Deeper Commentary
Joseph A Type Of Christ
1. The seed of Abraham, in whom the promises of fruitfulness and
blessing upon all nations were fulfilled (47:27; 46:3 cp. 12:2; Dt. 26:5;
Ps. 105:23,24).
2. The beloved son of his father.
3. "The servant" (37:2 Heb.)
4. Loved and exalted above his brethren
5. "They hated him" because of his dream that one day he would reign
over them (37:4,8).
6. Joseph was likened to a sheaf (37:7)
7. A progressive growth in hatred of Joseph (37:4,5,8)
8. Rebuked by his natural father (37:10)
9. Israel would bow down to Joseph, although they refused to believe
this at first and tried to kill him because of it (37:10)
10. " ...but his father observed the saying" (37:11)
11. "Let us slay him... and we will see what will become of his
(prophetic, inspired) dreams" (37:20)
.12. One of his persecutors tried to save him at the last minute
(37:21)
13. Cast into a pit with no water in it (37:24)
14. "They stripped Joseph out of his coat" (37:23); was
Joseph naked in the pit?
15. "And they sat down" after symbolically killing him.
Sold him for pieces of silver.
16. His brothers said: "He is our brother and our flesh" (37:27)
17. "Let not our hand be upon him" (37:27). They thought that the
rigours of slavery would be enough to kill him.
18. At least 2 of his 10 persecutors were unhappy about what they were
doing , and said so (37:22,26). Perhaps the whole group egged each other
on to adopt an attitude none were totally happy with in their conscience.
19. A blood drenched coat
20. Sent on a mission to his brethren, on which they symbolically
killed him.
"Go... see whether it be well with thy brethren" (37:14)
21. Symbolically killed by the shepherds of his father's flock (37:12).
"The anguish of his soul" and pleas for deliverance (42:21), ignored
by the brothers.
22. "When they saw him afar off... they conspired against him
to slay him" (37:18)
23. "Joseph is... rent in pieces. And Jacob rent
his clothes" (37:33,34); Jacob shared in Joseph's death.
24. Judah disgraced after the condemnation of Joseph (Gen. 38)
25. His master committed all that he had into his hand (39:8)
He "prospered", s.w. Ps. 1:3 concerning the righteous man prospering
because he meditates on God's word.
26. Joseph lost his garment before he went into the pit and before he
went to prison (39:13)
(3).
27. Falsely accused of adultery, but with no remonstration on his part;
cast into prison.
28. All the prisoners in the prison committed to Joseph's hand; "and
whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it" (39:22)
29. "The Lord... gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the
prison" (39:21). Christ in favour with God and man (Lk. 2:52)
(4).
30. In prison with two malefactors (one good and one bad?)
31. "Remember me when it shall be well with thee" (40:14)
32. Great pain in Joseph's heart because he knew his innocence (40:15);
therefore the shame of a righteous man suffering as a sinner.
33. The shame of Joseph in the dungeon (40:15); the lowest of the low,
according to Ex. 12:29.
34. "They made him run hastily out of the dungeon... and changed his
raiment" (41:14 mg.).
35. Because he knew Pharaoh's mind, he was exalted over Pharaoh's house
and people (41:40).
36. "According unto thy word shall all my people be ruled" (41:40).
Egypt would have been intricately obedient to his word.
37. "Only in the throne will I be greater than thou" (41:40)
38. "I have set thee over all the land of Egypt" (41:41)
39. "Bow the knee" (41:43).
Bread laid up in preparation for the famine.
40. Given a new name: "Zaphnath-paaneah": 'Saviour of the world', or
'bread of life'
41. A Gentile wife from a pagan king-priest background (41:45).
42. "Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt" (41:45).
43. Joseph's (half-Gentile) sons were counted as the twelve tribes of
Jacob (41:51)
44. Pharaoh's total confidence in Joseph and the power of his word
(41:55)
45. "According unto thy word shall all the people be
ruled" (41:40) suggests a change in Egypt's legal system when Joseph came
to power (cp. Ps. 105:22).
46. Throughout the record there is the unwritten sense that the
brothers had a niggling conscience that Joseph might be alive.
47. Joseph's brethren fulfil his predictions without realizing it
(fully, at any rate) by bowing before him (42:6).
48. Even under pressure, the brothers came out with the same old lie
(42:13). They kept repeating it so much that they believed it.
49. The brothers suffer in prison for three days to prod their
conscience about Joseph (42:17).
We get the impression that Joseph changed his plans for them several
times; he recalled them when already on their journey etc.
50. Joseph wept (this is recorded seven times in the record) (42:24).
He must have found it hard to prolong the agony of not revealing himself
to them immediately; he was motivated by a desire to make them see the
enormity of their sin, for their spiritual good rather than his own
vindication.
51. The brothers delay in their return, doubtless because of the
struggle with their conscience; never spoken of together, but operating on
each man individually (43:10)
52. Joseph celebrates their repentance with a meal together, at which
they sit in their proper places (43:16)
53. "Slay and make ready" (43:16) for the meal.
54. "The men marvelled" at his discernment.
They were merry with him (43:34)
55. Joseph's cup is how he discerns (44:5)
56. "Then Joseph could not refrain himself..." (45:1) implies he
planned to drag out the process of spiritually refining his brothers, but
his love for them caused him to cut it short.
57. "All them that stood before him" not present at his revelation to
his brethren (45:1)
Communication without an interpreter.
