YOUNG JOSEPH. Genesis 37:1 11

Transcription

1 1 Dear Friend, this is a transcript of a sermon preached by Pastor Jeremy Tan from the pulpit of Amazing Grace Baptist Church Singapore. We are committed to expository preaching because we believe it is the most effective way to expose, explain and expound the Holy Scriptures. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27). Through careful systematic and sequential exposition, the preacher is able to declare unto you all the counsel of God (Acts 20:27), and Christians are blessed with a regular, well-balanced diet of God s Word. Expository preaching also helps us to have a high view of Scripture. We wish to extend a warm welcome to you to join us in our church services for a time of uplifting worship and helpful Bible study, which will bring rejoicing and refreshment to your soul. Do visit our church website at or write to us at amazingracebc@gmail.com. YOUNG JOSEPH Genesis 37:1 11 Joseph, the son of Jacob, is a major character in the book of Genesis. We find Joseph s epic life story in Genesis 37-50, and his story is equal in terms of chapters with Abraham; each of them has fourteen chapters. But Joseph has the edge in length of coverage, by twenty-five percent. Joseph and the lives of seven other people in the book of Genesis illustrate the function of unfolding faith in the life of the believer. Adam, the first believer in God, illustrates the nature of faith: through God s grace, Adam was justified by faith in God s promise of salvation through the work of the Redeemer (Genesis 3:15, 20). Abel illustrates the basis of faith, when he pleased God by offering a better sacrifice than his brother Cain (Hebrews 11:4); he believed that God would save His people through the shed blood of the Redeemer who was to come. Enoch, the preacher of righteousness, illustrates the walk of faith; he walked faithfully with God in an age when almost no one else did (Genesis 5:21-24). Noah illustrates the perseverance of faith, when he continued building the ark that would save eight souls from the worldwide Flood. Noah worked diligently on the ark for one hundred and twenty years, trusting God and ignoring the ridicule of the entire world (Hebrews 11:7). Abraham, the greatest of all faith models, illustrates the obedience of faith; he obeyed God even to the point of sacrificing his son (Genesis 22:1-18). Isaac illustrates the power of faith; he trembled violently when he realized that God had overruled his choice of Esau for the Covenant birthright (Genesis 27:33). Jacob illustrates the discipline of faith; God stayed with him through all the years of his exile away from Canaan until God met him at Peniel and disabled him, which led to Jacob s submission (Genesis 32:24-29). The eighth person in the list is Joseph, and his life story is one of triumphant faith. Joseph never turned away from his faith in God. Whatever the circumstance, he never complained, and he never compromised because of it. Like Daniel, the young man in Babylon, Joseph never succumbed to the temptation of the saying, When in Rome, do as the Romans do. During his years in Egypt, he did not do whatever he wished because no one

2 2 knew him in that foreign land, or because the Egyptians did not care or watch what he was doing. As a result of his conviction, Joseph continued to experience the power of God in his life. God continued to give him dreams about the future. God preserved him, and promoted him from the prison to the palace. (These eight illustrations of faith are from James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary Volume 3, p ). Joseph s triumphant faith makes him a type of Christ for many commentators, with many parallels drawn between Joseph and Christ. For example, Arthur W. Pink in his Gleanings in Genesis pointed out 101 parallels between Joseph and Christ (p ). Blaise Pascal wrote his own observations about some of the parallels. Christ Prefigured by Joseph: Innocent, beloved of his father, sent by his father to see his brothers, is sold for twenty pieces of silver. Through this he becomes their lord, their savior, savior of strangers and savior of the world. None of this would have happened but for their plot to destroy him, the sale, and their rejection of him. In prison Joseph, innocent between two criminals. Jesus on the cross between two thieves. He prophesies the salvation of the one and the death of the other, when to all appearances they are alike. Christ saves the elect and damns the reprobate for the same crime. Joseph only prophesies, Jesus acts. Joseph asks the man who will be saved to remember him when he comes in glory. And the man Jesus saves asks to be remembered when he comes into his kingdom. (Boice, p. 859). Now let us be clear that though nothing bad is ever reported about Joseph, he is not perfect. Our only perfect example is the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from the comparisons to Christ, Joseph also serves as our encourager: that we can be faithful to God, resolute against sin and temptation, and pursue righteousness in every circumstance that we encounter. Apart from Joseph s triumphant faith, there is another aspect in his life that is clearly evident: this is the providence of God at work in the background. Through the twists and turns, the ups and downs, the hatred of his brethren, and the abuse and imprisonment that Joseph suffered, and then to his promotion to a powerful position in Egypt, God prepared him to save his people from certain death because of the great famine in Canaan. Now we read in Genesis 37:1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. Isaac was a stranger or sojourner in the land of Canaan, but Jacob was a settler in the Promised Land. In Genesis 36, the chapter about Esau and his descendants, Esau moved out of Canaan, the land of his forefathers, and dwelt in Mount Seir and Edom. Esau s migration was his acknowledgement that Canaan belonged to Jacob and his descendants. God had given Jacob the new name Israel, and the name became synonymous with the Promised Land and nation. We have outlined the remaining verses in this section according to two main points. I. Jacob and His Descendants. Genesis 37:2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and

