Genesis

WITH the story of Joseph we come to the last division of Genesis, though the heading is "These are the generations of Jacob" since Jacob was the head of the family. The development and progress of the household of Jacob until at length it became a nation in Egypt had Joseph as a pioneer, and it is almost entirely to this development under Joseph that the remainder of Genesis is devoted. At the same time the story is not concerned with Joseph only (see 38), but with Jacob and all his sons.

The fullness of the narrative is worthy of consideration. Far more is told us of Joseph than of any of the patriarchs preceding him. There is a fourfold value and importance in the record of Joseph’s life:

In concentrating attention on the life of Joseph it is impossible to avoid noticing the various aspects of faith represented by the leading characters in Genesis. Thus, Abel illustrates redemption through faith; Enoch stands for the walk of faith; Noah bears witness to the confession of faith; Abraham expresses the obedience of faith; Isaac is an example of the patience of faith; Jacob reveals the training of faith; while Joseph exemplifies the testing and triumph of faith.

In the chapter before us we have the commencement of the story which is so familiar and precious to all lovers of Holy Writ.

Joseph was the elder son of Rachel (Gen 30:24). Of his early life nothing is recorded. He could not have been more than five or six years old when his father left Gen. Mesopotamia. He was therefore the child of Jacob’s later life, and escaped all the sad experiences associated with the earlier years at Haran. He comes before us in this chapter at the age of seventeen. His companions were his half-brothers, the grown up sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. From all that we have hitherto seen of them they must have been utterly unfit companions for such a youth. Jacob’s elder sons had naturally been affected by the life in Haran, by the jealousy at home, and by the scheming between Laban and Jacob. They had been brought up under the influence of the old Jacob, while Joseph had been the companion of the changed Jacob or Israel. There are few people more unfitted for influence over younger brothers than elder brothers of bad character.

The difference between the elder brethren and Joseph and Joseph was accentuated by the fact that Joseph his brethren brought unto his father the evil report of his brethren. What precisely this meant we do not know, but from the wording in the original it was evidently something that was well known and notorious in the neighborhood. It may have been dishonesty, but most likely it was something much worse, in view of all that we know of them. It is sometimes thought that Joseph is blameworthy for telling tales; but there does not seem any warrant for regarding him as a mere spy. It is an utterly mistaken sense of honour that keeps people from giving information when wrong-doing is involved.

Far from being mean and cowardly, such action is not only justifiable but necessary. Tale-bearing pure and simple is, of course, always despicable; but there is a time to speak, and on such an occasion silence is criminal. The lad had been brought up amid the more godly influences of Jacob’s later years, and it is quite easy to understand the shock that would be given him at meeting with this wickedness away from home on the part of his elder brothers. So long as there was no exaggeration, no malice, and no personal ends to serve, there could be nothing blameworthy in Joseph bringing his father their evil report.

There was, however, something much more than this to account for the differences between Joseph and his brethren. Israel had a special love for this child of Rachel, and he did not hesitate to show it in a very definite way. The gift of a coat of many "pieces" (not colours), or rather the tunic with sleeves, was about the most significant act that Jacob could have shown to Joseph. It was a mark of distinction that carried its own meaning, for it implied that exemption from labour which was the peculiar privilege of the heir or prince of the Eastern clan. Instead of the ordinary work-a- day vestment which had no sleeves, and which, by coming down to the knees only, enabled men to set about their work this tunic with sleeves clearly marked out its wearer as a person of special distinction, who was not required to do ordinary work. Whether Jacob exercised sufficient prudence in showing such undisguised partiality for Joseph is an open question. It was in any case a very natural thing for him to do. He was the child of his old age, the son of his beloved wife, and without doubt a sympathetic, responsive listener to all that the patriarch had to say about the promises of God to himself and to his fathers. It was impossible after Reuben’s great sin (Gen 35:22) for the transfer of the birthright from him to be disguised from the others, and it was equally natural for Jacob to appoint for Joseph the privileges of the firstborn.

And so when his brethren saw these marks of special favour they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. Although he was so young and they were grown men, their jealousy had been excited, for they readily saw all that it meant. Nor may we overlook the remarkable difference in their lives and conduct, a fact which must have rebuked the elder brothers and added fuel to the fire of their envy and jealousy. Joseph’s purity of life and moral growth must have rankled in their hearts.

The hatred of the brothers was soon intensified through the dreams that Joseph narrated to them. The first dream was that of the sheaves in the field. He dreamt that the sheaves of his brethren made obeisance to his own sheaf. This, in true Eastern fashion, was interpreted by the brethren to mean his dominion over them, and as a consequence they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. Not only did they feel annoyed at his telling them his dream, but their animosity was stirred by reason of the dream itself. Again he dreamed, and this time his father and mother were included: "Behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. Joseph told this to his father as well as to his brethren, and Jacob at once checked him, expressing astonishment that anything of the kind could possibly come true. Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" The reference to the mother seems to be to Leah, who had taken the place of Rachel, and had become a mother to her sister’s children. Yet, although the father rebuked the boy, he could not help being impressed. His father observed the saying. Like Mary in after years, there was something that even Israel could not understand (Luk 2:19, Luk 2:51). The repetition of the dream seems to imply certainty of fulfilment (Gen 41:32), and the dreams were at once natural and supernatural. They were natural in form as distinct from any Divine vision, and yet they were clearly prophetic of Joseph’s future glory.

