Genesis 38:1-11 – Human failures do not negate the grace of God

In Genesis 38, we will learn of how God used Tamar to preserve the line of Judah. It is essentially about the providential grace of God at work in the line of Judah to ensure its continuity. This chapter reveals to us the immoral conduct of Judah and Tamar in a foreign land so that the remarkable chaste conduct of Joseph in pagan Egypt could be highlighted. In these first eleven verses, we read of the sin of Judah. The children of Jacob, all 12 of them, must have been aware of the warning given to Abraham and Isaac against marrying foreign women. In a dramatic way, in Genesis 24:3, Abraham made his servant Elizar swear that he would not get a wife for Isaac his son from the Canaanites. The same with Jacob in Genesis 28:1, He specifically told Jacob, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.” From these, we surmise that Judah would be aware of this standing instruction not to marry Canaanite women. Yet despite this knowledge, he broke this standing instruction. This event most likely took place just before or when Joseph was a slave in Egypt. Genesis 38: 1 tells us that Judah went down to the Adullam. There he met Hirah, a Canaanite. We are told that he also met an unnamed Canaanite woman referred to only as the daughter of Shua. Here his lust must have gotten a better of him, so he took the woman in and they had sexual relationship. Being productive, she bore three sons for Judah, namely, Er, Onan and Shelah.

When Er was of age, Judah found him a Canaanite wife. Her name was Tamar. Through Er, half Canaanite and Tamar, a full Canaanite, the line of Judah was supposed to be preserved.  Verse 7 said that Er was wicked and he did not last because the Lord took his life and he died without a child to his name. According to the marital law, Onan the younger brother had the obligation to sleep with Tamar to help his elder brother produce an heir to continue his line. Onan obliged by marrying Tamar but he refused to fulfil his duty so he spilled his semen on to the floor to avoid a pregnancy for Tamar. So the Lord took his life too. Poor Tamar was childless and was a widow twice. Of course, the next in line to go into Tamar would be Shelah, the youngest son of Judah. But Judah chose to sin against Tamar, his daughter-in-law. He sent her away to her father’s house giving the excuse that Shelah was not of age yet. In reality he was afraid that Shelah would share the same ending as Er and Onan. Tamar of course trustingly took Judah at his word and left for her father’s house. Judah had effectively removed Tamar and had defused the situation, or so he thought.

Let us explore two applicable lessons from these eleven verses. Firstly, this account reveals to us the remarkable grace of God. Despite Judah’s failure to walk obediently, King David and ultimately Christ Jesus, the King of kings, came through this line. This would not have been possible if not for the grace of God. Secondly, we are shown how important it is for an upright man to fulfill a promise made. Fear of loss cannot be used as an excuse to negate a promise made. Let us remember not to let the lust of the flesh overtake us and disobey the Lord in His commands. And let our words be our bond to honor the Lord. Then we will be walking right with God.  

Genesis 37: 19-36 – In every experience God is designing the outcome

Joseph, now on his way to Egypt, and Reuben, who had planned to rescue him at an opportune time, did not know about it. To his horror, when he returned to the pit where they had left Joseph’s frail body, he was nowhere to be found. Tearing his robe, he cried desperately, “The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?” It’s his way of saying “Where can I escape my father’s wrath?” Being the oldest, he anticipated that the blame would fall squarely on him. The only response he got from his brothers was absolute silence.

The plot had thickened and it centred on the multi-coloured tunic of Joseph. The very coat that expressed Jacob’s deep love for his son that became the brothers’ deep hate. Now all that it would become would be the sad instrument for deception. So we read in verses 31-33 “So they took Joseph’s tunic, and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood; and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” Then he examined it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” 

Remember years ago, Jacob, at the instigation of his mother, used goat skins to deceive his father and stole Esau’s blessing. Now the cockerel indeed had returned to roost. What goes around truly comes around. What he did years ago had come full cycle. He identified his son’s clothes, he saw the mutilated condition of the robe and his conclusion was Joseph was gone forever. Can’t imagine the sorrow that had pierced his soul that day. While traditional mourning would usually take a week, he insisted that his would last till the day he dies. That was the depth of his love and the depth of his sorrow. Nothing and no one could comfort him. What an irony it must have been. The brothers knew that Joseph was not dead. He was bound for Egypt. All they could reminisce was the desperate wail of their brother from the dried well. Ever wondered how their conscience could withstand the deceit? That’s the depth of sin and deception. Hardened, totally hardened.  

