Sibling Rivalry and Deception: Joseph Sold by His Brothers

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Well, hello, I'm

Jeff Forster. I'm one of the Bible Guys, and Chris is off this

week and so I have as my co host, the Sensational Wesley Woods.

I got yeah, sensational. That's it. Everybody's cheering. Now they go

wild. So man, Wesley, thank you for joining us. And we

have a really fun segment today to kind of kick things off. So Desiree

gave us a list, and she likes to do these. One must go,

so where we have to choose one thing that we'd prefer to keep forever

and one thing that disappears forever. Right, And so the first one is,

and this is near and dear to your heart. Right, the first

one is classic pepperoni pizza or gourmet truffle pizza. One you keep forever,

one has to go forever. I'm not a fancy pizza guy. I'm a

purist. So it's just brick oven cheese, maybe pepperoni. So all the

truffle and pineapples and all of that stuff you can keep. Okay, So

you're saying classic Pepperoni key, that's one I'm keeping. And Truffle Gourmet Truffle

Pizza. You can toss that one. Yeah, although I'm gonna I'm gonna

admit to you I love truffle. I love truffle oil, I love truffle

anything that has truffle on it. Yeah. But I think if I had

to choose one for the rest of my life, I would probably choose Yeah,

that's it. Okay, So as a comfort food, here's your second

one. One you choose one has to vanish for as a comfort food,

French fries or ice cream. This might shock a lot of people. I

would toss ice cream. Really, I would toss ice I'm not a big

ice cream person. Like I could only eat it a couple times a year

and I'm happy now. Cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls. That's a whole

nother discussion, all other things. Right. So you trose fries, So

would I. Yeah. Yeah. So we're two for two. Man.

Yeah, Hey, you know what, we should kick out that other guy

that does this, and it to be me and you. We're in alignment

here. Okay, here's one. You get to keep one forever, and

then you have to get rid of one forever, the macarena or the Electric

Slide. Yes, they're both dances. I would say, just because I

know it. Better keep the electric slide me too, Dude. We're three

for three on this, Okay, Well, now we're getting down to it,

and I know I know zar Bo's answer would be on this one.

Yeah, uh so a number four Monopoly or the Game of Life. Monopoly

or Game of Life. If we're talking forever, I gotta go with Monopoly.

It's the classic. Then we need too. I would keep Monopoly me

too. We're four for four, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bo's job is on the line there. I think of this one. Okay,

well, this might be the make it or Break it bagpipes or the

kazoo. This is to get rid of one forever. Kazoos are fun,

but bagpipes are kind of cool. Like I was just at a ceremony where

a guy was playing it and he's got the all the pipes and he's doing

it, like, yeah, yeah, I would say, keep the bagpipes

me too. Yeah. We're five for five today. I bet you the

Desiree didn't think that that was going to happen today. I actually I played

music in my office a lot of times for quiet, because you know,

it can be loud in the rest of space. And I'll use YouTube channels

that play you know, that show really pretty background settings and then play music

in the background. And yesterday I was playing one in my office of Scotland

and about every third song you gotta have bagpipes so played well, you know

now by themselves, they're horrific. Yeah, and they're played well and they

have other things going. It's pretty nice. So you don't recommend the four

year old trying to play the mill. No, No, it's rough.

It is rough. Well, there we go. We are five for five

when we see Zaraba. That's right. So okay, Well, hey,

we are in the Book of Genesis and we've been moving along and we come

to a new character and we've dealt with you know, Adam and Noah and

Abraham and all those and then finally we come to the story of Joseph in

Genesis chapter thirty seven. This is a very interesting story. Yeah, Joseph

runs from this point to the end of the Book of Genesis, so,

I mean, he's quite a significant figure in the Book of Genesis. And

so we're just going to read the entire chapter. I think of Genesis chapter

thirty seven, aren't we Yeah yeah, So hang on, buckle up,

here we go. So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where

his father had lived as a foreigner. And this is the account of Jacob

and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his

father's flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father's

wives, Bilha and Zilpah, But Joseph reported to his father some of the

bad things his brothers were doing. Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his

other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So

one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph, a beautiful robe.

But his brothers hated Joseph. Because their father loved him more than the rest

of them, they couldn't say a kind word to him. One night,

Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they

hated him more than ever. Listen to this dream, he said. We

were out in the field trying up or tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly

my bundle stood up and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine.

His brothers responded, so you think you'll be our king? Do you?

Do? You actually think you'll reign over us? And they hated him

all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.

Soon, Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it.

