Genesis chapter 37. I'm going
to read this whole chapter because it will give us a little more
insight as I go back and pick up on some things. And Jacob
dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the
land of Canaan. These are the generations of
Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was
feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons
of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilphah, his father's wives.
And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. 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
colors. 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. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and
he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more.
And he said unto them, here I pray you this dream which I have dreamed.
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. 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. 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 11 stars made obeisance to me. 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? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the same. And his brethren 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 his father again.
And it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his brethren that
they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors
that was on him. And they took him and cast him
into a pit, and the pit was empty and 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, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand
be upon him. For he is our brother in 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 colors, and they brought it to
their father, and said, This have we found. Know now whether
it be thy son's coat or not. That's pretty mean, isn't it?
You can't get any meaner than that. And he knew it, in verse 33,
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 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 into my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
And the Midianites sold him into Egypt under Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaoh's and captain of the guard. Now we're going to start the
journey of Joseph. It's like, as I was reading this,
I said, this is to me, and I like to read it like this sometimes,
it's like watching a play. You know, we've watched Jacob
now for a while, now he's gonna fade out. Here in just a little
bit, Jacob's gonna fade out and Joseph is gonna take the scene.
And this is what's gonna happen. And we come to this story now
concerning Joseph. Everyone, I'm sure, that's been
in Bible school knows the story of Joseph. I don't know that
they know the story of his representation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
they know the story of Joseph. And Joseph is probably one of
the, I know this, he's one of the strongest types of the Lord
Jesus Christ throughout the book of Genesis and throughout the
Old Testament. He's one of the strongest types of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me just point out a few of
them. Joseph was the favorite of his
father. Of all the brethren, he's the
favorite. He's the one that Jacob loved. So is Christ. The father spoke
from heaven. And he said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. He never spoke from heaven concerning
anybody else until that time. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. And then Joseph was hated by
his brethren. And so was the Lord Jesus Christ. When he came unto his own, his
own received him not, they despised him. They despised him. And then Joseph was sold for
silver. And so was the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was sold for 30 pieces of silver. And Joseph, you will notice this
as we go through the story of Joseph. Joseph never yielded
to temptation. He never yielded. Remember Potiphar's
wife, how she made so many advances on him? He never yielded. Even
so, our Lord, when he walked on this earth in the flesh, he
never yielded to any temptation. He was tried, he was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. In the wilderness,
when he was in the wilderness, he was tempted, he was hungry.
First thing Satan did was tempt him to turn stone into bread
and eat. He never yielded. He never yielded
to temptation. And I'll tell you this, when
we read the story of Joseph, we go through this, not one time,
not one time will you and I read anything negative about Joseph. We will not read anything that
he did in any way that was wrong. I know he did things wrong. He
was a man of like passion, like us. But in the scriptures, as
a type of Christ, you won't find anything negative about Joseph.
When we look at Jacob, what do we find? Deception and just one
thing after another. Abraham, same thing. He said
to his wife, tell him you're my sister so I can live. Isaac,
he did the same thing Abraham did. David, but Joseph, nothing,
nothing. Because he represents the Lord
Jesus Christ in his perfection. And then Joseph, he was lied
on. They went back to the father
and they lied to the father. Our Lord was lied on. It's tough when someone lies
on you, isn't it? It's tough. Listen, Joseph suffered for sin
that he didn't commit. He was put in prison for a sin
that he didn't commit. Our Lord suffered for the sins,
all the sins of all His elect, and He didn't commit one. He
didn't commit one. What a picture, what a picture.
And then Joseph, we know the end of the story. Joseph came
out of prison to be the greatest in the land. He goes to prison
for several years. Then he comes out of that prison,
and he is the greatest in the land. The greatest. Our Lord goes to the grave. He goes to prison. He goes to
the grave. He comes out of it. And now who's
the greatest? The Lord Jesus Christ. There's
none greater than Him. Now verse one starts out with
Jacob dwelling in the land wherein his father, it says, was a stranger.
He never became Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they never became citizens. They never became citizens. They
were wanderers. They were strangers. They were
pilgrims, just like we are. That's what we are. And he dwelt
safely and peacefully in this land, but he was still a stranger
in it. We're strangers in this world.
