Or, Hate Is Thicker Than Blood
Scripture: Genesis 37:2-36
Date: January 22, 2017
Speaker: Sean Higgins
It’s been said that God works in mysterious ways. God Himself said that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. While He is always at work, sometimes He reveals what He is going to do beforehand because there’s no way we would have seen it coming like that.
In Genesis 37 Moses turns our attention to the elect line through Jacob. The generations of Jacob is the tenth and final division by toledot that ends only when Genesis ends. Jacob makes it most of the way through these 14 chapters, though most of the focus goes to Joseph and Judah. These generations are less a genealogy and more a family history.
It’s also been said that blood is thicker than water, usually understood to mean that family bonds are strongest. The first chapter of Jacob’s story proves that hate is thicker than blood. It’s surprising to see that evil dominates the introduction to the family with the covenant blessing. Esau’s line, detailed in chapter 36, is where we’d expect to hear about evil. Yet it is the sons of Israel who hated (verse 4, 5, 8), who were jealous (verse 11), who conspired to kill (verse 18), who sold their blood brother into slavery (verse 28), and who lied to their father and played at comforting him (verse 35). The divine commentary in the last chapter is that these men meant it for evil (Genesis 50:20).
There are two sections in chapter 37, the family setting in verses 2-11 and then the family selling in verses 12-36. We see escalating resentment and then enacted rage.
Joseph’s brothers “hated him” (verses 4, 5, and 8). Three things breed the bitterness between brothers at ten-to-one odds.
Immediately after the new heading, These are the generations of Jacob , the attention turns to one of Jacob’s sons. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph’s mother, Rachel, had died (Genesis 35:19), and he was closest in age to the sons of the servant-wives (Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher).
Joseph was working with some of the brothers and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father . We’re not told what happened, or if Joseph slanted some of what happened, as in an badmouthing rumor, a typical feature of this Hebrew word. But who likes a tattle-tale? No one, and at the next mention of watching sheep Joseph isn’t with his brothers. They didn’t appreciate his scuttlebutt.
How many times has a child declared that he will never do some awful thing that his parents did when he has his own family, only to grow up and to just that? Jacob had personal experience with the problems with paternal favoritism, being the one outside of favor with his father Isaac. Yet Jacob chooses one son to love more, just as he had chosen to love one wife more.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. Actually, Benjamin was born when Israel was older, but at 17 Josep was becoming a man and was more a vision of Israel’s future than a dependent. And he made him a robe of many colors. I don’t have any reason to argue with this translation. The Hebrew adjective is not used many other places and it’s not clear that it relates to colors. It could have been a longer or long-sleeved or ornamented robe. But we’d have to throw away all our flannel-graphs if we changed it now. The LXX translates it as χιτῶνα ποικίλον: a multi-colored tunic, so then the Vulgate and even later the KJV followed suit. It was special in some obvious and exclusive way; the other sons weren’t spoiled like this. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Civil discourse was out of the question. It may be that they couldn’t even say the equivalent of “Hi.”
It’s mostly Israel’s fault, though Joseph doesn’t seem to take the edge off his dad’s attention. He actually seems to revel in it and rub it in.
Even though the LORD doesn’t appear or speak to Joseph, Joseph has two dreams that seem to be from the LORD, dreams that we know do come true. As he shares the dreams, though, he drives a wedge deeper between himself and his brothers, and even ruffles his father’s feathers.
Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. (Genesis 37:5–8)
Hate is all over this paragraph as black covers a racetrack, from start to finish. Joseph could have kept the dream to himself. Instead, he sounds the verbal trumpet; Hear this dream that I have dreamed or, “Listen to this!” As it turns out, telling them the dream and angering them by the dream was part of God’s plan to fulfill the dream.
The brothers don’t have any problem interpreting the dream. They understood the nub that Joseph would reign and rule over them. It wasn’t right for this blabbermouth, pet-son number eleven to govern over the first ten.
Joseph was either incredibly dimwitted or incredibly insufferable; either he had a head like wood or he was like wood hitting others in the head. He has a second dream and throws it in their face as well.
Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. (Genesis 37:9–11)
The imagery changes from earth to the heavens, and the imagery includes his parents this time, but it was the same gist, doubled for force. Jacob got it, and rebuked Joseph for his brass. Mother may refer to Leah as the preferred woman in the house now, or it may just be a response to the statement about the sun, the moon . Jacob did not appreciate it, though Moses does say that Jacob kept the saying in mind . The brothers, though, are full up on disgruntlement.