Listen, I have had another dream, he said, The sun,

the moon, and eleven stars about low before me. This time he told

the dream to his father as well as his brothers, but his father scolded

him. What kind of dream is that? He asked, Well, your

mother and I and your brother's actually come and bow to the ground before you.

But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the

dreams meant. Soon after this, Joseph's brothers went to pasture their father's flocks

at Shechem. When they had gone been gone for some time, Jacob said

to Joseph, your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shecham. Get ready and

I'll send you to them. I'm ready to go, Joseph replied, go

and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along. Jacob said,

then come back and report to me. So Jacob sent them on his way,

and Joseph traveled to Shechem from their home in the valley of Hebron.

When he arrived there, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the

countryside. What are you looking for, he asked, I'm looking for my

brothers. Joseph replied, do you know where they are pasturing their sheep?

Yes? The man told them they've moved on from here. But I heard

them say, let's go on to Dothan. So Joseph followed his brothers to

Dothan and found them there. When Joseph's brothers saw him coming, they recognized

him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him.

Here comes the dreamer, they said, come on, let's kill him

and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father that

a wild animal has eaten him, and then we'll see what becomes of his

dreams. But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph's rescue.

Let's not kill him, He said, why should we shed any blood.

Let's just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness, and

then he'll die without our laying a hand on him. Reuben was secretly planning

to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. So when Joseph arrived,

his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him

and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty, there was

no water in it. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat,

they looked up and saw caravan and camels in the distance. Coming toward

them. There was a group of ishmael like traders taking a load of gum,

balm and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his

brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother. We'd have to cover

up the crime instead of hurting him. Let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders.

After all, he's our brother, our own flesh and blood. And

his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came

by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them

for twenty pieces of silver, and the traders took him to Egypt. Sometime

later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern, and when he

discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief. Then he

went back to his brother's and lamented, the boy is gone. What will

I do now? Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph's robe

in its blood. They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message,

look at what we found. Doesn't this robe belong to your son?

Their father recognized it immediately, Yes, he said, it is my son's

robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn

to pieces, and Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself and lap. He

mourned deeply for his son for a long time. His family all tried to

comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. I will go to my

grave mourning for my son, he would say, and then he would weep.

Meanwhile, the mid Night Traders arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph

to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. Potiphar was

captain of the palace guard. Wow, a lot happened in that Yeah,

man alive. Sometimes people say Oh, the Bible's kind of boring. But

every twist in turn that sibling rivalry, you know, a plotting murderers,

Yeah, selling their brother this is crazy. One of the first things that

comes to mind is verse five when you were going through this, where it

says one night Joseph had a dream and when he told his brothers about it,

they hated him more than ever. The first thing that came to mind

with that is that just a very practical level that I think a lot of

our listeners will be able to really is everyone can't handle your dreams. That's

true. The thing that God gave you, the thing that he put on

the inside of you. It may resonate with you, it may excite you.

But you share that thing with someone else, it could be a business

idea, what have you. You share it with someone else and they're just

kind of whole hum like, oh, yeah, I don't know if that'll

work. Do you really think no, Maybe you shouldn't do that, Maybe

you don't go back to school, Maybe you just you know, continue doing

what you're doing. Everyone can't handle the thing that God put on the inside

of you, right, Yeah, you know. I'm a verbal processor,

so a lot of times, if I'm thinking about a thing, I talk

it out. Yeah, right, so I'll have it going in my head.

Sometimes I find that my thoughts disentangle themselves through the lips and the fingertips.

Yeah. So sometimes I'll sit down and just start typing and things will

start to come out that way right in order. But a lot of times

I'm just driving and talking, yeah, and I can start to see around

me people their eyes start rolling back in their head, you know, and

I'm just dreaming about the future. And yeah, a lot of people just

can't accept or non visionaries a lot of times can't see the vision. Yeah.

A lot of times it just sounds like words or bragging or you know,

pie in the sky kind of thinking, or other people will try to

put their limitations on you. So because they couldn't do X, Y and

Z, they try to transfer that on to you. This is why you

shouldn't do that. Well, I'm not you. Yeah, yeah, you

know, God gave me different talents and skills and gifts, and yeah,

there's a I think a temptation sometimes to want to hold others back, if

you, especially these guys that are struggling with jealousy. So jealousy just eats

you alive, and it has an impact on others around you, especially if

you have influence. So, you know, one of the things Joseph here,

as a young man, probably a teenage boy at this point, doesn't

have a lot of discernment. Yeah, he doesn't realize that his brothers aren't

his allies, right, And you know, I think it's important to figure

out who are your allies that are going to not just affirm your vision.

