The Story of Joseph, Part 2: Sold Into Slavery

Joseph Part 2; Genesis 37:25-36

[Vv25-28]

In our last episode Joseph had remarkable dreams of his future rule over his brothers and father. But then disaster strikes. His brothers turn on him. After deciding not to kill him they put him in a pit. We pick up the story in Genesis 37:25.

           The hardness of the heart never ceases to amaze me. The brothers have just put Joseph in a pit. They could probably hear his calling to them. And what did they do? They sat down to eat. They sat down to eat. There is nothing like plotting your brother’s murder to give you an appetite. They are without conscience. Their hatred has to be pretty intense at this point.

           We need to be reminded here as we do every day of our lives: human beings are evil and have an infinite capacity for sin. For many of the sins committed by mankind hell does not seem like sufficient punishment. People are always asking me if the world is getting worse. No. It became dreadfully evil in the garden and has stayed that way ever since. The brothers have hard hearts and are capable of the greatest evil.

           Sometime during lunch the brothers spot a caravan approaching. It’s a group of Ishmaelites, also called Midianites in the text. They are on their way to Egypt with an assortment of trade goods. On a whim, Judah comes up with a bright idea. Instead of murdering their brother or letting him starve to death, let’s sell him into slavery. That way we accomplish all our goals: We get Joseph permanently out of our lives , we have no blood on our hands, and we make a few shekels in the bargain. Until very recently slave trading has been universal and that’s what they do. They sell their brother. For twenty, not thirty, pieces of silver.

[Vv29-36]

           We don’t know where the oldest brother Reuben was during all this but he has been away. Now he returns to complete his plan to rescue Joseph. But there is no Joseph to rescue. The boy is gone. And Reuben says, “What am I going to do? What am I going to do?”

           They have to do something. For one thing, what are they going to tell their father? The truth? Are you kidding? They have to concoct a lie. The one they come up with works since this is before the DNA testing. They kill a goat and spread its blood all over the multi-colored coat. Apparently they had not let Joseph keep his coat when he headed for Egypt. In the days that followed they returned home with a very sad tale indeed. They ask Jacob to identify the coat. Sure enough, it’s Joseph’s. There is only one like it in the world. They let Jacob make the assumption that Joseph has met disaster. He’s been killed and dragged off by a wild animal.

           Jacob is destroyed. He mourned and mourned and mourned. His family tried to comfort him but to no avail. He said that he would grieve until he died.

           Jacob was simply responding to the evidence in front of him but actually he is grieved by something that hadn’t happened. Joseph is very much alive. He is in the slave market down in Egypt.

Jacob must have spent many an hour pondering how his dear son died. Torn apart by a wild animal. The brothers could easily have gone to Egypt and ransomed him but they did not. They were committed to covering their treachery—at great cost to their father. As a result he endured over twenty years of anguish. Matthew Henry observes here that the devil teaches us to cover one sin with another; the brothers’ treachery was covered with deceit. Jacob had to bitterly regret sending Joseph out into the wilderness in the first place. We can be assured that all those years he blamed himself for Joseph’s death, when the real cause of this catastrophe was the wickedness of his other sons.

Jacob loved Joseph too much; or in the wrong way; as a result he paid the terrible price of debilitating grief.

As I mentioned, Jacob is grieving over something that had not actually happened. How often we worry about things that do not occur.   I wonder if Jacob went back in his mind and remembered Joseph’s dreams. He had pondered them at the time. Those dreams should have given him hope. But he grieved over the situation as it had been appeared to him. My brothers and sisters, do not allow yourself to be discouraged by lies. We live in a world filled with lying prophets. Do not believe them. We have a God Who will keep His promises, no matter how long it takes. Do not lose heart.

This tragic situation is followed by one of the most astonishing and glorious developments in all history. It will change the trajectory of the human race. We look now at what God does in chapter 39.