Joseph: The Dreamer- Genesis 37:1-11

Father God, thank you so much for this morning,

God. God, we are just so thankful, Lord, just

for this chance to gather together, God. For

this chance to lift your name high and to learn

from your word, God. And Lord, I just ask that

this morning, would you give me your words and

nothing but your word, God. Lord, would you quiet

our hearts of any distractions and help us to

learn from this passage, God. Lord, as we look

at it, help us learn more about you, more about

our Savior, more about how we should live. But

God, help it not just to say as head knowledge,

would you change our hearts with it, Father?

Be at work in this room now, God. As we gather

today and celebrate Joel being baptized, God,

would you just work in our hearts, God, if there's

anyone here who doesn't know you, would you be

at work right now in bringing them into a personal

relationship with you? Lord, we just thank you

so much. We lift all this up in your name. Amen.

Here at Cornerstone, we like to do something.

We're going to start off by reading the passage

we'll be looking at today. Let me ask that you

would just stand with us. You know, we do this,

and it might sound a little different at first,

but we do it actually because this is what the

Israelites were told to do by God in the book

of Ezra. They gathered together, they stood,

and they heard the word of the Lord taught. And

so we're not going to stand the entire time,

but I'm going to ask you just to stand with us

as we read Genesis 37 verses 1 through 11. This

Genesis 37:1–11

is the word of God. It says, Jacob lived in the

land where his father had stayed, the land of

Canaan. These are the family records of Jacob.

At 17 years of age, Joseph tended sheep with

his brothers. And the young man was working with

the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives,

and he brought a bad report about them to their

father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than his

other sons because Joseph was a son born to him

in his old age, and he made a long -sleeved robe

for him. When his brothers saw that their father

loved him more than all his brothers, they hated

him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably

to him. And then Joseph had a dream. When he

told it to his brothers, they hated him even

more. He said to them, listen to the dream that

I had. There we were, binding sheaves of grain

in the field, and suddenly my sheaf stood up,

and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed

down to my sheaf. Are you really going to reign

over us, his brothers asked him. Are you really

going to rule us? And so they hated him even

more because of his dream and what he had said.

And then he had another dream and told it to

his brothers. Look, he said, I had another dream,

and this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars

were bowing down to me. And he told his brothers,

or his father and brothers, His father rebuked

him. What kind of a dream is this that you've

had, he said? Am I and your mother and your brothers

really going to come and bow down to the ground

before you? And his brothers were jealous of

him. But look at this last line, but his father

kept the matter in mind. That's the word of God.

You may be seated. Friends, here at Cornerstone,

we believe that preaching should come directly

from the Word of God. And so that's what we're

going to do today. We're going to look at this

passage and see what we can learn about a couple

different things. But there's kind of five questions

I like to ask when I'm studying the Old Testament

for myself. First, what is the big idea of this

passage? What is the stuff that happens in this?

Secondly, what's the main point or the main theme

of this passage? What is really going on here?

You know, sometimes you might read a passage

and you're like, okay. I get it. So for instance,

if you go into like the prophet Isaiah, there's

some crazy stuff that God asks Isaiah to do.

And he says, you know, go do this and show my

people this by doing this, by eating this type

of bread or by laying like this for this length

of time. We were like, wow, okay. That's cool.

That's definitely what happened. But we need

to ask ourselves a deeper question. What's the

big idea here? What's the main point that is

going on? What's the main theme that God is getting

at? Then I have to ask three more questions.

What does this passage teach us about God? What

does this passage teach us about Jesus? And what

does this passage teach us about man, about ourselves,

about how we should live? And so today we're

going to see those five different questions answered,

and we're going to jump right to that first big

theme, that main theme, that main idea. Here's

what we're going to get at today. Our main point

is this. Joseph is a foreshadowing of our true

and better Savior. Joseph is a foreshadowing

of our true and better Savior. This fall, as

we go through the life of Joseph, we are going

to see this over and over again, that Joseph

is both an incredible man of faith who we should

probably live a little more like, but also that

Joseph foreshadows the greatest Savior we could

ever have, our true and better Savior, Jesus.

So there's going to be a lot of highs that we

see throughout the life of Joseph. There's some

lows that we see. We'll see a lot of lows next

week, actually. But then we'll see also some

highs. Some highs as he's able to save the lives

of his family from a famine. Some highs as we

see God providing for him and for his family

as a whole. But really, the climax of the entire

life of Joseph comes at the very end of the book

of Genesis. If you're kind of in my generation,

you might be thinking, oh, Daniel's about to

say Genesis 50 -20, and then Joseph looks at

them and says, hey, you planned evil against

me, but don't worry, God used it for good. That's

not actually the climax. I would argue that the

climax verse, the climactic verse of this entire

section of the book of Genesis actually comes

in Genesis 49. So when Jacob is talking to his

sons and he's talking specifically to Judah,

this is what he says to his son Judah. He says,

the scepter will not depart from Judah or the

staff from between his feet until he who's right

it is comes and the obedience of the people belongs

to him. Then he says this, he ties his donkey

to a vine and the colt of his donkey to the choice

vine. He washes his clothes and wine and his

robes in the blood of grapes. Now, friends, you

might hear that and kind of like, okay, weird

choice there, Daniel. That's a lot about grape

juice. Friends, that's a messianic prophecy.

