Joseph: Dreams, Dungeons, and Destinies

 

In our previous episode, taken from Genesis 34-35, we completed Biopic #3 of Act 1, Scene 2 of God’s One Big Story.  That was the biographical picture of the Patriarch Jacob and in it, we watched as God, through the soap opera that was Jacob’s life, saved this weaselly younger son of Isaac and set him on the pathway of Righteousness and Sanctification.

In this episode, found in Genesis 37*, we will begin Biopic #4, the biographical picture of Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph.  This will be a spin-off of Biopic #3, one we will be calling Dreams, Dungeons, and Destinies—a title derived from the fact that…

• • • It will be Joseph’s two dreams that will take him from the safety and security of his father’s house to the dungeons of Egypt;
    • It will be the two dreams of the baker and butler that will eventually deliver him from those dungeons; and,
    • It will be the two dreams of Pharaoh that will elevate him to his destiny as Savior and Lord, not only over all of Egypt but over his brothers as well.

Since the purpose of Act 1, Scene 2 is to introduce us to the men most responsible for bringing Israel into the world, it is important for us to understand the contribution that each makes to her birth and development.  Thus far, we have learned that…

• • • Abraham, as her father, covenanted with God to give Israel to Him as His Wife;
    • Isaac was the Son of Promise through whom she would come; and,
    • Jacob was the father of the Twelve Tribes that would ultimately provide the foundation upon which she was formed.

This leads us to ask, just what part does Joseph play in all of this?  Unlike Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is not a direct link to the Messiah, so what is his role in the story?  It must be a significant one, especially when we take into account the amount of space given over to it—for…

• • • Abraham’s part was told in 14 chapters;
    • Isaac’s part was told in only 3 chapters;
    • Jacob’s part was told in just 8 chapters; but,
    • Joseph’s part will be told in 14 chapters, just like Abraham’s.

** It should be noted here that for the sake of continuity, we will be jumping from Genesis 35 to Genesis 37, and omitting Chapter 36, as that is the record of Esau and his descendants.

 

Episode #1 of Biopic #4
Cast:     Narrator     Joseph     Brothers     Jacob     Man     Reuben/Judah

Setting the Stage— When we left off last time, Jacob and his family had been living outside of the city of Shechem when the prince of that city raped Dinah, Jacob’s daughter.  Then, in an act of merciless revenge, her brothers completely wiped out the male population of Shechem, taking captive all of its women and children and plundering anything of value within the city. On the heels of this massacre, the Lord directed Jacob to go back to Bethel, where his faith walk began, and get himself and his family right with God once again—which he did. However, when Biopic #4 opens, we find that he and his family have made their way south to Hebron, the place of fellowship with God where both his grandfather and father lived for many years…

Narrator:  Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. This is the history of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors.  But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.  Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more.  So he said to them…

Joseph:  Please hear this dream which I have dreamed:  There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.

Brothers:  Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?

Narrator:  So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.  Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said…

Joseph:  Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.

Narrator:  So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him…

Jacob:  What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?

Narrator:  And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.  Then his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem.  And Israel said to Joseph…

Jacob:  Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.

Narrator:  So he said to him…

Joseph:  Here I am.

Jacob:  Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.

Narrator:  So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.  Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying…

Man:  What are you seeking?

Joseph:  I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.

Man:  They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ 

 

 

Narrator:  So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.  Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him.  Then they said to one another…

Brothers:  Look, this dreamer is coming!  Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!

Narrator:  But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said…

Reuben:  Let us not kill him.  Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him…

Narrator:  …that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.  So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him.  Then they took him and cast him into a pit.  And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.

And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt.  So Judah said to his brothers…

Judah:  What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.

Narrator:  And his brothers listened.  Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.  Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he tore his clothes.  And he returned to his brothers and said…

Reuben:  The lad is no more; and I, where shall I go?

Narrator:  So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.  Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said…

Brothers:  We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?

Narrator:  And he recognized it and said…

Jacob:  It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces. 

Narrator:  Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said…

Jacob:  For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.

Narrator:  Thus his father wept for him.  Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

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Our Review

Once again, the time has come for us to pause and review…

The Most Important Points in this Episode—

— This is the history of Jacob—the phrase “the history of Jacob” is the last of the eleven toledoths in the book of Genesis, a toledoth being a genealogy or family record, which…

In Genesis 2:4, was the history of the heavens and the earth;
In Genesis 5:1, was the book of the genealogy of Adam;
In Genesis 6:9, was the genealogy of Noah;
In Genesis 10:1, was the genealogy of Noah’s sons;
In Genesis 11:10, was the genealogy of Shem;
In Genesis 11: 27, was the genealogy of Terah;
In Genesis 25:12, was the genealogy of Ishmael;
In Genesis 25:19, was the genealogy of Isaac;
In Genesis 36:1, was the genealogy of Esau;
In Genesis 36:9, was the genealogy of Esau’s sons; and,
In Genesis 37:2, is the genealogy of Jacob.

— Joseph/seventeen years old/feeding the flock—”feeding the flock” was a way of saying that he was shepherd over the flock.

— Sons of Bilhah and Zilpah—these would have been Dan and Naphtali (Bilhah), and Gad and Asher (Zilpah).

— Joseph brought a bad report—since he was later told to bring a report back to his father, it is likely that he was told to do the same at this time.  After the events in Shechem, it seems that Jacob didn’t put too much trust in the behavior of his other sons.

— Israel loved Joseph more than all his children—Jacob’s favoritism once again comes to the forefront, causing his other sons to hate Joseph.

— He made him a tunic of many colors—this was a special coat, the kind worn by an eastern chieftain—and one given to the son designated to be the heir of his father.  In this case, it would mean that Jacob intended the birthright and the priesthood of the family to go to Joseph, and that he would become the link to the promised redeemer.

