Beyond The Basics

Transcript:

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one chapter at a time.

Before we get started, if you enjoy the show and want to help keep it on the air, you can go to my website at Beyondthebasics.blog, click the donate button at the top and that will bring you to the website for Passion for Life Ministries where you can make a tax deductible donation. Passion for Life is a ministry that I’ve partnered with that is dedicated to spreading the gospel and feeding the elderly in Central and South America. Please make sure you designate your gift for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button which will bring you to my Patreon page and for $4 a month you can receive access to the full uncut episode which will include between 10 and 30 minutes of additional audio. You will also receive access to all past episodes starting with Genesis chapter 24. Now on to the show.

Have you ever been wronged by someone for what seems like no reason? Especially when it seemed like you were doing the right thing? This is what happens to Joseph in Genesis chapter 37. Joseph had a couple dreams that he thought he should tell his brothers. Right or wrong, he thought that was the right thing to do. And in return, they tried to kill him and then sold him into slavery. I hope none of you have ever been through that, but I think we can all identify with trying to do the right thing and somebody took it the wrong way or was offended and treated us poorly in return. So let’s get into the chapter.

In verse 1, we’re told that Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings. So he’s still a nomad, just like Abraham and Isaac, just like his fathers were. And what this means is, of course, that God’s promises have not yet been fulfilled because he’s still wandering. He hasn’t yet taken possession of the land of Canaan and he won’t. Jacob will die before Israel ever takes possession of the land. So he stayed in the land of Canaan, compared to Esau, who in the previous chapter left Canaan and lived in Seir. Jacob here stays in the land of Canaan.

So in verse 2 it says, these are the generations of Jacob. So this chapter actually is what begins the story of Jacob, believe it or not. Even though it’s mostly about Joseph and Judah, that phrase the generations of Jacob means this is the story of Jacob and his children. Even though we’ve already been through a lot of Jacob’s story, that was actually part of Isaac’s story, which began with the same phrase about Isaac in Genesis 25:19. And Isaac’s story didn’t actually end until Genesis 37, verse one. That whole time was all about Isaac and his children. Now this is gonna be about Jacob and his children.

There’s two views about when this story takes place. The first view is that this takes place before Jacob left Shechem. And he actually left Shechem two chapters ago in Genesis 35. It’s possible that this took place before that. And the evidence for that is that Joseph, in verse three, is called the son of his old age, referring to Jacob. So that would imply that Benjamin hadn’t been born yet, because if he had, Benjamin would have been called the son of Jacob’s old age, rather than Joseph.

In verse nine, we’re told that the sun and the moon bowed down to Joseph. The sun obviously represents Jacob and so the moon would represent Joseph’s mother Rachel who would have still been alive. In verse 10 Jacob asks if Joseph’s mother should bow down to him. He says, “Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”

So that also implies that Rachel is still alive.

And then in verse 12, Jacob’s sons actually pasture their flocks near Shechem. And this would have been about 50 miles north of Hebron. It would have been a long way to travel. And in fact, the land north of Hebron was good land for shepherding. So it’s questionable whether they would have needed to travel that far to pasture their flocks.

So the other view is that this chapter takes place after Jacob arrived in Hebron. And the support for this view is that the questions surrounding Joseph’s mother in this chapter are resolved by assuming that either Leah or her servant Bilhah would have been a surrogate mother to Joseph. Even though Rachel was dead, since he was still a boy, he would have been adopted by either Leah or Bilhah.

And then in verse nine, we’re told that Joseph dreamed of 11 stars. So this would have implied that Benjamin was already born because the stars represented Joseph’s brothers. So if there were 11 stars, that means there were 11 brothers, including Benjamin. Verse 14 the most blatant obvious piece of evidence is that Jacob actually sent Joseph from the valley of Hebron to Shechem to find his brothers. In order for this to take place before Jacob left Shechem they would have had to travel all the way down to Hebron and then back at some point before the events in Genesis chapter 35 took place which is possible but unlikely.

So those are the two views. Personally, I believe the second view is the most likely. Although I think there’s some fairly significant questions that the first view brings up that are legitimate.

