the passage we looked at a few weeks back. The passage not only showed us that he was the favorite but also let us know that perhaps that favored position has gone to his head a little bit. Joseph has been having dreams of how he is not only bowed down to by his 11 brothers but that his father and mother would bow down before him. Seems like a bit of an ego trip but as the story of Joseph continues we know that God has something big in store for Joseph and in the sovereign plan of God his dreams come to pass as he is used by God to protect the covenant line.
And so it is with this context that we now approach the passage we have read today and before we dig into it lets break it down into our points for today.
The first part of the story we will be looking at is Joseph being sent to his brothers. As we think back to what we saw a few weeks ago we remember that Joseph had a reputation of ratting his older brothers out. We can’t know why Joseph is at home and his brothers have to go out and tend the flocks but we see that Jacob uses his favorite son to check in on the rest of his sons.
Secondly, we see that the brothers hold a grudge against Joseph. In these verses we see how important the story about the dreams and the favoritism are to the narrative here. That story helps us to understand how the brothers became so filled with resentment towards Joseph.
Finally, we find that Joseph is sold into slavery and is separated from the covenant people of God. Once again, the plot of the story is unexpected. Aren’t things supposed to be good for the people that God favors? Shouldn’t the favorite son of Jacob be exempt from these kinds of struggles? But God is telling his story, not the story of human achievement or excellence but of his faithfulness.
And so, we find ourselves in this story with Joseph at home and the brothers out pasturing the flock.
Genesis 37:12–17
ESV
Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
Now, the text doesn’t give us an indication of why Joseph is at home and the rest are out and about. But, I don’t know about you but I kind of get a feeling from the way the story progresses that this might have a little to do with the whole favoritism thing. Sure, maybe Joseph’s skill are better used close to home but you would think he would be required to pay his dues a little, right? Clearly Joseph is old enough to be out helping them though because Jacob sends him out to check on them. And we sort of feel that the previous mention of his telling on his brothers coming in to play here a little. Moses gave us that detail and it helps us to imagine the mindset of Jacob, Joseph, and the brothers who will be receiving him.
And we find Joseph to be particularly willing to do the bidding of his father. He is obedient to do what his father asks of him and we get an idea that he is particularly obedient. And while we got a vibe of smugness in the telling of his dreams we do know that the character of Joseph is exemplary. We will see this throughout his life. He is one of the few Bible characters who comes out smelling good through the majority of his story, right?
And this is visible with his response to his father. Here I am. Now, that isn’t the way that you or I would let someone know that we are going to do what they asked us to do. If we replied to a request in that way the person we said that to would probably think we weren’t listening or reply with “I know, I’m not blind” but Joseph the idea being conveyed to us is that Joseph is obedient and he tells his father he is there to do his bidding, he is a faithful servant. While we naturally might look down on Joseph for his tattletale ways we also get the sense that he is a good son. He is the kind of guy that we can trust.
And we see that he is diligent in the duty that has been assigned to him. Remember, Joseph isn’t going out with a GPS signal for the flocks his brother are tending after. Imagine trying to find nomadic shepherds like this. Joseph has to seek out his brothers and it isn’t easy to find them. And the feeling the text is giving us is that this isn’t easy and it is a bit of a passage of time. I’m not talking weeks here or anything but just that there is enough time and wandering that there is substantial separation from Joseph and the other sons from Jacob and the rest of their people.
And when we get this idea of separation as we move on to our second point and look at the grudge that the brothers hold against Joseph as we look at verses 18-24.
Genesis 37:18–24
ESV
They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
And as I start reading verse 18 here you wonder if maybe that coat of many colors was a bit of a drawback for the fortunes of Joseph. Perhaps the brothers could tell it was him from further away. You weren’t going to confuse Joseph with some other random shepherd on the road wearing that. It also might have been to his detriment because he was wearing it in the first place. I get dressed up and put on a tie and jacket for you on Sunday morning but if I was coming out to see some of you in the fields or ride in the truck with you I wouldn’t bother with wearing a shirt and tie, unless of course you asked real nice. The robe reminds them of not only the favoritism that their father shows towards him but also the way that Jacob has clearly embraced his role as the little prince of the family.
