Genesis 37: 18-28
Jacob had sent his youngest of his 11 sons, Joseph, to search for his brothers who were shepherding the flock miles away from home, and he finally found them.
(18) When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.
While Joseph was still some distance away from them, they recognized him, and before he could hear what they were saying, they plotted to put him to death. This is some serious negative passion being expressed here, this family is very dysfunctional. This will not be the only "sin" these brothers will commit against the family.
(19) They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer!
(20) "Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!"
They were thinking about the dreams Joseph had told them about, with their sheaves and the stars representing them bowing down to Joseph as though he were a king they would do obeisance to. They already hated him for being their father's favorite, and they resented him and were jealous of him. They couldn't see anything about him to say anything nice about.
(21) But Reuben heard this and rescued him out of their hands and said, "Let us not take his life."
(22) Reuben further said to them, "Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him"--that he might rescue him out of their hands, to restore him to his father.
But Reuben tried to talk them out of it. He wanted to make sure that he could be brought back home again to his father. So he rescued him from immediate death.
(23) it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him;
(24) and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.
(25) Then they sat down to eat a meal.
By the time Joseph came to them, they had decided, and they grabbed him, tore off his fancy robe, and threw him into a hole in the ground, a dry cistern. Then they sat down to leisurely eat their lunch, a meal Joseph could have brought to them. How cold! What unfeeling apathy!
And as they raised their eyes and looked, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to bring them down to Egypt.
While they ate, they looked up and saw a caravan approaching.
(26) Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?
(27) "Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers listened to him.
Now Judah speaks up, as he sees an opportunity to gain a profit off of selling their brother into slavery. And they all listened to his "good idea." So Judah also saved his life, from being left to die in the pit.
(28) Then some Midianite traders passed by,
They are Ishmaelites by bloodlines, and they are Midianites by where they come from geographically. These are the samy guys, people.
so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver.
Twenty shekels of silver was the price of a slave. A shekel was twenty gerahs (Exodus 30: 13; Ezekiel 45: 12), which came to 2/5ths of a troy ounce of silver, or about eleven dollars that they received for him.
Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt.
So these traders brought Joseph into Egypt as a slave to be sold on the block.
His brothers thought they'd never see Joseph again. Little did they know, until years later, that their evil scheming would set up everyone for where God wanted them to be!
God is so wise and smart and clever that He uses even evil and destructive decisions to further His will for all of us, for our good, both now and forever. And He will have all the credit, all the glory for He planned all of it out ahead of time.
O my Father, You knew what would happen, and how Your chosen people would be, and You still gave them every advantage.
Now today, Father, now that Your Son has come to be our Lamb of God to die for us, and You raised Him from the dead, now You give us even more advantage than Israel, in giving us Your own Holy Spirit to live in each of us. Now we have Your Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Strength, Spirit of Wisdom, Your very Spirit of Life itself.
My Father, You gave us Joseph to see so much of Christ's character. So far, we've seen his unquestioning obedience to his father Jacob, and his betrayal by those who were close to him, his own brothers, being sold as a slave.
Father, You have loved Your Son as Jacob loved Joseph. Jesus obeyed You every moment and every step He took, and every word out of His mouth, and every act and miracle, and even His death was in obedience to Your will. And He was also betrayed and sold by His close friend, His own disciple.
O Father, send out Your messengers and missionaries to all the world. Let every living person hear and respond to Your Love, Your generous and gracious gift, to seek You, and accept Your Salvation; or to reject You and suffer the consequences.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, the Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the everlasting glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever, Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
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