Genesis 37:31-34

"And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a he-goat, and dipped the coat in the blood, and they brought it to their father, and he said, This we have found: know now whether it is thy son's coat or not? And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. And Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned his son many days."

Willis called attention to the manner of the sons' calling Joseph "your son" when addressing their father, instead of "our brother," suggesting that this is after the manner of the older brother of the parable of Jesus who said, "When this thy son is come, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf."

Today, the blood could be analyzed, and the he-goat's blood could not have been mistaken for human blood, but in that age, the stratagem was perfectly successful. Jacob was completely deceived. We cannot leave this without remembering that Jacob himself was the deceiver of his father Isaac, in the matter of procuring the blessing. And now, the deceiver is deceived. Sin always works out its tragic retributions upon the head of sinners. What a life of grief and sorrow descended at this point upon the mourning patriarch! Only the merciful providence of God could have woven all of the shameful threads of this chapter into a pattern that would conform absolutely to the divine will.