3 3 with the sons of Zilpah, his father s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Here we meet the familiar statement these are the generations of for the eleventh and last time in the book (the other occurrences of this phrase are in Genesis 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10, 27; 25:12, 19; 36:1, 9). The book of Genesis is structured according to the formula of this phrase, which in Hebrew is the toledot. This phrase serves as a marker for the sections of the book. Thus this statement in Genesis 37:2 introduces us to the last section in the book. Although the toledot is named after Jacob, the main subject is Joseph. This narrative records the faithfulness of God to His Covenant people by using Joseph to preserve the line of Jacob. Hence it begins with seventeen-year old Joseph. But before we focus on Joseph, we have to look at his brothers. The descendants of Jacob are his twelve sons through his two wives, Leah and Rachel, and their handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah. We read in Genesis 37:2 that Joseph was shepherding the flock with his brothers, the sons of Leah s handmaids, Zilpah and Bilhah. These sons are Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. In Genesis 34 we witnessed the hard feelings between Jacob and the sons of Leah because of his muted response to the rape of their sister Dinah, Leah s daughter (Genesis 34:5, 7; 30-31). Before that incident, the other wives and sons had already discovered their low value to Jacob, when he placed Rachel and Joseph last in the procession to meet Esau. If Jacob lacked affection for Leah, he would have even less interest in the sons of his slavewives. Joseph was the father s favourite, and they resented it. But Joseph also earned himself no favours from his brothers when he brought unto his father their evil report. The Hebrew words translated evil report (dibbá rāʿá) are always used in the negative sense of an untrue report. The closest parallel to these Hebrew words is the false report of the Israelite spies that went to Canaan (Numbers 13:32; 14:36-37). This does not mean that Joseph told outright lies about his brothers, but he misrepresented and maligned them through exaggeration and inaccuracies. In effect, Joseph was a tattler who told tales to their father. Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. Favouritism is a persistent plague upon this family. Jacob or Israel knew favouritism as a child. He was the favourite of his mother Rebekah, whereas Isaac his father loved Esau. In his marital relationships, Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. Later in the land of the Shechemites, he again showed favouritism through his muted response to the rape of Dinah. In contrast, he would pour out his grief at the false report of Joseph s death (Genesis 37:32-35) and later, over Benjamin s trip to Egypt to meet the ruler who had sold grain to his sons (Genesis 42:38). Joseph and Benjamin are the sons of Rachel, whom he loved from the first time he met her at the well in Haran until her death in Canaan. Now in another blatant display of favouritism, Jacob used his tailoring skills to make a coat for Joseph. In the Authorized Version, this coat is described as one with many colours. However, this description is derived from the translations of the Greek Septuagint

4 4 and the Latin Vulgate. The coat might have been woven with colourful threads or ornaments, but not necessarily with rainbow colours; and it is likely to be a long robe with sleeves that covered the wrists and reached to the ankles. We find a similar robe in 2 Samuel 13:18, worn by Tamar, the daughter of David the king. This was the royal robe of a princess. Thus, this coat from Jacob was a sign that Joseph was the heir, the son who would receive the double portion of the inheritance. But was it right for Joseph to receive this honour, when he had so many older brothers? From Jacob s point of view, he did right. Why? Rachel was the woman he loved; and to have her as his bride, he had to work seven years for Laban. But Laban cheated him by swapping Rachel with Leah on the night when the marriage was to be consummated. Thus, Jacob was forced to work another seven years for Rachel. Although Jacob honoured Leah as his wife, Rachel was the love of his life. Joseph was Rachel s first-born, and this explains why he was Jacob s favourite. When Jacob gave his final blessings, two portions of the inheritance were given to Joseph s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob s eldest son was Reuben, Leah s first-born. However, Reuben forfeited his birthright because of his sin against his father, when he committed incest with Bilhah, Jacob s concubine (Genesis 35:22). Next in line were Simeon and Levi, but they also forfeited the birthright for their leading roles in the massacre of the men of Shechem. Fourth in line was Judah. Judah would become the leader of the family. Through Judah, the long-awaited seed of the woman, the promised Messiah of Israel, would be born. Genesis 37:4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. Another reason for Jacob s favouritism is that Joseph played no part in the sins of his brothers. Nevertheless, the father s favouritism caused the rift between the sons. Their relationships with Joseph were so bad that they could not speak peaceably unto him, which can be interpreted to mean that they could not abide his friendly speech (N. Sarna). In other words, they rebuffed his every attempt to be friendly. Where was God in all of this? One commentator said that God was adding fuel to the fire. (R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing, p. 438). This brings us to II. Joseph and His Dreams. The fuel came in the form of two dreams, which exalted Joseph above his family. Genesis 37:5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. Joseph s first dream involved a harvest. Genesis 37:6-7 6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: 7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. In his youthful brashness and self-centredness, Joseph let everyone in the family know about his dream. He told his brothers that he saw them as sheaves, and that the eleven

