CHAPTER 37

(1729 B.C.)

JOSEPHS DREAMS

¹And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan (having dispensed with Esau in the previous Chapter, and having mentioned him at all simply because he was a son of Isaac, we now pick up the narrative of Jacob, which includes the story of Joseph).

²These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren (Joseph is one of the most, if not the most, remarkable Types of Christ found in the entirety of the Old Testament); and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah (Dan and Naphtali), and with the sons of Zilpah (Gad and Asher), his fathers wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report (these men were in the Covenant, but not of the Covenant).

³Now Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than all his children (the name Israel is used here of Jacob by the Holy Spirit, signifying that what Jacob had done, as it regards loving Joseph, was not wrong, but rather right; some claim that Jacob caused the problem among his sons by favoring Joseph; not true!), because he was the son of his old age (actually means that Joseph possessed the wisdom of an old man though so young): and he made him a coat of many colors. (Such a coat was given to the son for whom the birthright was designed. The Holy Spirit proclaimed that it should go to Joseph, and not Reuben, who was actually the firstborn. Whoever had this position was to be the high priest of the family, which, in essence, Joseph was after Jacob died. The future, as we shall see, bears this out.)

⁴And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. (This perfectly epitomizes Christ; of Whom Joseph was one of the most remarkable Types found in the Word of God. God loved His Son, and showed it greatly by lavishing upon Him all the Power of the Holy Spirit. As a result, the Jews, who were His brethren, so to speak, hated Him. Such follows to the present, in that those who are of the Spirit [the Cross] are hated by those who are of the flesh.)

⁵And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. (The Lord revealed the future to Joseph in a dream. While the dream definitely referred to him, it more so referred to Christ and Israel, with these men who hated Joseph being a type of Israel. He told his brothers the truth, and they hated him even more. Thus was it with Josephs great antitype. Christ bore witness to the Truth, and His testimony to the Truth was answered, on mans part, by the Cross.)

⁶And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:

⁷For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance (bowed) to my sheaf. (It was the Will of the Lord to relate this dream, which these brothers would remember, and would see come to pass exactly as the dream proclaimed. Pulpit Commentary says, regarding this, He related this dream, in the simplicity of his heart, and in doing so he was also guided, unconsciously it may be, but still really, by an overruling providence, Who made use of this very telling of the dream as a step toward its fulfillment.)

REJECTION

⁸And his brethren said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? or shall you indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. (The hatred that Josephs brethren exhibited toward him represents the Jews in Christs day. He came to His Own, and His Own received Him not. He had no form nor comeliness in their eyes. They would not own Him as the Son of God, or as the King of Israel. They hated Him!)

⁹And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. (This prophetically portrays the Second Coming, when all the Tribes of Israel will, at the time, bow at the feet of Christ [Zech. 12:10; 13:1, 6; 14:9].)

¹⁰And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to you to the earth? (This is exactly what they did after Joseph became Viceroy of Egypt. It is exactly what Israel, as well, will do, in a coming glad day.)

¹¹And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying (even though Jacob had rebuked Joseph, still, the Patriarch realized that there was more to this than a mere dream),

¹²And his brethren went to feed their fathers flock in Shechem (about 50 miles distance).

¹³And Israel (Jacob) said unto Joseph, Do not your brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send you unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. (The short phrase, Here am I, foreshadows the statement of Christ, Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Your Will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My Heart [Ps. 40:7-8].)

¹⁴And he (Jacob) said to him (to Joseph), Go, I pray you, see whether it is well with your brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. (All of this portrays the fact that Jacob little understood the degree of hatred the brothers had against Joseph.)

¹⁵And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What do you seek?

¹⁶And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray you, where they feed their flocks.

¹⁷And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan (about 12 miles north of Shechem, making the total distance that Joseph had come approximately 62 miles). And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.

THE PLOT

¹⁸And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to kill him. (It was thus with Christ as well. When He was born, Herod sought to kill Him [Mat., Chpt. 2].)

¹⁹And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer comes (little did they realize that these dreams would come to pass exactly according to their portrayal).

²⁰Come now therefore, and let us kill him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast has devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams (we see here the ruling of the sin nature).

²¹And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. (Reuben was the firstborn. This meant that when Jacob died, he would receive a double portion of the inheritance; however, the birthright had been given to Joseph. So Reuben would have had more to gain from Josephs death than anyone, but he seemed to have a heart that wasnt totally hardened.)

²²And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again. (He thought later to come back and rescue Joseph, as evidently he had to go somewhere, but he would come back too late. They would have sold Joseph as a slave.)

²³And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him (the flesh hates the Spirit, the latter of which the coat was a Type; however, when they took the coat, they did not take the anointing, for the coat was only a symbol of such);

²⁴And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. (When we look at Joseph in the pit and in the prison, and look at him afterwards as ruler over all the land of Egypt, we see the difference between the thoughts of God and the thoughts of men; and so when we look at the Cross, and then the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens, we see the same thing.)

²⁵And they sat down to eat bread (evidently, their idea was, when they put him in the pit, to let him starve to death; but now a change of events comes about): and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

²⁶And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we kill our brother, and conceal his blood?

²⁷Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. (Along with Reuben, Judah is the one who saved the life of Joseph, suggesting that they sell him as a slave; however, this was little an act of mercy on the part of Judah, inasmuch as under normal circumstances, they were consigning him to a life worse than death.)

EGYPT

²⁸Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen (they were along with the Ishmeelites); and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt. (Joseph being a Type of Christ, the Saviour was sold for thirty pieces of silver. As Joseph was taken into Egypt, likewise, the Gentiles accepted Christ.)

DECEPTION

²⁹And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. (When Reuben returned, it seems that he was genuinely sorry about the turn of events; however, his brothers explained to him what they had done, and the record proclaims the fact that he did nothing further.)

³⁰And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? (What shall I do?)

³¹And they took Josephs coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood (as Rebekah and Jacob had used a kid of the goats to deceive Isaac [27:9], likewise, Jacob is deceived by a kid of the goats);

³²And they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be your sons coat or no (they evidently got a servant or a slave to take the bloody coat to Jacob, and to give him the story they had concocted).

³³And he knew it, and said, It is my sons coat; an evil beast has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces (it seems that they who brought the news to Jacob had suggested this, and Jacob believed it).

³⁴And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days (this terrible heartache, this terrible sorrow, would last for twenty years, meaning that it was one of the greatest tests that God ever called upon a man to undergo).

³⁵And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. (Jacob knew that the Lord had told him to give Joseph the birthright. That being the case, why would the Lord then allow his life to be taken by a wild animal, or so Jacob thought?)

³⁶And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaohs, and captain of the guard. (The Hand of the Lord, although having no part whatsoever in the evil being carried out, still, guided events, even as we shall see.)