You don't need somebody just to blackt just a bunch of yes people that's around

you. But what you need is you need allies that can see the vision,

maybe help you refine the vision and then make it happen. And you

know, it's less about what you know now and it's way more about who

you know they can help you move your vision forward. I could see the

brothers when Joseph is telling the story, and they're looking at each other like,

so, we're going to bow down to you, and then and then

he has your dad go tell his dad, you're gonna go on to me

too. I don't know if I would have told my dad or mom that

it's so funny. So the brothers are like, what the heck this kid

man, and so then they come up with this scheme, you know,

yeah, they said, hey, we're going to kill him. Let's let's

get rid of him. And uh so they're out there and so just for

geographic reference, you know, there they started off they had left their father

where their father was. What didn't they say that they were like staying near

near the Hebron Valley. Isn't that what I read is where Jacob was.

Jacob was staying near the Hebron Valley. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

So they traveled to Shechem from the Hebron Valley. So Hebron is just

south of Jerusalem. This is where David for a while set up his kingdom,

right, yeah, it's just south of Jerusalem. It's in the hilly

area. And then Shechem is is quite a waste to north. Almost halfway

between Jerusalem and Galilee is where Shechem was. So it's a good couple of

days walk and so they're up to the north and then they go, okay,

now we're gonna move on. That's still hilly and depending on what time

of the year, depending on the rain, it might not have been great

for grazing. And then they cut out into one of the plain areas.

Dothan is kind of in a planeary. It's very green, it's kind of

a low area. There's a lot of water there, and so that's where

they go. So you get to remember it's a very agrarian society and very

much about following their animals. And I think a lot about that with different

tribes that we work with, you know, Heritage Church, the church that

you and I both work at, And there's a tribe, the Pokot tribe,

and they follow their cows and their goats the men do so often the

women will stay home in the village or wherever the camp is for sometimes months

at a time, and the men will go out and follow the animals to

wherever there's grazing. And it's because back then there was way less money being

used, and the animals were worth That was your courage, Yeah, that

was your currency. And so basically they were tending their bank accounts, moving

it from here to the air. And yeah, so the brothers were trustworthy

enough that the dad trusted them to go take care of these animals this thing,

and so I don't think that anybody really saw this coming, like,

oh man, you know, Hey, we got to be careful. If

I send Joseph to go around his brothers, you're probably not kill him.

And so it's amazing to me how jealousy sometimes can be so under the surface

that you know, other people don't even notice it. And I think sometimes

even the people who are jealous don't realize it's jealousy that's driving them, because

it's so easy to justify our jealousy. Right. The interesting thing about this

just the fact that it's family to have family jealous against you, and some

of our listeners may have even dealt with that before, where you've had other

family members jealous and you're thinking, I don't even have anything to be jealous

over, like, why are you jealous about me? So, yeah,

I think this is definitely something that a lot of people can relate to.

Well, that's that sibling rivalry. The basis of sibling rivalry is jealousy.

You know, oh mom treats you better, you get more favors or whatever.

You know, you think you're better than. And in most cases parents

love all the children equally. Now, in this story, it does mention

that yeah he did love Jacob. It says, you know more, yeah

he loved Joseph more than that was. That's a bad move. I shouldn't

say that one out loud. Yep. So we were doing this story when

the kids were younger, and so they were all asking me, you love

me more, don't you like? I said, no, No, you

guys never have to worry about me loving one of you more than you.

I don't love any of you. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty good.

But yeah, yeah, so you know that that's another I think learning moment

for parents in general, that sometimes the one that's behaving better, or the

one that has a more pleasant attitude or whatever, sometimes they just naturally get

more favors from you. Yeah, And so making sure that you're consciously balancing

things out as much which is possible for the kids would help. Because not

only did Jacob not attempt to balance things out, Yeah, he clearly a

tremendous favor to Joseph's. So he even gave him this fancy robe, all

this kind of stuff. So yeah, in verse twenty one, something else

had stood out. It says, but when Ruben heard of this scheme,

he came to Joseph's rescue. And I think about that in the context of

thank God there was someone around who made the right decision against the grain.

Now, Ruben could have just went along with everybody else and said okay,

I mean that he did say that, and this does sound like a good

way to get rid of him, and he could have went along with it.

But Ruben made the decision to go against what everyone else is doing.

