Genesis 37:1-19

More chapters are devoted to Joseph than to Abraham or Isaac or anyone else. More chapters are devoted to Joseph than to the first whole period from Genesis 1–11. This should cause us to ask why Joseph should be given such a huge place in Scripture.

There’re probably several reasons. One is that the life of Joseph is a good and honorable life. He’s the living example of verse 8 in Philippians 4 and I’ll read,

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

God wants us to have whatever is good, virtuous, and great before our eyes and our thinking, and Joseph’s life is just that.

There’s another reason, and it is a great one.

No one in Scripture’s more like Christ in his person and experiences than Joseph, yet nowhere in the New Testament is Joseph given to us as a type of Christ. However, the likeness can’t be accidental.

The Bible is reminding us of who’s in the covenant line that leads to Christ and that God’s plans are being worked out through this line.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. So says Hebrews 11 verse 13 which talks of some of these people of faith.

Along with the record of this main line, incidents occur which are selected by God to show us pictures of what will be seen in Christ. The coming chapters dealing with Joseph are no different.

The line of the Messiah comes through Judah, not Joseph, but Joseph’s life is a rich tapestry of pictures of what God will do in the world through His Son, Jesus. The amazing depth of how the stories in Joseph’s life picture Christ is truly wonderful.

As we go on into his story, we’ll see many of these likenesses.

So now we take up the story of the line of Jacob which is that line leading to the Messiah, the Christ.

Jacob is living in Canaan as the story of Joseph begins.

Now remember that Jacob has had his name changed by God to Israel and the Bible uses both names.

We begin Genesis chapter 37:1

Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.

Jacob has moved down to Hebron, south of Bethlehem at this time. This is the place where Abraham had made his home. This is the place of fellowship, of communion with God.

Verse 2,

This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. 

We can see that Jacob’s children were real problem children (with the exception of Joseph and Benjamin).

It took these men a long time to learn the lessons God would teach them.

Notice now that the emphasis shifts from Jacob to Joseph. Joseph was only seventeen, just a teenager when this incident took place. He was the youngest of the boys out there with the flocks. Benjamin was still too young, to tend the livestock at this stage and was still at home. Joseph brought to his father a bad report about the other boys. Of course, they didn’t like that. They would have no doubt seen Joseph as spying on them for their father and then running and telling Jacob tales about them. This, coupled with the fact that Joseph was Jacob’s favourite would have contributed to the other boys despising him.

We read 3,

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors.

We all have ideas and dreams about what a perfect family should be. By anyone’s measure, Joseph’s family had a lot of problems.

• As a young man, his father Jacob tried to trick his grandfather Isaac into giving him the family fortune instead of his older twin brother.
• It all fell apart and Joseph’s father Jacob had to run for his life when his twin brother vowed to murder him.
• Jacob went away, more than 200 miles on foot. He didn’t see his father Isaac for more than twenty years, when Isaac was almost dead and there’s no record that he ever saw his mother again.
• Jacob found a place with his mother’s relatives, but his uncle cheated him and treated him like a slave.
• Jacob married two of his cousins and took two more concubines.
• Between them all, they had twelve sons and at least one daughter.
• There was constant competition and conflict among all the children and all the mothers.
• It was one messed-up family yet it brought forth Joseph, and furthered God’s great plan of the ages.

It’s helpful to remember that Jesus Himself came from difficult family circumstances.

• Unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, His mother became pregnant well before the wedding.
• His mother and father were quickly married, far ahead of their announced wedding date.
• Things didn’t seem right with His dad’s side of the family down in Bethlehem.
• When Jesus was just a young child, they had to escape as refugees, fleeing for their lives.
• They made a home back in Nazareth, where everyone knew about the strange pregnancy and the quick wedding.
• Jesus never got married – unusual and maybe even scandalous for a 30-year-old rabbi.
• We don’t know what happened to Joseph Jesus’ mother’ husband.
• His own brothers didn’t believe in Him and called Him crazy.
• Jesus said that being in God’s family was more important to Him than His biological family.
• Jesus put His mother into the care of one of His disciples, not one of His brothers.

