Genesis Ch37v2-36 - Hated Son, God's Plan

Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of the other sons because he had been born to him in his old age, and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

He said to them, listen to this dream I had.

We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.

His brothers said to him, do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?

And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers.

Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his fathers rebuked him and said, what is this dream you had?

Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in his mind.

Verse 12.

Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem.

And Israel said to Joseph, as you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.

Come, I am going to send you to them.

Very well, he replied.

So he said to him, go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me.

So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, what are you looking for?

He replied, I am looking for my brothers.

Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?

They have moved on from here, the man answered.

I heard them say, let's go to Dothan.

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

But they saw him in the distance and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

Here comes that dreamer, they said to each other.

Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him.

Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands.

Let's not take his life, he said.

Don't shed any blood.

Throw him into the cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him.

Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the richly ornamented robe he had been wearing, and they took him and threw him into the cistern.

Now the cistern was empty.

There was no water in it.

As they sat down to eat their meals, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead.

Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers, What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him.

After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.

His brother agreed.

So when the Median merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.

He went back to his brothers and said, The boy isn't there.

Where can I turn now?

Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in his blood.

They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, We found this.

Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe.

He recognized it and said, It is my son's robe.

Some ferocious animal has devoured him.

Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.

Then Jacob tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.

All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.

No, he said, In mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.

So his father wept for him.

Meanwhile, the Midianite sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

Thank you, Sam.

Thank you, Jonathan.

Good morning, everybody.

Why don't we start by asking God for his help?

Sovereign Father, open our eyes this morning to see your wonderful care for us in the places where we may not see it at all.

For Jesus' sake.

Amen.

I used to watch The Simpsons as a kid.

It's a cartoon show, if you're not familiar with it, about this family who basically model how not to do family most of the time.

They model how to make a mess of it, in fact.

I don't know why it's so popular.

Maybe it makes us feel better when we compare our families to their family.

Maybe that's why.

I'm not quite sure.

But in that show, anyway, every episode kind of had a happy ending.

You know?

Homer and Marge came to some sort of an agreement.

Barrett ended up saving Lisa's bacon.

And they kind of, you know, smoothed things over, despite their flaws.

But in this chapter, we meet Jacob's dysfunctional family.

But unlike The Simpsons, we don't get a happy ending here, do we?

You may remember that this was God's chosen family.

So if we're just thinking about the whole context of the book of Genesis.

Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, was a pagan.

He did not know God, didn't worship God.

But God spoke to him.

God chose him.

Out of all the peoples on the earth, God placed a special favor upon him.

And God gave him promises.

A promise to bless him.

And to bless all peoples in the world through him.

Now, through this family, God was going to send a promised son.

A seed.

And he would crush the serpent, who way back in the Garden of Eden, had deceived Adam and Eve.

And this son would deal with our rebellion.

And would make a way for us to get back to God.

So that was the promise made to Abraham.

And God had reiterated that promise to Jacob.

So the hopes of all the nations are resting on this family line continuing.

But what a sorry mess we find when we read their story.

Where we should see them being a blessing, we see only chaos and dysfunction.

We see a catastrophic failure in parenting as Jacob's favoritism of Joseph sparks sibling rivalry and jealousy.

Then come Joseph's pride and his immaturity as he shares his dreams of rulership over his brothers.

Stoking the flames of their hatred.

Which in turn spirals into violence.

And after thinking better of killing Joseph, his brothers finally settle for selling him into a life of slavery.

That's the end of him, they think.

Before devising a cruel lie to cover their tracks.

Plunging their father into crippling grief for the rest of his days.

And no, God does not spare us from seeing the chaos of this dysfunctional family.

Every character fails.

And while none of us would like to admit to our own families being dysfunctional.

When we read the story of Jacob, when we read the story of Jacob, in many ways, it's like looking in a mirror.

Because, being brutally honest, we all have our fair share of arguments, jealousy, rage, and lies in our families, don't we?

