Genesis 37:12-36 Sold!

 

The Bible is filled with families who are chosen by God to move his plan to bring the Messiah, who is Jesus, who will save his people and fulfill God’s promise that Abraham’s family will be a blessing to all nations. However, there are few families as messed up as Jacob’s. Last week we looked at the roots of the hatred Joseph’s brothers have for him: favouritism by Jacob to Joseph and Joseph’s inability to understand how arrogant he sounds as he shares his dreams of ruling over his brothers with them. Even Jacob rebukes him over his dreams.

The story of Jacob’s family continues with “Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem.” Jacob’s concerned about his sons because they have a rough history with the people of Shechem. Jacob’s daughter Dinah had been raped by Shechem, son of Hamor, so her brothers Simeon and Levi, after Jacob agreed to allow Dinah to marry Shechem, tricked the men of Shechem into being circumcised and then, when they were still in pain, murdered them all. Shechem’s no longer a safe place for them, so Jacob asks Joseph, the only son still at home, to go check on them. There are clues in the story that Joseph is being groomed to take over running the family household even though he’s a younger son from a second wife, from the fancy robe, which is not a working robe, to being at home while everyone else is herding sheep. It looks like Jacob is about to make Joseph his first heir. This cannot sit well with the brothers, especially after the dreams!

I wonder at Jacob’s wisdom, he must realize how much his sons detest Joseph after having gotten some of them on trouble with a bad report and then how Joseph interpreted his dreams, and yet Jacob sends Joseph instead of a servant to check on the others. I recognize in Jacob something in myself, how there are times I can be so smart and yet so blind to how things are going on around me. Looking back, there are times I wonder, “What was I thinking?”

Joseph heads out, foolishly wearing the very robe that shows how their father favours him over his brothers. He heads to Shechem, but can’t find his brothers. A man in the fields directs Joseph to Dothan, a few kilometers away, where his brothers have taken the sheep to graze them; a much safer place for them. While Joseph is still a way away, his brothers recognize him.

Now the Bible shows us just how deeply the brothers’ anger and jealousy has taken root in their hearts. They start plotting how to kill Joseph. Jealousy combined with anger is a toxic poison for our souls. We’ve seen this already in Scripture when Cain is jealous that the Lord accepts his brother Abel’s sacrifice instead of his and in anger, he lures his brother into a field and kills him. This spirit of anger and jealousy is at the heart of the religious leaders’ hearts as well when they arrange for Jesus to be crucified. I wonder if this is part of what happened in the USA this past week? This is why Jesus focuses so much on having a right heart with God and others, why he summarizes the commandments with loving God with everything we have and then loving our neighbour as ourselves. This is sacrificial love that focuses on the other person, wanting their good even over our own. Anger and jealousy perverts that love and focuses it inwards on ourselves and our wants and desires instead. If you are struggling with anger or jealousy issues, please reach out to myself, an elder, a trusted Jesus follower whose inner peace with God is evident and seek guidance on how to find God’s peace for your own heart and soul.  

When Joseph comes close, the brothers grab him and throw him into an empty pit after Reuben talks them out of killing Joseph. Reuben wants to find a way to get back on his father’s good side after sleeping with one of his wives in an act of rebellion. First thing they do is strip Joseph of his special robe, the sign of their father’s favouritism. Then they sit down and have lunch. This is a special depth of cruelty since, as we find out in Genesis 42, the entire time Joseph is pleading for his life.

While everyone, except Joseph and Reuben, who has left for some reason, are eating, an Ishmaelite trading caravan appears and Judah has an idea. Now we see Judah begin to rise in importance within the family. This is an important moment. Reuben, Simeon and Levi, the three oldest sons have all disqualified themselves for leading the family and receiving the father’s and God’s family blessing. Judah is next in line for the blessing, for being the line through which the promised Messiah will come. The rest of Jacob’s story is really the intertwining of Joseph and Judah’s stories, guiding and protecting the family as God’s way of preparing Abraham’s family to be a blessing to all nations.

Judah steps forward and tells 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.” Faced with the potential to have a few extra coins in their pockets and no blood on their hands, the brothers all agree to this plan. Joseph is sold for 20 shekels of silver. As Joseph is pulled from the pit and handed over the Ishmaelites, he must be wondering “Where is God, why is this happening to me?” We wonder, “How can Joseph’s dreams come true now?” The brothers then deceive their father by dipping Joseph’s robe in blood and letting their father think Joseph was killed by wild animals.

This becomes a turning point for the brothers, especially Judah, as Jacob’s grief is much deeper than they ever expected. Later on, when the brothers are in Egypt for food during a famine, Judah tells the governor to hold him prisoner instead of Joseph’s younger brother Benjamin, “Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.” Jealousy and anger are so powerful, this is why Jesus tells us in Matthew that if we hate someone, it’s like we murder them. Jealousy makes us want to take away what someone else has, not because we want it, but because we don’t want them to have it. This is a turning point for the brothers as their jealousy and anger is transformed by their love and concern for Jacob. Jesus summarizes the Law, telling us to orient our hearts on loving God and others. Paul expands on this in Galatians 5 when he tells us to nurture the Fruit of the Spirit in our hearts and minds. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Judah is starting to understand this.

Joseph goes into exile, thrown out of the family, cast out to be forgotten. Countries exile people with the goal of never seeing them again, taking away their ability to come back, making them homeless and powerless. This is what the brothers are trying to do to Joseph by selling him to their cousins who will then sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Joseph must have been wondering if his dreams were really from God, wondering why God wasn’t stopping this. Joseph enters into an exile from home, separated from his roots. We hear an echo back to Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve are exiled from the Garden, from the presence of God. There’s a heart ache that never really goes away.

We’re also exile and in slavery to our sin. God uses exile to teach us and remind us our hearts are supposed to be oriented towards him. God also provides a way home through Jesus. Jesus comes to guide us home by going into exile with us. On the cross we hear his cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus is separated from his Father for the first time ever, after eternity with the Father and the Spirit, Jesus forsaken for us, he dies so that we can be cleansed from our sin and return home. Jesus’ resurrection brings us new life in the kingdom of heaven, guaranteeing us a place at the banquet table of our Lord.

We are created for Eden, to be in the presence of God. Since our exile from Eden, we have been searching for home, for belonging. There are so many of our neighbours, friends, co-workers and sometimes family who live with an unrealized seeking for home that can only be found in and through Jesus. Sharing Jesus with others, inviting them to follow Jesus with you is an invitation to come home again, to become part of God’s family. Jesus’ earliest memories would have been being in exile with his parents, hearing their longing to return home again. He knows the yearning in your hearts for home, for belonging. Jesus brings healing in our relationships with God and neighbour and guides us home to our Father.