JOSEPH SOLD TO HIS ENVIOUS BROTHERS Genesis 37

When his father, Israel, sent him to his brothers in Shechem, Joseph had no hint that his brothers’ envy would rob him of his freedom. Joseph obeyed immediately, with his ‘Here am I ‘. Israel longed for news of his sons. Joseph asked where are my brothers feeding their flocks?’ So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dotham, which was on the direct route to Egypt. ’ (v16) Part of God’s purpose.

Envy gripped the brothers, who ‘conspired against him to kill him.’ Look this dreamer is coming,’ they said. The secret wickedness drove them ,’Come, therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit,’ and ( sin generated lying ). And we shall say, ’Some wild beast has devoured him. We shall see what becomes of his dreams.’ A generation later they received the astonishing answer to their threats.

The older brother Reuben fought to spare him from this murderous plan. ‘He delivered him out of their hands.’ ‘Let us not kill him.’ he pleaded, ’Let us shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him’- that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.’ The brothers had premeditated this ghastly plan.

‘Joseph came to his brothers, ‘ They stripped Joseph of his coat of many colours,’ recalling that he is their brother and the favourite son of their father Israel. His shameful experience showed how our Lord Jesus was shamefully stripped of His clothing at the trial with Pilate and Herod- and robbed of the honour and recognition due to God’s special SON. ‘ Mercilessly, they tossed him into a pit, which was mercifully empty of water ‘

Callously disregarding Joseph, ’They sat down to a meal’ interrupted by a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry them down to Egypt.’ In Joseph, they conveyed cargo more precious to Egypt and Israel than all the spices they could carry. God shaped a redemption beyond expectation.

Judah suggested ‘there would be no profit from killing their brother and concealing his blood.’ So he advised, ‘Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelite , ad let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.’ Remarkably, ‘the brothers listened to him.’ As the Midianite traders passed by, the brothers’ merchandising tendency was aroused, ‘

‘So they pulled Joseph up from the pit and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver‘; the price of a common slave. This reminds us how Judas, the betrayer, sold his beloved Lord for a mere pittance, thirty pieces of silver. Joseph is a type of our dear Lord Jesus; betrayed by his brothers, and sold to enemies.

Reuben genuinely grieved when he returned to the pit, from which Joseph had been freed. He tore his clothes, evidencing deep sorrow. Returning to his brothers, he exclaimed, ‘The boy is no more. Where shall I go?’ Did Reuben pray; did he cry to God for forgiveness? We do not know how the heavenly Father comforted his heart.

The brothers planned to conceal their envious, malicious hatred of their brother. ’They took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.’ (31) Does this suggest a substitutionary slaying and shedding of blood to cover the brother’s spiteful sin? Their sin would haunt them for the years following.

They tricked and deceived their aged father in presenting the blood-splashed tunic to him, ’We have found this.’ And craftily, ’Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?‘ ‘Thou shalt not lie’ is the regal commandment, which these brothers flaunted. Sin cannot be swept under the carpet - it must be atoned for. Hence, God the Father must send His own beloved Son to die at Calvary, and propitiate for the sins of Judah’s sons -and our’s. To shield each generation with His covering.

With pallid face, tears streaming down his face, the aged Judah ’Recognised it, and said, what the brothers well knew, ‘It is my son’s tunic.’ A wild beast has devoured him.’ Yes, satan, the roaring lion, had blinded the vile minds of the brothers. God’s word has not veiled the magnitude of this offensive conduct. It is still effective today.

Wracked with sorrow, ‘Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son for many days. How much did he age in the days of mourning? How deep was his grief? How the eternal God must have tested his trust in this dreadful trial!

With guilty consciences, ‘His sons and daughters, (who schemed the sham and deception) arose to comfort him, and he said, ’For I shall go into the grave to my son in mourning.’ Thus his father wept for him. His faith in reunion in heaven with his son, Joseph, falsely declared to have died, comforts us. David said much the same, when the little child conceived from his adulterous affair with Bathsheba died. ’He shall not come to us, but I shall go to him,’ a sweet assurance of the getting-together in glory in our Lord Jesus Christ. Deep comfort from an unusual source.

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God’s unfailing providence showed in the timing, when Potiphar went to the slave market, seeking help from the Midianites, who ’sold Joseph to Potiphar , an officer of Pharoah and captain of the guard.’ Exciting events awaited this young man, introduced to a foreign culture, language and godless life-style. Yet the Lord would mould this remarkable, yet lonely, young man. He fulfils much of the characteristics of our Lord Jesus, and is a perfect type of his dear Lord.

Please recommend your friends to study the life and developments of this godly man.