And here's the thing.

The dysfunction in our families, it actually comes from within us.

We are all broken by sin.

We are all the victims of each other's brokenness and sin.

Be that in our families, or in our communities.

In fact, when you think about it, the whole human race is one big, dysfunctional family.

Hard as we try, we cannot escape it.

Generation after generation, does it actually get any better?

Think about it.

No, it doesn't.

We repeat the same sins.

We're just as dysfunctional as the ones who've gone before.

Maybe it might look a little bit different.

What hope is there?

If we cannot escape this endless cycle of dysfunction.

And as you read chapter 37, maybe there's a part of you that wonders,

where is God?

And all the chaos of this dysfunctional family.

I mean, after all, this is his chosen family.

So where is he?

I mean, did you notice?

His name actually isn't even mentioned in this whole chapter.

God is hidden.

He is seemingly silent.

It appears like he's just letting it all happen and he does not care.

Do you ever feel that way in the middle of your chaos and mess?

Maybe you've gotten yourself into a sin spiral.

It's been days or weeks since you even talked to God.

Or maybe you're in the middle of a chaotic family or work situation and you're suffering under the effects of someone else's sin.

Maybe it's health issues that are just not getting better.

As you walked in the door today, you brought all these situations in with you.

And they're weighing on your mind this morning.

And I've got my own too.

Situations where very little seems to be going right at all.

In fact, even though you may be an optimistic person, you can't see any good.

And you wonder, where are you, Lord?

Can you not see?

Do you not hear my cries?

See, the big question in Genesis 37 is this.

Is God even there in our chaos and dysfunction?

Because if this story is ultimately just a series of unfortunate events outside of God's control,

then there really is no hope.

But if we take a step back for a few minutes and view this whole mess from a different perspective,

I think we can see that God is present in the chaos.

And he's sovereignly working all things for his good purposes.

Even the sin and dysfunction.

Now, God's sovereignty, just to explain that word for a second,

that means God has total authority and is unrestricted in his control over the universe.

And we're going to test that theory against this chapter here and see what does it stand up.

And we're going to see five things in this chapter over which God is sovereign and in control.

Here's the first one.

We're going to start with Joseph's backstory and see that God is sovereign over barrenness and tragedy.

So, we didn't cover it in this chapter, but Joseph's mother was called Rachel.

Now, Rachel was Jacob's favorite wife.

Yes, he had more than one wife.

And no, that did not work out well for him.

In fact, that's most of the reason for all the chaos and mess in this story.

But she struggled to conceive for many, many years.

Until, finally, God enabled her to have a son, naming him Joseph.

Now, if you look down at verse 3, you'll notice that Jacob was elderly at this point.

And he favored Joseph over his 11 other sons.

Well, probably because Rachel was his favorite wife.

Also, probably because Rachel tragically died, giving birth to her second.

So, this made Jacob value Joseph all the more.

And he became so precious to his father.

And we can see what he does in verse 3.

Jacob gifts Joseph this stunning robe of many colors, but not without its side effects.

Verse 4.

Let's read together.

When his brothers saw their father loved Joseph more than any of them,

they hated Joseph and could not speak a kind word to him.

But we have to remember, God was sovereign over the barrenness and the tragedy which led to this favoritism.

God could have stopped these things from happening.

But he didn't.

And he knew how each character in the family would react.

So, we also learn that no sadness or tragedy in our lives is outside of his control either.

God is always working his good purposes, which we will see in this story also.

Secondly, he's sovereign over dreams.

In verses 6 to 11, Joseph had these very specific dreams.

Now, let me just say, these are not usual dreams that a 17-year-old boy has.

I mean, I can think back to when I was 17 years old.

I was probably dreaming about scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final, something like that.

And as you can see, it didn't come true.

But one could say there's still time, but I think it's very unlikely.

But these dreams are different.

God gave Joseph two dreams that foretold his rule over his family.

