Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out - Genesis 37:17-36
INTRODUCTION:
As we continue this morning looking at the life of Joseph we are going to be shocked at what hatred and envy can breed. Jeremiah was correct when he wrote, “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NASB95)[1] As we look at Joseph and his brothers again this morning we need to continue to look for characteristics and experiences in Joseph’s life that are an example, or point to Jesus Christ.
If you remember last week Joseph had just been told by a man that came upon him where his brothers were. Who was this man? Was it possibly the same man who had wrestled with his father just before they came back into the land of Canaan? We are not told, but he just happened to be there when Joseph could not find his brothers and he just happened to know where they had gone. That is a question we can ask the Lord when we get to heaven, whoever he was the Lord had placed him there so that Joseph could find his brothers. Let’s pray and then pick up our text where we left off last week.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles again this morning to Genesis 37. We will pick up the text in verse 17 and read through the end of the chapter, verse 36. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Genesis 37:17-36,
“Then the man said, ‘They have moved from here; for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.”’ So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, “A wild beast devoured him.” Then let us see what will become of his dreams!’ But Reuben heard this and rescued him out of their hands and said, ‘Let us not take his life.’ Reuben further said to them, ‘Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hands, to restore him to his father. So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it. Then they sat down to eat a meal. And as they raised their eyes and looked, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to bring them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers listened to him. Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt. Now Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments. He returned to his brothers and said, ‘The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?’ So they took Joseph’s tunic, and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood; and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, ‘We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.’ Then he examined it and said, ‘It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!’ So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, ‘Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.’ So his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard.” (Genesis 37:17–36, NASB95)[2]
CONSPIRACY (Genesis 37:17-22)
The heart is deceitful above all else. Hatred and envy are terrible sins to be harboring in your heart. I do not know what kind of reception Joseph thought he would receive as he trekked the 15 miles from Shechem to Dothan, but I bet he thought it would be much different than the one he received. From where the brothers of Joseph were situated with their flock they had a good view of the land all around them. They could see to the south quite a distance and they could see to the east toward the Jordan quite a distance, they could view the trade route that wound through the hills and into Dothan and on to the west where it turned south at the coast and went down into Egypt.
Approaching mid-day they see someone traveling alone coming up from the south and as he gets a little closer their hearts begin to burn with their hatred and envy because they can tell by the coat that it is Joseph, their little brother headed their way. They start talking about him and not nicely. Here was the perfect opportunity to take care of this one without anyone to know about it. They began to plot how they might do away with him. The phrase “Here comes this dreamer” is literally “Here comes the master of dreams” and you can hear the sarcastic tone of the brother who says it. Let’s just kill and throw him in one of these water cisterns and we will say a wild beast killed and devoured him. Then we will see what becomes of his dreams, it will assure that he will never rule over us.
Joseph’s rescue comes from an unlikely source, from Reuben the oldest and the one who lost the birthright because of his rebellion against his father’s authority shown by his sleeping with his father’s concubine. Reuben knows that if anything happens to the young man he will have to answer for it, because he is the oldest and had the most to gain from Joseph’s death. So Reuben is the voice of reason and said let’s not get any blood on our hands, let’s not be the ones who directly take his life, let’s just throw him into one of these pits and he can starve to death. What are these pits? As I mentioned before water was in high demand and a commodity in Israel. The people of the land would dig these big pits or cisterns to catch and hold rain water they usually had a narrow opening at the top that could be covered and then they opened up underground. If you fell in one you could not get out without someone pulling you up with a rope. We are told that Reuben’s plan was to return when the other brothers were not around and pull Joseph up and send him home to their father. They all agree that this is better than getting blood on their hands.
TREACHERY (Genesis 37:23-24)
Finally, Joseph arrives and before he even has a chance to greet them all they grab him and strip off his coat or tunic, the one given to him by his father, and they throw him into one of the cisterns that is there. We are told that it was an empty cistern, it had no water in it at that time. Maybe it was late in the season and it had all been used up. At this point I am sure that Joseph was bewildered at this reception. I think he knew that his brothers hated him, but I don’t think that they would stoop this low and do such a wicked thing as this. Hatred and envy are lethal together, it simmers in the heart just waiting for the spark that will set off the explosion and it had been simmering for some time, just waiting for an opportunity when dad wasn’t around to save his precious favorite. Now that opportunity had come, now we will see what becomes of his dreams. We are not told in this chapter what Joseph’s response to this was, but surely he thought that it was a big prank and kept hollering for his brothers to let down a rope and pull him out. The longer he was down there the louder he got.