So moving on verse two, it says Joseph being 17 years old was pastoring the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wife. So he was with four of his brothers. Bilhah had two sons and Zilpah had two sons and they were Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. So Joseph was learning shepherding from these four sons. He was still a boy, and he was learning how to shepherd from his older brothers. And this is when Joseph starts to learn the value of hard work, integrity in his work. It’s when he starts to learn to do the right thing, even when nobody’s looking, even when he gets ridiculed for it. He starts out small. He starts out with small beginnings, shepherding in the field with his older brothers, learning how to shepherd.

And this principle is repeated even by Jesus. In Matthew 25 verse 21, we’re told in the parable that a master had some servants and he gave his servants some talents and left and expected them to do something with those talents. When he returned, one of the servants had doubled the amount of money that his master had given him. And so in verse 21, his master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

So what that’s saying is that if we want great things in life, we need to start small and be faithful with the small things. That’s what Joseph is doing here. He’s faithful with the small things. And as a result, he’s gonna receive greater and greater things from the Lord.

Moving on, he’s with the sons of Bilah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. We already know that Jacob’s sons tended to cause trouble. We found that out in Genesis 34 and 35. We’re not told here what they did, but whatever it was, Joseph clearly felt that it was important to tell his father what they were doing, because, like I said, we already know what these brothers are capable of. Two of them already murdered an entire town. So even though it probably felt to his brothers like he was tattling on them, Joseph clearly had been given the authority to provide a report to his father. His father by this point, assuming this takes place after the events of Genesis 34 and 35, Jacob by this point probably was quite worried what these men were going to do when he wasn’t around to keep an eye on them.

So in verse 3 it says, Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons. And we were told that already in Genesis 33, the way he treated Rachel and her son Joseph. When Esau approached and Jacob was afraid in verses 1 through 2 it says: And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked and behold Esau was coming and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. And he put the servants with their children in front then Leah with her children and Rachel and Joseph last of all.

So he put them last to protect them in case Esau attacked. That way they would be the last that would be attacked. They would be behind everybody else and protected hopefully from an attack. Now, Jacob should have known better than to do this, especially considering the dysfunction it caused when he was growing up. If you remember, his mother, Rebecca’s favorite child was Jacob, and Isaac’s favorite child was Esau, and it caused all sorts of problems as they grew up.

But we can learn from this, because it follows the pattern that we see in these patriarchs. We can learn that children learn dysfunction from their parents. Just like Isaac learned to lie about his wife from his father Abraham, Jacob learned to have favorites among his children like his father Isaac did. So we need to be careful. We need to be watchful. We need to recognize areas in our lives where we tend to make the same mistakes as our parents. And I think that if we confess those areas and repent, I think the Lord is faithful to heal those areas in our hearts. If we submit to His will, I think He will heal those things. I think He will heal those learned dysfunction that we have in our hearts. But we have to submit those things to Him. We have to confess them.

Another question here is, why didn’t God just appear to Jacob and tell him to stop this cycle of favoritism? God had already appeared to Jacob several times, so why couldn’t God appear to Jacob now? In other words, why did God allow such wickedness in this family to continue? And I think that the answer is found in the way that God appears not only to Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, but also to others, to side characters in these stories. God only appears to Abraham, Isaac, and Moses to confirm the covenant and to remind them of the covenant that he has made with this family, with the exception of the time that God showed up and talked to Abraham about Sodom. And even then, he was reminding Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child soon.

Other than that, God clearly allows these men to make choices on their own to either trust God and go his way or to trust in themselves and go their own way. And he uses those situations so that they will learn and grow in faith and grow in faithfulness. The only time God intervenes and confronts somebody over their sins so far in this book is when he intervenes in a side character’s dream in a pagan king’s sleep, for example Abimelech or Pharaoh, or he’s appeared to Hagar. And those are the times where he’s intervened to convict about sin but he does not step in and intervene and convict about sin in regards to the patriarchs and I think it’s because God had a plan and that plan required faithfulness. The plan required obedience and God used circumstances to build obedience and build faithfulness in these men, whereas the other people in the book of Genesis, God wasn’t necessarily concerned about their obedience. He was simply concerned about them not doing something that would contaminate or thwart the promised seed, the offspring that was promised to Abraham.

