Series: Intended for Good: The Life of Joseph
Title: God Calls His Shot
Genesis 37:1-11
Eleven brothers stare anxiously at the floor.
Their eyes are on the ground, but all their attention is focused on the man at the front of the room.
bowing in tense silence, the eleven kneel before one of the most powerful rulers in the land,
They know he has the authority to execute them.
Dressed in royal clothes and flanked by servants and guards, the prime minister of Egypt looks down on these shepherds before him.
He has a long history with these men even though they think they’ve just met him.
He’s got vivid memories of pain and rejection while they carry guilt for what they think they could never apologize for.
They’d wronged this man in unthinkable ways.
Now the tables are turned.
He could bring down the hammer, throw them all in jail with a single word.
?- How will Joseph deal with his brothers?
This is the scene that the story of Joseph is leading to.
But we won’t be there for several weeks.
Still, much of our time with Joseph is going to be leading up to this moment.
This morning, we start at the beginning of the Bible’s coverage of Joseph’s life.
Right from the start, we’re going to see that Joseph’s brothers didn’t make life easy for him.
But we’re going to see how the family dynamics were being used by God for the greater good of Joseph’s family and for God’s redemption story.
this morning we’re able to see that God Calls His Shot
What I mean by this is that, from the beginning, God predicts what’s going to happen at the end.
Like Babe Ruth pointing to where his next homerun will go, or Larry Bird explaining exactly what he’s going to do to score, when these follow through flawlessly, it’s meant to impress.
In the same way, when God follows through on what He foretells, we’re meant to be impressed.
We open the life of Joseph in Genesis 37
*1 Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. *
2 These are the generations of Jacob.
I’ll explain later what Jacob’s role was in God’s covenant promises.
Having just described the descendants of Esau/Edom, Genesis turns to the descendants of Jacob.
Surprisingly, it’s not the peaceful life of the Brady Bunch or the closeness of Wally and Beaver.
Jacob’s sons come from 4 different mothers,and there’s definitely some problems between them.
As we move through our verses and making some observations, first we learn of -
JOSEPH’S FAVORED/UNFAVORED PLACE IN HIS FAMILY
*At seventeen years old, Joseph was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
We step into the life of Joseph at age 17.
And we find him working as a shepherd in the field with his brothers from two of his father’s other wives.
Yes, other wives. We won’t get into how this practice was going on.
Joseph worked alongside his brothers Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
One day, his four brothers were doing something they shouldn’t.
And Joseph reported this to his dad.
This situation is likely illustrating a progression in the relationships among Jacob’s sons
Joseph shows integrity in his relationship with his brothers.
Joseph’s brothers are showing a lack of integrity/needing supervision, and they likely didn’t appreciate Joseph’s tattling.
v3 likely shows that Joseph got a promotion, but his dad was probably chomping at the bit to give him one.
*3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.
There are several reasons why Jacob shows favoritism to Joseph.
It could be because of Joseph’s trustworthiness in keeping tabs on his brothers.
But we’re also told that Joseph came along after Jacob was older.
His late arrival is because Joseph is the firstborn son of Rachel – Jacob’s first love.
Rachel spent most of her life unable to have children.
If you know the story, Jacob was tricked into a package deal and married Rachel’s sister, Leah.
Genesis 35 provides a torrid competition of family planning story that Elon Musk would be proud of.
And it even involves the cultural practice of wives giving their handmaids to their husbands as surrogates.
Somewhere in there, Jacob gets bought with some mandrakes or something.
Lastly, in the sordid season, Rachel finally bears Jacob as a child, and his name is Joseph.
Later, the love of Jacob’s life dies while giving birth to Joseph’s brother, Benjamin.
And we’ll see how he comes into play toward the end of this series.
All this is to explain how it is that Jacob unashamedly loves Joseph more than his other sons
Sadly, Jacob also shows how little he learned from his parents’ mistakes of favoritism.
The result of this and Joseph’s willingness to rat on his brothers is that Jacob promotes him to supervisor.
This promotion is likely shown by the coat that Jacob has made for his golden child.
It’s either ornately colored or multicolored because it has sleeves – both would mean it’s not meant to be worked in.
Even though he’s younger than all but one, he takes the fast-tracked to supervisor
*4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
All this explains the relationship between Joseph and his brothers.
In v2, we see Joseph angering his four brothers, who he brought a bad report about.
Here, we find that all ten of his older brothers hate him.
They hate him because he’s the favored son – the firstborn of Jacob’s favorite wife.
