When God Stands Against the World

Paul Allen

Engage with the Lord: Joseph’s Story • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

Genesis 37:12–36

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Polarizing Perspectives

Genesis 37:12–20 (NIV)

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.” Then 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’m 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.”

The family dynamics found here in the opening of Jospeh’s story follow the failures found in Jacob’s family when he was a boy. Favoritism divides the family and turns one against the other. The family members are seen as obstacles to one another as they seek their father’s approval. All the while, the One who has called them out and continually provides for their everyday is merely a fleeting thought.

The Lord has been making His hand and His plan known since the beginning. This central family serves as the example of too many families even today. Our perspective is fixed on the social norms over the will and plan of the Lord. We chase worldly treasures while calling upon our eternal treasure to bless our pursuit of lesser things.

Joseph is the favorite and has been set apart from his brothers. So he is sent on a mission by his father to go check on his brothers and the flocks. They are grazing in the area around Shechem where the men were killed at the hands of Jacob’s sons.

Joseph’s brothers despised him for it seemed like both Jacob and the Lord favored Joseph over them. The attitude of the household was that of division so the only result that could ever be reached from conflict or differing perspectives in the family was jealousy and division.

Man’s Perspective

Genesis 37:21–30 (NIV)

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 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 when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

As they sat down to eat their meal, 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 down 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 brothers agreed.

So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty 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?”

Man’s perspective is limited and can only consider temporary and near at hand consequences. Add to the limitations of man’s perspective a heart of isolation and division, you find the brothers of Joseph. They can only see what they might lose from their circumstances and they become driven by the desire to one up or get ahead. The solution becomes clear to achieving their reward and gaining their father’s approval, the favorite one must be done away with so that they might take his place.

Man’s perspective is all too often to diminish another for the hope of exalting oneself. These two positions though are not connected.

Man’s Means

Genesis 37:31–36 (NIV)

Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornate 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, 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, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.

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