God’s word to everyone is this: Your messed-up family – past, present, or future – doesn’t mean that God has forsaken you or that some cloud has come over you that will never pass. God works in and through difficult and messed-up families.

There’s another interesting snippet here.

The name Jacob is used three times in this chapter. The name Israel is used twice. Both times Israel is used, it’s in connection with Joseph.

Here it says Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. And the reason is given, “he was the son of his old age.”

Most people take this to mean that Jacob had Joseph when he was old, but he had Benjamin after Joseph, so there’s more here than meets the eye at first glance.

The term in Hebrew when literally translated apparently says “son of old age to him” which could be a phrase meaning, “a wise son.”

It’s possible that it’s not speaking of Jacob’s advanced physical age, but Joseph’s advanced mental age. Joseph had wisdom and understanding beyond his 17 years and Jacob loved him for this quality as well. God has many “sons” listed throughout the Bible, but there is One that He loves above all others, His only begotten – Jesus.

This love is seen throughout the New Testament, starting in Matthew 3:17,

“And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'”

The wisdom of Joseph pictures the greater wisdom of Jesus.

Many passages give us this such as Isaiah 11 verse 2,

The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

These verses can easily be applied to Joseph as well as Christ.

So here in this verse, we have a beautiful picture of Christ, the Son of the Father and yet, the Ancient of Days – a title given to Christ in Daniel chapter 7.

This Ancient Son, filled with wisdom from eternity past, is loved above all others by His Father, just as Joseph, this wise Son, is loved above all his brothers.

Jacob should have learned a lesson from his own home and his own upbringing.

He knew that playing favourites would cause trouble in the family. His own father had favoured the elder brother, and Jacob knew what it was to be discriminated against. But here he practices the very same thing.

We can understand his feelings, knowing that Rachel was the wife whom he really loved. She was the one good thing in his life and she’d given him this remarkable son, Joseph and Jacob loves him dearly.

While all this is true, it still is not an excuse.

He really should not have made him that coat of many colours which would have been another constant barb pricking the other boys.

Another possible translation of “coat of many colours” would be the “coat with sleeves,” or long sleeved robe.

You see, the ordinary robe in those days consisted of one piece of cloth about ten feet long. They’d put a hole in the middle of it and stick the head through this hole. Half of the cloth would drop down the front of the body and half the cloth down the back of the body. They would tie it together around the waist or seam up the sides, and that would be their coat. They generally didn’t have sleeves. So to put sleeves in the coat of any person would set him apart from the others. And certainly, a fine coat of many colours would set him apart even more.

Jacob’s favouritism of Joseph was plain to everyone, including Joseph himself. The coat was an outward display of his position of favour, princely standing, and birthright. It was a dramatic way of saying he was the son to receive the birthright.

Now to verse 4,

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. 

Naturally, the brothers hated him for being the favourite of his father.

They couldn’t even speak peaceably to him. Imagine that. No normal conversations would have been carried on between Joseph and any of the other brothers. It would have always been a conversation wrapped in disdain and spat out in hatred.

So here we see strife in this family also. It really doesn’t matter whose family it is, sin will ruin it.

Sin ruins lives, and sin ruins families; sin ruins communities, and it ruins nations. This is the problem with our families and cities and nations today. There is just one cause: God calls it sin.

So here we find that this boy Joseph is the object of discrimination.

This is the same as with the Jews around Jesus, His own brothers of the flesh.

They hated him and couldn’t speak peaceably to Him. Instead, their words were harmful and they plotted His death at every turn. This is perfectly realised in both Joseph and Jesus. John 15:25 is a good example of this,

But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

In their hatred of Jesus, they didn’t just fail to speak peacefully to Him, they intended harm towards Him and they followed through with it. As we’ll see soon, the hatred, and the harm which follows Joseph, will be used by God for the sake of all of Jacob’s home.

Genesis 37:5-6,

Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. 

So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: 

How can we explain his conduct here?

Why would he go to his father and tell tales about his brothers in the first place when he knew it would only bring their hatred?

Well, probably he just didn’t know how bad this world can be. He had no idea how bad his brothers were. He was probably a pretty gullible lad at this time.

At best, Joseph showed a great lack of tact. Surely he knew how much his brothers would have hated to hear this dream, which set him above them.

