August 10, 2014
Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Orthodox icon of St. Joseph the All-Comely, in Egyptian regalia.
(Image via Orthodox.Net)
Introduction
There is a popular saying that says
that life is a wheel: sometimes you're on top, sometimes you're on
the bottom. But a wheel that goes round and round does not go
anywhere, like the wheels of a vehicle rutted in mud. A wheel goes up
and down in order to move forward.
Today and next Sunday we read and will
read the last part of the Book of Genesis, which is the story of
Joseph, son of Jacob. It covers the last thirteen (13) chapters of
Genesis, making it the second longest account in that book. (The life
of Abraham the Patriarch is from chapters 12 to 25, or fourteen
chapters.) The life of Joseph, son of Jacob, is an example of how God
uses the ups and downs in life to mold character in the lives of
people.
I. Joseph the Favorite Son (Genesis
37:1-4)
Joseph
is the favorite son of his father Jacob, “because he was the son of
his old age” (v. 3). He is the the first son of Jacob's favorite
wife, Rachel. The Bible says that God finally remembered Rachel so
she was able to conceive and give birth to a son. She said, “God
hath taken away my reproach.... The LORD shall add to me another son”
(Genesis 30:23-24). Therefore he gave him the name Joseph (Heb.יוֹסֵף,
Yosef, 'The LORD has
added'). (And Rachel did have another son: She had difficulty giving
birth to him and just before she died, she gave him his name Ben-oni (בֶּן-אוֹנִי),
'the son of my sorrow' but Jacob called him, Benjamin (בִנְיָמִין, Binyamin,
'the son of my right hand'. Genesis 35:16-18)
Jacob
loved Joseph more than his other sons, and gave him “a coat of many
colors” (v. 3, KJV; in Hebrew, פַּסִּים pasim). (In the NIV, it translates the word פַּסִּים pasim as "richly ornamented" while the Today's English Version has "a long robe with full sleeves".) The word used here is כְּתֹנֶת,
k'tonet, which is also
used to describe the garment of Jesus in John 19:23, called in Greek
as a χιτών,
chitōn,
a word which was derived from
the Hebrew כְּתֹנֶת,
k'tonet,. The coat of
Jesus is described as “without seam, woven from the top
throughout”.
An illustration of the chiton of Jesus Christ (from Harper's Encyclopedia of Bible Life via JesusWalk.com)
A chiton is a large, long garment with only a hole for the head and neck. It does not have sleeves as the TEV suggests. But the chiton is secured with a belt on the waist (called a cincture in Latin). When secured at the waist, the sides of the chiton form the "sleeves".
Joseph was also a
tattletale: When he is with his brothers (the sons of Bilhah and
Zilphah, his father's secondary wives), he would bring his father an
“evil report” about them. Because of their father's open
favoritism with Joseph, they have come to hate their brother “and
could not speak peaceably unto him” (v. 4).
II. Joseph the
Dreamer (Genesis 37:5-11)
Joseph had a way
with dreams. Once, he told a dream about when he and his brothers
were binding sheaves when his sheaf stood up and his brother's
sheaves bowed down to it (v. 7). Another time, he told a dream that
the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him (v. 9). This
alienated his brothers—and even his parents—because these dreams
predict that they will all bow down to him.
At this time (he
was seventeen years old, v. 2), Joseph was on top. He was the
favorite son and he had a gift of dreams. Until God sent him to the
bottom in a long journey to mold his character.
III. Joseph the
Slave (Genesis 37:12-36)
One time, Jacob his father send Joseph to his brothers, who were
feeding their flocks in Shechem, to find out how they were (vv.
13-14). When he found them at Dothan, his brothers forcibly stripped
off his coat and threw him down an empty cistern (vv. 18-24). Then
they decided to sell him off as a slave to a passing caravan of
Ishmaelites (also called Midianites in v. 28) which were traveling
from Gilead bring spices to Egypt (vv. 25-28). They sold him for
twenty pieces of silver and dipped Joseph's coat in goat's blood then
told their father Jacob that Joseph had been attacked by a wild
animal. Jacob was inconsolable thinking that his son was dead (vv.
29-35).
Meanwhile,
Joseph was sold by the Midianites to Potiphar, “an officer of
Pharaoh's and captain of the guard (Heb. שַֹר
הַטַּבָּחיִם,
sar-hatabachim,
'prince/captain of the bodyguards').
IV. Joseph the
Slave (Genesis 39)
Joseph
became a slave in the household of Potiphar the Egyptian. But
Potiphar saw the LORD was with Joseph and everything he did
prospered, he made him overseer over all his property, and “the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house
for Joseph's sake” (v. 5). Potiphar was so confident of Joseph's
managerial skills that the only thing he though of was the food that
he ate (vv. 1-6).
For a time Joseph seemed to be on top again. Until the wife of
Potiphar, who desired him, accused him of attempted rape when he
refused to have an affair with her. Potiphar listened to his wife and
became angry with Joseph and had him thrown in jail (vv. 7-20).
Joseph was at the bottom again.
V. Joseph the
Prisoner (Genesis 40)
Even
when Joseph was at the bottom again, the Bible says, “But the LORD
was with Joseph...” (39:21). The LORD gave him favor in the eyes of
the keeper of the prison (שַׂר בֵּית-הַסֹּהַר, sar
beth-hasohar, 'prince/chief
of the prison', the
jail warden) so that he made Joseph responsible of all the prisoners,
and everything that Joseph did, the LORD made to prosper (39:22-23).
While
he was in prison, the chief of the butlers (שַׂר הַמַּשְׁקִים, sar
hamash'qim)
and the chief of the bakers (שַׂר הָאוֹפִים, sar
haofim)
of Pharaoh were
thrown into prison because they had offended their lord (40:1-2).
Each of them had a dream and Joseph interpreted it for them. (Joseph
acknowledged that the interpretations of dreams do not come from
himself but from God, v. 8). The chief butler dreamed of a vine with
three branches and he had Pharaoh's cup in his hands. He pressed some
grapes into Pharaoh's cup and served it to Pharaoh. Joseph said that
the three branches were three days, and that the Pharaoh would
restore him to his former position (vv. 9-15). Meanwhile the chief
baker dreamed that he had three baskets of bread of his head, and the
birds began to eat the bread on the uppermost basket. Joseph answered
that the three baskets were three days, and that he will be hanged
and his flesh shall be eaten by birds (vv. 16-19).
Three days
afterward, on Pharaoh's birthday, he took the chief butler and
restored him in his former position, and made him chief baker as
well. Meanwhile, he also took the chief baker and had him hanged,
just as Joseph had interpreted their dreams (vv. 20-22).
Joseph asked the
chief butler that when he is released and restored as chief butler,
to intercede to Pharaoh in his behalf, because he was innocent of the
crime of which he was accused and because he was sold into slavery by
his brothers (vv. 14-15). But chapter 40 ends with the words, “Yet
did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him” (v. 23).
Joseph was now at
the lowest point of his life. His brothers had sold him into slavery.
His father thought that he was dead. He was in prison for a crime he
did not commit. The person whom he thought who help him out of prison
forgot all about him. Only God remembers him.
Conclusion
We may not have
experienced the highs and lows that Joseph experienced in his life.
We may not have been sold into slavery or imprisoned for a crime we
did not commit. But we may have been betrayed by our family and
friends or have been forgotten by the people we trust. Remember that
when God makes us go through up and downs, he is using trial to make
us move forward. Amen.
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