Evil can’t hold still in the heart any more than leaven can hold still in the lump (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 where malice and evil are like leaven). These are wicked stepbrothers.
Joseph isn’t the only one not paying attention. The oldest ten went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem . This was around 50 miles away. Why so far? And why would they go back near Shechem, the city where Levi and Simeon massacred all the men about two years previous to now? Isn’t this asking for trouble?
Joseph wasn’t with them, yet Israel proposes that Joseph go, by himself, and check on them. Joseph replied, Here I am,” , or, “I’m ready to go.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem , probably a two to three day journey.
But his brother’s weren’t there. A man found him wandering in the fields. Some guy just happened to see Joseph, and that guy just happened to have overheard Joseph’s brothers. They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” Without this mystery man, Joseph surely would have gone back home and none of the next events would have been next. Instead he went another 15 miles further from home.
The brother’s couldn’t have planned it better if they had tried. They are far away from home, away from anyone’s view, when they saw Joseph alone from afar , probably recognized by his robe.
And before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” (Genesis 37:18–20)
To be able to arrive at and agree on a plan so quickly indicates that the hate was already boiling in the pot just waiting for the lid to come off. The brothers have their scheme to deal with Joseph, to deal with his body, to deal with their alibi. They don’t call him by name, they refer to him as the “master of dreams” (NET) and they sneer at the fulfillment of his dreams.
But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” He continued, ”Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” This suggests a less violent way of getting rid of the pest, starvation rather than slaughter. Reuben’s hidden intention was to come back and rescue Joseph and restore him to Israel. Perhaps Reuben was trying to make up for sleeping with his dad’s wife. Perhaps he had an older brother’s conscience. Whatever his full intentions, it did work, though only in part.
When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit The pit was empty; there was no water in it. They dumped him in a cistern, but one he wouldn’t drown in, nor would he be able to drink from.
Then they sat down to eat. This is callous. They might even be eating some of a care package carried by Joseph himself (per Wenham). They’ve worked up quite an appetite being so angry and conspiring to kill him.
While enjoying their meal, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead…on their way to carry it down to Egypt. This company of traveling spice and gum salesmen just happened to be going by this spot at this time. And Judah has an idea. He proposes a sale. ”What profit is it if we kill 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, our own flesh.” “This way they can be rid of their hated brother, enrich themselves, and disprove his boastful dreams all in one fell swoop” (Wenham). It’s a trifecta.
With brothers so gracious, so generous, who needs the IRS? Hate is thicker than blood. They didn’t kill him, but this sort of human trafficking was later judged by capital punishment (see Exodus 21:16 and Deuteronomy 24:7).
When the Midianite—probably a more specific tribe of Ishmaelites— traders passed by the brothers lifted Joseph straight from the pit and sold him…for twenty shekels of silver , the going rate for 17 year-old boys. The brothers were driven by evil intent, though they didn’t realize that they were in the very act positioning Joseph for the fulfillment of his dreams.
Apparently Reuben had gone off on an errand. When he came back and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes, and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” If he really wanted an answer, someone might have said, “You could go after the traders and buy Joseph back.” Instead he participates in the cover story.
They took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the rope in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father. The tool of deceit was a goat, just as Jacob used to deceive his father.
Whether the sons brought it directly or sent it ahead, they eventually came and found their father making just the assumption they hoped for. He believed the lie that they didn’t have to suggest, and they were happy to let him think it.
Jacob began to mourn, and it went on for many days until it became awkward. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him. This was painstaking hypocrisy from the sons. They could have given Jacob some comfort if they had confessed the truth. But they don’t, and Israel proclaims that he plans to be inconsolable until he himself dies.
Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. We’ll pick up in Egypt in chapter 39, but everything is going exactly according to plan, to God’s predestined plan.
Evil intentions can sometimes be mitigated. Joseph did not help himself, even though his brothers probably had done dumb things, even though he wasn’t responsible for his father’s affections, and he did actually dream the dreams. Yet whistle-blowers don’t make many friends, and maybe he didn’t always have to wear the coat, and a private conversation with his dad about the dreams might have done better.
But the hate of the brothers came from their own evil intentions. And God used their evil intentions to save them by His design. There is a lot more of this story, but God told Abraham that his seed would be out of the land for centuries and now the seed of deliverance is planted in Egypt. We wouldn’t believe it except that it’s exactly what God revealed at the beginning of the story.
Imagination of faith is vital, not to escape but to endure, and to endure in order to bless the world. We may not be like Joseph, but God’s sovereignty in Joseph’s life should strengthen our confidence in the fulfillment of all God’s promises.