It is sometimes thought that Joseph made a mistake in telling his brethren these dreams or at any rate, that he was wrong in telling the second. He does not seem to have been actuated by self-consciousness or vanity, or perhaps he would not have told what he had experienced. Whether this was so or not, the effect was disastrous to him, for it only added fuel to the fire, intensifying his brother’s animosity.

How true to life are these dreams of the youth! Youth is the time for visions of the future. Young men cannot help dreaming dreams, for they would not be young men if they did not do so. A youth without ideals is a youth without inspiration; and when, as in Joseph’s case, it is susceptible to spiritual intuitions, there is indeed the promise and potency of a fine manhood.

In the course of their work as shepherds, Jacob’s elder sons went to Shechem, about sixty miles from Hebron; and, in view of all that had happened at Shechem, it is not surprising that Israel wished to know how it fared with his sons and with the flocks. He thereupon commands Joseph to take the journey of inquiry. His orders met with a ready and full response, Here am I. The words of Jacob should be noted: "Go, I pray thee; see the peace of thy brethren and the peace of the flocks." Jacob might well wish to know whether there was peace, considering the danger to which the brethren and flocks were liable in going back to the neighborhood of Shechem. Joseph, however, has to go several miles further, for the brethren had gone on to Dothan, which was on the southern slope of Mount Gilboa (Gen 37:17). Perhaps even they felt that it was scarcely safe to remain too long in Shechem.

This promptness and thoroughness of obedience Joseph’s on the part of Joseph is very characteristic of him, and should be carefully noted all through his history. It has often and truly been pointed out that Joseph seems to have combined all the best qualities of his ancestors the capacity of Abraham, the quietness of Isaac, the ability of Jacob, and the personal beauty of his mother’s family. It is interesting to note that the same word is used of the mother and the son (Gen 29:17 and Gen 49:6).

The sight of Joseph in the distance was sufficient to stir up again all their animosity, and even before he came near unto them they conspired against him to slay him. They were prepared to go the whole length of murder, and had their answer ready for their father. Some evil beast hath devoured him. We can almost see the grim smile with which they said, We shall see what will become of his dreams. The conspiracy was all very simply but quite cleverly concocted, every point was met, the wild beast and the ready explanation.

At this point Reuben intervened, and in view of the fact that Joseph had superseded him in the position of firstborn, we must not fail to observe the magnanimity of his appeal. He begged them not to kill him but to cast him into the pit, he himself intending to rescue him and deliver him to his father again. So far the proposal was good, but it possessed obvious elements of weakness. There was no decision about it, and no guarantee that it could be carried out. "The flighty purpose never is o’ ertook, unless the deed go with it."

And then was seen another exhibition of their callousness and cruelty. They stripped the lad of hat tunic which was such a bugbear to them, and cast him into one of the pits in the neighborhood, while they themselves sat down to eat bread. Thomas Fuller quaintly remarks, "With what heart could they say grace, either before or after meat?" There within earshot was their own brother, his appeals for mercy having fallen on deaf ears. It was to this fearful hardness and cruelty that the prophet referred ages afterwards, when he spoke of those who drink wine in bowls . . . but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph (Amo 6:6). We can also understand still more of their savagery when we remember that twenty years afterwards they recalled this moment, and said that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear (Gen 42:21). Those who had butchered a whole family in Shechem were not likely to trouble themselves about the piteous cries and pleas of a mere lad whom they so cordially hated.

In the course of their meal another suggestion Joseph sold, occurred to them. They saw in the distance a company of Ishmaelite merchants on their way to Egypt, and Judah had what must have been thought a happy idea. There was an opportunity of avoiding the sin of murder and at the same time of making a little profit by selling him to these merchants. They shrank from slaying, but not from enslaving their brother. It was something of honour among thieves. He was not to be killed, because he was their brother and their flesh; but slavery did not matter in the least, even though he was their brother and their flesh. Nor are we surprised to read that his brethren were content with Judah’s proposal that is to say, they "hearkened" (Heb.) with perfect acquiescence. Circumstances sometimes seem to turn out favorably for bad men as well as good, and this shows that it is impossible to believe that circumstances alone are necessarily the voice of Providence. They must be judged by principle; and if circumstances are wrong in themselves, no happy coincidence or association can make them right. There is a great deal of danger in interpreting circumstances, lest we should bend them to our will instead of reading them in the light of God’s eternal truth.