Look at verse 6.

And Joseph says to his brothers,

And verse 9 continues this theme of the others in the family bowing down to him.

And while it may appear from the outside that God was absent in this whole story,

we can actually see here, very practically, God was sovereignly working in the background,

even through the dreams of a 17-year-old boy.

Isn't that amazing?

And next, we also learn that God is sovereign over foolish mistakes.

The first mistake, we could say, was Joseph foolishly boasting about his dreams,

which caused his brothers to hate him all the more.

I mean, let's face it, he should never have done that.

That was immature of him.

And the second big mistake, verse 13 this time,

was Jacob, who foolishly decided to send Joseph off alone to check on his spiteful brothers.

Now we stop here and ask,

Who in their right mind would send Joseph into harm's way like that?

Did this father not realize the brother's hatred?

Was it not obvious?

But in God's purpose, Joseph churns up his brother's hate,

and Jacob sends off his beloved son into grave danger,

not knowing it was the last he would see of him for 20 years.

It was a terrible mistake.

How else can you put it?

But God was working his good purposes,

which would only be revealed later.

And God is sovereign over our worst mistakes too.

Now that doesn't make them right.

That's not an excuse for us to act sinfully without care.

No, no.

But what a comfort it is

to know that God will save his chosen people

despite our mistakes,

and even through them.

Wow.

Isn't that amazing?

Next thing,

we learn that God is sovereign

over seemingly chance encounters.

I put inverted commas around the word chance there for a reason.

We can imagine Joseph, right,

he's maybe hesitantly setting off to see his brother saying,

okay, dad, if I have to.

I don't think this is a great idea,

but yes, I'll go.

And when he arrives in Shechem,

the brothers have already left.

They've moved their flocks on somewhere else.

And in verse 15,

we find that he's aimlessly wandering around the fields,

but then he bumps into someone.

And this person

just happens to know exactly where the brothers have gone.

Now if you just stop here and think about this for a second,

if Joseph had never met this man,

he just would have gone back home,

and the rest would never have happened.

When you think about it,

but according to God's purpose,

Joseph bumped into this man,

and he found his brothers in Dothan.

So remember,

God is sovereign over all the people

that you meet during the day.

There are no chance meetings in God's kingdom,

and we must keep our eyes open

and be ready.

I think the last thing we can see God is sovereign over

in this chapter is

sin.

And I think this is the one

that could be hardest to understand.

In verse 18,

if you look down there,

God knew the violent thoughts

that the brothers would harbor

now that they had Joseph alone

to themselves.

Let's read from 18.

But the brothers saw Joseph in the distance,

and before he reached them,

they plotted to kill him.

Here comes that dreamer,

they said to each other.

Come now, let's kill him.

Let's throw him into one of these cisterns,

and say that a ferocious animal

devoured him.

Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.

You know,

God was in control.

Both over their plot to kill him,

and Reuben's intervention.

Read in verse 21.

When Reuben heard this,

he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands.

Let's not take his life,

he said.

Don't shed any blood.

Throw him into this cistern here

in the wilderness,

but don't lay a hand on him.

Reuben said this

to rescue him

from them

and take him back

to his father.

So the brothers threw him in the cistern.

And we know

that Reuben,

he's wanting to get Jacob

whipped up out of that cistern,

sorry, get Joseph

whipped up out of that cistern

and back to his father

as soon as possible.

And surely that's what God will, right?

I mean,

that the boy will be saved.

No.

No.

You see,

what happens next

just illustrates

God's amazing sovereignty

all the more.

God was able to see

to it that Reuben

was present

to save Joseph

from death.

But then that he was

absent

when the Midianite traders

came along

and Joseph's brothers

sold him into slavery.

Maybe Reuben

had to take a run

to the well for water

or maybe he forgot

his cloak

in the other field.

Who knows

why

he wasn't there?

The writer doesn't tell us

the reason why

he wasn't there.