"Fear not: for I am in the place of God" (50:19 Heb.); "thou art even
as Pharaoh" (44:18)
The struggle to make the brothers believe the extent of his grace.
58. "A great deliverance" (45:7).
Israel saved, all the surrounding world also blessed with deliverance
from the famine.
Gen 37:1 Jacob lived in the land of his father’s travels, in the land of Canaan- The significance of this statement is that Jacob was intended to live in Canaan and had suffered hugely in order to leave Mesopotamia. The contrast is between the Hebrew term for "lived", which means 'to settle down', and that for "travels", which means to live temporarily. Although Isaac spent more of his life in the eretz than Jacob did, he moved around a lot in the land; whereas Jacob settled down permanently [relatively speaking] in one location.
Note that Isaac never left Canaan, he lived there all his life,
but it was still the land of his sojourning ["travels"], his temporary
dwelling. Just as this world is for us, no matter how stable our lives may
appear in secular terms.
Gen 37:2 This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being
seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers-
“Joseph, being seventeen years old, was
shepherding the flock with his brothers” is the standard English
translation; but the Hebrew word order is: "Joseph was shepherding his
brothers, along with the flock”. He had been made the family priest, and
therefore had the coat of many colours. The "evil report" he brought back
was therefore about their insubmission to his leadership. His dreams
asserted that leadership- and he asks his brothers to "hear" or 'obey'
them.
So it seems that at 17, Joseph had already been made the chief shepherd of his father's extensive flocks. But he was deposed from that by his brothers. He would likewise quickly become the chief household manager of Potiphar's house, and be quickly deposed. He quickly became the prison manager- and that ended quickly. He was then suddenly made the ruler ofall Egypt, the greatest civilization and empire on planet earth at the time. But given his previous experiences, he would have accepted this humbly and with a premonition it wouldn't last long. In fact it lasted all his life. Likewise with being given a significant item of clothing, initially the coat of many colours, which he suddenly lost. He was given a similar significant coat when the manager of Potiphar's house, and it was suddenly removed from him. So that when he was suddenly dressed in all the regalia of Egypt, he took it humbly and was prepared to lose it at any time.
Literally "being the son of seventeen years". Joseph is also
described as "the son of old age" in Jacob's opinion (:3). This could
quite legitimately be read as meaning that he was considered by Jacob to
be spiritually mature beyond his years, and indeed it does seem he was.
He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father- The sons of Bilhah (Dan and Naphtali) and Zilpah (Gad and Asher) were perhaps the least connected to the Jacob family and the promises. Perhaps this was what led to their poor behaviour which Joseph reported. "Was feeding the flock" could mean "was the shepherd of the flock"; although very young, he had been pronounced 'chief shepherd' by Jacob, as a way of investing him with the titles and roles of the firstborn after Reuben had lost that role. In this case, we see again how Joseph is set up as a type or representative of the Lord Jesus, the chief shepherd of Israel's flock.
The patriarchs having more than one wife at a time signals that all was
not well morally within the Abraham family. The repeated way in which they
lied about their wives also indicates that they didn't take their marital
responsibilities as they should have (Gen. 12:13; 20:3,13; 26:7).
The generations of Jacob began with Joseph. God effectively saw him as the firstborn, whereas Jacob had machinated about Reuben and Judah as being the firstborn. Again we see how human firstborn and preeminence is seen otherwise by God.
"Being a lad with" the sons of Bilhah may mean they treated Joseph as their servant or lackey. But the servant was to become their saviour. Maybe this treatment was part of the evil report Joseph brought to Jacob. Noah likewise was the youngest son, treated as a run around by his older brothers, which meant he married much later than them. But it's all a classic case of the despised, suffering servant becoming the saviour. We see the intended juxtaposition- Joseph was 17 but was the shepherd of the flock and his brothers, but he was the servant. He was the classic servant leader, clearly looking forward to the Lord.
Gen 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age- Here the Spirit frames the record in Jacob's favour. We have shown that most of Jacob's children were born within a few years of each other, and in any case, Benjamin was the youngest. It seems that the Spirit is almost making a weak excuse for Jacob's favouritism, or perhaps picking up Jacob's self-justification for his favouritism and treating it as if it is valid. This is imputed righteousness. Jacob should have learnt from all the problems caused by his father's favoritism towards Esau and his mother's towards himself. But he didn't, and just as both Abraham and Isaac lied about their wives, so this weakness of having favourites continued from Isaac to Jacob.
Literally "being the son of seventeen years" (:2), Joseph is
also described as "the son of old age" in Jacob's opinion (:3). This could
quite legitimately be read as meaning that he was considered by Jacob to
be spiritually mature beyond his years, and indeed it does seem he was.
And he made him a coat of many colours- A priestly robe (s.w. Gen. 3:21; Ex. 28:4; 29:5) which likely went with the firstborn's responsibilities. Jacob therefore dressed in Esau's clothes, and he seems to have wanted to use this opportunity to reflect his own experiences to his sons. Maybe Jacob made Joseph the firstborn after Reuben (the firstborn) slept with Bilhah. The special garment was the equivalent of a priestly robe, as the role of priest went with the firstborn role. This explains why Joseph wore it when he went out to shepherd his brothers, and why they so hated that garment. Reuben, who had been demoted from the firstborn, commendably sought to save Joseph from being killed. His weakness was therefore temporary, and he subsequently demonstrated that he held no resentment but only love towards Joseph who had been chosen to replace him.
