In chapter 37 we begin the story of Joseph, now 17 years old. Joseph seems to have been a good boy, but his older brothers were not, especially Dan.
Naphtali, Gad and Asher, it seems from the second verse. All the older brothers hated Joseph when they saw that their father loved him more than he did themselves, and they hated him more when Joseph told them of his dreams.
He dreamed that they were all out in the field at the harvest time, and tying the wheat into bundles, and Joseph’s sheaf stood upright, while the sheaves of the others bowed like one would to some great man. He dreamed too, that the sun, moon, and stars bowed to him. Jacob, his father, also was not pleased about his boy’s dreams, but he thought that God might have made Joseph to dream these strange things. I am sure God did, and the day came when everybody had to go to Joseph for food, or else starve to death.
This is also giving us a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must come to Him, and we must bow. before Him either in this day of His grace, or in the day of judgment, for we read in Phil. 2:10-11: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth! and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Have you bowed your knee to Him?
The brothers, all of the ten, I suppose, that were older than Joseph, went away north to feed their father’s flock in Shechem (verse 12). Strange place for them to go to, after killing so many people there, as we read they did in the thirty-fourth chapter! They must, indeed, have been hard hearted, wicked young men; and when we see what they did to Joseph, we shall certainly agree that that is just what they were.
Jacob sent Joseph to the place where the brothers were with the flocks, and when he got there, he could not find them, for they had gone further, to Dothan, but a man who found Joseph, told him where they were. Joseph was told to see if everything was all right with his brothers and the flocks, and go back home again, but when the brothers saw him coming, and he was still a long way off, they said to one another, “Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and 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.”
The eldest son, Reuben, heard what the others were saying, and he would not agree to killing Joseph, but told his brothers to put him in a pit nearby, because he meant to get Joseph out, and send him home again. So when Joseph came where his brothers were, they took his coat away from him that his father had made, and pushed or threw him into a pit; after that they sat down to eat. But presently they saw a train of camels, loaded with spices and balm and perfume, coming along the road on the way to Egypt, and the fourth. son, Judah, said to the others, “What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come. let us sell him to the Ishmaelites.”
So they drew and lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold him, just like people sell cows and horses and hogs, for twenty pieces of silver, and soon he was loaded on to one of the camels, and on his way. poor boy, down to that far away country of Egypt. How very sad he must have been, but no matter how much he might have cried, or struggled to get free, it would do no good. He might have said to himself, “Why has God let my wicked brothers treat me so mean, when I did nothing to deserve it?”
What a picture we get in this also of the Lord Jesus. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” “They hated Him without a cause.” He too, was sold. The wickedness of men’s hearts was told out at the cross. They killed Him, but He arose from the dead. and so Joseph was taken up out of the pit.
He may have thought that God had forgotten him, but it was not true, as we shall see. The very thing that seemed the worst, proved to be the best thing that could happen to Joseph.
Reuben, the oldest of the brothers, had not been with the others when the Midianites went by with their camels, and when he came back and looked in the pit they had pushed Joseph into, he was very much worried, but his brothers told him what they had done, and it doesn’t seem as though he cared after that.
They took Joseph’s coat, and after killing a baby goat, dipped the coat in its blood, and deceitfully and cruelly sent or took it to their father, to make him believe that Joseph had been eaten by some wild animal. Poor Jacob grieved for Joseph many days, and his children tried to comfort him, but they couldn’t make him feel better. The wicked brothers never told him what they had done, but God was going to bring out all the truth.
Joseph went down into Egypt with the men on the camels, and they sold him to one of the king’s soldiers.