All we know is

he wasn't there.

Whenever it was dinner time

and whenever the traders

happened

to come by.

And the rest is history.

Look in verse 29.

When Reuben

returned to the cistern

and saw that Joseph

was not there

he tore

his clothes.

He went back

to his brothers

and said,

the boy isn't there.

Where can I turn

now?

If Reuben

had been there

Joseph

would never

have been sold

and he never

would have got

to Egypt.

But it was

God's purpose

that Joseph

would get to Egypt.

So God

made sure

Reuben

wasn't there

for dinner.

God was even

in control

over the cruel

sinful

betrayal

of Joseph

into the hands

of those

traitors

in everything

achieving

his good purposes.

Now

let's just stop here

for a second

and ask the question

is all of this

chance?

Is it all

just coincidence?

I believe

the answer

is no.

When we

dig beneath

the surface

we find

God's

fingerprints

his sovereign

work

all

over

this

story.

God had a purpose

behind every

single one of these

sinful actions.

He is sovereign

over sin.

Now

we must be

careful

not to accuse

God of

causing

people to sin

or

saying that

God is

morally

responsible

for sin.

The Bible

is clear

that God

is holy.

He hates

sin.

So

this

is tough

to understand

but in one

sense

he wills

that no one

would sin.

and yet

there is

another

sense

in which

he ordains

that some

evil acts

take place

in his

perfect

plan

to save.

But the

Bible is

always

clear

that people

are always

held

responsible

for their

sin.

sin.

And I

think

there is

a verse

later

in this

story

which

Joseph

says

it is

from

Genesis

50

20

and this

helps

us

to

understand

this

it is

on the

board

there.

And Joseph

is saying

this to his

brothers

20 years

later

when the

whole

saga is

over

everything

has been

smoothed

over

and this

is what

he says

you

brothers

you

meant it

for evil

against me.

So he's

like

you

chose

that

sinful

course

of

action

you

are

responsible

for that

and yet

equally

so

Joseph

says

God

meant

it

for

good

this

was

in

God's

plan

it's

not

one

or the

other

somehow

both

of

these

are

true.

My

brothers

you

committed

the

evil

act

because

it

was

what

your

sinful

hearts

wanted

most

and

God

ordained

that

sinful

act

for his

good

purposes

to

save

all

of

you.

God

is

100%

sovereign

people

are

100%

responsible.