I want us to understand from the start of our

series today in Genesis chapter 37 that the life

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

of Joseph points us directly and straight to

the cross and to what Jesus did. Listen, we're

not just reading a fairy tale. We're not just

reading a collection of good things that some

guy did thousands of years ago. This is all pointing

us directly to Jesus. To Jesus who came into

Jerusalem, right in the cult of the donkey, who

washed his clothes, not in wine, but in blood,

his own blood, so that you and I could be saved.

And so as we look through this series on Joseph,

I want you to keep that verse in mind. Chapter

49, verses 10 through 12. Keep that promise in

mind. Because that's where we're headed. And

everything we're going to see is going to point

us to how we need that greater Savior. That greater

Savior promised in Genesis chapter 49. There's

Genesis 49 · chapter mention

another thing we're going to see throughout this

series. There's a big contrast throughout the

life of Joseph. Here's kind of the contrast.

There's Joseph on one hand who's going to live

righteously and a faithful life even when bad

things happen. And then there's his brothers.

I hate to say it so somberly. His brothers live

a sinful life at all times. His brothers' lives

are marked probably most predominantly by hatred,

by jealousy, by bitterness, by general wickedness,

by selfishness. Pretty much any sin under the

sun is going to accurately describe his brothers.

So maybe you're sitting here today, maybe you're

brand new to the Bible, you have no idea what

the book of Genesis is, and that's okay. We're

going to talk about that for a minute. See, throughout

Genesis, we see the Bible focus on a group of

people and tell the story of their lives. We

start off with creation, where God creates the

heavens and the earth and everything in the earth,

and then we start to see these people that are

focused in on the first one being Adam, the first

man ever created, followed by Noah, then Abraham,

Isaac, Jacob, and finally Joseph. And so Genesis

37, in many ways, is really a transitional chapter

as we move from a study of the life of Jacob

previously, which I would highly recommend you

go back and read through, now into the life of

Joseph, his son. As we start this transition,

look at verse 1 again with me. Genesis 37, 1,

it says this, Jacob lived in the land where his

father had stayed, the land of Canaan. So here's

the setting of this transition, the setting of

the start of the life of Joseph. It happens in

the land of Canaan, what is now known today as

Israel. The land of Canaan first becomes prominent

during actually Abraham's life. You might remember

I just said there's Adam, Noah, and then Abraham.

Well, in Genesis 12, 1 through 3, God speaks

to Abraham, called Abram at the time. Listen

to what God says. It says, So God promises Abram,

or Abraham, that he will be a great nation. But

there's an act of obedience that Abraham needs

to do. He needs to leave his home, obey God,

and move to this new land of Canaan. And Abraham

does that. He obeys God, but his story doesn't

end there. There's another prophecy we need to

understand. See, in Genesis 15, 13 through 16,

God makes this next promise. It says this, then

the Lord said to Abram, know this for certain,

your offspring, that'll be your descendants,

will be resident aliens for 400 years in a land

that does not belong to them, will be enslaved

and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation

they serve, and afterward they will go out with

many possessions. But you, Abram, you will go

to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a

good old age. And the fourth generation, they

will return here 400 years later, for the iniquity

of the Amorites has not yet reached its full

measure. There's a whole lot going on in there.

Here's the important part to take away. God's

made this promise to Abraham that he will be

a great nation. God then promises Abraham that

his nation, his descendants, his offspring, will

be taken away into exile for 400 years, into

a land they are not from, but that God will then

set them free. Friends, that is the story of

the Exodus right there, summarized in Genesis

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15, promised in Genesis chapter 15. But

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

part of why I bring that up is because the story

of Joseph is going to be also the story of how

Israel ends up in Egypt, how God is going to

then work all of this out, how all of these early

promises in Genesis, all these early prophecies

about the Israelite people, which will ultimately

point us to our need for a Savior, Jesus, all

start right here in Genesis 12 and Genesis 15.

and Genesis 37 here in the land of Canaan. And

so let me try to do something a little crazy

here. Let me try to summarize 36 chapters of

Genesis in two minutes for you, okay? I thought

a lot about this. I practiced this a lot. I got

it done in about five minutes. We'll see if we

can go shorter, okay? We started there with Genesis

12. God speaks to Abram and he says, listen,

I'm going to make you into a great nation, but

you need to trust me and obey me. You need to

move from your homeland, from the land of Ur.