Our home is in heaven. That's where our home is. And
I think of that more and more as I grow older. This is not
my place. This is really and truly, this
is not my home. I'm going home. The Lord's gonna
come and get us one by one. If he doesn't come back and just
put an end to all this, but one by one, the Lord's gonna come
and get us and he's gonna take us home. think it's home. When I was coming down here,
my dad, he was just like, you're going to sell your house? I mean, he was like, you can't
sell your house. That's all you got. I'm like,
no, that doesn't bother me at all. I've got a home. I've got a home. I'm going to. I've got a permanent home I'm
going to. Right now, this is a journey. This is a journey. So I was telling Landon yesterday,
I mentioned it to him as he's getting married, I said, Landon,
you're on a journey. I said, your journey's begun now. You
journey with your wife, but you're on a journey. And all the things
you and I go through is part of the journey home. Whatever
it is, it'll just, if whatever comes your way today, whatever
tomorrow, if tomorrow comes, that's part of the journey home.
It's ordered of God. It's ordered. It's appointed,
and that gives me great comfort. It gives me real comfort. We're
just strangers here, strangers. And Jacob was special. Jacob
have I loved. Now, when you go back and you
read, I'm not gonna read it, but if you go back and you read
this chapter 36, you're gonna read of the generation of Esau,
and it gives all these names, and then you start reading where
this is Duke this and Duke that, and I mean, they had these important
people. And when I was reading, I read all of that, and when
I was reading it, my thought was this, don't get impressed
And don't think, don't think because someone is made rich
and their family is prosperous that they have God's favor. Esau
have I hated. So don't ever judge a person's
relationship to God by what they possess or don't possess. Our
relationship to God is judged by our relationship to Jesus
Christ. It's to Christ. It's my union
to Christ. That's my relationship to God. Here is evidence of God's favor. Do you believe? Each one of you, if you can say,
yes, yes, I believe. Yes, I believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yes, I believe. That's evidence
of God's favor. That's evidence. Not the home
you own, not the job you have, not the money you make. That's
not evidence. They can be blessings, but they're
not. The evidence is this, I believe God. I believe God. But Jacob was special. Listen
to this. Psalm 145, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob
for his help. It is written in Numbers 23,
he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Well, we've just read
the story of Jacob. There's a lot of iniquity there,
a lot of deception. But it says here in Numbers 23,
he's not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Listen, neither hath he seen
perverseness in Israel. You know why? He put it away. It's gone. It's gone. I can say with full confidence
to every believer in this room, God does not behold iniquity
and sin in you. He doesn't behold it, Christ
put it away. And then it says in Psalm 24
at six, this is the generation of them that seek him, that seek
thy face, O Jacob. I tell you what, you can't speak
of Jacob and not speak of Jacob's God. It's like when I speak of Doug
and Judy, they go together, John and Vicki. When you speak of
people that you know, you speak of both of them's name together. Sometimes for me to remember
someone's name, I have to say their names together, the wife
and the husband together, then I got it. Sometimes I'm trying
to think, what's his name? What's her? Then when I say it
together, I've got it. When you speak of Jacob, you
have to speak of his God also. You have to speak of God Almighty
also. They can't be separated. Can't be separated. Now he says,
these are the generations of Jacob. As I said back in 36, you know,
you get all those names, but here in this chapter, in this
chapter, when he says, these are the generation of Jacob,
it starts with one person, Joseph. Joseph. And here's why. Joseph is a representation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
a representation of the whole heavenly host. That whole generation
of heaven. That crowd that can't be numbered
is bound up and represented by one man, one man, Jesus Christ. God the Father looks upon the
whole host of heaven in one man, His Son, the man Christ Jesus. And Israel says in verse 3, "...love
Joseph more than all his children." It says it's the Son of His old
age. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of the Ancient of Days." He's the Son of God Almighty,
who is called in Scripture, the Ancient of Days. And Jacob made
Joseph a coat of many colors. First of all, he made it very
clear, this is my son, my special son. This is the son of my love. The Heavenly Father has made
it very clear that He loves the Son, His Son. It says in John 5 20, the Father
loveth the Son. He loveth the Son. And we are loved only as we are
in Him. A person who does not Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. A person who does not love the
Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot look at that person
and say, God loves you. Now I can say to everyone who
believes, God loves you. God loves you. And the evidence
of it is you believe. That's the evidence of it. And this coat of many collars
here represents royalty. Royalty. It distinguished him
from all others. When he wore this coat of many
collars, you know, you could see Joseph's brethren out here,
and they all wore the same clothing. They had the same shepherd clothing
and things, but now Joseph, he's got this coat on that just distinguishes
him from all others. Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord
of lords. He's distinguished from all his
other brothers and sisters. He's distinguished above us.