Thus the first two proposals, to kill Joseph out right (Gen 37:20), and to cast him into a pit and let him die there (Gen 37:24), were set aside for a third, and he was sold as a slave to the Midianites (Gen 37:28). They therefore took him out of the pit, and in a short time he was on his way, as a slave, to Egypt, while they doubtless rejoiced in his removal and in their own possession of twenty pieces of silver (about 2l.10s.).

Reuben seems to have been away when the proposal to sell Joseph was made and carried out. People are often away when they are most needed. If he had taken the bolder course earlier in the day, the result might have been very different. He seems to have been true to his character, unstable as water, and when he returned to his brethren he was doubtless soon made aware of what had happened, and apparently entered into the plan with the rest of them. They carried out their ideas with great thoroughness. They found it convenient that they had not sold Joseph’s coat, and taking it up from where they had thrown it, they dipped it in the blood of one of the kids, ready to show their father.

When they arrived home Jacob soon recognized his son’s coat, and realizing that Joseph had been devoured by an evil beast, rent his clothes and mourned many days; and though all his sons and daughters tried to comfort him their efforts proved unavailing, for he refused to be consoled. We Jacob’s cannot fail to note the unutterable grief of the aged patriarch. There was a time, not long before, when he met the awful sorrow and shame connected with his firstborn with dignity and trust in God (Gen 35:22), but now he seemed to be utterly overwhelmed by his sorrow. There was no expression of submission to the will of God, no testimony of faith in God, and no allusion to the new name Israel in the narrative. How often in the course of experience a great sorrow has so overwhelmed a soul that it has lost the peace and strength and comfort that should have been derived through faith and fellowship in God! So it was with Mary of Bethany, who sat still in the house overwhelmed with her grief when she knew that the Master was near (Joh 11:20). Not only did she thus miss the glorious revelation that Martha obtained (Joh 11:25-26), but her weeping even caused trouble to our Lord. For He observed her and the Jews utterly prostrate and overwhelmed with grief in the presence of physical death, forgetful of Himself and his own power over it (Joh 11:32-33, Greek). There are few occasions on which the reality and power of Christian experience are shown more clearly than by the way we meet the shock of bereavement and death.

Meanwhile the chapter ends very significantly by telling us what happened to Joseph. The Midianites soon got rid of him, and sold him to Potiphar, a high official in Egypt.

The chapter is full of contrasts between man’s sin and God’s grace, and calls for special attention.

1. The Sin of man.

The root of all the trouble recorded in this chapter is envy (Act 7:9), a sin that has characterized human nature all through the ages. Neither be thou envious is the counsel of the Psalmist (Psa 37:1); and it was the experience of an earnest man in the moment of temptation who said, "I was envious . . . when I saw" (Psa 73:3). The crowning example of envy was that of the Pharisees against our Lord (Mat 27:18); and Christians are counseled against it in the New Testament, Not in strife and envying (Rom 13:13). The difference between envy and covetousness is that we envy persons and covet things. We are dissatisfied with our own lot, and we are annoyed and angered that others should be superior to us in the possession of certain things. The results of envy are many and varied, and our familiar Litany rightly gives us the train of consequences: Envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Everything recorded here of Joseph’s brethren their anger, malice, conspiracy, cruelty, callousness, deceit sprang originally from envy. So it is always. (Cf. Rom 1:29; 1Ti 4:4; Gal 5:21.) Envy is the root of almost every sin against our brethren. And whenever it is harbored, there is an end of all peace, rest, and satisfaction. Envy is the rottenness of the bones (Pro 14:30), and no one can stand against it (Pro 27:4). Where envying is, there is confusion and every evil work (Jam 3:16).

If only God had been first in the lives of these men, there would have been no envy; for when He fills the soul with His love and grace, there is no room for anything unworthy and wrong (1Co 13:4). That is why the Psalmist is not content with the negative exhortation, Neither be thou envious, but goes on to the fourfold positive counsel, "Trust in the Lord," "Delight thyself also in the Lord," "Commit thy way unto the Lord," "Rest in the Lord" (Psa 37:3-7). Not only are we to lay aside all envies, but we are also to receive the Word of God into our hearts (1Pe 2:1). It is by the expulsive power of this new affection that we are protected at all points from the sin of envy.

But the grace of God is also seen in this chapter in the way in which sin is defeated and the Divine purposes accomplished. Sin may hinder God’s plans, but it cannot ultimately defeat His purposes.

Sin is never necessary, though it may be used and overruled by God. It is absolutely impossible to bring good out of evil; for there never has been any good in evil, in spite of the familiar saying about the soul of goodness in things evil. But good can be brought about in spite of evil, and so it came to pass that the very steps Joseph’s brethren took to defeat God’s purposes were used to fulfill those dreams. We shall see what will become of his dreams. They were to see this to some purpose.