You need to move to Canaan. And so that's exactly

what happens. You might be thinking, great, so

Abraham has a lot of kids, and this is super

easy for him, but it's not easy for him. Listen,

maybe the most significant part about Abraham,

the most significant unstated thing, if you've

never heard of this man before, is that Abraham

is 100 years old before he has a child. At 100

years old, God comes to him and says, you're

going to have a child now. His wife's 90, and

they start laughing at God, because that's impossible.

But with God, nothing is impossible. So they

have a son, that son is named Isaac, and Abraham

has some other sons, including Ishmael, who we'll

actually see mentioned again next week, later

on in Genesis chapter 37. But after the life

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

of Abraham, after the start of the Israelite

people, then we see the Bible shift its focus

to Isaac. And Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob.

And Esau and Jacob fight, they don't get along

at all. Esau is a big hunter, he's an outdoorsman,

okay? To use an example from my own life, I went

to the University of Wyoming, and we had a lot

of what we would call ag boys there. And you

always could tell an ag boy because they were

walking around in their big cowboy boots and,

you know, they just, there was a type, right?

You know, they would show up at 8 a .m., they'd

be chewing already. Okay, that was Esau. Esau's

a big hunter, he's an outdoorsman, he's tough,

he's physical, he's that macho man. Jacob's really

not. Okay, Jacob, it says, likes to kind of hang

out around the camp, he likes to stay home, he

learns to cook and he makes stew, stuff like

that. And Jacob ends up actually tricking Esau

out of his birthright, also known as his inheritance,

and taking basically everything that Esau should

have gotten as the firstborn son. Well, Jacob

realizes all of a sudden that his older brother,

Mr. Tough Guy, is not going to be super happy

with him. And he finds out that Esau plans to

kill him. And so Jacob flees, and then he eventually

returns in very dramatic fashion, followed by

all of his wives and kids and livestock and servants

and everything else. And he goes, and then he

wrestles with the pre -incarnate Jesus. He has

something called a Christophany, or literally

where Jesus appears to him before Jesus is incarnate.

And then Jacob has his name changed in that.

So if you ever hear the name of Israel in the

story of Joseph, which you will in these next

13 chapters, that is referring to Jacob. The

other major thing you need to know about Jacob

is this. He has two wives, Leah and Rachel. They're

sisters, and Jacob, it's very explicit, loves

Rachel more than Leah. We need to be very clear

on something. I don't recommend that. I don't

recommend having two wives, and neither does

the Bible. Sometimes the Bible is prescriptive

and tells us exactly what we need to do. Sometimes

the Bible is descriptive or tells us what happened.

The Bible is descriptive when it talks about

Jacob. It's not a recommendation from God. In

addition to Leah and Rachel, Jacob also has some

sons with their servants, which is a cultural

thing, and it totals 12 sons and one daughter

in all. And let me be... really clear on this.

These sons actually really matter. So let me

go ahead and give you the names of the 12 sons.

I'm not expecting you to remember this. I'm not

going to test you on this, but I do think it

matters that we know who these sons are as we

prepare to go through the life of Joseph. So

we start off with this, the oldest son. I want

you to listen to the moms also, because you're

going to notice something about the order that

these kids are born in. His oldest is Reuben,

son of Leah, followed by Simeon, son of Leah,

followed by Levi, son of Leah, followed by Judah,

son of Leah, followed by Dan, son of Bilhah.

That's one of the servants. Followed by Naphtali,

son of Bilhah, one of the servants. Followed

by Gad, son of Zilpah, another one of the servants.

Followed by Asher, son of Zilpah. Followed by

Issachar, son of Leah. Followed by Zebulun, son

of Leah. Followed by Dinah, daughter of Leah,

the only recorded daughter of Jacob. I think

we can all be sympathetic for a second. Growing

up with 12 brothers that hate each other must

have been really hard for her. But in all seriousness,

have you noticed something yet? Three of the

women have had kids, but there's one who has

not. And that was Jacob's favorite wife, pretty

explicitly Rachel. And then son 11 is born. Joseph,

son of Rachel. Joseph, the favorite son, the

son of his favorite wife, followed by Benjamin,

son of Rachel, who dies while she gives birth

to him. That is the family of Jacob that we're

introduced to here in Genesis chapter 37. It's

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

Jacob's family in a nutshell, and they live in

the land of Canaan at this time, the land where

their forefather had moved them to. And so in

verse 1, we learned where they are, and we summarize

about 25 chapters of Genesis. And now in verse

2, we're going to see more of this transition

of Scripture talking about Jacob moving over

to Joseph. So look at verses 2 through 4 with

me. This is what it says. It says, these are

the family records of Jacob. At 17 years of age,

Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young

man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah,

his father's wives, and he brought a bad report

about them to their father. Now Israel loved

Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph

was a son born to him in his old age. We could

also add this part in, because Joseph was the

oldest of his favorite wife. And so he made a

long -sleeved robe for him. You might have heard

that translated before as a coat of many colors.

The more accurate translation is a long -sleeved

robe, but it is literally a sign of royalty.