It took him a long time to find out about the ways of the world, but he certainly learnt.

Eventually, he more than likely knew as much about the world and the wickedness of what man does to man as anyone. But that was later on, not now.

You can just imagine how Joseph has been protected. His father centred all of his affection on Rachel. He had fallen in love with her at first sight and had worked fourteen years for her. Then many years went by before she bore him a child. Finally, Joseph was born. That must have been a great joy to Jacob. But now Rachel is gone; so he centres his affection on this kid. He shouldn’t have done it because he has other sons to raise, but that’s what he does. Joseph’s been loved and protected.

To verse 7 and 8 and Joseph’s dream,

There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” 

And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 

We can easily imagine how they sneered. They would have been incensed and would certainly have scoffed at the explanation of the dream.

What’s interesting about this dream was the fact that it involved sheaves of wheat.

Joseph’s ultimate position over his brothers would be connected with grain and food.

Of course, they didn’t for a moment believed that he would rule over them. Yet, they hated him even more because of this dream. Their anger and hatred would have almost completely consumed them.

This doesn’t end the dreams, though. He had another one.

Verse 9 to 11,

Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” 

So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 

And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind. 

He told them this second dream and they understood exactly what he was talking about.

This same image appears in Revelation 12:1 where a woman is described as clothed with the sun, and the moon is under her feet, and she had a crown of twelve stars upon her head. That means the nation of Israel. These brethren understood that Joseph was telling them about themselves, the sons of Israel.

We’re seeing the nation of Israel at its beginning here.

As we’ve said Genesis is the seedbed of the Bible. The things in Genesis are likened to a bud on a rose bush, and the flower opens up as we go through the Scripture.

Here’s a bud that’s not going to fully open up until we get into the Book of Revelation. It’s a late bloomer you might say, but it is going to open up.

We need to understand what’s being said rather than try and guess and we don’t need to do any guessing when something’s made this clear.

Old Jacob understood it exactly, and he also jumps on the bandwagon with the other sons and rebukes Joseph.

“Does this mean that your father, your mother, and your brothers are going to bow down to you?” Jacob says.

All Joseph could answer was, “That was the dream.” He didn’t try to interpret it because it was evident to everyone there. His brothers just dismissed it and paid no attention to it. They thought it wasn’t even in the realm of possibility, as far as they were concerned. They knew that not one of them would ever bow down to Joseph! But Jacob kept the dream in mind even though he rebuked Joseph as well. Was there a tiny light shining inside Jacob that realised this could come to pass?

Was Joseph unwise to tell of the dreams, knowing how irritating it was to his brothers? The second dream was even more likely to cause even more resentment, because it set him not only above his brothers, but also set him above his father and mother.

This certainly may indicate a glimmer of the pride common in those that are favoured and blessed, but on the other hand, God knew exactly what He was doing in the life of this boy. Had he not told the dreams to his family the impact of the prophecies they represented wouldn’t have been there especially for the family and for us as well.

What God reveals is far more offensive to those who hate Him than how He reveals it.

This is true with what we would call His natural revelation through creation. We’re happy with what He’s created, but we hate what it tells us, and so we make up stuff like evolution to hide our faces from the reality we see.

Even though Joseph was already hated, it’s his rule, his authority and his position with Jacob that they truly resent.

The picture this shows of Jesus is painfully clear. The tribes of Israel, represented by these sons, wanted nothing to do with their God-ordained King.

It’ll take many years and painful lessons for these boys to come to the point where they acknowledge Joseph as their leader and bow down to him. The same is true with Jesus.

This portion of the story is possibly not in strict chronological order because Back in Genesis 35:16-20, Joseph’s mother Rachel died. This portion seems to backtrack as it’s referring to Rachel.

Possibly, Genesis 37:2 is where the timing difference happens as it refers to the genealogy or generations of Jacob. This more than likely ends the record preserved by Jacob himself (who tells of the death of Rachel), and the next line begins the record preserved by Joseph.

These same kinds of transitions are found in Genesis 5:1 with the generations of Adam, Genesis 6:9 with the generations of Noah and Genesis 25:19 with the generations of Isaac.

