Genesis 37
Jacob’s ten sons were now grown to be men, though Joseph was only seventeen years old, and Benjamin, just a child. Joseph lived with his father in Hebron, a beautiful valley on a mountain. The ten sons were all bad. They fed the sheep, and Joseph told his father of their bad ways. Jacob loved Joseph most, therefore his brothers hated him. Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors, and they hated him more.
One night Joseph had a strange dream. He told his brothers that they were binding sheaves in the field, and Joseph’s sheaf stood straight up, and all their sheaves stood round, and bowed down to his sheaf. Then they hated him still more. Again Joseph dreamed. He saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bow down to him. How strange! His father asked, “What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?” His brothers hated him all the more, but his father thought about it. God had given these dreams. Later on, we will see how God made them come true.
Jacob had many sheep and cattle. His sons fed the sheep at Shechem (the city where they had killed its people). Hebron, high on a mountain, makes us think of heaven: but Shechem, of sin, deception and murder. Jacob’s sons left Hebron and their father, to feed the sheep down at Shechem. Have we not all left our heavenly Father and chosen this bad world?
Jacob said to Joseph, “Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee unto them. Go, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again.” So he sent Joseph out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
Think of our heavenly Father. The Bible says, “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14)). And “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:1717For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:17)). As Jacob sent his beloved son, so God sent His beloved Son to save us.
He found they had gone to Dothan, so he went there. His brothers said, “Behold, this dreamer cometh: Let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say ‘Some evil beast hath devoured him:’ and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”
They stripped him out of his coat of many colors. They wanted to kill him, but his oldest brother Reuben said, “Let us not kill him,” but “cast him into this pit.” Reuben wanted to take him to his father. So they threw Joseph into a pit. Joseph cried and begged them to let him go, yet they would not listen. There was no water in the pit. Then they sat down to eat. Joseph was hungry, thirsty, and in trouble. But did these brothers care? God saw how bad they were. He also saw and took care of Joseph.
While his brothers were eating, they saw Ishmaelites coming, riding on camels. They were also Abraham’s children, so these people really were the cousins of those bad men. They were taking spices, balm and myrrh down to Egypt. Judah said: “What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh.” The brothers agreed. They drew up Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites. Do you remember that the brethren of the Lord Jesus—the Jewish people—sold Him for thirty pieces of silver? Joseph is a picture of the Lord Jesus, and that pit is a picture of His grave.
Joseph’s life was spared, but the life of the Lord Jesus was not spared. They nailed Him to the cross. We read in the Psalms of His grief and the pain He suffered for us. “Reproach hath broken My heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none” (Psa. 69:2020Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. (Psalm 69:20)). God did not leave Joseph when he was in trouble but God turned away from the Lord Jesus. Hear Him crying, “My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Psa. 22:11<<To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.>> My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1)). You and I know why God forsook Him—because of our sins. God put my sins on the Lord Jesus Christ. When He was nailed on the cruel cross, God saw my sins borne on His body. No man can fully understand the pain He suffered. We can know how Joseph suffered, but we can never know how deeply the Saviour suffered. Have you ever thought, “He suffered so much just for me?” Have you ever taken that work for your own self and thanked Him? If not, do so now, because He died for sinners.
When Jacob sent Joseph, he did not know that he would meet trouble. But when God sent His Son to save us, He knew that He would be crucified. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” We can say, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”
Do you remember that they stripped Jesus of His clothes? When Joseph’s brothers stripped off his coat, they killed a little goat and dipped the coat in the blood. Then they sent it to their father saying that they had found it, and asked if he could tell if it was his son’s coat. It was very, very bad to so deceive their old father. Even so, God saw all those things, and did not forget. He says, “They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness.” For more than twenty years, they kept it quiet about the goat’s blood on the coat, so nobody knew it, but God.
You have heard how the Lord Jesus came into the world and what the people did to Him. Some people talk about the Lord Jesus’ birthday, but do not want to think about His death, because it was for sinners He was nailed to the cross. What does His death mean to you?