Genesis 37:1-11
1Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. 2This is the story of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. 4But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. 5Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. 7There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words. 9He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” 11So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
The rest of Genesis will deal with Joseph’s story. He was born to Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife, probably about thirteen years after his oldest brother, Reuben. He wasn’t old enough to do full work, so he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah – Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Whether he was bored or jealous that he was not allowed to do “real” work, he would tattle about his brothers to Jacob. Jacob makes no secret of his affinity for Joseph and gives him a special robe. It was obvious to the brothers that Jacob loved Joseph more than he loved them, and that made them hate Joseph.
Things got worse when the LORD gave Joseph a dream and how to interpret it — That one day, his older brothers would bow to him. Joseph bragged about it to his brothers.
Things got worse when the LORD gave Joseph a second dream and interpretation, which implied that not only his brothers, but also his father would one day bow down to him. For this, even Jacob rebuked him, and his brothers were jealous of Joseph, as well as hating him.
The chapter continues to tell us that Jacob sent Joseph to Shechem to see how the brothers were doing so that Joseph could report back to Jacob. Once Joseph got to Shechem, he found out that his brothers were at Dothan, so Joseph headed there.
When the brothers saw Joseph coming, some of them schemed to kill him, throw him into a hole and claim that a wild animal ate him. Reuben convinces them not to kill him, but just to throw him into a pit, where he planned to rescue him later. So, the brothers took the fancy robe and threw Joseph into a pit.
While Reuben was away, Judah convinced the other brothers that they should just sell Joseph. So, they sold Joseph to some Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver, and the traders took Joseph to Egypt.
When Reuben returned, he learned that Joseph was gone. So, they dipped Joseph’s robe in some goat blood, and told their father that a wild animal had devoured Joseph. Jacob is grief stricken and mourns for many days and could not be comforted.
Jacob believes that Joseph is dead, but we are told differently. Joseph is alive and was sold again – This time to one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
We know that the two dreams and their interpretations that Joseph had were legitimately from God. However, Joseph chose to use them to elevate himself above his brothers, and this ends up aggravating his relationship with his brothers. Later, we will see that Joseph has learned from this and he uses dreams and interpretations as God intended. Dreams will end up not only saving Joseph and his family but preserve God’s plan to make a great nation out of the descendants of Abraham.
We have heard about pastors who considered themselves prophets and that claim that they were given dreams and visions from God of certain things that ended up not coming true. These include those who proclaim the winner of presidential election, or that the results of elections will be overturned, or when certain end time prophesies will come true. These people are either looking to gain fame or favor, and their dreams and visions are just made up or are wishful thinking. We know if dreams and visions are from God – They will come true.
Does God give us dreams and interpretations of them? If so, we must be guided by the Holy Spirit as to how to use them. It will rarely be for our profit alone.
There are many things in the Bible that the world might consider as just made-up stuff. The world has a hard time believing in a loving God, especially when they see the sinful acts of people and the conditions around them that are less than idyllic. A God that is powerful enough to create the universe, loving mankind enough to send His Son to earth to die for mankind’s sins – just by believing – sounds like a pipe dream to the world.
I believe that the LORD had given the two dreams and their interpretations to Joseph to give him hope to hang on to through the ordeals that he will go through. When things get tough, the dreams would remind him that he will see his family again and that he has a big role to play in God’s plan for Israel.
We do not need to receive any special dreams from God to give us hope for the future. We have the Bible. The Bible tells us that by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our sins will be forgiven and that we are assured of life eternal with Christ and all His followers. But we also know that we have been created and saved to do the good works of God that he has planned for each of us since the beginning of time.
So, let us move forward with the tasks God has given us, with hope in our hearts. Not “I hope this will happen” type of hope, but a hope that God assures us will come true. There are many in this world living without much hope – And each one of us know at least a few. We can give these people the assured hope by telling them that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.
(the above is a summary of the message shared by Shun Takano during worship on October 15, 2023.)
Japanese Congregational Church 