When we read about dreams in the Bible we see that they’re actually prophecies, but we need to be careful to not assume that the dreams we have are prophecies or visions from God.

Now, it is entirely possible that God is able to speak through dreams, today but it’d be highly unlikely and it’d be completely unexpected. Today we have a much more sure word, the scriptures. We need to know the whole Bible to know the voice of God.

God’s word is written down now in every language of the world and in it we have everything we need to understand what He desires from us and for us.

Since the completion of the work of Christ, dreams as prophetic utterances are never mentioned as being applicable to us. We can safely say that they’re not intended as a tool for us during this dispensation of time that is the Church age, The Age of Grace, the age we now live in.

We can lose a foothold on sound Christianity very easily by running after dreams or those who say they’ve had dreams. We have the Bible, we have God’s revealed word, and that word is all-sufficient for our faith and our daily lives.

We know and fully expect that God speaks to us in the Bible, and if we’re ever told by a well-meaning (or otherwise meaning) person that we should take heed of something God told them in a dream, we should take no notice. We go instead to the Word of God, the Bible. Even if God did speak to that person in a dream it would be nothing that’s not in Word. We should be very careful about people who supposedly prophesy to us or speak from their dreams or tell us that The Lord spoke to them and told them to say such and such.

Now to verse 12,

Then his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. 

At this time, Jacob and his family were living around Hebron, which was as we’ve said, is about twenty or more miles south of Jerusalem. And Shechem is that same distance north of Jerusalem, so these boys are grazing the sheep a long way from home and we can see that they grazed their sheep over that huge area.

Genesis 37:13

And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” So he said to him, “Here I am.” 

Joseph said, “All right, I’ll go.” Notice that he’s very obedient to his father. Verse 14,

Then he said to him, “Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem. 

Joseph had travelled all the way from Hebron to Shechem. When he reached Shechem, he began to look around for his brothers. That’s rugged terrain up there, and he couldn’t find them.

Verse 15,

Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you seeking?” 

We can imagine that this man’d seen Joseph pass his tent several times; so he asks him who he’s looking for.

Now to verses 16 and 17,

So he said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.” 

And the man said, “They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. 

Dothan’s a long way north of Shechem. It is near the Valley of Esdraelon, and this is where the brothers have moved the sheep. And at last Joseph’s found them.

Now to verses 18 to 20,

Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. 

Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! 

Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!” 

How these brothers hated Joseph! They’re probably almost one hundred miles from home, and they say to each other, “Let’s get rid of him now, and we’ll see what’ll become of his dreams!”

Before we go on with the story, we should look at the comparison of Joseph to the Lord Jesus. We shouldn’t miss this.

The birth of Joseph was miraculous in that it was by the intervention of God as an answer to prayer. The Lord Jesus is virgin born. His birth was certainly miraculous!

Joseph was loved by his father. The Lord Jesus was loved by His Father, who declared, “This is My beloved Son.”

Joseph had a coat of many colours which set him apart. Christ was set apart in that He was “separate from sinners.”

Joseph announced that he was to rule over his brethren. The Lord Jesus presented Himself as the Messiah. Just as they ridiculed Joseph’s message, so they also ridiculed Jesus. In fact, they nailed to His cross the words: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Joseph was sent by his father to his brethren. Jesus was sent to His brethren. He came first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Joseph was hated by his brethren without a cause, and the Lord Jesus was hated by His brethren without a cause.

As we return to the story now, remember that Joseph is approaching his brothers, and they see him coming and they start plotting against him. He’s wearing that coat of many colours or the coat with the sleeves, which was a mark of his high position and it would have only gone to kindle the fires of hatred even more.

We must remember that Joseph was younger than his brothers yet he was already in a position above them. So now all this burning hatred and jealousy have now festered into a plan of murder!

So, next time we’ll see Joseph’s treatment at the hands of his brothers. Just like Jesus’ brothers handed Him over it was out of envy, jealousy and hatred. But this, despite being horrific, brought about the greatest event in all of human history.

Jesus Christ died, not for His own sins – for He had none, but for the sins of the world.

Until we continue with this captivating saga from Genesis, friends may God bless and keep you.