Meanwhile regarding Joseph, verse 36 had this to say “…the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard.” Now God’s plan for the life of Joseph and his destiny had taken the first step. What would become of Joseph? We all know the conclusion because we have the advantage of living many centuries after what had happened. And we probably cannot understand the magnanimity of Joseph. He absolutely had good reasons to engage in self-pity. Who could blame him if he had developed a victim’s mentality? Humanly speaking, who could have blamed him if he were to be angry with God? But the mind-set of Joseph was nowhere near to any of these. He refused to engender a victimised mentality. He made the best of his circumstance and not wallow in self-pity. That’s the mind-set we must emulate. When life throws lemon at us, someone said, we can make lemonade out of it. We don’t have to develop and live with a slave and victim’s mentality. Shouldn’t we rise up from the ashes of our circumstances and put our hope and trust in God? For surely God is not through with us yet. In all circumstances, remember, God is working out all things for our good and for His glory.

What have all these got to do with us? Just as it was for Joseph, life often hurls at us what seems like injustice, unfairness, inequality and even tragedy. We must never allow them to cause us to develop a victim’s mentality to engage in a self-pity complex. We don’t have to live with the scars of betrayal. The greatest injustice fell on our glorious Lord. Yet in the depth of His indescribable agony, He cried “… Father forgive them.” Life’s realities are undeniable – wound of hurts are real painful. But the ultimate reality is that our God has all the power, and He is working His will in our life through the hardest of circumstances. Let’s learn to live optimally for Him! 

Genesis 37:25-28 – Joseph sold to Egypt

Lonely and writhing in pain Joseph was left all alone in the pit. His incessant cries of help went unheeded by his cruel brothers. They continued their jokes and laughter and carried on in their feasting, unmoved by the ghostly wails of their brother down in the pit. Their plan was to eat and move on and leave Joseph to die in that pit. Again as providence would have it, there appeared an unexpected caravan. Quickly Judah thought of a solution. Verse 25 tells us that Ishmaelites traders came from Gilead with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to Egypt. Immediately Judah thought of a better solution. He suggested that they should sell Joseph to slavery. Some sense seemed to have come to Judah. He felt that after all Joseph was still their own flesh. So in the absence of Reuben, he mooted the idea that they should sell Joseph and the brothers listened to him.

Slave trade was big business in Egypt. The Midianites was probably anticipating a big profit from the twenty shekels of silver they had paid for Joseph, when they arrived in Egypt. So the brothers pulled him out of the pit and Joseph was sold. The princely Joseph who came to his brothers dressed in a multi-coloured tunic was now a naked slave bound for Egypt. He was a victim of his brothers’ resentment for the way their father had treated them. We all know that he did not deserve such treatment from them. His greatest mistake was that he assumed that his brothers had nothing against him.

The issue is: where was God in all these? Why didn’t God warn him when he was in Shechem? Why did the man find him and told him of his brothers’ new location in Dothan?  Why didn’t God just allow Joseph to return home from Shechem? Why didn’t the event just end as Reuben had intended? For he wanted to save Joseph later and return him home. Why must the Ishmaelites appear in that caravan at such a critical time? These and many more probing questions could be raised. All we can say is that God had it all worked out. For Joseph’s path was already ordained. This poor slave would one day rise to a high position in Egypt to preserve the lives of many in the world, including his father’s and siblings’. Our advantage is that we know where this story was moving toward. But Joseph was clueless as he was bound for Egypt. Thankfully like Joseph, our lives are also in God’s hand. Difficult circumstances of life are not there to get us down. Just as Joseph’s life was honed, built and readied to fulfil God’s destiny for him, so also will ours be shaped and made ready to fulfil our destiny in God. Praise the Lord!

Genesis 37: 18-24 – Why we should curb envy and jealousy

All dressed up in his multi-coloured coat, the unsuspecting Joseph located his brothers in Dothan. Meanwhile his brothers’ hatred for him had reached a fever pitch. Except for Reuben, all of them wanted to get rid of Joseph. They caught a glimpse of Joseph from afar and knew that familiar gait of one they so hated. The multi-coloured tunic he was wearing made him immediately identifiable. The very sight of Joseph ignited the determination to murder. So verses 18-20 read, “When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’ Then let us see what will become of his dreams!” The brothers were bent on annihilating his dream and the plot thickened. Their plan was to kill him and throw him into one of the pits. They even thought of how they would tell their father. They were going to say that a wild beast had devoured him.

