“Joseph’s Dreams”

Genesis 37:2-11

 

Today’s Scripture begins the story of Joseph. This part of his story begins when he was 17 years old. At that point in his life he has a couple of dreams, he has a robe, his brothers don’t like him because he is their father’s favorite, so they become angry, like Cain. The brothers let their anger get the best of them and they do something to their brother that results in a deception with the robe. 

 

Let’s see how all this transpires. 

 

Joseph’s story begins with him shepherding the flock, with his brothers, at the age of 17. He is a young man working alongside his older stepbrothers who were the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, the slave wives of his father. We discover that Joseph was a snitch, because he would bring bad reports of his brothers to his father. 

We also read that Israel, the father, loved Joseph more than all of his sons because he was, for him, a son of old age. Israel demonstrated this favoritism by providing Joseph with a unique robe, made of a variety of colors. His brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more and they hated him because of it. They would not speak even a kind word to him. 

 

Not sure I want to hang out with this clan at the dinner table. 

 

If we were to meditate on these verses, we would discover there are three distinct parts. It begins with 

 

1) the age and Joseph’s relationship to the brothers

2) it then shifts to the dad’s perspective

3) then we read about the brother’s perspective

The author wants us to first focus on Joseph, 

then focus on his relationship with the father, 

then focus on his relationship with his brothers. 

 

The author also deliberately uses repeating words. Here is where knowing Hebrew helps. Verse 2 begins with finding out that Joseph is a “shepherd” which is spelled with the same three Hebrew letters as the word “bad” at the end of the verse. That wordplay signals a focus that they are to ponder the word “shepherds.” 

 

Have we read anything about shepherds so far in Genesis? Who was the first shepherd? 

 

That would have been Abel. His brother, Cain, was a farmer, like his dad Adam. It was Abel’s shepherd role that puts him in possession of a firstborn animal that he brings as an offering. 

Remember what happens in that scenario?  

Jealousy and murder. 

 

The next shepherd in the narrative was Abraham, who managed to acquire a lot due to being a shepherd when he was down in Egypt, lying to Pharaohs. When he returns from Egypt his belongings get in the way of him being able to live with his nephew Lot. They have to part ways because they own too much. 

 

Next, we read about Jacob the shepherd and Esau, the wild hunter. They too manage to separate due to Jacob’s abundance of blessings with his shepherding. 

 

The mention of shepherding should immediately have you thinking: “There must be a separation coming soon.”

 

The mention that Joseph was a shepherd may seem like an incidental detail, but if you train your mind to rethink through every detail of the story and consider any possible earlier repetitions, you will begin to recognize where the story is going. The results are never exactly the same, there is always a twist, but the theme is present. 

 

After being told that Joseph was a shepherd, we are then reminded that his dad had a lot of wives, actually four who you may recall were all rivals. Fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree because we read that these sons had some rival issues as well. Particularly with Joseph who we are told was a bit of a spoiled brat and royal tattletale on his brothers. Whenever they made a poor decision, he would go directly to his father and let him know. 

The next thing we read is that Israel, Oh remember, Jacob has two names at this point. Jacob meaning “heel grabber” and Israel, meaning “wrestled with God.” Well, Israel loved Joseph more than all of his sons, because he was his son of old age. 

Okay, where have we read this before? 

Remember Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. Abraham and Sarah were well into their 90’s when Isaac was born. They also demonstrated favoritism over Abraham’s first born, Ishmael. This is a phrase that only appears three times in Genesis describing Joseph and Isaac, and the third time will be later on when Joseph dies and Benjamin will be given the title. 

 

Favoritism, that has been a theme in the narrative so far, beginning with God favoring Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s. Favoritism always leads to conflict. 

So what Jacob is doing with his children, he learned from his parents who had done it with him and his brother. And yet, with every generation we discover a twist. 

 

When Jacob favored Rachel over Leah, God gave Leah the fruitful womb that led to the first born Reuben and to Judah. 

 

It’s interesting where God will sometimes favor the second-born, but when humans show favoritism they do so with twisted motives. That’s when God will overturn things and then show favor to the unloved one. This reminds us that there is no “given.” God continues to work His plan regardless of how humans act. God constantly watches out for those in need regardless of their human status. 

So far we have recognized with some choice words; 

• shepherding, 
• loving one more than another, 
• the son of the old age, 
• divisions occurring due to favoring and loving one over another that leads to a division,

All of which prepare us for what is going to happen next. 

 

We now have Israel not only loving Joseph more but demonstrating his favoritism by making Joseph a robe of many colors. The robe becomes the incarnation or physical symbol of his love. That’s exactly how the other brothers see it. Their decision to strip him of his robe is a direct intention of stripping him of his status of favored son. Robes are also a symbol of royalty, which we will become apparent as we read on. 

 

Verse 5, Joseph dreams a dream and he tells his brothers. That was his first mistake. 

His brothers, of course, only hate him more. 

Joseph describes the dream. He and his brothers are binding sheaves of grain out in the field, and Joseph’s sheave rose up and his brothers’ sheaves gathered around Joseph’s and bowed down to it. 

 

Okay, who does this kid think he is? His brothers act naturally and question the validity of Joseph’s interpretation. Like their younger brother Joseph is going to rule over them? NOT

 

Joseph was not making friends or influencing his brothers, other than to make them hate him more. 

 

To make matters worse, Joseph had another dream, and again he decided to tell it to not only his brothers, but to his father as well. Does he never learn?

In this dream the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to Joseph. Jacob rebuked him, asking him if he really thought he and his mother and eleven brothers would actually bow down to the ground before him? Interestingly though the brothers grew jealous of him, his father kept the matter in mind. 

 

Notice the contrast. Hatred and jealousy occurs in the beginning, the middle and the end. The brothers hate Joseph because of his words, but at the end, the father keeps his words in his mind. 

 

Joseph’s dream about royal rule over his brothers hyperlinks us back to Genesis 1, where we are told that God appointed the sun, moon, and the stars as rulers. The Hebrew word used “to govern” is the same verb that is used to describe what the brothers’ say, “Will you actually “reign” or “govern” over us?” 

In fact, the phrase, “sun and moon and stars” and the word for “ruling” appears only two times in the book Genesis, right here in chapter 37 and back in Genesis 1.

 

It doesn’t stop there. The significance of a special robe hyperlinks back to Adam and Eve when they lost their innocence which led them to needing to create clothes. But God came along and gave them special clothes. Now here, the father clothes the beloved son as a symbol, not of loss, but of favor. Similar action with a twist, taking back to the Eden imagery. 

 

What does that leave us with?e 

A self-exalted brother, 

Some angry brothers

Can they work it out? I mean, what could really happen? 

 

We have read enough of the narrative to be able to guess what comes next. It’s like what God said about the humans after the flood. 

 

“You know, I bet humans are gonna keep on doing the same thing.” 

 

Hyperlink forward to today. God is saying the exact same thing. We shouldn’t be surprised. Humanity remains unchanged, we keep doing the same thing, the difference lies within what God has done. 

 

Lord’ Supper