There
seems to have been something unusual about the Lord’s outer garment. The
same Greek word chiton used in Jn. 19:23,24 is that used in the
LXX of Gen. 37:3 to describe Joseph’s coat of many pieces. Josephus (Antiquities
3.7.4,161) uses the word for the tunic of the High Priest, which was
likewise not to be rent (Lev. 21:10). The Lord in His time of dying is
thus set up as High Priest, gaining forgiveness for His people, to ‘come
out’ of the grave as on the day of Atonement, pronouncing the forgiveness
gained, and bidding His people spread that good news world-wide.
Gen 37:5 Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and
they hated him all the more- This parallels how the Lord spoke forth
what He heard from God (Jn. 8:38; 12:50) and was hated unto death for it.
Joseph likely didn't want to speak forth what he had been shown, and he
did so with the spirit in which we may nervously share God's word and plan
with those whom we know will hate us for saying it. The same word for
"hated" is used in the promise that the Messianic seed would triumph over
those who hated him (Gen. 24:60). It was their hatred which was therefore
the background of the dreams, which I suggest were extensions of the
Abrahamic promise repeated to Joseph; for the dreams stated as much, that
Joseph would triumph over those who hated him, i.e. his own brothers.
Gen 37:6 He said to them, Please hear this dream which I have dreamed-
This is entreaty, as if he is asking them to believe something they don't
want to. Perhaps if they had fallen before him then, accepting he was the
chosen firstborn and spiritual leader, then the whole sad history of the
next chapters need not have happened. The dreams were an invitation to
"hear" them and respond to them. In this we see the open ended approach to
God to the fulfilment of His will and prophetic plan. And yet perhaps
Joseph was repeating the mistake of Jacob, in insisting that in this life
he should be accepted as the firstborn. Before birth it had been decreed
that Esau should serve Jacob, but that was only to come true in the
future. But Jacob wanted it in this life. And Joseph possibly made the
same mistake, in wanting the brothers to accept him in this life as the
firstborn. The way the dreams feature his mother bowing to him, when she
was dead, was surely a hint that the intended fulfilment was not in this
life but at the resurrection. And the fulfilment was not essentially in
Joseph, but in the future Messianic seed whom he represented and
prefigured. Jacob's final comment upon Joseph is that he was
representative of the future Messianic seed (Gen. 49:22-26), but if they
had all been more Christ-centred then all the personal angst against
Joseph would not have happened.
Gen 37:7 For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold,
my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves came
around, and bowed down to my sheaf-
Jacob had quite wrongly sought to obtain the blessing of the firstborn, which included the wording that his family should bow down to him (s.w. Gen. 27:29). Although he had resigned that stolen blessing to Esau when he repented on the night of wrestling, Jacob still likely disliked the message being repeated here- that he was to bow down to others, in this case, his young son Joseph or the Messianic seed represented by him.
Gen 37:8 His brothers said to him, Will you indeed reign over us? Or will you indeed have dominion over us? They hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words- This was the Lord's experience: "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Lk. 19:14), "We have no king but Caesar" (Jn. 19:15). But "have dominion" is the Hebrew word used of how Joseph ruled over all Egypt and those who came to buy corn from him such as his brother (Gen. 45:8,26). However, that was but a primary fulfilment; the main fulfilment must be yet future.
One lovely feature of this whole account is that when these dreams came true, there is no mention of the fact. Joseph doesn't rub the point in; neither are the brothers recorded as humbly admitting that the dreams had come true. Likewise the New Testament often doesn't labour the point that the Lord's life and work was fulfilling Old Testament prophecies like Is. 53. This is left for us to perceive- and be even further strengthened in faith by the beautiful subtlety of it all.
Gen 37:9 He dreamed yet another dream- The double dream of Gen.
41:32 was a sign of absolute certainty of fulfilment. When Pharaoh had two
dreams, and the prisoners together had two dreams, Joseph would have
recalled his double dreams, and would have thereby been encouraged that
they would be fulfilled too. Each of the three dreams in the
Joseph story is a double dream (Joseph's dreams, the dreams of butler and
baker, Pharaoh's dreams). When Joseph tells Pharaoh that double dreams
mean they definitely come true, he said this, therefore, in faith- that
his own dreams would come true. That faith is contrasted with both his
father and his brothers protesting that these dreams could never come
true. And I suggest he had this in mind all through, that circumstances
would work out so that his brothers came bowing to him. I suggest that is
what motivated him to suggest Pharaoh set a man over all Egypt to manage
the people would come to buy grain- inwardly scheming that he would be the
one chosen. He showed great spiritual ambition in all this. But Joseph
also understands the double dream of Pharaoh to mean that God will "soon"
fulfil it- and the double dream of the butler and baker indeed immediately
came true. Joseph therefore understood that his own dreams would "soon"
come true; but he understood that the "soon" was relative to God's view of
time, and not his. The dreams of Pharaoh would take seven to fourteen
years to come true; but Joseph understood that as "soon". We like Joseph
must see that our redemption and the fulfilment of God's plan for us is
likewise "soon"- in the ultimate perspective.
It could also be that Joseph's two dreams were fulfilled [to some extent] in the two visits of the brothers to Egypt- they twice bowed before him. Although the fulfilment is still incomplete, because at those points his parents didn't bow to him. The full fulfilment will be at the resurrection.