Not only do they hate him, but Joseph also doesn’t get a kind or even word from them.
Jacob’s home is one of constant tension and conflict
In the next verses, we find God speaking up through dreams and we see -
JOSEPH’S ELEVATED ROLE FORETOLD
*5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”
In the book of Genesis, the writer associates dreams with divine revelation about His plans.
We’re told immediately that Joseph’s brothers hate him even more due to his dreams.
Without even knowing the content of his dream, Joseph having one and sharing it with them amounts to claiming that God was speaking through him
*8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
The dream's content didn’t help the brother’s feelings toward Joseph.
The image of the bundles of grain is understood as Joseph being honored by his brothers by them bowing down to him.
They see it as meaning Joseph would even reign over them.
We must wonder if they doubt he’s telling the truth about his dreams.
But they don’t seem to doubt that Joseph had the dreams as they hate him all the more for them.
We read they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words
So, it may be envy combined with annoyance with the idea that Joseph would talk so freely about such an inflammatory idea as them bowing to him one day.
Sidenote -
Grain/food will be a common theme in the chapters we’ll look at in this series.
God will use it as a metaphor and the lack of it to direct Joseph’s family to Egypt.
*9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
God keeps the dreams coming and confirms Joseph's exalted position in one day.
This confirmation comes through Joseph’s story with double dreams, making their content concrete.
This dream doesn’t just draw on a humble agricultural theme.
The 2nd dream’s colossal planetary theme elevates Joseph to a position reverenced by the entire solar system, with the planets representing his brothers.
*10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”
When Joseph shares his dream with his father, Jacob catches the drift of the dream.
It fits that Jacob and Joseph’s mom would be the sun and the moon.
He tells his son he doesn’t think it plausible that he and Joseph’s mother would bow down to him.
He may be fine being exalted over his brothers but ruling over Mom and Dad is much.
Recall that Joseph’s biological mother died while giving birth to his brother, Benjamin.
Jacob may be referencing his wife, who took on the role of Joseph’s mother.
Or it may be that the scene represented in the dream is a heavenly one that will take place after God uses Joseph to deliver Jacob and his family, thus continuing God’s redemption plan.
*11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
The inner response of Joseph’s brothers is contrasted with Jacob’s.
The brothers were jealous, and we’ll see next week how their jealous hatred guided their actions.
Jacob, on the other hand, considers what God might be showing through Joseph’s dreams.
Jacob knew that his birthright and worldly blessings fulfilled promises and prophecies.
He had only survived in the land because God had promised the protection of Abraham’s offspring.
He had only been able to usurp his older brother’s position as the fulfillment of the prophecy made to his mother that her younger son would be served by the older.
Thus far, we’ve just made some observations from our 11 verses.
At this point, I want to challenge you with something that I think can help you grow in relationship with God.
First of all, I think our verses should challenge us to -
1. TRUST THAT GOD IS AT WORK…
Something interesting about the story of Joseph is how these chapters make very little mention of God.
The only time God speaks in these chapters is to Jacob in a dream.
Other than Him speaking this once, Joseph talks about God in terms of giving him the interpretation of dreams.
And Joseph’s brothers refer to God only to speak of their fear that He’s paying them back for their evil.
But what God does do in Ch 37 is speak very clearly with the two dreams that he gives to Joseph.
God is “calling His shot.”
God is letting Joseph and all readers of Genesis know where He’s taking this story.
Let’s fast forward in Josephs’ story at least ten years.
There’s a famine in the land, and Jacob hears that there’s grain for sale in Egypt.
So, he sends his sons there to buy some.
If you’re familiar with the events, you know that the brothers find themselves face to face with the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt.
And it happens to be their brother, Joseph.
In the coming weeks, we’ll address how He landed this gig.
For now, I want to you to see what happens when Joseph’s brothers come before him in Egypt
We read in Genesis 42 –
* Genesis 42:6, 8–9a 6 Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground… 8 And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.
In Genesis 42, we’ll find Joseph far from the status of being half-orphaned and hated by his brothers.
Instead, we’ll find Him a ruler of the nation of Egypt, second in command to the mighty Pharaoh.
But even with his good character and shrewd business sense, we know it was all in fulfillment of the dream that God provided.
I used to enjoy riding one roller coaster after another.
Then I got to where I needed to wait an hour for the dizzy, sick-feeling to subside before I could ride another.
Now, I don’t ride them because I don’t enjoy getting that dizzy, sick-feeling in the middle of the ride.