When his brothers saw their father loved him

more than all of his brothers, They hated him

and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably

to him. So when we meet Joseph, we meet a 17

-year -old who's working as a shepherd. Now that's

a pretty common job at this time. It's actually

the job of his father. It's pretty common that

the youngest son in particular would be a shepherd,

that the younger sons would be. But it was also

where Jacob's wealth would come from, Isaac's

wealth, and Abraham's wealth. It would all come

from their time as shepherds and taking care

of sheep and livestock. And so Joseph and his

brothers are continuing on in this business,

and so we see him in verse 2 out there working

with his brothers. We actually know which brothers

they are. He's working with his half -brothers,

specifically Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And

after working with them, he brings back a negative

report to his father. It doesn't say explicitly

why it's negative, but he brings back a negative

report to his father. But there's something bigger

going on here than just a negative report. There's

something more than just Joseph being a little

bit maybe of a tattle. There's a trigger to this

tension between the brothers that we see. We

see it in verse 3. It's one thing to know or

to think, I think that Joseph is the favorite

brother. It is another thing to have visible

confirmation of that. And that is exactly what

happens in verse 3. If we can go ahead and put

verse 3 up on the screen. That's exactly what

happens in verse 3. The favorite is Joseph. In

fact, Jacob loves Joseph so much that he makes

him a long -sleeved robe. It's a thing that's

reserved for kings. And Jacob's a really wealthy

guy. Understand that he's got a lot of livestock.

He's got all of the means to be able to create

this long -sleeved robe. But culture would dictate

that you would give it to your oldest son or

to Reuben. That it would be his sign of his inheritance.

That it would be a promise to Reuben, a sign

of his pride. It was a big gift. And you might

have gotten a really nice gift before. When I

graduated college and began seminary, my parents

bought me a really nice study Bible. I keep it

in my office basically all the time, so it was

a really thoughtful gift. It meant a ton to me.

It just meant so much to me for a lot of reasons.

But this gift of this long -sleeved coat would

have been a little bit more like this. It would

have been like if my dad had come over to my

college apartment, which was a total dump. It

was awful. Hope refused to come there, actually,

because it was so gross. it would have been like

my dad looked at me and said, do you see the

brand new McLaren that's sitting in the street?

That is yours now, Daniel. That's yours because

you're my favorite son. I'm his only son. But

that would have been my dad saying, instead of

just a Bible, I gave you a McLaren, have fun.

I'm also covering the insurance for it. Okay,

that's what Jacob's just done. He's taken his

insurance. There's already tension. There's already

this perceived Joseph's the favorite because

Joseph is the son of the favorite wife. And now

he's poured gas on it. He's taken a match and

he's lit it. This robe is the top -of -the -line

gift, and everyone would have expected to go

to Reuben, but it doesn't. It goes to Joseph.

It goes to the golden child who can do no wrong,

the perfect son who's never in the wrong. And

when the brothers see this, they are jealous

of him, and they start to hate him even more.

I think it can be easy for us to look at this

and be like, well, I would never hate somebody

for getting a gift. But we do. We get jealous

of people all the time. That person that's a

little bit cooler than us, that's a little bit

smarter than us, that's got a little more money

than us, that's a little prettier than us, that's

a little more athletic than we are, that's a

little more popular than we are. We look at that

person, we get jealous of them. Well, if only

I could be like that person. If only I could

be like this or like that. And over time, that

jealousy starts to grow in our hearts, and if

we let it grow, it becomes bitterness. And as

we become bitter, we start to change the way

that we look at that person. We start trying

to intentionally find faults and weaknesses.

And eventually, that just turns into straight

-up hatred, where we hate that person. We don't

hate them necessarily because they've done anything

to us. We hate them because we hate the idea

of them, because we see what they are and what

we think we're not. And that's what's happening

here with the brothers. The brothers hate each

other. They've been jealous of Joseph for being

the favorite. They've let bitterness grow in

their hearts, and now they just hate him. They

can barely even be in the same room as one another.

The tension is thick. I cannot imagine what a

family dinner must have been like with this group

of brothers, because they can't talk to each

other peaceably. They just can't. There's a show

that just ended actually last year called Yellowstone,

and I would not recommend watching it, but there

is one theme throughout it, which is family dinner.

And at family dinner, it always devolves into

the sister yelling at the brother and the dad

about how terrible they are. And every family

dinner ends up with somebody yelling and screaming

and usually something getting thrown across the

room. I think that's a pretty good insight into

what this would have looked like for these brothers.