So continuing in verse 3, we’re told that Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because, and this is the reason why, because he was the son of his old age. Now this phrase, son of his old age, actually could have been referring to wisdom. There’s a Hebrew phrase and I’m not sure exactly how it translates, but it can potentially refer to wisdom. So Jacob could have been calling Joseph the wisest of his sons, or the son of wisdom, not necessarily that Joseph is the youngest, the son of Jacob’s old age. So that would potentially solve the question that I brought up earlier of if this happened after Jacob left Shechem and Benjamin had been born, why would Joseph be called the son of his old age? Well, it could be because it was more of an idiom or a reference to wisdom and Jacob was implying that Joseph was the wisest of his sons.

So Joseph is wise and we’re told in verse 3 that he made him a robe of many colors. This also can be translated a robe with long sleeves and it’s used, this phrase is only used in one other verse about Tamar who is David’s daughter in 2 Samuel 13 verse 18 and it says: Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves, there’s that word, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king dressed. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. So this woman, David’s daughter, was wearing this long robe with sleeves because that’s how all the virgin daughters were dressed.

So it’s possibly a robe that signified royal blood or royalty rather than a shepherd. Certainly it was a robe that signified privilege status. Well elevated above shepherds. This is not a shepherd’s robe. This was a robe of royalty or a robe of privilege that Joseph was wearing. So what did it look like? We don’t know. It could have just been a long robe with long sleeves made of one color or it could have been a robe of many colors as it’s translated in English.

But either way, what it probably meant is that Joseph was meant to be Jacob’s heir, even though he was the youngest. He’d been elevated to the position of the oldest. He was the favored son. He was wearing a robe of royalty. And this would have been another reason why his brothers hated him. He skipped to the front of the line, essentially.

And in verse four we’re told, when his brothers saw that their father loved him, more than all his brothers, they hated him. And they could not speak peacefully to him. See, this is often the result of favoritism in the home. Hatred, lack of peace, anger, spiteful speech. This is what happens when parents show favoritism to their children.

So parents, I know it’s hard sometimes. I got two kids of my own. Sometimes it’s hard. But showing favoritism results in very bad consequences. And it will lead, as we see here, to hatred among siblings. And hatred leads to many worse sins than just angry speech. In Proverbs 10 verse 12 it says, hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. So hatred stirs up strife.

1 John chapter 2 verse 9 it says whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. So hatred plunges us back in darkness and in 1 John 3:15 it says everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. So hatred places murder in our hearts and it separates us from the presence of God. Hatred is a very, very dangerous thing to have in the home. We need to guard against it, so don’t play favorites.

In verse five, Joseph had a dream. This is the first dream in the Bible in which God does not speak. And then it says he told it to his brothers, which was probably not the best idea. And it’s not exactly clear if he told it to them to antagonize them or if he was just naive. We don’t know if he told it to them to get him riled up or if he really thought it was the right thing to tell his brothers.

Me being an oldest sibling growing up, I had two younger sisters and I could see either one of these scenarios playing out as a younger sibling move. I can definitely see a youngest sibling trying to antagonize their older siblings and I can absolutely see the youngest sibling just not realizing that what they’re doing is probably not the best idea. So I can totally see either one of those playing out with the youngest sibling. And if my youngest sibling is listening, I’m sure you would agree.

In verse 7 we’re told the dream. It says, “Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”

This first dream here is related to binding sheaves of wheat. And it’s interesting because that’s connected to the circumstances of the eventual fulfillment of the dream. Here they’re binding sheaves of wheat in the dream, but eventually Joseph’s brothers would come to buy grain from Joseph in Egypt. So the dream not only implies that Joseph’s brothers would bow to him, but it implies the circumstances around which they would bow to him.

In verse 8, his brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us, or are you indeed to rule over us?”

So this implies royalty and kingship, that Joseph would take a royal position over his brothers. And considering that Joseph had already seemed to receive the authority of the birthright, the question is not whether Jacob’s sons will bow to Joseph. The question is, will they do it willingly? And the dream implies that they will. It also implies that Joseph would be the one to receive the covenant blessing. But as it turns out, it’s actually gonna be Judah. And we’ll see that in coming chapters.

Verse nine. He dreamed another dream, a second dream. And the purpose of the second dream is to emphasize that these two dreams, or that the message of the dreams, have been established by God. This is the same reason that God gave Pharaoh two dreams that meant the same thing later on in Genesis 41. Verse 32 it says: “And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.”

Where did Joseph get that when he was interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams? He probably got it from his own dreams, realizing that the two dreams were the same, the same message, and it was repeated to show that the message is fixed by God. The message is determined by God to be brought about.

