Dr. Michael D. Halsey
"THE FAMILY GOES APE"
GENESIS 37:12-36
INTRODUCTION
The brothers are in full bore rebellion against God's choice of the leader of
the family. They have put no breaks on the rebellion; it hasn't eased up
at all. The problem is that when we allow sin to continue in our lives
with hatreds, grudges and resentments, we don't know where it'll wind up.
To let it go without repentance ("change of mind"), is to flirt with disaster.
James 1:13-15 gives us a word picture to describe the unchecked progression of
sin. In vs. 14, we see that no matter how Satan may tempt us and no matter
how the world tempts us, those temptations would have no effect on us unless we
get our own desires into the mix and thus are enticed. The problem is WE
find the hatred, the grudge, and the resentment desirable and that starts the
birth process. This puts the responsibility on us.
The word picture the Holy Spirit directs (II Peter 1:20-21) James to choose the
word picture of a mother giving birth. The desire to sin experiences a
conception and gives birth to a sin. So the mother of all sin is desire.
The sin is then incubated for a short or long period of time and then is brought
to birth. Then the sin has a child and that child is death. (James uses
this in reference to physical death, not loss of salvation.) This causes the
premature death of the believer. So death is the grandchild of desire.
This is serious.
The brothers are working out of town in Shechem. That ought to raise red
flags in our minds because of what happened at Shechem. Remember Genesis
34? Two of the sons went in and acted like the wild bunch and massacred
and looted a village. These brothers are brash; they fear neither man nor
God. They go right back into the area.
No wonder Jacob is concerned about his sons. But what he does next is
naïve. He sends Joseph to find out what's going on. It's a mission
that's doomed before it starts. Jacob seems oblivious to what's going on
in his family. He's sending Joseph into the eye of the storm. If you were
reading this for the first time, the suspense would be building at this point
because the reader is already aware of the seething hostility these men have for
Joseph. Jacob is sending the young leader (age 17) of the family straight
into danger, just as much as if he was going into a nest of rattlesnakes.
Then something occurs that makes us ask, "What's this doing here?" It
seems like a detail that doesn't advance the story at all. You'd think
Moses should have omitted it. But, as we'll see, there's a reason for he
includes it. Joseph doesn't know it, and Jacob didn't know it, but the
brothers have changed locations. So when Joseph goes into the area, he
can't find them; they aren't there. Since he has no idea where they are,
he seems to be wasting time looking for them. He's wondering around.
A man comes by and tells Joseph that the people who were there in the area have
moved on to Dothan. So, obediently, as always, Joseph heads for Dothan.
Now the suspense is building even more because for the reader who knew his
geography, Dothan is 12 miles from home. If something happens, it's going
to be hard for Joseph to get back to safety.
To make matters worse, we learn that he's wearing the coat that his brothers
hate with a passion because it's the symbol that he's the heir, not Reuben; it's
the symbol that he's the favorite, and it's the symbol of his leadership.
Because of the coat, they see him coming in the distance and they begin to talk
about killing him! To them, killing him would mean the end of the dreams.
If they kill him, the dreams are gone (vs. 20). This is their way of destroying
the dreams. This is where their unchecked sin has taken them. Or
better yet, this is where they've taken the unchecked sin of hatred and
resentment. They've taken it to the point where they decide to kill him
and to make the murder appear to be by an animal.
But, there's a ray of hope for Joseph as he approaches! The oldest of the
brothers, no doubt feeling responsible, steps in and prevents the murder by
suggesting that they throw Joseph into a near-by pit. This way, he says,
they won't have to actually commit the murder; he'll die of thirst, hunger, or
an animal. Yet he only said this because he planned to come back and get
him out (vs. 21-22).
When Joseph arrives, violence breaks out. Can you imagine the hurt
physically and emotionally he goes through as he realizes his own brothers
intend to kill him? This story throbs with drama and emotion. Can
you imagine the look on his face when he realizes what they're planning to do to
him? The first thing they do is grab him and tear off the cloak they hate
so much (vs. 23. Then they throw him down (they weren't gentle) into the
pit. Something the reader notices is that there's a pit near by and the
thing is that it just "happens" to be there and it just so "happens" that
there's no water in it (vs. 24) and Moses makes that clear. Or does it
"just happen" to be there?