But regardless of what they think of the attire of Joseph we have a “Well, that escalated quickly” type of moment here, don’t we? I think we can all hear a snotty and sarcastic way that the first sentence would have been said when we read it, right? Here come this dreamer. But the next sentence sort of knocks you back on your heels. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits.
Wait, what? Say that again? You want to do what now? I think we would probably have all participated in the biting and derisive talk about him being a dreamer but I would like to think that none of us would think ending his life and throwing his lifeless body into a pit was a good next step in the process of not liking our brother.
And I think this tells us something about the nature of this relationship. While their activity is not in any way justifiable and is to be condemned, there is more to this than just sibling rivalry. This is embedded with all kinds of issues of inheritance and superiority and family structure that you and I can’t even begin to understand. Again, not justifying the taking of anyone’s life but we have to understand the tension that all of this caused.
Now, as we see that one of the brother’s speaks up to spare him we have to take note of who it is. It is actually significant that it is Reuben. It’s been a while but think back to what happened that caused Reuben, who is the eldest, to lose the birthright and the inheritance that comes from this position. If you turn back to chapter 35 you see that Reuben did a little something that wasn’t popular with Jacob.
Genesis 35:22
ESV
While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it.
Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.
Reuben most likely isn’t just sticking up for his younger brother here. He’s probably also trying win some points here. He’s made a mistake that moved him from a favored position. He also likely sees himself as a protector being the oldest and so he saves him and we get some insight into his little plan to rescue his brother.
Genesis 37:21–24
ESV
But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
He doesn’t flat out tell them no, we aren’t doing this. He is going to have them throw him into one of the pits and then he is going to come back and rescue him. Now, I’ve read and heard this story a lot of times but until I slowed down and considered what Reuben’s status was before Jacob I didn’t get this, I’m going to redeem myself before my father vibe. I’m not going to take away from him the fact that he saved his life but I think we get the idea that the rescue he is planning isn’t so much about rescuing the life of Joseph as much as it is about the saving of daddy’s favorite and in the process making the other brothers look bad. Reuben may have had inappropriate relations with Bilhah but that isn’t as nearly as bad trying kill the favorite son and make it look like he was killed by an animal.
And so we have two bits of plotting going on here and poor Joseph doesn’t have a clue. He’s just wandering across the wilderness in his fancy, colorful robe oblivious to any of this going on.
Imagine being him and showing up be stripped of your robe and being thrown into this dry pit. I’m guessing up to this point in his life, this was the worst day he had ever had. And there he sits in a dry pit wondering what is to become of him. With his history of telling on his brothers I’m guessing he didn’t think he was going to make it out alive, right? You know he thought his brothers would fear the wrath of their father. We don’t have all the dialogue of the interaction but perhaps Joseph used that famous little brother line “you are going to be in so much trouble when I tell dad.” I can almost hear it echoing out of the pit if I imagine hard enough.
And if Joseph had no idea that his brothers resented him so much, he now has a pretty good idea of their antipathy towards them. And along with Joseph we are left to wonder “what is going to happen”? What is God in his sovereignty going to ordain to happen and how will this shape the people of God.
And we see the resolution to the story as we move into the final section and our final point for today we see that God ordains that of all things, Joseph will be sold into slavery.
Genesis 37:25–28
ESV
Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
And once again, you can get an insight in to my weird sense of humor by how I react to verse 25 here. I think the way Moses tells this is kind of funny. They sat down to eat. It’s time for a break boys, we just contemplated killing our brother but instead we threw him into a pit. What a hard day’s work. Let’s see what the servants backed in our lunch boxes.
But as they sit down to dine we see that the wandering of Joseph to find his brothers has caused the timing of his arrival to sync up with a traveling caravan. In the divine plan of God something important is happening. Joseph is not going to meet his end in the bottom of the pit and Reuben is not going to be able to use his rescue of Joseph as a means of returning to good standing with his father. Instead, Joseph is going to be taken far from the people of God and far from the land of the promise. We have to remember this as we consider the text. The promise is being passed along from generation to generation with the seed of the woman and the children of Abraham have been promised this land and now Joseph who we have been given a clue is who the story is going to be following is not only going to be taken into slavery by the Ishmaelite who are enemies of Jacob’s family but he is being taken out of the promised land and far away from it. In other, words this story of the people of God is nowhere near a resolution. Like, not at all.