So he told his brothers the second dream, and the first time he told them his dream it could have been a mistake, as I mentioned, but now we’re gonna see a trend. Now this is the second time. His brothers already hated him when he told him the first dream, so why would he tell him the second dream? This is where we see Joseph’s pride. Joseph is starting to feel pride regarding his elevated status. I mean, what 17-year-old wouldn’t?

Now this is a caution to us, because I believe that God still gives dreams today. I believe that God still gives words today. And I’ve had several dreams from the Lord myself. But just because we receive a dream from the Lord doesn’t mean we should always share it with others. Sometimes it’s only intended for us. It’s only intended for the dreamer. We need to pray and we need to use discernment when we have those dreams from the Lord. And ask the Lord, “What would you have me do with this?”

Because to go and spout it off to people immediately can sometimes come off as arrogant, as prideful, as whatever, and it can have negative consequences if we’re not careful.

So in the dream, “The sun, the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

So these bodies, these heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, and the stars in Genesis chapter 1, were created to rule the heavens. But now these heavenly bodies created to rule the heavens are bowing down to Joseph, giving Joseph elevated status even over the heavens. So you can see why Joseph’s brothers would hate him so much after hearing this dream. Joseph is basically saying, “You’re going to bow down to me as if I’m God.”

Now, was that the intended message of the dream? Probably not. I don’t think that’s what he was supposed to get out of the dream. But that’s what his brothers seem to have gotten out of the dream. Even his father rebuked him in verse 10. Even Jacob couldn’t see how his favorite son could be elevated over his own father and mother. He could see how his favorite son could be elevated over his brothers, but not over his father and mother.

So he rebuked him. He said, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”

In verse 11 and his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. So Jacob considered it. Jacob pondered it. Jacob didn’t allow it to turn into hatred for his son.

So then the story shifts in verse 12: Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem, which is where Jacob had been living in compromise. So this is a dangerous town and now his brothers are there all alone without Jacob around, where they had already committed murder before.

And so Jacob calls Joseph to him, and in verse 14 he says, so he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.”

Because Joseph had previously brought Jacob a bad report, and so now Jacob is going to have Joseph check in on his brothers again. And this is not going to sit well with his brothers, because Jacob is essentially making Joseph the foreman even though he’s the youngest and probably knows the least about shepherding. If any of you are blue collar workers and you’ve worked on a job site with a foreman that was a lot younger than everybody else and didn’t really know what they’re doing, you know what this is talking about. You know how infuriating that can be.

So Joseph leaves Hebron, goes up to Shechem, can’t find his brothers, and so he meets a man who says, “What are you seeking?”

And in verse 16 Joseph says, “I am seeking my brothers. Tell me please where they are pasturing the flock.”

So this is interesting, and we’re going to start to see a lot of parallels between this and a certain story. So what this is implying here is that, first of all, Joseph’s brothers were keepers of sheep. We know that. Joseph is being portrayed as a keeper of brothers. Well, who was supposed to be a keeper of his brother, but was not? If you’re thinking Cain, you got the right answer. That is absolutely correct.

In Genesis 4:9, then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

So God went to Cain asking him, “Where is your brother?”

And Cain said, “I don’t know. I’m not my brother’s keeper.”

Here, Joseph approaches a man and says “Where are my brothers?”

And the man this time tells him. So Joseph here is keeper of brothers the opposite of Cain. Really, what is the opposite of Cain? Well the opposite of Cain is Abel of course. And Joseph is gonna be portrayed that way and his brothers are gonna be like Cain over the next few verses. We’re gonna see those parallels come out quite obviously.

So in verse 17 the man said, “They have gone away for I heard them say let us go to Dothan”

Dothan was about 10 to 15 miles west of Shechem and it was on a major trade highway between Egypt and the Near East. So it was a very popular area very high traffic.

So in verse 18 Joseph’s brothers saw him from afar and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. So that word conspired is the Hebrew word nakal, which means crafty or deceitful, just like the snake in the garden was crafty. There’s a different word in Genesis 3, but it means the same thing, crafty or deceitful. Joseph’s brothers here being compared to the snake in the garden was being crafty, and they’re gonna give in to the snake here. They’re gonna commit the sin of Cain, or they’re gonna try to commit the sin of Cain. Of course, Cain’s sin was that he was jealous of his brother’s acceptance by God, and here Joseph’s brothers were jealous of his acceptance by their father, Jacob. So the same problem between Cain and Abel here is going on with Joseph and his brothers. It’s the same story being played out.