INDIFFERENCE (Genesis 37:25-29)
What did the brothers do after committing this treachery? We read they sat down to eat their mid-day meal. It is hard for me to understand how they could sit down and calmly eat a meal while their brother was suffering and begging to be set free. But hearts hardened by hatred and poisoned with thoughts of murder are not likely to pay much attention to the cries of their victim. Consider our Lord and what His own nation did to him, descendants of these same men. They are sinners like us, all of us are potentially capable of doing what Joseph’s brothers did. Remember the words of Jeremiah that were read this morning, “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NASB95)[3]
While they were sitting there eating their meal they looked up and to the east and they saw in the distance a caravan. Dothan laid on the trade route from the east to Egypt. Possibly this is why the brothers had moved to Dothan to gather news and information from those traveling the trade route. As they watched this caravan of traders make their way towards them, suddenly Judah spoke up. He said if we kill our brother, or let him die out here in that cistern where we threw him, what do we gain from that besides being rid of dad’s favorite, the heir, the dreamer; I saw we make a little money while we get rid of this nuisance in our lives. You see those Ishmaelites coming, let’s sell Joseph to them as a slave and they will take him down to Egypt and we will never see him again and we will not have his death on our hands. The rest of the brothers thought this was a good idea since it was unlikely that a slave would win his freedom and return, there was no danger that their plot would ever be discovered. They forgot that God was watching and was still in control. Israel had inherited the covenant blessings and this made him a very special person in the eyes of the Lord. What these brothers meant for evil, God would bring about for good and their sin would be found out. So they threw a rope down to Joseph, who was probably relieved that they were finally going to release him, only to be tied up and sold as a slave to some merchants on their way to Egypt. Joseph must have begged and pleaded with his brothers not to do this, just let him go back to his father. But his begging and pleading fell on deaf ears and soon Joseph found himself in shackles on his way to Egypt.
Where Reuben was all this time we are not told, he must have been out with the flock because he was not present for this exchange in which Joseph was sold for 20 silver pieces. Reuben returned to the pit when the others had gone off to get Joseph out and that is when he found out Joseph was gone. Reuben tore his garments in grief, this was going to be on his head, he would have to answer to his father. He went to the rest of the brothers and said “the boy is gone, as for me, where am I to go.” He could not return home without an explanation.
DECEPTION (Genesis 37:30-36)
The selling of Joseph and the desperation of Reuben required that they come up with an explanation, and so their wicked deed had to be covered up with a lie. They killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s special coat in it and sent it back to Israel. It is hard to tell if they brought the coat to their father or if they sent it ahead with a servant. Whatever the means it arrived in Hebron with the message that they had found this robe and would Israel examine it to see if it is the one that belonged to Joseph. Israel recognized it at once and the blood stains immediately convinced him that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast. As tragic and treacherous this deception was Israel was reaping what he had sown so many years ago. His sons were following in the same family sin of deception. Years before Israel had killed a goat to deceive his father Isaac and now his sons were following in his footsteps. Jacob accepted the evidence, believed the story and concluded that Joseph was dead and went into deep mourning, tearing his clothes and putting on sackcloth and grieved his son’s death until the day that he learned he was still alive. His family tried to comfort him. The cruelty of his sons deception is only matched in the hypocrisy of trying to comfort him. Israel refused to be comforted and said that he would carry the grief of the death of his son down to Sheol, the place of departed souls.
Although Jacob felt that everything was against him at this time, in reality all things were working for him. This does not mean that God approved of or brought about the hatred, treachery and deception of Joseph’s brothers, they were responsible for their sin. It does mean that our God is so great that He can work out His purposes even when people are doing their worst. The greatest example of this is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Man thought they were getting rid of Christ, He was dying for the sins of mankind.
This chapter ends letting us know that in God’s sovereignty He brought Joseph safely to Egypt and saw to it that he was sold to one of Pharaoh’s chief officials. We will look at this more next week.
CONCLUSION:
As we looked at the life of Joseph this morning did you see anything that would make Joseph a type of Jesus Christ. Was there anything in his life that prefigured something in Christ’s life. Remember the Old Testament type is not the important thing, it points to the important thing. Let me share a couple with you: In verse 18 Joseph’s brothers plotted against his life, in Matthew 27:1 we read that the chief priests and elders, his own people, his brethren plotted to take his life. In verses 21-30 we read of Reuben’s half-hearted attempt to deliver him, in Luke 23:20-23 we read of Pilate’s attempt to release Jesus. In verse 23 they stripped off his robe, in Matthew 27:28 they stripped Jesus of his clothes. Judas, Greek name for Judah sold Joseph in verse 26, in Matthew 26:15 Judas sold Jesus. Verse 28 tells that he was sold for silver pieces, in Matthew 27:9 we read that Judas sold Jesus for silver. In verse 28 Gentiles carried Joseph away, in Matthew 27:27 Jesus was led away by the Gentile soldiers of Rome. Again we see that Joseph is a type pointing us to Jesus Christ.
I entitled this morning’s message, “Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out,” but as we come to the end of this chapter it seems that Joseph’s brothers have gotten away with their sin. We will learn later that they lived with the guilt of what they did to Joseph almost the rest of their lives and that their sin is found out and brought to light. Thankfully there is forgiveness in Jesus Christ, the very reason He came to earth and died and rose from the dead was so we could have his forgiveness.
The sovereignty of God seen in the life of Joseph is awesome and should be a source of encouragement to us in difficult circumstances in life. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NASB95)[4] Jacob and Joseph never read those words, but they experienced the truth of those words in their lives and saw what God could do even when the circumstances did not seem to be in their favor. If the promises of God worked for them, they will work for us who love God, to us who are called according to His purposes. You can claim this promise in your life if you have agreed with God that you are a sinner, that there is nothing that you can do to save yourself and you believe that Jesus died paying the penalty for your sin, He died to save you, He was buried and He rose three days later triumphing over sin and death forever. If you believe this then this promise is yours to claim.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995