DAY ELEVEN: 

Joseph Sold Into Slavery

Genesis 37:1-36

Good Monday morning! On to the third week of our study. All this week we'll be looking at the life of Joseph. Let's begin with some background.

We left off last week with Jacob back in Canaan after twenty years in a foreign land. He returned with four wives, twelve sons and one daughter. Jacob's family life is very complicated, but I'll try to unpack it for us. Jacob wanted just one wife, Rachel, whom he fell in love with at first sight. He gladly worked seven years for her father and his uncle, Laban, so that he could marry her. But Laban tricked Jacob and palmed off his older and apparently less desirable daughter Leah on him. Laban offered to let Jacob marry Rachel after the honeymoon with Leah if he would work another seven years. So Jacob ended up with two wives, one whom he loved and the other not so much. The Lord saw that Leah was unloved so He allowed her have children. Rachel, however, was unable to conceive. Leah quickly pumped out four sons: Reuben (behold, a son), Simeon (heard, because she said God heard her prayers), Levi (joined to) and Judah (praised). Genesis 30:1 says, When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!" She gave Jacob her maid, Bilhah, to bear children on her behalf, just like Sarah gave her maid Hagar to Abraham. The baby war was on! Bilhah gave Jacob two sons, Dan (judge) and Napthali (wrestling). Leah had stopped having children, but she got back in the game when she gave Jacob her maid, Zilpah, who had two sons, Gad (a troop) and Asher (happy). Then Leah herself had two more sons and a daughter, Issachar (recompense), Zebulun (exulted) and Dinah (judgment). Then Rachel finally had a son, whom she named Joseph (may God add). Rachel's heartfelt prayer was to have another son. The Lord answered her prayer, but she died shortly after bearing a son whom she named Ben-oni (son of my pain). Jacob, however changed his name to Benjamin (son of my right hand).

Jacob's home was full of strife and contention. His twelve sons were pawns in their mothers' war with each other, as their names reflect. They were brothers but also rivals, just as their mothers were rivals. I don't know how Jacob could stand it! God seems to have allowed polygamy, but it was never His command or His ideal. There is not a single instance in the Bible where a home with more than one wife was happy. Many of you wondered how Jacob got away with cheating Esau. From this you can see that he didn't! Sometimes God's providence does look a little like karma. Yet God would use these twelve sons of Jacob to form the twelve tribes of Israel.

Our passage today begins with Joseph bringing a "bad report" to his father about how his brothers were shepherding the flocks. No one likes a tattle-tale, and this certainly didn't endear Joseph with his brothers. Jacob compounded the problem by playing favorites. Just as Rachel was his favorite wife, Joseph was his favorite son. Though he was eleventh in birth order, Jacob treated him as if he were his firstborn. He gave Joseph a special colorful robe. Dyed fabric was rare and expensive in those days. A coat made of various colors was a lavish gift. Again, this didn't endear Joseph to his brothers.

Joseph had a couple of dreams and shared them with his family. The first was a harvest scene where his brothers' sheaves of grain bowed down before his sheaf. Then he dreamed that the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed before him. The meaning is obvious: everyone, even his father, would bow to Joseph. The brothers seethed. Jacob gave Joseph a mild rebuke, but remembered what he had said.

One day Jacob sent Joseph to check up on his brothers, who had taken the flocks to Shechem. But they weren't in Shechem, where they were supposed to be. The locals said that they had moved on to Dothan. Dothan was on a major trade route, and no doubt had a lot more exciting night life.  Here's a map:

Joseph's brothers looked to the south and saw a splash of color on the horizon. They knew it was Joseph, in that fancy coat of his. He had told on them before, and would probably do so again. They had had enough of this dreamer, and they determined to kill Joseph as soon as he reached them. Reuben, the firstborn and apparently a cooler head, suggested that they throw Joseph in a pit instead. Reuben knew how his father would take Joseph's death, so he planned to rescue him later and take him back. But while Reuben was away, the rest of the brothers saw a caravan of Ishmaelite traders headed west. The Ishmaelites were descendants of their great-uncle Ishmael. Why kill Joseph when they can make some money off of him? They sold him for twenty silver shekels, enough to have a really good time at the taverns in Dothan. So they hauled Joseph out of the pit and handed him over. When Reuben came back learned that they had sold Joseph he tore his robes, a sign of sorrow and exactly what he knew Jacob would do when they told him. What had they done? And what will they do now? They decided to tell Jacob that they found Joseph's many-colored robe, torn and smeared with blood, the victim of wild animals. They killed a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. Jacob reacted as Reuben had feared. His sorrow was so profound that his sons thought he would die. There was no consoling him.

I'm amazed at how many of the great men of the Bible had utterly dysfunctional families. The priest and judge Eli didn't discipline his sons and they became scoundrels. David had a son who raped his sister and another son who killed a brother and then tried to kill him. King Ahaziah's mother Athaliah murdered her grandchildren so that she could rule in her son's place. So family problems are nothing new. Jacob made his problems worse by playing favorites with his wives and with his children. The hurt of rejection led to rivalry and retaliation. Tell and then show the ones you love how you feel! Don't assume that they know- we all like to hear it. John Wesley's mother Susanna had twenty-one children and the challenge of rearing them on their pastor father's salary. They all turned out well, in part because she didn't play favorites. Here are her house rules.

Joseph didn't help himself, either. It turned out that his dreams were indeed prophecies from God. But Joseph didn't react with a grateful humility before the sovereign will of God. He let it all go to his head and eagerly told everyone. Yes, God will use Joseph to save his entire family, and everyone will bow to him. But he must learn humility through humiliation before God can use him. The Bible has a lot to say about pride, none of it good. Here's the entry for pride from Nave's Topical Bible. You won't have to click on very many of the verses before you get a sense of how God feels about human pride.

Tomorrow we'll see how Joseph fares in Egypt, and how God uses him.

I'll leave you with another clip from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. The first part of the clip is a repeat of what I posted last week, "Jacob and Sons," but goes on to the "Coat of Many Colors." Vicki will tell you that I don't like musicals. But I really love this one. It's a faithful yet fun retelling of this Bible story.