So in verse 20, they come up with a plan. They say, “Come now, let us kill him, and throw him into the one of the pits.”

And another word for pits there could be cisterns, which was a very deep pit with narrow openings. It would have water in it often, but it would make it nearly impossible for a prisoner to escape without a rope, because they were so deep and narrow. They say, “Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him,” just like the fierce animal that was crouching to attack Cain.

Do you remember in Genesis 4:7, God says to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Now, in a previous episode, I talked about how that phrase, sin is crouching at the door, we often think of that, at least I always did, I was always taught, that was spiritualized, that sin is crouching at the door of my heart and waiting to pounce when I give into it, when I open that door and give it a foothold in my heart. Well, if you remember, I talked about how, where did Cain and Abel offer their offerings? They would have offered as close to God as possible and God offered their offerings there.

So where was God? He was still in Eden. He made Adam and Eve leave, but that doesn’t mean that God left. So God was still in Eden. There was a gate there at Eden that was being guarded by an angel. And that’s where they would have likely gone to offer their sacrifices at the door to Eden and were never told what happened to the serpent after Genesis 3, but it stands to reason that that serpent who tried to deceive Adam and Eve would have tried to do the same thing with their children. And so there was very likely a very literal beast, a very literal animal, crouching at the door to Eden, crouching in wait for Cain to show any sign that he would be vulnerable to the temptation of sin. That serpent was waiting for Cain to show a sign of jealousy or even simply disappointment and then the snake can pounce or strike. And who knows, it’s possible that it was the serpent that even convinced Cain to kill Abel.

So now in Genesis 37, these brothers who are about to give in to the same sin that Cain did, for the same reasons that Cain did, are going to use the excuse of a fierce animal crouching in wait to attack Joseph to cover up their sin, to cover up their murder. Not only that, but they’re acting like fierce animals. They’re acting like beasts. They say, “We will see what will become of his dreams,” at the end of verse 20.

That tells us that Joseph’s dreams are the motive for wanting to kill him. But of course they’re unaware that their plot is going to lead to the fulfillment of his dreams. So what that tells us is that they didn’t oppose Joseph’s dreams for his own life. They weren’t opposed to Joseph having plans or dreams for his life. That’s not what they were jealous of. They were trying to keep God’s plans for Joseph’s life from happening. They were opposed to God. They weren’t opposed to Joseph. They were confused about who they perceived as their true enemy and they thought it was Joseph. But really, they were in rebellion and defiance against God. That’s what they were truly angry about.

So in verse 22, Ruben 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 and restore him to his father.

So Ruben’s plan here was interesting. It’s not to convince his brothers to not kill Joseph, but to go along with his brothers just long enough to rescue Joseph once they tried to actually kill him. And then we’re told that he would restore him, Joseph, to his father. Now of course this was not going to happen, and we’ll find that out as we continue reading in these next few chapters. But Ruben had a chance here to actually be the one to restore Joseph to his father, but it wouldn’t happen because Ruben wouldn’t actually take a stand against evil. He only tried to work around it. But I think Ruben tried to find a way because he knew his father would hold him responsible for Joseph’s death.

So in verse 24, they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty, there was no water in it. It’s a good thing because Joseph would have drowned if there was.

And in verse 25, they sat down to eat. This reveals the extreme hardness of their hearts. Imagine your brother approaches, you take him, you throw him into a pit that he can’t escape from, and then you sit there and eat while he cries out for help. Because we’re told that they could hear Joseph from where they ate in Genesis 42:21, says they said to one another, “In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.”

Imagine how hard a heart needs to be in order to sit there and listen to the cries of your own brother and not only not be moved and not change your mind, but to sit there and have a meal as if nothing else is happening.

So as they were eating, a caravan of Ishmaelites approached and Judah noticed and said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?”