How in the world could they do what they do next? The passage in James
comes to the forefront again-indulge a grudge and you have no idea what evil
you're capable of. While Joseph is down in the pit, they sit down and eat!
Moses is showing us who the real animals are, especially when we learn later
that while they ate, Joseph was screaming and begging them to let him out.
A caravan comes by going to Egypt, so Judah suggests they sell him. That way,
they destroy the dreams, don't have to get their hands bloody, and, wonder of
wonders, they get paid for it. This is to Judah's credit in that he does
prevent their murdering Joseph. As he's talking the caravan is
approaching. He points out them that Joseph is, after all, their
brother(vs. 27). When he mentions that there's no profit in killing Joseph
and then covering up his blood, perhaps he's recalling to mind the story of Cain
and Abel and how Cain tried to cover up the murder and the story pictures the
blood a crying out for vengeance. After all, this is the story all over
again, of the sin of Cain against Abel. Fratricide.
They sell Joseph for the weight of shekels of silver and it's done. This would
explain to the first readers how Joseph got to Egypt and Moses wants to make
that clear (vs. 28) The irony in the situation is that if the trade route
is the route they think it is, then this would mean that this caravan, on its
way to Egypt, will pass near the home of Jacob. How discouraged would that
make Joseph to be so near, yet so far as the caravan makes its way south?
All this has happened while Reuben has been gone for a while. When he
comes back to rescue his brother, he finds he's already gone and he visibly
reacts in grief at what's been done (vs. 29) because he's so upset. He
feels responsible and asks the rest of them what he's supposed to do now.
They decide to go with the earlier story of the wild animal, so they kill a goat
and put its blood on the hated coat. When they get home, they do an
interesting thing with the coat. They take it to their father, say they
found it on their way home and then they let Jacob draw his own conclusion (vss.
31-33). It's ironic that Jacob deceived his father by using goats.
Now he's deceived with the use of a goat. We see that when they
approach Jacob, they have an interesting way of putting it: ". . ., "is this
your son's cloak?" It's not "our brother's," but "your son's."
He draws the conclusion they expected. The thing is that they're so evil,
they don't care about their own father and what this does to him. It could
have killed him for all they knew, but they didn't care. In verses 34-35,
we see hypocrisy in action-they spend some time trying to comfort their father.
They've erected a stone wall of silence and they're holding to it.
But . . . while there's grief and misery back home, Moses wants us to know that
God is at work. Things out of the ordinary are happening! Joseph
survives and is alive in Egypt. Not only that, but Joseph isn't an
ordinary slave in Egypt. He's much better off. A high-ranking
official, the captain of the Egyptian Secret Service (vs. 36) buys him and takes
him home.
CONCLUSION
We see the hand of God indirectly at work in these events. Remember the
"wasted time" Joseph spent lost and looking for his brothers? That wasn't
some incidental detail. While he's wondering around out there, the caravan
that will get him into Egypt is on its way toward Dothan where the brothers are.
God arranges it so that when the brothers see the caravan, Joseph will be in the
pit, ready for sale. If he gets there too early, they'll kill him before
they caravan gets there. If he gets there late, the caravan has already
gone by. All that in addition their being a pit there and there being no
water in it.
But the most wonderful truth of them all is that God's choice of a leader is not
so easily changed. In spite of all they could do, Joseph will survive and
fulfill his destiny. Persecution may come, they may hate him and try to
kill him, but God choice will fulfill his destiny. And in so doing, the
brothers actually become the agents of the fulfillment of the very dreams they
hate! II Cor. 4:7-18 and Rom. 8:31! READ!
If God has chosen you for a task, no amount of opposition can keep you from
fulfilling your destiny. In fact, God may use the opposition in the
working out of that destiny!