And I think about that practically in our lives. What if you work at

a business and everyone is fudging the numbers a little bit, everyone is doing

something that's it's bumping right up against illegal. It could be just unethical or

immoral, and everyone's doing it. Will you be the one to go against

the grain and do the right thing, or will you blend in with everyone

else? Yeah, you know, Ruben has kind of a conflicted reputation a

little bit. And we won't read all the stories of Ruben here, but

there is a note in the Life Application Study Bible. We always like the

highlight, we really like Life Life Application Study Bible, and it talks about

how he had a very fluid kind of a reputation. As a matter of

fact, Jacob talking to Ruben at one point, talks about how he's as

unruly as a flood he's talking about kind of there's this water kind of a

very adaptable kind of Moraley kind of where and that's right. Other than one,

water is frozen. Other than that it goes around the thing rather than

you know, and so there's a lot of power and a lot of force

behind water sometimes. But with Ruben, he wouldn't go directly at and go

no, and I'm going to stand and you have to kill me. He

didn't do that right. Instead, he kind of had this conniving strategy of

clearly he was influenced. He was able to influence, Hey, let's not

let's not kill and let's just throw him in the well and then we don't

have to feel guilty about it. Yeah, and he appealed to that.

There's some strategy. Of course, the strategy failed. Later on, he

winds up having an affair with his father one of his father's wives, so

he has this he goes back and forth between a good guy and a bad

guy. On the other hand, at the very end of the story,

we'll find he also helps save Benjamin's life by offering his own sons, as

you know, a deposit or whatever to protect Benjamin. So it's kind of

an interesting kind of a character that early in his life, it seems like

he wants to be the guy to do the right thing. And so I

think that if we would make more decisions like that to do the right thing.

The difference is, though, what he tried to do is split it

in the middle. I'm going to do some of the right thing, yeah,

because I'm afraid to actually stand up to my brothers. And if he

had really stood up to them rather than trying to connive, maybe maybe he

would have eliminated the entire story. But we know God uses this story,

yes, to save their lives, So that's another thing. One of the

last things was that I thought of was verse thirty one, and this is

them trying to kind of cover up everything that they've done when it says the

brothers killed a young goat in dip Joseph's robe in its blood. So they're

trying to throw the father off and make the father think that some wild animal,

you know, kill No dad, look what we found. But the

point here to me is when you mess up, don't cover it up.

That's right, just tell the truth, mess up, mess up. Instead

of instead of doing that, they just doubled down on it. We're going

to really cover this thing up. And that was totally the wrong thing to

do, right, So one thing I forgot to mention, Reuben was the

oldest brother, and the oldest brother had the most power, right the oldest

brothers represented the father, and so he was going to inherit most of the

business, the whole nine yards. He could have stopped it, shut it

down on his own. But he shows back up later and then finds out,

oh hey, my scheming failed, and you can imagine the panic that

he had. He goes to his other brothers and like, oh, yeah,

we sold him. And they knew it was very unlikely that Joseph would

live very long as a slave either, and so it really was kind of

a death sentence that they did. And then they try to cover it up

with their dad, and can you imagine the Bible says from that point on,

basically for the rest of Jacob's life he was mourning deeply and during this

time, and every time they would try to comfort him, he would you

say, no, I've lost my son and start weeping again. This is

going to be a regular occurrence for the rest of their lives. They're going

to see the consequences of their sin, and they never did fess up.

They never did right through this whole thing. So there's a lot of constant

where free to make our choices, but we're not free to choose the consequences.

Yeah, that's good. The fact that their choice eliminating their brother this

one time caused all this family struggle and discord and depression and all these things

is really really difficult to watch, yes, in this part of the story.

So do you have any last word on this, Wesley as we wrap

things up. Yeah, I think I would go back to what you just

said a second ago, that phrase, but you literally just said it a

second ago. We're free to make our choices, we're not free to choose

the consequences. Yeah, And I think that's a major point that we all

need to remember that you're free to do whatever you want to do. I

mean, you can go out and do whatever, but you can't complain about

the consequence that's connected to the very thing that you opted to do on your

own. And you also can't blame God for it. That's the choice that

you freely made. And a lot of people like to say, well,

why didn't know God had nothing to do with that choice you made. You

made that choice. Yeah. I also think it's interesting we didn't cover this,

but you know, Jacob's reputation was that he was a deceiver when he

was young, and now hear his sons, all of them collectively deceive him

to the point of depression. Right. He doesn't know that he's being lied

to at this point, but his sons are ruining his life. And it's

amazing how the seeds that we plant at one point in our life we get

a harvest of it back. So you got one liar, and now he's

produced twelve liars or eleven liars here right there. God is not mocked.

Whatever you sew, that's right, that's what you will read. So anyways,

man, that was good. I'm looking forward to continuing because the story

of a ghost story is really an incredible story. So we're looking forward to

seeing you the next time on the Bible. Guys,