Genesis 37:12-25 - Homiletics

Joseph among his brethren at Dothan.

I. THE FRIENDLY MISSION .

1. Its local destination . This was Shechem, at a distance of sixty miles from Hebron, where Jacob had previously resided for a number of years and acquired a small estate ( Genesis 33:18 , Genesis 33:19 ), where Jacob's sons had committed, a few years before, the terrible atrocity which made the name of Israel stink throughout the land ( Genesis 34:26-30 ); and where now Joseph's brethren were shepherding their flocks, having gone thither either on account of the excellent pasture, or in order to be beyond the reach of Joseph and his tale-bearing, or perhaps with a mind to keep an eye on their father's estate.

2. Its kindly intention . Joseph was dispatched to this important sheep-station in the north to require after the welfare of his brethren. That Jacob should have sent a son so tender and beloved on a journey so arduous and an errand so fraught with danger to himself, considering the well-known hostility of his brethren towards him, if a proof of Jacob's want of consideration, was also a mark of his parental solicitude for his sons' behavior, as well as a sign of his apprehensions for their safety, venturing, as they had, to revisit the scene of their former crimes, and perhaps it may be added, an indication of his desire to effect a reconciliation between Joseph and his brethren.

3. Its cheerful susception . Though realizing better than his father did the perilous character of the enterprise, in consequence of knowing more exactly than his father the depth of malignant feeling entertained towards him by his brethren, Joseph did not hesitate to comply with his father's instructions, but, making nothing of the long journey, and keeping silent as to the risks of increased hatred, if nothing more, which he must have known that mission would entail upon him, cheerfully replied, Here am I . What a bright example of true filial piety and obedience!

4. Its successful completion . Arriving at Shechem, he first failed to find his brethren, and then lost his way, but ultimately, on being directed by a stranger, discovered them at Dothan. The perseverance of Joseph in carrying through his father's commission may be profitably studied, as a pattern to all to whom any sort of work, but more especially Christian work, is entrusted.

II. THE DIABOLICAL CONSPIRACY .

1. Its innocent occasion—the approach of Joseph in his long-sleeved and long-skirted tunic. Like a gunpowder train that has been carefully prepared, and only wants the application of a spark to produce an explosion, the brethren of Joseph were only needing some trifling incident to elicit all the fratricidal hate which was already growing in their bosoms, and that incident was supplied by the sight of the coat of ends. It was a striking illustration of how great results frequently proceed from apparently insignificant causes ( James 3:4 , James 3:5 ).

2. Its murderous character . It aimed at the destruction of Joseph's life. With unexampled unanimity, not a voice was raised against the proposal (perhaps made by Simeon) to kill him and cast his lifeless body into a pit. The proposal of Reuben must have been understood by the others as only a more excruciatingly cruel way of inflicting death, viz; by starvation. See here in Jacob's family a development of the same spirit of murder as existed in Adam's. Like Cain, the sons of Jacob were of that wicked one, and slew (in intention at least) their brother, and for the same reason ( 1 John 3:12 ).

3. Its impious design—to spoil his dreams. From this it is evident that they regarded his dreams as a Heaven-sent prognostication of his future greatness; else, if they regarded them as purely boyish fancies, why should they have felt annoyed at what was so evidently groundless? Hence, in seeking to prevent the realization of his dreams they were actually fighting against God. But it is just precisely in proportion as wicked men see God's hand in any prophecy or program that they take measures to insure its defeat (cf. 1 Samuel 19:1 ; 2 Kings 6:14 ).

4. Its ruthless execution . They took him and cast him into a pit. The crime was perpetrated

III. THE ATTEMPTED RESCUE . The stratagem of Reuben was—

1. Mercifully designed . Reuben, in some respects not a person to be greatly admired, weak and vacillating in his character, and easily drawn aside by stronger natures into sinful courses, appears in this matter to have been the only one of Joseph's brethren in whom the natural affections of a brother were not completely overborne. Though he wanted the courage to resist his stronger-minded brothers, he seems to have conceived the purpose of saving, if he could, the life of Joseph. So far the stratagem was good, only it was—

2. Timidly planned . The narrative would almost seem to convey that Reuben in the first onset of his opposition to his brother's nefarious intentions had succeeded in wresting Joseph from their hands. Had he at that moment asserted himself with vigor and boldness, as became the firstborn of the house, he might have saved Joseph altogether. But, alas, true to his feeble and pusillanimous character, he allowed himself to be overcome by the clamors of his fiercer-natured brethren, and only proposed that instead of imbruing their hands in Joseph's blood they should inflict on him the horrors of starvation. In making such a proposal of course Reuben hoped to be able to effect his deliverance, in which he might have succeeded, had he acted with promptitude and decision. But instead his stratagem was—

3. Weakly carried through . Where Reuben was when his brethren were comforting their hearts with a dinner after Joseph's consignment to the cistern, and concocting the matter of his sale, the narrative does not say; but most likely he was by himself, deliberating, and resolving, and hesitating, and delaying, instead of acting. Hence his stratagem was—

4. Completely defeated . By the time he had got his mind made up to act it was too late. When he returned to the pit Joseph was gone, and, like many another procrastinator, he could only bemoan his own folly.