And told it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me- It must have taken Joseph quite some courage to explain the dreams to his brethren. "He dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren" (AV). There was quite likely a certain bucking up of courage in the spirit of the Lord Jesus at age 30, when he 'came down from Heaven' and started preaching the glories of his future Kingdom to a cynical Israel. This is our struggle, to tell forth the things revealed to us. As noted on :36, Potiphar and Pharaoh both mean "sun", and had temporal mastership over Joseph. When Pharaoh ["the sun"] pointed out that in the throne, he would be above Joseph... he must have remembered this dream. We have established here the basis for how sun, moon and stars, the figurative heavens, refer to Israel and its leadership, or founding fathers.
Gen 37:10 He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father
rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed?
Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves down
to you to the earth?- This reveals how Jacob's view of the promises, even at the age of 108, was very much on a surface level. Rachel was dead (Gen. 35:19), and Jacob mocked the suggestion that she would ever "come"
to bow to her son as it implied a resurrection. It has been suggested that
Joseph had the dream as a very small child, before the death of Rachel.
But the dream spoke of his eleven brothers; so that is not a possibility,
unless his dream was also a prophecy that Jacob would have another son.
Jacob’s anger with Joseph's claim that all his brothers would bow down to him is explicable when we remember that Isaac had promised Jacob that this would be his blessing (Gen. 27:29 cp. 37:10). Yet at the end, he realized that the promised blessings didn't only apply to him on a personal level, and he even conferred such a blessing on Judah (Gen. 49:8). See
on :7.
The bowing down will ultimately be in gratitude. And Rachel, presented in the record as unspiritual to her last gasp, will do likewise. We wonder if she will bow down in gratitude because she will be saved because of Joseph (consider how the faith of third parties can save in some cases, Mk. 2:5).
Gen 37:11 His brothers envied him-
As
Israel envied Moses for spiritual reasons (Ps. 106:16; Acts 7:9), so they
did the
Lord(Mt. 27:18), after the pattern of the brothers' spiritual envy
of Joseph. Spiritual envy leading to persecution is quite a common feature
in Biblical history (Job, Jeremiah, Paul...). And it isn't absent from the
Christian experience either. Envy is a great theme in the Abraham family. The Philistines envied
Isaac (Gen. 26:14); as (we can assume) Laban did Jacob; Rachel envied Leah
(Gen. 30:1); Joseph's brothers envied him (Acts 7:9). Family friction
certainly stalked the generations. Jacob against Esau, Isaac against
Jacob, Ishmael against Isaac, Sarah against Hagar, Joseph's brothers
amongst themselves (Gen. 45:24). Envy of Israel by the world and friction
within Israel has been a continued characteristic (what similarities with
spiritual Israel?). Yet there was also a soft streak there; Esau and Jacob
evidently had a certain affection for each other and willingness to truly
forgive (Esau more so than Jacob!); Abraham truly cared for Lot's fate in
Sodom on at least two occasions; and the brothers genuinely cared for
Benjamin and the grief of their father.
But his father kept this saying in
mind- As did Mary, mother of the Lord Jesus (Lk. 2:19,51).
In Lk. 2:51 it is recorded that Mary “kept these sayings”. It could be
that she had pondered from the LXX of Gen. 37:11 how Jacob “observed”
(s.w.) the saying of Joseph / Jesus, and therefore felt that she too must
meditate on all the words associated with her Son. She speaks in Lk. 1:55
Gk. of “the seed of him”- she understood the seed of Abraham to
be Messiah, her son, and makes many references and allusions to the
promises to Abraham. She had clearly reflected upon her ‘first
principles’.
Gen 37:12 His brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem-
About 60 miles from their base in Hebron. Shechem was where they
had massacred all the male population and pillaged the town. They were
only able to return there and graze their flocks by God's absolute grace.
And yet it was whilst living in this wonderful grace and salvation of
them, from the consequences of their own sins, that they allowed their
envy of their brother to turn to hatred and almost murder. All our
sins are committed because we forget the amazing grace we live under; and
because we fail to appropriately remember our past. They had clearly just
hived off the memory of their shameful behaviour at Shechem. And lived
graceless lives as a result.
Gen 37:13 Israel said to Joseph, Aren’t your brothers feeding the
flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them. He said to him, Here
I am- The fact Jacob sent Joseph with the priestly robe, which
wouldn't have been worn apart from in a religious context, suggests he
intended Joseph to conduct a religious ceremony with them, which he hoped
they would accept. See on :4. He wished the ceremony to give them "peace"
(:14).
Joseph readily responded to his father's desire that he go to his brethren: "Here I am". Isaiah, another type of Christ, uttered similar words before his mission to Israel (Is. 6:8), and the Lord's spirit was likewise (Heb. 10:7). Yet in both Joseph and Isaiah there must have been a sense of apprehension, sensing the persecution that would come. In line with the typology of Joseph and Isaiah, there was a point when the Lord received and responded to His Father's commission. This may have been some time in His teens; perhaps 17, as with Joseph? Or at 30 when he began His ministry and came "into the (Jewish) world"?
Gen 37:14 He said to him, Go now, see whether it is well with your
brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again. So he sent him
out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem- “Go... see whether it
is well with your brothers" is the same Hebrew as in 1 Sam. 17:18, also typical of
the Lord. He was sent to the shepherds and the sheep of Israel. This accounts for the special effort he made to appeal to the Jewish religious leaders, even when it seemed he was wasting time with them.
Jacob wanted there to be "peace" for them ["it is well" =
shalom,
peace], which was the Lord's mission
likewise; whom "God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by
Jesus Christ" (Acts 10:36). We recall that they had not even given Joseph
the "peace" greeting, and Jacob thought that the keeping of the
ritual would rectify that. Perhaps the conclusion intended is that keeping
religious rituals will not of itself bring peace between brethren.