He's the King. He's the King. He's Lord. And because of this, Joseph's
brethren hated him. They hated him because his father
loved him. His father loved him, and they
knew it. When the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world,
he walked among the Jews, and he would heal. They said, no
man can do this except God be with him. The crowds began to
follow him, and it says they were envious. They were envious,
and they hated him. They hated him for the good that
he did. They hated him for it. And I'll
tell you this, they hated him because he told the truth. He
spoke the truth. If a Pharisee was standing there,
he'd say, you're a whited sepulcher. Everybody else thought they were
the best people in town. He said, no, you're not. You're a snake,
you are a viper, you are a whited sepulcher. That's who you are.
And they hated him for speaking the truth. If you'll notice in verse 2, these are the generations of
Jacob. And Joseph, being 17 years old,
was feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with
the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilphah, his father's
wife. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil deeds. He told on them. He didn't hide
their sins. You ever have a brother or sister
tell on you? And you get mad at him. You told on me. He never hid their sins. He was
honest. He was true. Our Lord never hid
our sins. He never made excuses for our
sins. He died for our sins. He died
for them. Joseph told his father of their
evil deeds. He didn't try to hide them. He
was an honest man, truthful man. Our Lord said this in John 7,
7. The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth. And here's
why. Because I testify of it, that
the works thereof are evil. And that what he did, he told
his father of their evil deeds. And he said, the world hates
me because I testify that their deeds are evil. And that's why they hate me.
And that's why they hated Joseph, because Joseph told on them.
He was an honest man. He was a man of high moral character. And then Joseph dreams a dream
there in verses 5 and 8. He dreams a dream, and in it
all his brethren bow to him. They bow to him. And when he
tells them this dream, they hate him for it. They say, you serious?
You're 17 years old. You're almost a baby except for
Benjamin and the family. We're gonna bow to you. They said, shalt thou indeed
have dominion over us? Isn't that what the Jews said,
we will not have this man reign over us? I tell you what, people for the
most part can take the Lord Jesus Christ doing anything but being
sovereign. That's what brings the knives
out. You can let Him be the Creator. You can let Him be the One who's
healing. You can let Him go about doing
good. But when you preach His absolute sovereignty, that makes
a man. Just like it did Joseph's brother.
You think we're going to bow to you? Who do you think you
are? And when Jesus Christ came into this world and they saw
Him, They saw him and just dressed up like a shepherd, just a robe.
There's no halo over his head. There's no purple robe or no
crown on his head. And they look at him and he didn't
go to their school. How knoweth this man letters,
have he never learned? And they hated him for it. We're
not bound to this, to this. Well, Joseph has another dream. Verses 9 and 11. And not only
do they bow to Him, but listen, He dreams of the heavens. This
jumped out at me. It's just never jumped out at
me like this before. But He dreams of the stars and
the moon and the whole heavens bowing to Him. Our Lord has dominion in heaven
and earth. You know, there's not one place
that the man Christ Jesus does not have absolute dominion, right
now. He's the sovereign, all power
has been put into his hands. In verses 12 through 17, I'm
gonna close, because we're not gonna finish all this. The Father
sends His Son to seek His brethren. The Father sends the Son to seek
His brethren. Just as our Lord was sent. He tells us He was sent into
this world. He didn't come of His own. He
was sent. And He was sent into this world
to seek His brethren. And when he came into this world,
he came to the Jews first, and they turned thumbs down on him,
just like Joseph's brethren turned thumbs down on him, put him in
a pit. But he was sent by his father
to seek his brethren, and most of them, for the most part, hated him and rejected him. We're
not going to have this. Joseph, you're not going to reign
over us. No, we're going to prove this. We're going to settle this.
This dreamer, this dreamer, we're going to show him who's boss. We're going to put him in a pit. Well, actually, they were going
to kill him. They were going to kill him. That's what their
intention was. And this is interesting. I'm
going to close. But they were going to kill him.
I think it was Reuben talked him out of it. So they sold him
to the Ishmaelites. Well, you know who's Ishmael. Ishmael was a curse. And it's
just like when our Lord came into this world, his brethren
gave him over to the Romans to do the dirty deed, to kill him,
to take care of him, do whatever they wanted to with him. But let's pick up here. Let me
end it here. And Lord willing, we'll pick
up here where the father sent his son into this world. I think
that's a good place to start the next time. All right.