Jacob/Israel and his family then returned to Bethel where they renewed their commitment to the Lord. There Jacob/Israel built an altar and received the Lord’s confirmation of the covenant. Rachel died giving birth to her second son Benjamin, and Genesis chapter 36 details Esau’s family records noting that Esau became the father of the Edomite people.
The lives of Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Esau demonstrate that those close to us may hurt us. Everyone has experienced hurt from someone close to them, but what do we do with that hurt? Too many of us hold on to the hurt, which causes resentment or bitterness to grow. Others respond by dishing out pain to the one who caused us pain.
In this session, we see that such unchecked animosity led to a plan for murder. While we would HOPEFULLY never think of killing another family member, we can learn from this story the way NOT to approach family conflict as we learn that unchecked animosity can lead to greater harm within the family.
Our passage today is from Genesis 37:1-4; 18-24, and 31-34. Let's get introduced to Jacob/Israel's family.
1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
2 These are the family records of Jacob. At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a long-sleeved robe for him.
4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.
We saw how Isaac and Rebekah's favoritism affected their boys Jacob and Esau. Now we see Jacob/Israel's favoritism being passed through his own family, creating an environment of hostility among family members. Jacob had a favorite wife, Rachel. In his old age Jacob had a favorite son, Joseph. Compounding the favoritism, Israel gave Joseph an expensive "suit of clothes" that actively demonstrated his favoritism for Joseph. Jacob/Israel’s whole life was affected by favoritism. Today we see the pain of partiality come full circle with the devastating loss of his favorite son, Joseph.
Jacob was living in the land of Canaan, a word originally associated with merchants traced to a time when the land of Canaan was limited to the area of Phoenicia who traded all over the Mediterranean prior to the Israelites entrance into Canaan. The area was loosely organized around major cities. Jacob/Israel fathered twelve sons. Six by Leah (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun), two by Leah's slave, Zilpah (Gad and Asher), Two by Rachel's Slave, Bilhah (Dan and Naphtali), and two by Rachel (Joseph and Benjamin).
The rivalry in Jacob/Israel's family probably already existed among Jacob’s twelve sons because of the rivalry among their mothers. Leah and Rachel were sisters born of Laban’s primary wife, and Bilhah and Zilpah were daughters of Laban's secondary wife, making Bilhah and Zilpah the half-sisters of Rachel and Leah. Recognized as secondary wives because they were slaves of Rachel and Leah these half sister/slaves were caught up in the rivalries as Jacob had made clear his preference for Rachel over Leah and these two wives competed with one another.
At at seventeen, barely a child compared to the life expectancy experienced in this era, Joseph was tending the sheep with his other brothers, and was working with the sons of the secondary wives. He reported to Jacob/Israel bad things about these brothers, the Hebrew indicating a slanderous or defaming utterance. Whether called for or uncalled for, we observe that Jospeh demonstrated willingness to speak against his brothers even when aware it would be "going against the family."
Apparently Jacob had failed to learn from the devastating consequences of the favoritism of Isaac and Rebekah. For Jacob/Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, just as his parents had done. Jacob’s preference for Joseph stems from several factors. Joseph was the elder son of his favorite wife, Rachel. In fact, Jacob had been willing to work seven more years to marry Rachel after being deceived into marrying Leah. Furthermore, Rachel had died giving birth to Benjamin.
Jacob/Israel was so enamored of Joseph he had a "robe of extremities" made for him. This identifies a tunic reaching to the wrists and ankles worn by people of nobler rank, signifying elevation and distinction, and by those who avoided menial labor. The robe is also described as "many colored" indicating a more costly garment to produce. We might refer to it as "a pin-striped business suit", while his brothers wore "work clothes." Regardless of its hue or its construction, the coat of "daddy's favorite son" made the boy Joseph an especial target for his older brothers.
The brothers’ intense hatred for Joseph disrupted any family harmony. The brothers’ dislike for Joseph demonstrated itself in contemptuous, unkind words to him which led, ultimately to hatred.
Genesis 37:18-24
18 They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 They said to one another, “Oh, look, here comes that dream expert!
