When
you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear:
sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry,
sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition,
dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties,
and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone
living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21.
We discovered that there were seven things that Joseph’s
brothers did to him::
- They hated him because their father favored him. Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses. Proverbs 10:12 (NLT); Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin. Leviticus 19:17 (NLT);
- They envied him and the relationship Joseph had with their father. It is possible that because Israel knew he blew it with the older sons, that in his old age he finally figured out what to do and he got it right with Joseph. Most parents don’t learn the art of parenting until they have grandchildren;
- They conspired against him to kill him;
- They were going to kill him until Rueben, the oldest came up with an alternative;
- They stripped him of his covering (custom designed by their father) leaving him vulnerable to the elements but they also stripped him of what that coat represented to them, their father’s protection of Joseph;
- They threw him in a pit (empty well). Again, these brothers were cold hearted, treacherous, heartless, calculating, murderers who would cut your throat without thinking twice. It’s ironic that Joseph ended up related to these hard thugs? He was an absolute square, the odd man out, who represented everything they were not. The rivalry was generational because their mothers (Rachael and Leah blood sisters) were rivals possibly since childhood. Israel (formerly known as Jacob) was tricked into marrying Leah who had weak eyes (Genesis 29:17 AMP). I’m thinking she may have had a lazy eye or was cross eyed. Israel loved Rachael who was beautiful and shapely (Genesis 29:17 CEB). To add insult to injury Joseph was very handsome. None of this is Joseph’s fault but the rage, anger, rejection, hurt, hostility, etc. his mean ugly brothers had towards their father was taken out on him.
- They sold him into slavery: Saying this is a lot easier than comprehending it. I absolutely abhor the thought of slavery. I cannot imagine selling even my enemy into slavery but how in the world does one (or nine in this case) justify selling their own relative, never to be seen again. There is no money back guarantee for slaves. If you’re dissatisfied, return for a full refund. This is a great place to start:
Genesis 37:25-27 (paraphrased): It seems to me that this band of idiots
was not going to be satisfied until Joseph was completely eliminated from their
presence altogether. Initially they
wanted him dead but Judah came up with the idea of selling him as a slave when
they spotted a group of merchants on their way to Egypt passing nearby. It is possible that Judah initially went
along with the thought of killing Joseph because of the peer pressure from the
others, however, he is certainly not an advocate of Joseph’s because he comes
up with another plan to get rid of him.
His justification is that Joseph is their brother and if they sell him
into slavery his blood won’t be on their hands.
What an oxymoron!!! At any rate
he convinces the other idiots to go along with this cockamamie thoughtless
idea.
After all hope is lost Joseph who lay at the bottom of the
pit, possibly asleep from utter exhaustion hears some noise above. Not sure if he is dreaming or awake until he
feels the rope they threw down tickle his face.
As he is aroused from his sleep and fully awake, he can hardly contain
the excitement. The naïve young 17 year old awakes first and thinks out loud "I knew this must have been a practical
joke. My brothers aren’t as bad as
everyone says, they are pulling me out of the pit." As the brothers pull and heave him out Joseph
is ecstatic to see them but the strange eerie feeling he had before they threw
him in the pit is still looming overhead.
The brothers blank faces are trying to tell him something but he cannot
interpret it. One of them tell him to
wipe his face. Another one gives him a
cleaner set of clothing, but they offer him nothing to eat or drink though they
clearly have enough food to share because he can see the food right in front of
them all. He sees Judah approaching with
a strange man. Judah gives the signal
and two of his brothers grab him, bind his hands with rope and they push him
towards the man. Joseph knows these are
Midianites because they have Arabic accents and to his horror he sees the sales
transaction take place right in front of his eyes for a lousy 20 pieces of
silver. The look of terror in Joseph’s
eyes screamed at them for mercy as it burned an unforgettable memory in his
brothers’ minds that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Joseph was so shocked by all of the events
that had transpired in less than 24 hours that he didn’t even bother using the
little voice he had left to plead for them not to sell him off as a slave. Instead, he straightened his back, stuffed
the tears way down deep and walked to his destiny like a “growed” up man and he
never looked back as he silently called on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
(now called Israel)
When Rueben returned later that evening he went to check on
Joseph but he was gone. He had no idea
that the other idiots had sold the boy off to the merchants. He tore his clothes as a sign of mourning and
he was beside himself with worry and despair has he returned to his brothers to
tell them that Joseph was gone. They
took Joseph’s coat, butchered a goat and covered the coat with goat’s blood and
then they took the lie to their father and told him that they found the coat
and asked if he recognized it. When he
recognized it he tore his clothes and mourned for Joseph and really long
time. His sons and daughters tried to
comfort him but he refused and said he would go to the grave mourning Joseph.
The idiots didn’t calculate the cost of the scheme nor did
they think it through completely, instead they
As I close I want to raise the following points:
- Rueben went along with the brothers to a certain degree, he never had any intentions of killing Joseph and he certainly wasn’t down with selling him, which leads me to believe he did care for Joseph;
- The brothers didn’t actually “tell” the father that Joseph was murdered, but they led him to believe that he was. Same difference. They were all accessories, they knew the truth and withheld it;
- I know we can all identify with that one. Not really telling the lie but not really telling the truth
- They were not prepared for the father’s reaction which was to mourn for Joseph until he himself died; and
- They thought by getting rid of Joseph that he would pay more attention to them but it created an even greater distance between them than was there before.
There’s a lot more to the story, we will pick it up tomorrow for sure.
In His Excellent Service
Tania not Tanya
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