They hate Joseph. Yeah, they're good to go eat

with Jacob, as long as Joseph isn't there. They're

good to go be together as long as Joseph isn't

there. They absolutely hate each other over a

gift because they've grown jealous and they've

grown bitter. And something happens in verse

5 through 8. It's really going to take this situation,

this tension, from a 10 to about a 15 out of

10. Look at verses 5 through 8 with me. It says

this, Then Joseph had a dream. We told it to

his brothers. They hated him even more. He said

to them, Listen to this dream that I had. There

we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field,

and suddenly my sheaf stood up. That's going

to represent Joseph. And your sheaves, that represents

the brothers, gathered around it and bowed down

to my sheaf. Okay, before I read verse 8, let

me just be very clear what's going on here. Joseph

has had a dream that his brothers are bowing

down to him like he is their king. Okay? They

already think he's got an ego problem. They already

think he's got issues. And then this happens.

And that's exactly what verse 8 says. Are you

really going to reign over us, his brothers asked

him? Are you really going to rule us? Now, we

already knew they hated him. But look at this

sentence. So they hated him even more because

of his dream and what he had said. What did I

talk about? Jealousy becomes bitterness. Bitterness

leads to hatred. They already hate him. They

can hate him even more and more and more and

more. This entire thing is a process. That's

where the magic word then comes from in verse

5. There's been a bad report. There's been this

coat. They're jealous. They're bitter. They're

angry. And then Joseph has a dream. And as Joseph

tells them his dream, they hate him even more.

This dream that they're all bowing down to him

and praising him as their king. It's humiliating.

In this culture where everything is built off

of honor and respect, and avoiding shame. He's

saying that he will rule over his older brothers

who should have that authority over him. He's

already got the robe of a king, and now he's

saying that he will rule them as a king. And

the brothers get angrier and angrier and angrier,

and we're still not done yet. We're just not.

Look at verses 9 through 11 with me. It says

this, then he had another dream, and he told

it to his brothers. Look, he said, I had another

dream, and this time the sun, moon, and 11 stars

were bowing down to me. Let's stop right there

for a second. It's not just the 11 brothers now.

There's something a little different. There's

11 stars. Those 11 stars are clearly going to

be his brothers. But then there's also the sun

and the moon. The sun represents Jacob. The moon

represents his wife, Leah. So Jacob hears this

in verse 10. Let me keep reading. And in verse

10, it says this. He told his father and his

brothers, and his father rebuked him. What kind

of a dream is this that you've had, he said?

Am I and your mother and your brothers really

going to come and bow down to the ground before

you? And his brothers, look at that word again,

were jealous of him. But his father kept the

matter in mind. So Jacob hears this dream, and

even though Joseph is his favorite son, Jacob

calls him out on him. He rebukes him. He gets

on him about this. That's not the right thing

to say. It tells him to be quiet because he sounds

absolutely crazy because after all, why would

a father bow down to a son? He's probably a part

of Jacob here who's kind of thinking, I've already

given you this great honor. I've already given

you this great robe. You already know that you're

my favorite. You already know you're going to

get everything that I have when I die. What more

do you need from me? Why is it now that you're

telling me that I'm going to come bow down before

you? Like, why would you come up with this? Why

would you start telling people this? That doesn't

make any sense at all. The only reason that Jacob

would ever have to bow down before his son is

if the son has complete power and authority over

the situation. And I promise that there is a

tie -in to our main point, to the fact that all

of this foreshadows Jesus. Understand something,

there is another son in the Bible who has complete

authority, and that is Jesus. Verses 10 and 11

are not just a statement of fact, although they

are. They also show us a similarity and a link

between Joseph and our true Savior. See, we've

seen already this contrast, Joseph, the hardworking,

honest, humble, truthful son, right? Because

he could have lied for his brothers when they

were in the field. He could have chosen not to

bring a bad report to his father. He could have

said, well, you know, Dad, things happened, and

it was hard, and we, you know, didn't get as

much done as you asked us to, but we did our

best. But he doesn't. He brings a bad report.

He brings a bad report about his brothers. And

on the other hand, like we saw today, his brothers

are lazy. They're jealous. And really, jealousy

shows something else about them. Jealousy shows

that they are prideful people. They're filled

with pride. They think too highly of themselves.

They hate Joseph. They're filled with hatred.

They want Joseph dead. I don't know about you,

at least when I was in a youth group, when I

was younger, a lot of times I'd hear people be

like, don't say that you hate somebody because...

Hatred is a really strong word, and hatred is

the equivalent of wanting someone to die. Don't

miss this. That's how his brothers feel about

him. His brothers want him to die. The Bible

uses that word very intentionally. It doesn't

just say they strongly dislike him, they have

strong displeasure with Joseph. His brothers

hate him. They're the opposite of peaceful, as

you see if you back up a little bit in Genesis.

They're immoral, as we'll see in a couple weeks.

They're rebellious, and as we'll see next week,

they are dishonest. This contrast matters a ton.

See, this contrast, it's not just about a bunch

of brothers back in the day. This contrast shows

us the difference between sinful living and righteous

living. But it's also furthering this link between

Joseph and Jesus, something that continues on

in verse 11. We see that Jacob keeps the matter

in mind. That's actually parallel wording to

something that happens in Luke 1 and 2. Throughout

Luke 1 and 2, as Mary is visited by an angel,

as Mary is visited by the shepherds, Mary continually

talks about treasuring things in her heart and

her mind. She's remembering things. She's meditating

on them. She's considering what's going on all

around her friends. That is purposeful wording.