Meanwhile, when Reuben heard of their murderous intent he intervened. As we know, this eldest son was the one who had an affair with Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine. He was already carrying a guilt for that mistake and he couldn’t afford to carry another guilt for participating in Joseph’s murder. So as the eldest of the lot he felt responsible and stepped up to the plate to prevent the murder from happening. He told his conspiring brothers not to take Joseph’s life and it was not just a suggestion. He meant it with all his heart. What he said was assertively spoken. He firmly told them to shed no blood but instead to put him into a dry pit. His plan was clear. His intention was to return later to rescue him.

In verses 23-24, we are told that the brothers virtually brutalized Joseph. They assaulted him, and stripped him of his multi-colored tunic. They literally tore off both the colorful tunic and the inner cloth that he was wearing. What they did was not gentle. The way they went about it was like tearing the skin off an animal. Then they cast him, like dumping a dead body, into a pit, a discarded cistern without any water. The pit was of sufficient depth so that there was no way for Joseph to climb up and escape. The whole idea was to shed no blood so that it could not be like Abel’s blood that cried out for vengeance from the ground. They wanted to starve him to death. 

The heartlessness of Joseph’s brothers arose out of envy and jealousy. Jacob was largely to be blamed for his partiality in showing unequal affection towards his sons. This is what favoritism can cause. Joseph on his end was not faultless. He was young, insensitive and self-centred and arrogant. This was probably cultivated because he was the sole object of his father’s love. From them, we learn that relationship are often made convoluted and complicated by the lack of ability to be impartial. This is costly for Jacob but we don’t have to make the mistake he and his sons made. Remember what James 3:16 says. “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” So we take heed of what he said earlier in James 2:1. He said, “… do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”     

Genesis 37 12-17 – God watches over His own

Joseph’s brother’s animosity toward him was evidently clear. His rejection by his brothers was largely due to Israel’s insensitivity as a father. He had prized Joseph above his other sons and we can understand why. For Joseph, after all, was born to him by Rachel, the love of his life. Genesis 37:12-14 tell us that the brothers of Joseph were shepherding at Shechem. And Israel sent him from the valley of Hebron to find out and inquire about their well-being. Hebron was located 20 miles south of Jerusalem and 50 miles north of Shechem. It was a good five days journey from Hebron to Shechem. The distance that separated the two places, and what Simeon and Levi did to the people of Shechem for the rape of Dinah, must have caused some discomfort to Israel. His unease was understandable.  

We are not sure why Israel sent Joseph to check on them. Didn’t he notice their animosity toward his favourite son? We guess not. Probably in front of him they moderate their response to him. We expect Joseph to be more cautious when dealing with them for he had often been roughly rebuffed by them. Apparently he went to them without any bone of suspicion that they would do him harm. For he must have thought that his brothers would not harbour any ill-intention against him. We all know that family members do have misunderstandings, but to come to a point where one would plot and scheme to get the life of another is rare. Perhaps this was the reason that Joseph did not suspect his brothers’ murderous intention. He had no inkling at all when he set off to enquire of them. Innocently Joseph, in his multi-coloured tunic, made the five days journey to them.

When Joseph reached Shechem, thinking that that was where they had gone to, they were nowhere to be found. They had instead taken the flock to Dothan. But his meeting with a man in the lonely field of Shechem was not a co-incidence. For God, who had a design on his life, was watching over him. Notice it was the man who had found him wandering and checked with him. It was the man who had initiated the conversation. He asked Joseph, “What are you seeking?” Promptly he responded saying ‘I am seeking my brothers,’ and “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” That kind man overheard the brothers saying that they would go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan which was 14 miles up north. That would make Joseph approximately 65 miles away from home. He was far from his father’s protection but not from the reach of God. Truly there is nowhere in the wide expanse under heaven that the long arms of God cannot reach us. We take heart that as long as we are His, there can be no barricade that will bar him from reaching to help us. Praise His name!     

Genesis 37:5-11 – Divine providential care will carry us through

Genesis 37:1-4 gave us two reasons for the animosity that the brothers of Joseph had toward him. Firstly, we were told of his inclination to squeal on them and secondly it’s because of Jacob’s unequal affection towards his sons. His extreme love for Joseph made his other sons felt that he never loved them at all. So they became jealous of Joseph. As we turn to look at Genesis 37:5-11, we will realize that Joseph also did not help the situation by his lack of diplomacy in sharing the dreams he had. The way he shared his two dreams with his brothers exuded with arrogance. We could see that he was not the perfect person as he had always been made out to be. After all his feet were still made of clay. In these seven verses we see the feud he had with his brothers came from the two dreams he had that exalted him.  