Even if our brethren cannot say "peace" to us, we should still seek their
peace and blessing.
Gen 37:15 A certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering delirious in the field. The man asked him, What are you looking for?- The life of Jesus was a life of outgiven grace and seeking the salvation of men, after the pattern of Joseph going to seek the welfare of his brethren. Even when he was delirious [AV “wandering”] he told the stranger that he was seeking his brethren (who hated him); seeking them was his dominant desire. And so it was in the life of the Lord. Like His Father, He was willing to be incredibly patient, in order to win people. The man may well have been an Angel. The incident functioned to remind Joseph later that his life had been preserved at this point; and this would have encouraged him when in the pit and in prison that God had preserved his life before. His purpose with Joseph was therefore far from over. The question "What are you looking for / seeking?" was thereby so strongly engrained in Joseph's mind, so that in all decisions and situations he would be asking himself this crucial question. But the Hebrew translated here "delirious" is usually used in a negative context, or erring or going astray. Perhaps his resolve to seek and find his brethren spiritually (see on :16) had weakened, and he needed this Angelic encounter to encourage him to go forward to what he rightly guessed could be death or suffering, for the sake of his brethren who hated him.
Gen 37:16 He said, I am searching for my brothers- The Hebrew for "searching" is also used in the sense of asking / enquiring of God in prayer. As noted above, both Jacob and Joseph had premonitions that there would be trouble, and Joseph's mission involved taking the coat of many colours for some religious rite, and seeking the peace of those who would not give "peace" to him. The incident with the man / Angel who found Joseph was likely to focus him upon his mission, to get him to verbalize it. And we have similar encounters in our lives, to make us realize our mission. The way Joseph talks about "my brothers" could imply that he felt the man knew him and his brothers, strengthening the suggestion that this was an Angel.
Tell me, please, where they are feeding the flock- The record speaks often of "the flock" in the singular. It was specifically Jacob's flock, so large that it needed all his adult sons and probably others to feed it. Joseph assumed the man knew where his brothers were; suggesting he himself understood the man who had come to seek him as being an Angel. And he was thereby comforted, that God was in search of him just as he was of his brothers.
Gen 37:17 The man said, They have left here, for I heard them say,
‘Let us go to Dothan’. Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in
Dothan- About eight miles further. This all points forward to the
Lord Jesus seeking and finding His Father's wayward children. In the
incidents with his brethren later regarding the cup, Joseph likewise
chases after his brethren and 'finds' them. His whole work with them was
to seek and find them, for God. From youth to middle age, this was his
very gracious mission toward them.
Gen 37:18 They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they
conspired against him to kill him- There are steep hills near Dothan which would have enabled them to see
Joseph approaching across the plain. The
leaders of first century Israel initially recognized Jesus of Nazareth
coming to them as
the Messiah (Mt. 21:38 cp. Gen. 37:20; Jn. 7:28). They saw (i.e.
understood, recognized) him, but then they were made blind by Christ (Jn.
9:39). It was because they "saw" Jesus as the Messiah that the sin of
rejecting him was counted to them (Jn. 9:41). "When the husbandmen saw
the son, they said among themselves (i.e. conspired), This is the heir;
come, let us kill him" (Mt. 21:38). Mt. 21:38 is quoting the LXX of Gen.
37:18.
Gen 37:19 They said one to another, Behold, this dreamer comes-
Heb. 'baal / master of dreams'. They perhaps meant that he
considered himself the baal, their master as the one having the
status of the firstborn, on account of his dreams. Jealousy over the
status of being the designated firstborn is a major theme in the record.
Isaac replaced Ishmael, Jacob replaced Esau, Jacob wanted Joseph to
replace Reuben, and even at the end of his life, Jacob wants to replace
Manasseh with Ephraim (Gen. 48:14). The lesson was never learnt, an yet by
grace, Jacob and his sons will be saved. This is comfort to us as we come
to realize that both we and others shall go to their graveplanks with some
areas of our lives and thinking still not subdued by the Spirit as they
should have been.
Gen 37:20 Come now therefore and let’s kill him, and cast him into one
of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him’-
They
never 'said' this; Jacob was led by them to wrongly deduce it (:33). But
such misleading and deception is tantamount to telling the lies. Giving
false impressions, even without speaking a word, is therefore the same as
lying. This legalistic, but vain, attempt to avoid guilt for the sin is
all prophetic of the Jewish attitude to the Lord's crucifixion.
The plot to kill Joseph is here directly related to his dreams. Dreams, when publically spoken forth, were believed to have absolute power in the lifetime of the dreamer. There are many accounts of those who spoke forth a dream being killed, lest their dream come true. It was thought that the death of the dreamer would stop the dream coming true. When they finally do bow before Joseph, they were tacitly admitting that his dreams were coming true and therefore he was not dead. By doing so, they should have joined the dots and seen that therefore Joseph must be alive. And their psychological fixation with believing Joseph was dead was because they were so adamant that they could never bow down before their spiritual superior.
We will see what will become of his dreams- Likewise the Lord's inspired prophecies of His death and resurrection must have motivated the Jews' slaying of Him. The brothers failed to appreciate that the dreams were not so much talking about this life as about some future point, when Rachel would be resurrected. So murdering Joseph would not disprove the dreams. The selling of Joseph as a slave was probably seen by them as a way of forcing his dreams to not be fulfilled- they thought that by doing this, he was not to be a ruler, but a slave. Again and again we see how human efforts to falsify God's word only in fact fulfil it.