I don't want you to think that's just an accident

or that's just some coincidence. It's not. That

is purposeful wording throughout the Bible. That

Jacob is treasuring in his mind what Joseph says.

Notice, he might rebuke him publicly and say,

hey, Joseph, stop saying that to your brothers

and me. But he also keeps it in mind. He considers

it. He says, maybe this is God talking. Maybe

God's doing something here. In the same way,

Mary's going to do the same thing when an angel

visits her and tells her she's going to have

a son. when the shepherds come and praise her

son, her new baby. I've never had a child. I'm

also not a woman, so I can't ever be a mom. But

I would imagine that most moms don't expect to

have a bunch of random strangers just show up

and start bowing down and worshiping their sons.

I think most moms would probably be a little

on edge if that happened. But Mary isn't on edge.

Instead, Mary treasures it in her heart. She

keeps it in her mind. She considers it and she

remembers that something is different about her

son, much the same way that Jacob is remembering

that something is different about Joseph. See,

there's some similarities beyond this just to

the context. Jesus and Joseph are both in an

evil place. They both come in peace. Notice,

although that you could make an argument, I guess

in theory, that Joseph shouldn't have shared

his dreams, Joseph doesn't do anything wrong

in this chapter to deserve being hated. He brings

a truthful report, although not positive, a truthful

report about his brothers. honoring his father.

He tells the truth about what his dreams were.

Comes in peace. Jesus comes in peace. Jesus comes

proclaiming in Mark 1 15, the kingdom of God

is at hand, repent. Neither one of them is doing

anything wrong, but at the same time, both are

being hated and despised by the people around

them. They also both will have the chance to

save those same people who tried to hurt them.

Joseph, just a little bit of foreshadowing here,

is going to have the chance to provide food and

a new life to his family. Jesus gives us a new

eternal life, a life that lasts forever. A life

that's not just here on earth, but a life that

will last forever in heaven. Understand something.

There's three things I want us to take away this

morning. And I promise we'll kind of answer these

five questions, right? First, what is it that

happens here? What's the big action? What really

is the big idea of what happened here? Well,

what happened here is that Joseph had two dreams.

They received a coat from his father that his

brothers were filled with jealousy, bitterness,

and hated him. It might seem like a weird place

to stop for today, but I think it really matters

that we stop there. We've got to understand something

from that, and we'll talk about it in a minute.

Secondly, what is the main theme or the main

idea that's really getting pushed here? Well,

the theme here is really about how Joseph is

coming foreshadowing something so much greater.

Third, what does this passage teach me about

God? Well, we're going to answer that here in

a second. Fourth, what does this passage teach

me about Jesus? It's another one of our applications

today. And then fifth, what does this passage

teach me about man? So today, as we move into

a time where we're going to have three applications,

three ways we can take this passage and practically

apply it to our lives today, let me encourage

you to keep those questions in mind, especially

those last three. What does this passage teach

me about God? What does this passage teach me

about Jesus? And what does this passage teach

me about mankind? Here's our first point of application.

Joseph is a foreshadowing of our Savior, Jesus.

I'm just going to spoil it here. This application

is directly, what does this passage teach me

about Jesus? Joseph is a foreshadowing of our

Savior, Jesus. See, throughout the Bible, one

of the things that we see in the Old Testament

is our need for a Savior. It all starts in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, where God creates the heavens and

the earth and everything in it, and God creates

it perfectly. In Genesis 1, 26 and 27, it actually

says that God created man and was, God said that

man was very good indeed. Man wasn't just good,

man wasn't just okay, man was very good indeed.

It's the creator of everything saying that. But

in Genesis 3, things start to change, because

in Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve decide they

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

don't need to do things God's way, they can do

things their own way. And something called sin

enters the world. Sin is everything that we do

that is wrong and is not perfectly holy in God's

eyes. We could look at it like this. Sin is the

sickness that all of mankind in our world has.

And there's a symptom of sin, and that is brokenness.

Broken relationships, hatred, jealousy, bitterness.

That emotional strife that we deal with, those

hard times that we go through, that all is a

part of brokenness. It can be really easy for

us to try to treat that symptom, right? I feel

broken, I'm hurting, I'm struggling. You know,

today we might look at Joseph's brothers and

be like, we're going to recommend some family

counseling to you guys, and you guys can go sit

down and talk through this stuff a little bit.

But ultimately, that's not going to be the fix

or the solution they need, because that's just

treating the symptom. And sometimes when we get

sick, a doctor might give us medicine that lessens

the symptoms, but it doesn't fix the root cause.