The Bible abound with incidences that God used a dream to warn or make known to His people of up-coming condition. Dream was and can still be a sure means by which God will make known His plan for us. So we should not dismiss our dream without giving it due consideration. The first dream Joseph had recorded in verse 7 said this, “…behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.”  The dream was real stuff and not a concoction of his vain imagination. It came from God. This dream foreshadowed Joseph’s future as the ruler of Egypt and his brothers bowing down to him. Everyone could see his point. Joseph himself certainly understood its message. But being young, naïve and self-centred, he blurted out insensitively. Joseph did not anticipate his brothers’ response but they all said to him, “Are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?” The intensity of their hatred seemed to have rocketed. Verse 8 tells us that “So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.”

Joseph’s dreams came in pairs to give them the certainty of fulfilment. The second dream he had would seal the intention of God. It was God’s way of saying that He would be sovereignly bringing everything he had shown Joseph to pass. This could be why Joseph was so certain that he described it boldly, not only to his brothers but also to his father. His second dream went like this: “Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” In the dream he saw eleven stars in the sky, symbolizing his brothers and the sun and moon, symbolizing his father and mother, all bowing to him. How did they do their obeisance we are not told but the interpretation was clear that even Jacob did not totally dismiss it. However, it was too much even for an indulgent father that he rebuked him. But the silence of the brothers was threatening. His dreams had done it. The hatred his brothers had for him had reached a point where it was irreversible. The course for collusion with them was set.   

In all of Joseph’s experiences we see the hand of God behind everything, orchestrating every detail of his life. Amidst the influence of the fallen nature, his propensity and sin, God was divinely working and engineering the fulfillment of His plan. Like him, in our life’s journey there is also the possibility that we will complicate it. We can also be entangled with our own propensity and that of the people around us. There is no guarantee that we will not get caught in the mire of sin and self. It is precisely in those problems-besieging moments of our life that we should remain steadfast and continue to take our stand with God. Be sure that His providential and sustaining grace will continue to work in our lives as they had in Joseph’s. He will carry us through!  

Genesis 37:1-4 - Partiality always causes division

The account of Joseph’s life is about the fulfilment of God’s plan for His chosen people. In Genesis 15:13-14, God had prophetically told Abraham that his descendants would be strangers and enslaved in a land that wasn’t theirs for 400 years. But God promised that He would judge the nation that enslaved them. After they had served out their enslavement, they as a nation would come out with much possessions. It was in the life of Joseph, this prophetic word concerning Israel, as a people in bondage, took shape. But more than that, the story of Joseph’s life tells us that God works through the events of everyday life. It’s about God objectively moving His plan forward, through the ordinary everyday life of His creation. Joseph’s rejection by his brothers was God’s providential move, to bring him progressively to the position where he would be instrumental for the preservation of His people.

In Genesis 36, we learned of Isaac’s death and burial and also Esau’s departure. The transition had taken place. Esau’s departure gave Jacob a real grip of the Promised Land. He was now living in Canaan. Genesis 37:2 tells us that the young 17-year old Joseph was out in the field shepherding the flock with his brothers, namely Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, those bore to Jacob by Bilhah and Zilpah. Here we are first given a glimpse of the proclivity of Joseph. He was far from perfect as he had often been painted to be. In this same verse, we are told that he would carry tales to his father concerning his brothers. Though we are not told of how Jacob had reacted with what he heard, we can roughly sense the chiding the brothers must have had from their father. They obviously would loath the fact that their father had favored him over them. This is a blow below the belt. It is obvious that no one likes a squealer. Much less one who takes advantage of their favored position and tells on others.

We also recall how Jacob’s nonchalance over Dinah’s rape had already caused her brothers to take matters into their hand. In their minds, Jacob had never attached any importance to any of them other than Joseph. The resentment they had toward Joseph heightened when their father’s blatant partiality was seen in the specially tailored multicolour tunic Joseph was given. Can you imagine what went through their minds when Joseph walked in wearing the multi-colored coat? Verse 4 said, “His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.” So inflamed were they that they would rebuff every friendly gesture Joseph would show toward them. They literally loathed his presence.  

This short four verses tell us of what can cause division within a family or a fellowship of believers. It’s hard for harmonious relationship when there exist a person with the penchant of snitching on others. It’s already hard to accept when true facts concerning a person are spoken behind his or her back. It is worst when they are not facts but untruths and distortions. Never tell tales on others because it’s the surest way to create misunderstanding. We also learn from these verses that playing favoritism can cause rejection and bitterness in those not within the circle of favorites. In life people are always looking for acceptance, approval and appreciation. Playing favorite will always generate rejection in others who deem themselves not favored. So be careful that partiality is not shown or practiced in any circle of people.