5 5 sheaves bowed to him who stood in the middle. Jacob s sons binding sheaves in the field is a picture of harvest. This dream is prophetic of the day when famine would afflict Canaan, and all of his brothers had to travel to Egypt, where they bowed down to Joseph as they sought his permission to buy grain to bring home (Genesis 42:6). Genesis 37:8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. At this time, the brothers saw Joseph, the favourite son of their father, as nothing but a self-seeking, self-glorifying braggart asserting his supremacy over them. Note that the refrain they hated him is used here for the third time; the other times are in Genesis 37:4 & 5. Each use of the phrase marked an escalation of their hatred for Joseph, but then Joseph had another dream to tell them. His harvest dream was followed by a celestial dream. Genesis 37:9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. Instead of the sheaves bowing to him, this time he saw the sun and the moon plus eleven stars bowing to him. Genesis 37: And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying. This time Joseph had lifted himself above everyone in the family. He had gone too far. How impertinent of him to suggest that his parents would also submit to him! Jacob doted on him, but this time he had to rebuke Joseph. Nevertheless, he noted his son s dreams. Jacob did not quickly dismiss the dreams as an empty boast because he himself was the younger son whom God had chosen to inherit the birthright and Covenant promises. Jacob had learned that the sovereign God makes his choice among men. Joseph s brethren envied him, but his dreams only intensified their hatred of Daddy s blue-eyed boy. In the responses of Jacob and his sons, we learn about people s reactions to a word from God. Some are sceptical and even angry when they hear it; others are humble in their reception. These two responses are as true of unsaved people to the preaching of the Gospel, as of believers dealing with the hard doctrines of the Bible. The sin of human pride always stands in the way of hearing and receiving biblical truths. Now, we mark an important point about the dreams. All of Joseph s dreams came in pairs. The reason for the pairing of dreams is that they confirmed fulfilment. Pharaoh would have two dreams, and Joseph would explain to the Egyptian ruler the meaning of his two dreams. Genesis 41:32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

6 6 The pairing of dreams confirmed that God would fulfill the prophecy. Conclusion Joseph was loved and hated, favored and abused, tempted and trusted, exalted and abased. Yet at no point in the 110-year life of Joseph did he ever seem to get his eyes off God or cease to trust him. Adversity did not harden his character. Prosperity did not ruin him. He was the same in private as in public. He was a truly great man. (Boice, p. 857). But ultimately, the story of Joseph is about the sovereignty of God. Although God did not perform any miracles through Joseph, we see Him involved in all the events, directing them all to their appointed end. God choreographed the life of Joseph, whether it was in Canaan with his brothers, or in Egypt with the servants of Pharaoh, to use their actions for good. The providence of God is never by chance. Instead, Human sin and divine revelation combined to produce hatred and rejection that ultimately created a way of salvation. (Hughes). Thus in the end, Joseph was able to say to his brothers in Genesis 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. In this statement, we see the sovereignty of God and human free will. The brothers thought evil, but God meant it unto good. Although human actions are involved, we dare not diminish the sovereignty of Almighty God because human free will is only as God allows! With our understanding of God s sovereignty and His providence through the life of Joseph, we have to stop murmuring about the circumstances that God brings into our lives. Like Joseph, we must not complain, and we must not make compromises. Rather, we must be steadfast in our trials, knowing that God has a purpose for what He allows. Many of us are familiar with the verse that well summarizes the life of Joseph. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Friend, do you recognize the hand of God at work in your life? Life may become very difficult and complicated, even painful, but God is in control at every step of the way. God has perfected His work of salvation for sinners through His Son Jesus Christ. At the cross of Calvary, Christ paid for the sins of all believers in Him. Are you a believer in Christ? If you believe in Christ as your personal Saviour, you have revealed yourself as one of the called (the term used in Romans 8:28); you are one of God s elect. If you are one of the called, then give diligence to make your calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10) through a life of faithfulness, obedience and righteousness for the glory of God! Permission: We share our materials with you as a blessing from the ministry of our church. You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For

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