So we are in Genesis chapter
37 and verse 12. And his brethren, that is the
brethren of Joseph, went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I
will send thee unto them. And he said unto him, Here am
I. And he said to him, Go, I pray
thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with
the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of
the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man
found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the
man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my
brethren, tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
And the man said, they are departed hence, for I heard them say,
let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren
and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near unto them, they conspired against
him to slay him. And they said one to another,
Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him, And cast him into some pit, And we will say, Some
evil beast hath devoured him, And we shall see what will become
of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered
him out of their hands, And said, Let us not kill him, And Reuben
said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that
is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him, that he might
rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to their father again. And it came to pass, when Joseph
was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his
coat, his coat of many colours, that was on him, and they took
him and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, there
was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread,
and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold a company
of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery
and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah
said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother
and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to
the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he
is our brother and our flesh, and his brethren were content. Then there passed by Midianites,
merchant men, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit
and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and
they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the
pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren
and said, The child is not, and I, whither shall I go? And they
took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped
the coat in the blood. And they sent the coat of many
colours, and they brought it to their father and said, This
have we found. Know now whether it be thy son's
coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It
is my son's coat. An evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent
in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes and
put on sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many
days. And all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, for I will go down
into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
The Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaoh's and captain of the guard. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. Today's passage tells us how
Joseph's brothers conspired and agreed to kill Joseph and then
In order to make some money, they decided rather to sell him
into slavery and how the young man was ultimately taken into
Egypt. And the story in many ways is
quite straightforward. but surely one of the lasting
impressions that it gives to us is just how cruel Joseph's
brothers were. We have seen before some of the
cruelty of these young men. What they did at Shechem was
one act, there was a wickedness here amongst these people. There
was a wickedness in the heart of these men and of course we
know that that is true still today. The Bible tells us that
there is a wickedness in men and women too that knows no end. The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter
17 and verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. Who can know it? That implies
that we don't even know how wicked our own hearts are. And we don't
know the depths of wickedness that it is possible for us to
fall to. Joseph's brothers seemed to prove
that assertion true. For what did they hate this young
man? They hated him for his dreams. That was what caused them to
conspire together to slay him. They said as they were planning
their evil deeds, then we'll see what becomes of his dreams. They hated him for his dreams. They despised Joseph for his
youthful visions. Such was the malign nature of
their hearts. and their malice against Joseph
turned itself into mischief, even to the very murdering of
this young man. They ganged up on him, and what
a sense of fear and betrayal must have overwhelmed Joseph
as they stripped him of his clothes and as they threw him into that
pit in the wilderness. What a sense of loneliness must
have entered into his heart. He had travelled for many days
seeking for them, looking for them in order to fulfil his father's
will and go back and tell his father how they were. And this
was the reaction and the response that he received. Afterwards, these men, these
sons of Jacob, these brothers of Joseph, they dipped the coat
of Joseph in blood, and they spoke lies to old Jacob, leaving
the father mourning and depressed for years after. And these boys
must have looked at their father, knowing the truth of their own
conscience, and saying nothing as the old man walked around
with the weight of mourning and loss upon his shoulders for the
rest of the days for many years to come. What an unhappy home
and what an unhappy family that must have been. There is a price
to be paid for sin in life as well as a price to be paid in
death. There are several interesting
details that Moses, the writer of this passage, has given us
here in these verses and I just want to mention a couple to you. One of the interesting things
is that the sons of Jacob had returned to Shechem with their
sheep. That was the place where they
had killed all those men and destroyed all their homes and
taken their wives and families captive. It was probably quite
a long way away, some 60 miles. So Jacob may well have had good
reason to wonder and worry how things went with these boys.
That he should send Joseph alone to find them is perhaps a little
bit surprising as well. But we see in all of these things,
the purpose of God was at work and even in the evil deeds of
these brothers, the Lord's hand was accomplishing his purpose. When I was young, I used to wonder
when either I had this story read to me or in reading it myself,
who this certain man was. And it used to intrigue me as
to who he was and what he was doing here. And I suppose that
where the Bible is silent, we should not pry. And yet we do
know a few things about this man, which I think stir our interest. He was a man, for example, in
a place where all the men had lately been killed. So it would
appear that he too had recently arrived in that place. We're
told that he was kind to Joseph. We're told that he found Joseph
wandering in the fields and he approached him with a helping
attitude. He discerned that the young man
was confused and uncertain, and he was truthful and he was helpful.
When we consider who Joseph was, he might have had cause or reason
to cause the young man trouble. And also something else which
I've thought about with this man who is unnamed and not much
described. He was the last friendly face
that Joseph saw for a long, long time. Whoever he was, God was
here, opening the way for his saving plan to unfold. Our Lord is never taken by surprise,
and events are never outwith his control. Joseph's treatment
by his brothers was wicked, and only Reuben, it seems, had any
sense of wrongdoing and perhaps hoped to save Joseph's life and
return him to his father. But the deed was done. Once we
begin upon a course of action, it is very often difficult to
stop that. Joseph was sold to the Midianites,
or the Ishmaelites. It's interesting that two different
groups are mentioned here. Perhaps he was sold to one who
sold him to the other, and perhaps they moved together in their
caravans as they headed down to Egypt. He would be a slave
in Egypt. Jacob, he would be tricked into
believing that his son was dead, and he was convinced that an
evil beast had devoured him. There is always sadness and pain
where there is sin and deception. And since the fall of Adam in
this sinful world, it has been the experience of men and women
and boys and girls. However, Because of the grace
and the love of God, there is also hope amongst the sadness
and the pain. So let us always remember that
these accounts, these Old Testament passages, these accounts of the
dealing of God with his people, they profit us the most when
we find a reason in them to think about the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Joseph's experience points us frequently to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's here that the real value
of this story lies. Joseph was the son of an aged
father, and the Lord Jesus Christ was the son of the ancient of
days. Joseph was especially loved by
his father. and the Lord Jesus Christ was
the beloved son of his father. Jacob made Joseph a coat of many
colours, and God prepared a body in human nature for Christ. Joseph was hated by his brethren,
and the Jews, who were brethren to the Lord Jesus after the flesh,
hated the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph was sent by his father
to visit his brethren, to check on their well-being. And the
Lord Jesus Christ was sent from heaven to seek and to save his
people. Joseph's brethren conspired to
take away his life, and the Lord's enemies consulted together to
take away Christ's life. Joseph was stripped of his clothes
and sold for 20 pieces of silver. The Lord Jesus Christ was sold
for 30 pieces of silver and he was also stripped of his clothes
in both cases at the instigation of one who was called Judah or
Judas. Joseph was given to heathen idolaters. Christ was put into the hands
of the Romans. Jacob, who thought his son was
dead, had him restored, as it were, from the dead, and the
Lord Jesus Christ died and really was raised again from the dead
in the resurrection. As we read how Joseph saved his
people, We shall be reminded how the Lord Jesus Christ has
come into the world to save his people from their sin. And in
so much, and in so far as we are, there we will be blessed. Amen.