So Judah now is going to propose that instead of killing Joseph, that they sell him to slavery. This sounds like Judah is maybe having a change of heart and wanting to save his brother and not shed his blood. Seems like this is maybe a better plan, but it’s actually worse. Not worse in the sense that Joseph is better off dead. Of course he certainly isn’t, but it’s worse regarding Judah’s motives. Because Judah knew that they were going to ruin Joseph’s and Jacob’s lives no matter what. Whether they kill him or whether they sell him. But he decided that if they’re going to ruin these two lives anyway, might as well make some profit off of it. That way they’re not just ridding themselves of an annoying brother, they’re making a little bit of cash as well. So they gain two things in their minds. They get rid of their brother and they make some money. And Jacob is going to be absolutely devastated no matter what.

This shows how morally corrupt Judah is right here. Judah saves Joseph’s life. Not because he wants to save a life, but because it’s more profitable for him to keep Joseph alive than it is to kill him. And he says, “For he is our brother, our own flesh,” which is just an absolutely horrible way to justify selling Joseph into slavery. Of course, there’s no justification for selling anybody into slavery. That’s one of the worst.

So in verse 27, his brothers listened to him, unlike Reuben. Reuben was the firstborn and his brothers didn’t really seem to listen to him much. Reuben seemed so frustrated by the lack of respect that he would actually try to take authority in the family by force, by laying with his father, Jacob’s concubine, in Genesis 35:22. That was a way for Ruben to try and move in on his father’s authority and take authority in the family, but not only did that backfire on him, he lost the birthright. Bbut he didn’t end up getting any immediate authority in the family either. Clearly his brothers just don’t really have a whole lot of respect for Reuben, but they do have respect for Judah because he’s the one that they listen to.

So in verse 28, we’re told the Midianite traitors passed by, which Midianites were descendants of Midian, the son of Abraham and Keturah. We’re told that in Genesis 25, verses 1 through 2. And for whatever reason, they seem to be interchangeable with the Ishmaelites in this passage. Whether the Midianites and the Ishmaelites live together, intermarried, it’s not clear, but they are interchangeable, so don’t get that confused as you’re reading. It’s all talking about the same group of people.

They drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit. Imagine being Joseph right now. Imagine what he’s thinking. He’s thinking that his brothers just played a cruel joke on him, or maybe they changed their minds about wanting to kill him. Maybe he was even apologizing as they are pulling him up for telling him the dreams and saying, “Guys, I’m sorry. I should have never told you those dreams. Just don’t ever do that to me again, I’m really sorry.”

And then his brothers turn around and sell him into slavery immediately anyway. Imagine being pulled out of that cistern, out of that pit, thinking your life was saved, and that your brothers changed their mind, that it was going to be okay, and then you’re sold into slavery.

So verse 29, when Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes, which is an expression of extreme grief and despair in those days, you know, all through the Bible. But this is empty despair on Reuben’s part because he could have stopped it and he didn’t. He could have taken a stand for what was right and he didn’t.

And he said in verse 30, “The boy is gone and I, where shall I go?”

So Ruben was more concerned about what was going to happen to him rather than what was going to happen to Joseph, which proves that he tried to save him out of selfish motives.

And this question is important because Ruben kept leaving his brothers. He kept disappearing. He came back earlier after his brothers had made a plan to kill Joseph. He came back to his brothers and said, “Ah, you guys, let’s let’s throw him in the pit and deal with him later. But then he left again and he didn’t come back until after his brothers had sold Joseph into slavery. And so we keep asking the question, we as readers are asking the question, where does he keep going? Where does he go?

And now he’s asking the question, where should he go? Where will he go? He was probably angry that he left in the first place. If he hadn’t left he may have been able to save his brother, but now where is he gonna go? But, even though Reuben is upset because he thought he was doing the right thing by trying to save his brother, even if it was for his own personal gain, it wasn’t God’s intention for Joseph to be freed.

See, God had to get Joseph to Egypt somehow. How else was Joseph gonna go? Maybe there was another way. Maybe there wasn’t. We don’t know. The story doesn’t tell us. God doesn’t tell us. Did God want Joseph to be sold into slavery, so that he could get down to Egypt and go ahead of his family and save the entire nation of Israel? Did it have to be this way specifically? And is this exactly how God wanted it to happen? We don’t know. That’s the question we as readers have to wrestle with here.

So in verse 31, they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. Earlier in Jacob’s life, he killed a goat to make a stew to deceive his father, Isaac, into thinking that Jacob was Esau to receive the birthright. Now his sons are doing the same thing to him. They’re killing a goat to deceive his father, to deceive Jacob into thinking that Joseph was dead.