Now

if anything

this

drives us

to our

knees

in

humility

and

all

because

our

finite

human

brains

cannot

fully

comprehend

this

and we

are

called

to

trust

God

with

the

things

that

we

don't

yet

understand

and

let me

just

say

I

think

we

have

more

than

enough

reason

to

trust

I

mean

step

back

and

survey

what's

happened

in

this

story

the

brothers

they

wanted

to

kill

the

very

person

who

ended

up

rescuing

them

from

starvation

20

years

later

and

in

their

attempt

to

get

rid

of

him

once

and

for

all

where

did

they

send

him

to

the

very

place

from

where

he

could

rescue

them

how

extraordinary

are the

plans

of our

sovereign

God

may

his

awesome

sovereignty

and control

be a

comfort

to you

in

in

in

the

midst

of

your

chaos

and

dysfunction

no

one

in

this

story

would

have

imagined

how

these

evil

acts

could

have

turned

out

for

good

I

mean

as this

chapter

finishes

where's

Joseph

well he's

changed to

the back

of a

camel

his

throat

is

parched

he is

trudging

his

way

down

the

dusty

road

to

Egypt

wondering

how

on

earth

did

I

get

here

and

where

is

that

God

who

made

the

promise

where

is he

now

and I

don't need

to tell

you

how

difficult

it is

to trust

God

I don't

need to

tell you

how

difficult

it is

to trust

God

in the

chaos

in your

life

those

situations

where

you've

tried

but

just

cannot

see

how

any

good

could

possibly

come

of

this

it

doesn't

make

sense

to

us

at

all

but

this

passage

gives

us

hope

because

it

sure

didn't

make

sense

to

Joseph

and

yet

God

was

present

in

his

chaos

working

out

his

good

purposes

we

tend

to

think

God

is

only

at

work

in

the

times

of

blessing

health

happiness

or

success

but

not

so

God

is

also

working

through

our

deepest

pain

he

is

sovereign

over

our

tears

and

chaos

though

you

may

ask

him

time

and

time

again

to

take

it

away

he

may

choose

not

to

do

so

to

fulfill

his

good

purposes

in

your

life

he

has

not

rejected

you

just

like

he

had

not

rejected

Joseph

now

this

all

begs

the

question

what

are

those

ultimate

good

purposes

of

God

well

in

this

story

God

was

saving

Jacob's

whole

family

from

starvation

20

years

later

but

ultimately

God

wasn't

just

saving

this

family

he

was

preserving

the

promised

seed

who

was

to

come

through

this

family

line

this

son

came

from

a

different

sort

of

family

the

father

son

and

spirit

have

existed

for

eternity

in

perfect

love

there

is

no

dysfunction

in

this

family

and

our

sin

always

prevented

us

from

entering

into

the

love

of

this

family

but

the

most

astounding

reality

of the

bible

is that

God

the

son

the

promised

seed

stepped

into

our

dysfunction

and

chaos

he

became

a

human

being

and

lived

in a

dysfunctional

family

and

community

he

knows

what

it's

like

and

amidst

all

that

dysfunction

around

him

he

lived

the

perfect

life

of

obedience

to

God

that

we

could

never

live

and

then

on

the

cross

he

took

the

blame

for

our

dysfunction

and

rebellion

against

God's

loving

rule

rising

again

he

won

the

victory

over

death

for

us

and

then

even

more

astonishingly

John

John 1:12

chapter

1

verse

12

tells

us

that

anyone

who

receives

this

son

who

believes

in

his

name

they

are

given

the

right

to

become

children

of

God

that

is

we

can

be

welcomed

into

God's

perfect

family

forever

there

will

be

no

more

sin

or

dysfunction

or

chaos

instead

caught

up

in

the

eternal

love

joy

and

peace

of

the

Trinity

tell

me

one

thing

that

could

be

better

than

that

so

when

you

cry

out

and

ask

why

God

seems

absent

in

your

chaos

look

to

the

cross

he

stepped

into

our

chaos

to

ultimately

rescue

us

out

of

it

for

eternity

and

it

was

all

achieved

through

that

promised

seed

who

came

through

the

family

line

of

Jacob

preserved

through

the

suffering

and

pain

of

Joseph

yes

now we

see

all the

more

that

God

was

sovereign

over

all

that

evil

and

pain

in

Joseph's

life

working

his

good

purposes

to

save

his

chosen

people

and

our

God

is

still

working

those

purposes

here

and

now

in

our

lives

so

as

we

walk

out

that

door

today

and

back

into

our

different

messy

situations

we

have

hope

that

the

outside

world

can

never

know

because

God

is

present

in

our

chaos

sovereignly

working

all

things

even

sin

and

dysfunction

to

save

his

people

bringing

them

into

his

family

forever

now

that

is

good

news

for

you

and

for

me

let's

pray

thank

you

sovereign

lord

that

you

are

in

control

over

all

things

give

us

your

grace

to

trust

you

in

the

places

we

can't

see

you

increase

our

faith

in

your

sovereign

care

fulfill

your

purposes

to

save

all

your

chosen

people

and

help

us

remember

who

we

are

as

precious

and

dearly

loved

sons

and

daughters

of

the

king

it's

in

Jesus

name

that

we

ask

amen

going

to

return

to

the

past

the

next

we

will

mais

Kevin

you

huh

yeah

peace

c

again

again

to

peace

to

rest

best

love

all