When I used to ride roller coasters, there was a time when I would freak out at the beginning of the ride.
But I realized at some point that thousands of other people riding the roller coasters that day.
And no one was dying.
So, I could trust that I wasn’t the end of the world.
The roller coaster God takes Joseph on is helped by knowing God is at work.
And, when knowing Christ as our Savior, we can rest assured that God is at work as well.
As we can be encouraged in what we read in -
* Philippians 1:6 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Moving forward, we see that we should Trust that God is at Work
2. TO FULFILL HIS GOOD PLAN…
God’s plan for Jacob’s family was for them to cared for when a famine struck the whole region.
We’ll read in Genesis 45 about how Joseph recognized that God was working out His perfect plan even through the terrible things Joseph experienced.
Next week, we’ll see that Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers – pretty harsh.
But years later, he’ll tell his brothers that it was God who sent him to Egypt
* Genesis 45:4–5, 7-8a 4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life… 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
He’ll even go as far as to tell them that God was at work in the hateful way they treated Him.
* Genesis 50:18-20 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
This statement in v. 20 is why we call this series “Intended for Good.”
I hope to keep Joseph’s statement in the forefront of your thinking throughout this series –
“you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”
I remember the joke in Chicago was that there were only two seasons – Winter & Road Construction.
It’s interesting that the first thing a road CONSTRUCTION crew needs to do is to DESTROY.
That’s because they’ve got to destroy the current bridge or road surface to construct a new on.
Similarly, if you read the life of Joseph it looks like one unfortunate turn after another.
But God is doing everything to position Joseph for him to be able to carry out God’s perfect plan.
And we’ll see Joseph’s character formed along the way so God can use him as He sees fit.
We see in that God has a plan for each of us who follow Christ as our Savior as we read in –
* Romans 8:28–29 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The good that God is working all things toward is our being “conformed to the image of His Son”
This truth means that God intends to glorify Himself through Christians being more like Christ.
And He uses ALL situations (good and bad) for this GOOD purpose in our lives.
?- What difficulty are you in the middle of through which God is working out His good plan?
Lastly, I encourage you to - Trust that God is at Work to Fulfill His Good Plan
3. TO KEEP HIS COVENANT PROMISES.
God spoke into time and space 2000 years before Christ and invited Joseph’s great grandpa into a relationship with Him.
We read about this in –
* Genesis 12:1–3 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God visited Abraham many times reiterating His covenant with him, as we read in –
* Genesis 15:5 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
So, Abraham had a son named Isaac who would carry God’s promise.
And Isaac had Joseph’s father, Jacob, who would also carry God’s promise.
The Lord gave Jacob the name Israel.
And Jacob’s 12 sons become the 12 tribes of Israel
When Joseph was 17, Jacob’s whole family was less than 70 people – not exactly a great nation.
God had a plan for how He would keep His covenant promise of making the promised descendants of Abraham into a great nation which are too numerous to count.
He planned to put them into an incubator – guests and then slaves in the land of Egypt.
And God told Abraham about this in –
* Genesis 15:13–14 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
God is letting the original readers of Genesis know how they ended up in Egypt.
And God is preparing Joseph to be the person He uses to bring them down to Egypt
They will eventually join Joseph there as 70 people.
And when they make their Exodus 400 years later, they’ll number 3 million.
I’d imagine that construction plans from 400 years ago would look different from today.
They’d be for a log cabin and talk about mortising the logs to fit right.
Or the instructions would talk about chinking between them to keep the draft out.
It’d be crazy to pull out 400 year old blueprints and read about steel studs, LED lights, and GFI outlets.
We wouldn’t expect that because they were only invented in the last 20 years.
Just as God was at work through Joseph’s experience to keep God’s covenant promises, He’s still at work.
And He’s still keeping His covenant promises with those who have trusted Christ as Savior.
We’re told about God’s New Covenant with us in -
* Hebrews 9:15a Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance
Jesus is who is in charge of the New Covenant promises that God is at work to keep perfectly.
As we draw to close this morning, I hope you are better assured of this truth.
You can Trust that God is at Work to Fulfill His Good Plan to Keep His Covenant Promises.
God’s good plan may not feel good at the time is it was for Joseph,
But that’s when we need to be reassured that we can trust Him.
You become a part of God’s New Covenant when you confess your sins and your need for Him
You trust in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the penalty of your sins.
And Jesus keeps the receipt in the form of the scars on His hands.
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