Now what’s interesting here is this is actually the second goat in the story. Where was the first goat you ask? Well the first goat was Joseph. So hear me out. In Leviticus chapter 16 verses 7 through 10 it says: Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

So one goat would be used as a sin offering and be sacrificed on the altar. The other goat would be sent away to Azazel. Who is Azazel? I have no idea and we’ll get to it when we get to Leviticus. For now, the point is there’s two goats, one that is sacrificed as a sin offering, one that is sent away into the wilderness. So Joseph is the goat that’s sent away and the second goat here is sacrificed.

This is one of the ways that Joseph points to Jesus and we’re gonna get into a long list of ways that Joseph points to Jesus later on, but this is a big way because these two goats are symbolic of what Jesus would do on the cross. One goat was a sin offering, one goat was for atonement. Those are two concepts again, that I’m not gonna get into right now because it’s not really the point, but there’s a difference there of what those two things would accomplish. And Joseph here being the goat sent away points to Jesus who would eventually become both goats because he was crucified outside Jerusalem. So he was sent outside the city and his blood was poured out as a sin offering. So he was both atonement and an offering for sin.

So they took the robe, they dipped it in the goat’s blood, they brought it to Jacob, and Jacob identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe,” in verse 33. “A fierce animal has devoured him.”

So Jacob was convinced that Joseph was dead. And in fact, the way his brothers presented it, they found the coat without finding Joseph’s bones. So that’s why Jacob didn’t even try to find him. He assumed that Jacob had been completely, not just attacked and killed by an animal, but eaten as well.

So Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on and in verse 35, 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. Sheol is the Hebrew word for the grave or death. This is actually going to turn out to be true because Jacob would eventually go down to Egypt. Egypt is a picture of Sheol, the grave. In Genesis 46 verses 3-4, then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt. I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”

So Jacob would go down to Egypt, and then he would die in Egypt. In Genesis 49 verse 33, when Jacob finished commanding his sons he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. So that took place in Egypt. So Jacob died in Egypt. So that shows that Egypt is synonymous with the grave, tying it to what he says here, that he was gonna go down to Sheol.

So in verse 36 we’re told that meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. So this foreshadows what is going to happen to the rest of his brothers in a few generations. They’re going to be sold in slavery to the Egyptians. And we’re told that Potiphar is the captain of the guard, which is Pharaoh’s personal bodyguard, like his secret service, essentially. And he would have been in charge of executions. So this is Potiphar’s role. And the story’s gonna leave off there. And in the next episode we’re going to take a break from the story of Joseph and we’re going to talk about the story of Judah which is going to take place simultaneously to the next several chapters of Joseph’s life.

Let’s talk about how this chapter points to Jesus. So as I mentioned earlier, Joseph is a picture of Jesus in this chapter, all sorts of ways. First, he was loved by his father. In John 3:35, it says, the Father loves the Son and is given all things into his hand. So both Joseph and Jesus were loved by their father.

Joseph was obedient to his father just like Jesus was obedient to his father. In John 6:38 it says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

Joseph wore a royal robe just like Jesus wore a royal robe. In Mark 15:17 it says, and they clothed him in a purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns they put it on him.

Joseph was destined to be worshiped by Israel just like Jesus is destined to be worshiped by Israel. In Romans 11:26 it says: and in this way all Israel will be saved as is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob. So all Israel, one day the entire nation of Israel is going to be saved and will worship Jesus. That’s what that chapter in Romans is talking about.

All Israel would bow to Joseph willingly. We’re going to see that in a few chapters and that’s going to be the case for Jesus as well. In Ezekiel 20 verse 40 it says, “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “There all the house of Israel, all of them shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts with all your sacred offerings.”

Joseph was hated and rejected by his brothers, as was Jesus in Isaiah 53:3. Very popular verse, very well known verse. It says: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

Joseph’s rejection would lead to Israel’s exile from the land of Canaan. The same with Jesus. Jesus’ rejection would lead to Israel’s exile from the land of Canaan several thousand years later. In Matthew 24 verse 1 through 2, Jesus left the temple and was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these do you not? Truly I say to you there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” So Jesus was giving a prophecy there of what would turn out to be the fulfillment in 70 AD where the temple in the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome and the people of Israel were exiled to the nations because they rejected their Messiah who had come to them.