20 So now, come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from them. He said, “Let’s not take his life.”
22 Reuben also said to them, “Don’t shed blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him”—intending to rescue him from them and return him to his father.
23 When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off Joseph’s robe, the long-sleeved robe that he had on.
24 Then they took him and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty, without water.
Genesis 37:5 begins a record of events that resulted in his brothers intensifying their hatred of Joseph. Joseph shared a couple of dreams with his family. In the first, he was in the field binding sheaves with his brothers when his sheaf stood up and their sheaves bowed to it. In his second, Joseph saw the sun, moon, and eleven stars bending before him. Joseph’s dreams instilled jealousy in his brothers. Even Jacob/Israel rebuked his son because the second dream implied that Joseph’s father and mother as well as his brothers would bow before Joseph. However, Jacob/Israel also filed away the experience in his mind, perhaps because he remembered the Lord had previously spoken to him in a dream.
The brothers never forgot it either. They saw the boy Joseph at a distance and their resentment of his dreams implying superiority, even over his mother and father, and their resentment at the favoritism shown by the high-quality clothes that their father bestowed upon him led them to contemplate actual murder. What may have originated as a "we should kill that kid" kind of sentiment morphed into "let's just pretend to kill him to teach daddy a lesson." But plans went awry when one of the brothers saw a way to "kill two birds with one stone" – pretend to kill the kid, get rid of that expensive tunic by destroying and bloodying it, AND sell the kid into slavery to get rid of him. No killing involved.
The title the brothers applied to Joseph, dream expert may indicate they were worried about his dreams and determined to act in a way they believed would prevent any possible fulfillment of those dreams. Dreams play a prominent role in Joseph’s life. While the brothers thought they were killing the dream by selling Joseph, they were in reality advancing the fulfillment of the dream.
Reuben was Jacob’s eldest son, born to Leah. Reuben protected Joseph when his brothers wanted to kill him and he planned to rescue Joseph from the pit where he was thrown. Reuben also assumed responsibility for Benjamin’s welfare when Joseph, whose identity was unknown to the brothers at the time, commanded their youngest brother be brought to Egypt.
The boys, son of the deceiver Jacob/Israel, deceived their father.
Genesis 37:31-34
31 So they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a male goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.
32 They sent the long-sleeved robe to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it. Is it your son’s robe or not?”
33 His father recognized it. “It is my son’s robe,” he said. “A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces!”
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
After throwing Joseph into a pit, the brothers callously sat down to eat. A caravan of merchants (remember, this the word Canaan) headed for Egypt approached. The brothers agreed to Judah’s proposal to sell Joseph, not only freeing them from the guilt of murder but also gaining them financial profit. The brothers sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, a typical price for a slave in the early second millennium BC.
So the boys had stripped Joseph of his coat, his dignity, his freedom, and potentially his life. They then bloodied the torn up coat and urged their father to examine, or in Hebrew: “inspect, acknowledge, know, recognize,” and “discern” what the coat was and to draw his own conclusions. Jacob identified the robe as belonging to Joseph.
To the boys it seemed their plan was successful. They 1) got rid of Joseph without killing him, 2) destroyed the hated symbol of daddy's favoritism, the coat, 3) "taught daddy a lesson" AND 4) made a little money in the process, each brother earning just under 2 pieces of silver; their share of the 20 pieces of silver. The each profited about $20 each from a $200 transaction at current prices. The merchants in turn sold Joseph to Potiphar in Egypt, presumably for a profit.
The coat presented by Jacob/Israel to Joseph was created as evidence of the deep love that a father had for his son. It was destroyed by the brothers in a plot to put to death the possibility of Joseph's dream coming true. It became the symbol of disaster to a distraught father morning the loss of a dearly loved son.
Jacob foresaw no end to his grieving for Joseph. He refused to be comforted and believed his grief would continue until his own death. It seems that favoritism once again tore apart the family of Jacob.
Unchecked animosity can lead to greater harm within the family. Conflict within a family is inevitable, but lasting damage need not be a given. Hatred and animosity are powerful emotions and motivators and need to be dealt with swiftly before they escalate.
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