Gen 37:21 Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, Let’s not take his life- Reuben had slept with his father's concubine, and yet despite that awful sin, he still had a better side to him. And we should remember this in considering our feelings about those who have committed what are without doubt serious sins. He still considered himself the firstborn, despite his demotion from that as a result of the incest of Gen. 35:22. He points forward to the efforts of the unspiritual Pilate to save the Lord (Jn. 19:12).
Jacob cursed Reuben as being as downhill as water in sleeping with his concubine. He meant that Reuben had acted as caught up in a downward spiral of lust, just as water always continues to flow downhill. But here and later, Reuben shows that man can repent and pull out of such downward spirals.
Gen 37:22 Reuben said to them, Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit
that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him-that he might deliver
him out of their hand, to restore him to his father-
Joseph and Nicodemus were inspired with that sense which we possess all
too fleetingly: that in the light of the Lord's death, nothing else
matters. They were both typified in some way by Reuben and Judah, who
when confronted with the reality of murdering Joseph, spoke out
unashamedly in front of their unspiritual brethren (Gen. 42:22). They
pointed forward also to Pilate, who wanted to chastise and then release
the Lord (Lk. 23:16). Like the Jews who crucified the Lord Jesus, these
men clearly had a conscience even in the midst of their sin. In our
outreach to the world, we must never conclude that some people have no
religious conscience. All are made in the image of God and somewhere,
there is a conscience toward Him which we can connect with through the
message.
Gen 37:23 It happened, when Joseph came to his brothers-Just as
the Lord came to His brothers and was rejected, betrayed for pieces of
silver and slain (Jn. 1:11 "he came to his own"). The camera, as it were,
is showing Joseph walking across the plain towards them (:18), and now is
zoomed in close-up as Joseph comes to them, and they grab his coat.
That they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colours that was on him- Just as the Lord was stripped of a specially made coat (Jn. 19:23). Was Joseph naked in the pit? The same LXX word is used in Mt. 27:28; was the Lord naked on the cross? See on Heb. 6:6 "open shame". Joseph came to them wearing the special coat, the sign of the firstborn, as if he came to them with some religious message and wanted to perform some religious ritual. We recall how Jacob dressed in Esau's coat of the firstborn when deceiving Isaac.
Gen 37:24 And they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty- "Dothan" means 'two wells'. Perhaps he was thrown into one of these which was dry.
There was no water in it- Representing death and the grave
(Zech. 9:11; Ps. 40:2). When Zedekiah called Jeremiah out of the prison house to meet him
and show him the word of God, he ought to have perceived that he was going
through the very experience of Pharaoh with Joseph (Jer. 37:17,20).
Jeremiah’s desperate plea not to be sent back to prison to die there
surely echoes that of Joseph to his brethren; for Jeremiah was let down
like Joseph had been into a pit with no water in, so reminiscent of
Joseph. But Zedekiah didn’t want to see all this; he should’ve listened to
Jeremiah, as Pharaoh had listened to Joseph and saved himself. It was all
potentially set up for him; but he refused to take note.
Gen 37:25 They sat down to eat bread- Ignoring Joseph's screams
for mercy (Gen. 42:21), as the soldiers sat down and watched the Lord on
the cross, eating their army rations. The callousness of the brothers
reminds us of what they did in the massacre at Shechem. Every one of them
would receive multiple life sentences in high security prison if they were
alive today. And yet these harsh, wicked men... became the foundation
pillars of God's people. Even though there is little record of their
transformation in this life. They were saved by the grace of their
wonderful brother and heavenly Father. They are parade examples of
men who cannot find the humility to express their repentance in public
words, and yet in their own way are still repent. For repentance is a
matter of the heart, and it is the heart God looks upon.
"And they sat down" after killing the Lord Jesus- Mt. 27:36.
And they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt- Jacob later sent such balm, made from fragrant gum trees which grew in Canaan, called ladanum (Gen. 43:11). The brothers were intended by the hand of providence to reflect that in going to Egypt with such gum balm, they were retracing the steps of Joseph and those merchants. God works to restimulate within us memory of our unrepented of sins, and this is a classic example.
Throughout the records of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his children there is continual repetition in the manner in which the record is written. This repetition is of both experiences and of the language used to describe those experiences. The repeated language about going down to Egypt is an example. Thus Gen. 39:1- 8: "Joseph was brought down to Egypt... the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither... down to Egypt" (37:25). There are other examples: "The Lord was with Joseph... and his master saw that the Lord was with him". "His master the Egyptian... his master". "Joseph... was a prosperous man... the Lord made all that he did to prosper". Potiphar "made him overseer over his house...from the time that he had made him overseer in his house". "All that he had he put into his hand... over all that he had... the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had... he left all that he had in Joseph's hand". "His hand... into his hand... Joseph's hand... to my hand". This kind of linguistic device suggests that the Spirit in Genesis is inviting us to observe the development of theme and to note emphasis. The above example from Joseph's life is one of many such sets of evidence. The repetition of certain descriptions and common experiences in the lives of Abraham's family members is to enable us to build up a very clear picture of what they were like as people. We are being enabled to get to know them as a family. This is necessary for us if we are to realistically obey the New Testament commands to see Abraham and the patriarchs as our spiritual fathers, to model our daily walk upon them, to see in them the examples which should dominate our lives and thinking. The way the record repeats their similar experiences reveals certain family traits; the majority of which are negative. This takes some appreciating.