However, the dispersion of Israel would result in the salvation of the Gentiles. Just like Joseph being exiled, resulting in the salvation of the Egyptians, Jesus and Israel rejecting Jesus and being dispersed would result in the salvation of Gentiles as well. Romans 11:11 says: So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? Talking about Israel, he says: By no means, rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.

Joseph was with his father before he was sent. Jesus was with his father before he was sent. In 1 John 1:1-2, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

And Joseph was sent by his father to Israel, to Israel’s sons. Jesus was also sent by his father to Israel. John 6:38 says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

Joseph was wandering alone all by himself. Jesus also wandered alone by himself. Luke 9:57-58 says, as they were going along the road someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

He’s saying that you want to follow me, you got to be like me. Meaning, I don’t have a home. I wander from place to place. You got to be willing to do the same thing.

Joseph’s brothers conspired against him. Same with Jesus. Jesus’ brothers conspired against him in the sense that Israel were his brothers, his disciples. Luke 22 verses 3 through 6 says: then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them, and they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.

Joseph was stripped of his clothes, as was Jesus on the cross. Matthew 27:28-30 says, and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand, and kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.

Joseph was placed where he could never be rescued, in that cistern, in that pit, where he couldn’t climb out of it. Same with Jesus. He was placed where he couldn’t ever be rescued, up on a cross. In Matthew 27:41-42 it says, So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others, He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel, let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe Him.”

Joseph descended below the earth when he was thrown into that pit, and Jesus also descended below the earth. In Ephesians 4:8-10, Therefore it says, when he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean, but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

And in Matthew 12:40 it says, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Joseph was sold by his brothers as was Jesus. Matthew 26:14-16 says, then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I do deliver him over to you?”

And they paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Obviously that’s the same story that I read just a couple points ago but the point previously was to highlight the betrayal here is to highlight the money that was given in exchange for Jesus.

Joseph was as good as dead. His father Jacob believed that he was dead and Jesus of course died in Luke 23:46. Then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” and having said this he breathed his last.

And the last one here, Joseph was sent to Egypt as a child. Jesus was also sent to Egypt as a child. In Matthew 2 verses 13 through 15 it says: Now when they had departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.”

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

So many many parallels between Joseph and Jesus. This chapter is full of references to the coming Messiah, to the promised seed that would eventually be Jesus.

So a question I have for you to reflect on for the next week is this, why did God choose to use Israel’s sin instead of confronting it and stopping it? Why do you think God didn’t confront Joseph’s brothers and instead allowed them to continue down this murderous path and use their sin for good later instead? Why didn’t God choose a different way? Why didn’t God confront their sin and stop them from doing it and then find a different way to get Joseph down to Egypt?

I touched on this a bit earlier, but I want you to meditate on that. I want you to think about that because the way that you answer this question is going to reveal how you view God. That’s not a bad thing. That just tells us how we see God. So meditate on that question over the next week and let’s pray.

Lord, thank you so much for everything that you’ve spoken to us in your word. Thank you that we have difficult stories like this that challenge our understanding of who you are and how you work through human circumstances. I pray that you would reveal yourself to us as we continue to meditate and think about this chapter over the next week. Pray that you would reveal to us your goodness and your mercy and your great plan as you work through circumstances and we may not always understand. And I ask that you would give us the peace that we need to be okay with not understanding and to also recognize that you are sovereign and you are God and you are almighty and you are all powerful. Bless those who are listening. Thank you for each one of them. In Jesus name, Amen.

Well thanks for listening. Don’t forget, always want to hear your feedback so go ahead and leave a comment on social media, leave a comment on the website, beyondthebasics.blog, click that like button, the subscribe button, give this show a five star rating. Tell your friends, tell your family, love to be able to reach as many people as possible with this study and hopefully bless as many people as possible. So thanks once again, and I will talk to you on the next episode, and we’re gonna get into the life of Judah in Genesis chapter 38.

53:34
Don’t forget, if you enjoy the show and would like to help keep it on the air, go to http://www.beyondthebasics.blog and click the donate button to make a tax deductible donation. Make sure you designate the donation for Beyond the Basics. You can also click the subscribe button, which will take you to my Patreon page, where for only $4 per month, you can receive access to an additional 10 to 30 minutes of audio content per episode, as well as access to all previous episodes I’ve released.