Today in God’s Word

November 23, Genesis 37

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

- Genesis 37:4

All families are imperfect because they're all made up of imperfect people. No family is immune to this problem because all family members bring their character flaws and behavior problems (also known as sins) into the mix. Some families have more obvious problems than others, but sin is in us all and in all our families.

Jacob's household could be the poster models for dysfunctional families. It started with polygamy that produced at least 13 children from 2 wives and 2 concubines. That set the stage for the twin tragedies of broken lives and bitter consequences.

Jacob knew what parental favoritism had done in his own birth family. But he still played favorites among his own children and made no secret of his greater love for Joseph over the others. This chapter says it was because Joseph was the son of Jacob’s old age. Joseph was the firstborn child of his favorite wife Rachel. That might have had something to do with it as well. But for whatever reason, Jacob preferred Joseph above all the others, and even gave him a multicolored coat as evidence of his favor.

Joseph, as the favored child, may have been arrogant and prideful. Or maybe he was just naive, too immature to realize how his words and actions affected his brothers. Either way, he made the favoritism problem worse by tattling on his older brothers, and telling them his dreams that suggested his superiority and the rest of the family's subservience to him. The technicolor coat he wore didn't help matters, either. To the others it screamed, "Daddy likes me better than you!"

The brothers bring bitter envy and hatred to the dysfunctional family mix. The text says "they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him." Then after the first dream report, "they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words." After the next dream report, "they were jealous of him." When Joseph came to Dothan to find them, their bitter hatred turned murderous. (Jesus warned about the connection between hating people and killing people in Matthew 5.) Firstborn Reuben substituted the idea of throwing Joseph into a pit instead of killing him. Judah suggested selling the boy into slavery instead of killing him. Neither was a shining example of brotherly love. But both were better than the other brothers’ ideas.

Imagine their callous indifference to their terrified brother crying from the pit as they sat down to enjoy their lunch. Even if they didn't carry out their plan to kill him, they did sell him into slavery for just a few dollars. They deceived their old father by taking Joseph's coat home with animal blood on it. That drove Jacob into a dark place of grief and loss where he would stay for more than ten years. These sons of Jacob were hateful, heartless and cruel.

So Reuben is in anguish, Jacob is in mourning and Joseph is in trouble, headed to Egypt and slavery. If the other brothers had any remorse for their hateful treatment of Joseph, it is not mentioned here. Later in Egypt, we'll see that their consciences were stirred about what they did when the grain master there was rough with them.

As Joseph traveled toward Egypt as a captive of the Ishmaelite traders who bought him, or when he was sold as a slave to an Egyptian, he does not appear to be a very likely candidate to become the hero of this story. His situation will get worse when his master's wife lies about him and he goes to prison. But as the text will tell us in a couple of days, "The Lord was with Joseph." That is going to make all the difference.

It’s encouraging to know that God used the wickedness of Jacob's flawed family to accomplish his purpose. The long lost and presumed dead son will save his family from starvation in years to come. They will all fulfill what God told Abraham would happen to his descendants hundreds of years before. Stay tuned.

Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Today in God's Word—November 2024

East Tallassee Church of Christ