And in Joseph's case, he can treat some of the

symptoms by providing some food for his brothers

later on. He can treat some of the symptoms maybe

by having a little more tact here in Genesis

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

chapter 37 and knowing when to say what and when

not to speak to his brothers. But this greater

Savior, Jesus, he didn't come to treat a symptom.

Jesus came to fix the sickness. Jesus came to

treat the sickness. And this is what we read

in 1 Corinthians 15. three and four. It says

this, for I passed on to you is most important.

This is what is most important. Please hear this.

This is the most important thing you can hear

all morning. What I also receive, that Christ

died for our sins according to the scriptures,

that he was buried, that he was raised on the

third day according to the scriptures or the

word of God, the Bible that we've been in all

day. And because of that, because of what Jesus

did, because he came to earth, because he lived

a perfect life, a life with no sin, because he

died on the cross, because he was buried, because

he was raised on the third day, we can be saved.

And here's the deal. All it takes, it's really

simple, is just putting your faith in Jesus,

confessing Jesus is Lord. And in our salvation,

it's not just over. We're not just sitting there

like, oh cool, that was great. Great, I've got

my get out of jail free card. That's not what

it is. In our salvation, we are given a new identity.

We are made new. We're restored to God's design.

And then we are given a mission. We are given

a mission to bring this message to the world.

And friends, that's what we are here doing every

Sunday. We are reminded of the truth of what

Jesus did, and then we go out and we live our

lives each week bringing the message of salvation

through Jesus and Jesus alone to the world all

around us. And so today, let me call on you.

If you've never placed your faith in Jesus, today,

give up your bitterness, give up jealousy, give

up that hurt. Stop trying to just fix a symptom.

Go to the doctor who can truly fix the sickness.

Our Savior who loves you so much that he gave

his life for you and died for you. Put your faith

in Jesus today. If you already know Jesus, then

let me encourage you to reflect on this passage

a little bit differently. Great. We know that

Jesus is being foreshadowed by Joseph. But let

me ask you. Does your life reflect the way that

Jesus lived? Does your life scream dependence

on God and faith in Jesus? Or if we're honest,

is our life a little more like the brothers,

full of jealousy, bitterness, and hatred? Friends,

let me encourage you to be faithful, to be faithful

in hard times and in good times. Even though

it's not explicitly said in these 11 verses,

I can promise you this, I don't think Joseph's

a stupid guy. I think we see that throughout

these next 13 chapters. He had to know there

was tension in his family. He had to. It wasn't

like they were hiding it, right? It says explicitly

they can't speak peaceably to him. He knows something's

wrong, but every day he's still faithful. He's

faithful to bring the bad report about his brothers,

even when a falsified good report might have

made them like him a little bit more. He's faithful

to bring that bad report. And so let me challenge

us. Let's be faithful. Let's live not worried

about other people's approval, but let's be faithful

to rely on our true and better Savior and to

live a life that is glorifying and honoring to

him. Here's our second application for the day.

I'm going to call this the sin snowball. This

teaches us about man in this passage. What are

we taught about man in this passage? The sin

snowball. If we back all the way up even into

Jacob's life, we see a whole lot of lies that

start to kind of snowball out of control. It

starts all the way back with how does Jacob end

up with two wives, and it starts with his father

-in -law tricking him into marrying Rachel's

older sister. And that starts, which then causes

Jacob to have a favorite wife, which then leads

to a favorite child. which then leads to the

other children becoming jealous, which leads

to them becoming bitter and angry, which then

leads to them hating their own brother. Friends,

sin snowballs. Even just from something as simple

as this long -sleeved coat, we see Jacob's brothers

begin to hate him even more. And let's be clear,

there's nothing wrong with getting given a nice

gift by your parents, but favoritism is wrong.

Sin snowballs. And I want to address that today.

Just head on. Do you have sin in your life that

you need to address? Don't wait. Don't delay.

Don't say, I'll handle that in six months. I'll

handle that in a year. I'll handle that once

I'm settled into my dorm, once I've settled into

my class schedule. Address it today. Don't let

sin snowball. Let me give you some examples of

what that might look like. Maybe it's that little

lie that keeps becoming bigger and bigger and

bigger and bigger and bigger. I told this story

before that I... I don't even know why I did

this. I started this rumor on my floor that Michael

Jordan died when I was a freshman in college.

And it started so small and clearly outrageous.

Like, it clearly made no sense. A Google search

completely debunks this. But no one Googled it.

And so I left for a couple hours, and I came

back to a full -on vigil with candles being lit.