Gen 37:26 Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we kill our
brother- At least two of his ten persecutors were unhappy about what they were doing , and said so (:22). Perhaps the whole group egged each other on to adopt an attitude none were totally happy with in their conscience- Ditto for first century Israel?
But the motivation of Judah may simply have been "profit", and we note
that "Judah" is effectively the same word as "Judas". The Hebrew for
"profit" is usually used of wealth unjustly obtained. Judah reasons that
there is no cash value in just murdering Joseph. Later, Joseph was to
shower them with silver in the mouths of their sacks, and even his silver
cup; to show them that he repaid this evil with good, and that silver was
immaterial when compared to grace.
And conceal his blood?- Blood is a symbol of both life and also death (also
in Num.
35:19,33; Lev. 20:9). Both the Lord’s death and His life form a covenant /
testament / will for us to obey- in both baptism and then in living out
the death and life in our daily experience. We cannot be passive to it.
Gen 37:27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our
hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh. His brothers listened to
him- This recalls "We are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones" (Eph. 5:30).
"Let not our hand be on him" may mean that they thought that the rigours of slavery would be enough to kill him,
and in the same spirit, the Jews handed Jesus over to the Romans. Does the
antitype indicate some of the brothers thought this fact would absolve them of guilt?
Like the Jews, they were very eager to minimize their guilt through
legalistic manouevre; but they end up, like we do, realizing that they had
to throw themselves upon the grace of the one who had effectively died and
been resurrected. They likely held some belief that a special curse would
come upon them if they themselves killed their own flesh brother; I
suggest this is how we should read this verse, rather than seeing any
softness toward Joseph on their part.
Gen 37:28 Midianites who were merchants passed by- These
Ishmaelites lived in Midian.
And they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver- The Lord Jesus was “him… whom they priced on the part of the sons of Israel” (Mt. 27:9 RVmg.). The reference to “the sons of Israel” is surely an allusion to the sons of Jacob selling Joseph for his value. Twenty pieces of silver was the price of redemption for a teenager (Lev. 27:5); the Lord was sold for thirty pieces, the price of a slave (Ex. 21:32). There is much intended repetition of theme within the Joseph story. They received pieces of silver for Joseph; and Joseph later stuffs their sacks full of silver. He is showing his absolute grace- not demanding silver back from them, but rather showering them with even more silver.
The idea of selling Joseph into permanent slavery was perhaps attractive to the brothers because it apparently assured them that his dream would never come true. They would never be his slaves, they thought- because they were making him a lifetime slave. But as with the Lord Jesus, the slavery of the despised, suffering servant becomes the path to His Lordship over those He was sold to serve.
They brought Joseph into Egypt- According to some reconstructions of the geography, their route would have taken them through Mamre and Hebron, where Jacob was and from where Joseph had just come from. It would've all been so terribly painful for him, as it was for the Lord. Joseph later understood that he had been sent by God to Egypt for a saving purpose (Gen. 45:8); and Ps. 105:21 is explicit that God "sent" Joseph to Egypt. This was perhaps one key to Joseph's amazing grace and forgiveness towards his brothers- he firmly believed, and eagerly perceived, that their dysfunction and bad behaviour towards him was in fact used by God. We need to perceive the same, lest we become consumed by bitterness.
Gen 37:29 Reuben returned to the pit; and saw that Joseph wasn’t in the pit; and he tore his clothes- Reuben wasn't present; perhaps he had gone somewhere in order to try to arrange some release of Joseph. The Divine camera of inspiration invites us to view Reuben alone at the pit, and then returning to his brothers (:30) who were nearby but not directly at the pit. Maybe he had gone to the pit alone in order to get Joseph out of it. I suggest on :30 that Reuben may not have been totally sincere in all this. He tore his coat because he wanted Joseph's coat, the sign of the firstborn.
Gen 37:30 He returned to his brothers and said, The child is no more;
and I, where will I go?- Such an outburst would be appropriate for
Reuben as the firstborn who was responsible for his brothers. But he had
been stripped of that position after the incest of Gen. 35:22. So his
words may not have been completely sincere, but rather an insistence that
he was in fact the firstborn.
Gen 37:31 They took Joseph’s coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped
the coat in the blood- This is full of reference to atonement
rituals; the point being that their sin could not be covered by any such
ritual of animal sacrifice, but only by the gracious forgiveness of Joseph
[cp. the Lord Jesus]. To make it realistic, the dipping may not have been
complete immersion. And yet the blood soaked garment becomes the visual
characteristic of the Lord Jesus (Rev. 19:13). Their father would now have
to make a new coat and designate another firstborn.
Gen 37:32 They took the coat of many colours, and they sent it to
their father, and said, We have found this. Examine it, please, whether it
is your son’s coat or not- They sent it by messengers before they
themselves arrived. This was so cruel to Jacob. The brothers implied that
they did not know for sure whether it was Joseph's coat or not; even
though it was the object of their intense jealousy. Their language has
credibility. Even when trying to deceive, they couldn't but call Joseph
"your son" rather than "our brother"; and likewise they pretended not to
know very much about the coat. The whole story must have had less and less
credibility as the years went by; and yet the brothers would have
continued the lie all the more insistently.
"They sent it" by messengers; for the brothers themselves wouldn't have asked Jacob to discern whose the striped garment belonged to. The whole immediate family knew it was Joseph's.