And it is also important that we notice in the story who the good guy is here. Reuben has lost his status as the one who has the birthright and in the future we will discover that the promise is going to rest on the offspring of Judah and here we see that he is the one who actually saves the life of Joseph. Now, he sells him into slavery but he is right to avoid the shedding of the blood of his brother.
Now, one point of clarity here that you might have noticed. At one point the text calls them Ishmaelites and at another it calls them Midianites. We don’t know why this is done but this isn’t the only place this occurs in scripture. Perhaps there was intermingling with the two groups or perhaps there were both in the group. Regardless, the idea being conveyed to us is that they are those who are outside the covenant. The son of Jacob is moving away from the covenant people of God as he is sold into slavery for the going rate of a slave, 20 shekels of silver. And of all places, our young protagonist of the story finds himself on his way to Egypt.
But we have a loose end to wrap up don’t we. What about the plot of Reuben and what do they do tell Jacob because they most assuredly aren’t going to run home to tell him that they just sold the prince with the colorful robe into slavery.
Genesis 37:29–36
ESV
When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
We don’t have a complete understanding here of how this all works out but Reuben obviously didn’t have dinner with his brothers and interact with the traveling caravan. He comes back and he is upset. So much so that he tears his clothes. This is a sign of grieving and we get a hint that he was hoping for some redemption in his plan, right? Essentially he says “What am I going to do without Joseph?” His plan foiled by the actions of his brothers and the brothers in it pretty deep at this point and they need to come up with some sort of plot and so they get some blood and dip the coat in it.
You know the story. Jacob falls for it. Now, isn’t this and interesting turn of events, right? Didn’t Jacob and his mother enact some sort of deception similar to this and now he is deceived. He falls for it because the evidence is just too good to be true and it is likely this kind of thing happened occasionally in these times. You are out by yourself like Joseph was and while it is likely they had a knife at their side you would likely not survive an attack like the one the brothers insinuated happened to Joseph.
And we see that Jacob grieves but this is for the life of his son. He not only tears his clothes but puts on sackcloth and he mourns for many days. And despite the comfort that the sons and daughters try to give him he refuses it. Joseph was clearly his favorite and he has no problem showing it. We get the feeling that he wouldn’t have done this for anyone else. Sure he would have mourned but Moses makes sure that we know that he not only tore his clothes. He not only put on sackcloth but he also says tha the is going to go to Sheol still mourning Joseph. In other words, he will still be grieving him even after he breathes his last. And if that wasn’t enough Moses lets us know that Jacob weeps for Joseph.
And we get a nice transitional word to remind us that despite all this grieving Joseph is not in fact dead. All the talk of grieving and our feeling sorry for Jacob might have caused us to want to grieve right along with him but the text brings us back to the truth. Joseph is alive and of all things he has already been sold and has ended up in, of all places, Egypt in the house of Potiphar.
As we finish up this story it is in the underlying truth of God’s guiding hand that we can find our two points of application.
The first truth we are reminded of in this story is that God is in control. Despite the appearances in this passage we know that God is the one who is at work. We’ve seen this throughout Genesis. Things seems desperate and as though God is scrambling but it is in those situations where the promises of God are most shown to be sure. Despite the death of Abel, God provided Seth. Despite a world-wide flood, Noah was safe in an ark of salvation. Despite the barren womb of Sarah, Isaac was born. Slavery in Egypt is nothing for God and, in fact, he is going to be glorified in it. He rescues his people. Even from death.
And that is the second idea that I want us to remember in the coming week. God uses even the worst of circumstances to bring glory to himself. As I drew out a minute ago it as if Joseph is dead isn’t it. He has been sold to those who are not the covenant people of God. He has been removed from the land they were promised. And it is as if he is dead because we are so deeply brought into the story of Jacob’s grief that we feel the grief along with him.
But Joseph is not dead. God is going to use Joseph’s slavery and his apparent death to save his people. Remind you of something? You know a little something that we celebrated just a week ago? The Lord Jesus was taken away against his will and it was not as though he was dead, he was actually dead and in the grave. But, God used the worst possible circumstance to save his people. Just as Joseph was alive, Jesus was resurrected and though everything was against God winning victory he did because he keeps his promise to his people. And so, may we be a people of God who through the varied circumstances of life trust in the salvation that God brings to his people. For he keeps his promises and he will be glorified for his saving work for us. Amen.