Candles were not allowed in our dorms. They were

lighting candles in our study room for this Michael

Jordan vigil. And it goes on from there. And

then somebody logs into Wikipedia to edit it

to put on that he's died. I'm like, oh my gosh,

this is getting out of control. Friends, sin

snowballs. What starts as, honestly, a really

stupid joke with a friend turns into something

much bigger. And we do the same thing, whether

it's a little lie or something bigger. Parents,

maybe you've got a favorite child. Maybe you

don't even want to admit that you've got a favorite

child. Maybe it's not a lie. Maybe it's that

day that you're upset in the morning. You just

wake up on the wrong side of the bed and you

know it for minute one. And you get upset when

you get cut off at the interstate and you get

upset at this next thing and this next thing

and this next thing and this next thing and it

grows and it grows and it grows. And by the end

of the day, instead of it just being like, I'm

just not in a great mood, you're just screaming

at people. Friends, sin snowballs. Cut sin out.

There's this example from a TV show. called the

circle of screaming. It's this idea that if your

boss has a bad day, he yells it, like if the

senior boss yells at your boss then because he's

had a bad day, then your boss is upset because

he got yelled at, so he yells at you. And so

you get mad because you've just been yelled at,

so you go and you take it out on a family member

or someone around you. Then your family member

takes it out at somebody else. For instance,

maybe you're married to a teacher and they yell

at a student the next day at school. And that

student, as it turns out, is the child of your

boss's boss. And this whole cycle repeats over

and over and over again. And it's a humorous

example, it really is, but the truth of the matter

is that we do that type of stuff all the time.

Where somebody else hurts us, and we say, you

know what, I'm hurt and I have a right now to

continue on in sin and to let this affect me

for the rest of my day and the rest of my week

and the rest of the month, I'm entitled to this.

Friends, sin is not an entitlement. So let me

call on you really simply, cut sin out. When

you notice yourself starting to go down this

road, when you find yourself being jealous of

that person next to you, stop it there. Don't

let it turn into that bitterness and hatred.

Stop it there and go back to God. Sin snowballs.

Don't let it. Here's the final application for

today. Righteous living in an unrighteous time.

This teaches us about God because it tells us

what it is that God wants us to do and also about

man because faith leads us to live differently.

Let me just summarize this simply. Just because

everyone else does something does not mean that

you have to do it too. That sounds like a peer

pressure conversation from like fifth grade.

It's probably because I did work at a fifth grade

daycare for a while. But it's also true. We live

in a world that is naturally and in a sinful

nature hostile to God. We live in a time that

is hostile to God, that does not know God, does

not understand God, does not follow God. And

it's all around us if we're honest. I remember

something as simple as this. When I was in college

as a senior, I was in a class called Educational

Methods for History. And it was great up until

one day when our professor said, look around

the room, this is who you're competing for jobs

with. And I'll tell you what, we all went from

friends to all of a sudden a lot of people started

to hate each other really quick because jealousy

had entered the conversation. No longer was it

enough to cheer each other on and be like, I'll

proofread your paper for you. Now it became,

I need to do better on this so that you don't

get that job that I want. Friends, that's a minor

thing. Maybe it's competing for a job or a promotion.

Maybe it's having more than somebody else. I

want to have the biggest 401k in my department.

I want the biggest this or the biggest that.

That's really what the brothers are getting after,

right? I want to have the coat. I want to be

the favorite son. I'm jealous that Joseph is

and I'm not. Let me just encourage you with this.

It's just not worth playing that game. It is

an exhausting game and it leads you straight

into a pit of death spiritually. Instead of playing

that game, instead of chasing after unrighteous

living and getting ahead through other people's

opinions of you, which by the way, other people's

opinions of you change on a daily basis. Rather

than chasing after that, run to Jesus. Find your

identity and your worth in Jesus, not in somebody

else's thoughts about you or about me. And understand,

I'm not just preaching this to you, I'm reminding

myself of this also at this exact same moment.

Rather than being jealous, rather than being

caught up in this cycle of jealousy and bitterness

and hatred, let's stop that and let's focus on

what God has done. Let's learn from Joseph and

his brothers and let's be like Joseph, not like

his brothers who live lives that are dictated

by anger, jealousy, hatred, and bitterness. So

friends, if you're finding yourself starting

that cycle, starting that jealousy, Let me encourage

you, take a step back this morning, put your

eyes on the cross of Jesus, and remember the

price that was paid for your redemption, because

Jesus did pay that wonderful price for us. Let's

pray. God, thank you so much for today. God,

we are just so thankful for this passage, God,

and just for the chance to see what it looks

like to follow you, God. God, thank you so much

for the way that you love us, that you've set

us free. God, thank you for the fact that we're

no longer caught up in the sin snowball. God,

we're chasing after the next sin or the next

thing or the next bit of jealousy or the next

bit of bitterness, God. But instead that we have

been set free from that, God. Lord, I just ask

that you would just be with us now, God. Lord,

if there are places of jealousy and bitterness

in our hearts, God, or of anger, of hatred even

in our hearts, God, Lord, would you remove those

now, God? God, soften our hearts to that God

and to our need for you in that Father. Lord,

thank you so much for today. Thank you for giving

us Joseph as a foreshadowing of our true and

better Savior, Jesus. And thank you for giving

us Jesus. I call this in your name. Amen. Please

stand.