We observe here how the brothers cared little for the pain of their father. But years later, they present as genuinely concerned at the damage that would be done to him if Benjamin doesn't return. So we see some genuine spiritual growth in them, although they had been unwilling to make public confession of their sin against Joseph. Likewise the headstrong and unspiritual Judah and Reuben, whose sexual failures are recorded especially in Gen. 38, appear as the ones most eager to save Joseph, and to save their father from the pain of losing the son of his beloved favourite wife Rachel. They passed through their selfish sexual failures to being compassionate towards others. But all this spiritual growth was without specific repentance. We would so like them to all make a grand confession and beg for mercy. But pride apparently stops them from doing so, as it does so many. But that is not to say that there is no spirituality nor spiritual growth in such persons. This is why demanding the fruit of repentance for specific sins is often misplaced. Repentance may not be expressed for specific sins, people may continue believing the lies they spun [in this case, that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal]; but the apparently impenitent person may have spiritual fruit in other areas.
Jacob's response to receiving Joseph's garment was to tear his own garments and to conclude that Joseph was torn in pieces (:33). We can surely infer that the garment was torn. We can likewise infer that Joseph's garment was torn by Potiphar's wife. Because merely presenting Joseph's garment was no evidence he had tried to rape her. But presenting it torn would suggest she had struggled with her supposed rapist. In reality, she threw herself onto him, and he ran away with her gripping hold of his garment so that it tore. So again we see how circumstances repeated in Joseph's life; he not only lost his garment, but it was torn by his abusers in order to give a false impression.
Gen 37:33 He recognized it, and said, It is my son’s coat. An evil
animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces- "Joseph is... rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes" (:34); Jacob shared in Joseph's death.
This is a fine prefigurement of the (sadly ignored) pain of God, as well
as another example of the record having absolute psychological
credibility. Jacob is pretended as falling completely ["without doubt..."]
for their story. And yet he must have had his doubts. He was being placed
precisely in the position of his father Isaac when he had deceived him
regarding the birthright blessing. Jacob's later words about the matter
are pregnant with the hint that he guessed something was wrong with the
story: "[Joseph] went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in
pieces; and I haven’t seen him since" (Gen. 44:28). This could be taken as
meaning 'This is what I thought at the time, I was sure of it; although
it's true that since then, I never saw him again'.
Judah "recognized" / discerned his personal identifying items (Gen. 38:26) when Tamar exposes his sin; the same word is used of how Judah and the brothers challenged their father to recognize / discern Joseph's coat of many colours (Gen. 37:33). So through Judah's sin, he was led to appreciate how his father had felt. And that is why it is Judah who is so careful later to ensure his father is not made to feel about Benjamin how he did about the loss of Joseph.
Earlier in his life, Jacob had learned to "bear the loss" of that which was "torn in pieces of beasts"; and the same terms are used in Gen. 31:39 and Gen. 37:33, when again Jacob has to 'bear the loss' of [apparently] having his beloved son torn in pieces of wild beasts [s.w.]. As so often in our lives, one experience is used to prepare us for a similar one, but to a much greater extent. In this case, not bearing the loss of an animal, but of a beloved son.
Gen 37:34 Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and
mourned for his son many days- As Joseph's coat was torn, so his
father tore his clothes. This sense of identity with the deceased
is natural and is another example of where these ancient records have
every psychological credibility, adding to our faith that what we are
reading really did happen as stated. The "many days" can be
understood as lasting until he met Joseph again, 22 years. This was the
same period that he was absent from his father's house. Jacob returned to
Isaac 22 years after he left when fleeing Esau [Gen. 31:41 "These twenty
years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two
daughters, and six years for your flock", plus the 18 months he lived in
Shechem and Bethel on the way back to Isaac]. To his father he had
effectively been dead. He ought to have returned sooner. But he was being
taught the grief he had brought upon Isaac his father.
Gen 37:35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him,
but he refused to be comforted. He said, For I will go down to Sheol to my
son mourning. His father wept for him- The Syriac says: "I will go
down into the grave on account of my son mourning". He felt suicidal and
wanted to die with his 'dead' son. As noted on :34, his recorded reaction
is absolutely psychologically credible. His refusal to accept their
comfort could reflect his skepticism about the whole story. We note too
that he had "daughters", as well as Dinah. And one lie led to others. It
was this which all contributed to Jacob's sense of loneliness, suspecting
all around him were deceiving him.
Jacob's love for Rachel is reflected and acknowledged by the inspired record when we read of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted "because they are not" (Mt. 2:18; Jer. 31:15). But these ideas are more relevant surely to Jacob weeping for Rachel and especially for Joseph- for Jacob wept for Joseph and refused to be comforted (Gen. 37:35). This was after the death of Rachel (Gen. 35:19). Surely the record is reflecting the unity which there was between Jacob and Rachel; even after her death, Jacob wept as it were with her kind of weeping. And yet she was not a very spiritual woman. Martin Buber notes that "womenfolk bring the household gods to the homes of their husbands from the homes of their fathers" (Moses (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1947) p. 205). By doing this, Rachel showed both her loyalty to her husband and yet also her attachment to idolatry; a classic case of mixed motivation arising from not having wholly given herself to the one true God.
Both good and bad people go to sheol, ‘hell’, i.e. the grave.
Thus Jesus “made his grave with the wicked” (Is. 53:9). In line with this,
there are other examples of righteous men going to hell, i.e. the grave.
Jacob said that he would “go down into the grave (hell)... mourning” for
his son Joseph.
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