— Joseph had a dream/your sheaves bowed down to my sheaf—a dream of position and power relating to the earth and its resources.

 

 

— Shall you have dominion over us—his brothers were enraged at the prospect.

— He dreamed another dream/the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to me—another dream of position and power, this time relating to the heavenly powers and indicating a command over the rulers over the earth.  This puts us in mind of the picture given to us in Revelation 12:1, referring to the nation of Israel…

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.

— His father rebuked him/his brothers envied him/but his father kept the matter in mind—this theme of envy is something that will show up again in the Jews of Jesus’ time…

Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”  For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy. Matthew 27:17-18

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Acts 13:45

But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. Acts 17:5

— Shechem/I will send you to them—Jacob’s sons had taken the flocks to Shechem—the place of the recent great debacle—and, since he hadn’t heard anything from them in a while, he was naturally worried about what might happen to them or what they might do.

— Here I am—although Joseph probably would have preferred to remain in the safety and comfort of his father’s home, he went willingly in order to carry out the will of his father. Here we are shown a prophetic picture of Christ’s obedience to the God the Father…

Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. ​​I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40: 7-8

Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ​​“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.  ​​In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin ​​You had no pleasure.  ​​Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’ ” Hebrews 10:5-7

 — See if it is well with your brothers/bring back word to me—this was the will of Jacob for his son.

— Out of the Valley of Hebron/to Shechem—Joseph leaves the place of fellowship with his father to go to Shechem, the place of such recent death and destruction.  Hebron was in the south and Shechem was about sixty miles north, in the central part of Canaan.

— A certain man/what are you seeking/Dothan—when Joseph arrives in Shechem, he finds that his brothers have moved on to other pastureland.  An unnamed man then directs him to Dothan, about twelve miles north and on the caravan route going to Egypt.  Dothan means “two cisterns,” or two wells—and reminds of God’s complaint to Jeremiah that…

…My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13

— Joseph went after his brothers/they conspired…to kill him—this provides us with another picture of the way the Jews will treat Jesus…

For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath…the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. John 5:16, 18

— But Reuben…delivered him out of their hands—Reuben, as the firstborn, should have taken an authoritative stand in delivering Joseph but because of his sin in sleeping with Bilhah, he may had lost the respect of his brothers and was resorting to a more stealthy means of rescuing Joseph.

— They stripped Joseph of his tunic/they cast him into a pit—a pit in this instance being one of the empty cisterns that Dothan was known for…providing us with another picture of Jesus…

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around Him. And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. Matthew 27:27-28

— They sat down to eat a meal…

And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take. Mark 15:24

— A company of Ishmaelites/Midianites/on their way to Egypt—a close affinity existed between the Ishmaelites and Midianites, probably due to intermarriage between the two groups.  They were traders on their way to Egypt.

— Judah said/let us sell him/twenty shekels of silver—selling Joseph would allow the brothers to get rid of this thorn in their sides without having to kill him and make a small profit in the process.  But, since twenty shekels was the going rate for a slave and with ten brothers involved, this meant that each of them would only get about two shekels a piece.

— Reuben returned to the pit—we don’t know where Reuben was while the trading was going on but when he returned, he was devastated to find that Joseph was no longer in the pit.

— They took Joseph’s tunic/killed a kid of the goats—in much the same way that Jacob had deceived his father by using the skin from a kid of the goats, his sons were now using the blood of a goat to deceive him into thinking that Joseph is dead.

— Jacob mourned for his son for many days—Jacob’s grief over the loss of his son goes on far longer than normal, causing his children to become concerned—and maybe even a little guilty.

 

 

— All his daughters—this is the first mention of Jacob having daughters other than Dinah, however this could be referring to Jacob’s daughters-in-law.

— Potiphar—Potiphar is called an officer and the word for that in Hebrew is saris, meaning eunuch—which might explain why his wife later tries to seduce Joseph.  As a captain of the guard, his duties also included serving as Pharaoh’s executioner.

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In Summary

Let’s consider these…

Questions for discussion—

What Life Lessons can we take away from this introductory episode in Joseph’s life?

There seems to be at least two themes from previous episodes that are recurring here—the first being the seeds of favoritism that were sown into this family two generations earlier that are producing a corrupt crop in this generation. This sin was rooted in Isaac’s preferential treatment of Esau and Rebekah’s favoritism toward Jacob, and it later manifested itself in Jacob’s marriages through his preference for Rachel over Leah.

The second theme is that of deception. Jacob deceived his father into giving him his brother’s blessing, Laban deceived Jacob into marrying Leah instead of Rachel, and now Jacob’s sons are deceiving him about the fate of his favorite son, Joseph.

In Exodus 34:6-7, when He was passing before Moses, the Lord proclaimed that He is…

The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.

His description of Himself here should serve as a warning to us that if a sin is not dealt with or repented of in one generation, it will roll over into the next, reproducing itself to a greater degree until God steps in to cut it off. So much anger, division, and heartache could have been avoided if these sins had been nipped in the bud!

What Spiritual Pictures are presented to us in this part of the story?

Although Joseph is a flawed individual, God chose to use him here as an Old Testament type of Christ. As evidenced in the scripture verses included in our review, there are distinct parallels between the experiences of Joseph and of Jesus. Even Joseph’s brothers provide us with a picture of Jacob’s descendants, the Jews, and their treatment of their “brother,” Jesus.

Are there any new Revelations of God in this episode?

The interesting thing about God here is that He is not mentioned a single time. We know that He is always present and aware of everything that is going on but, for reasons of His own, He is letting this story play out in accordance with the will and decisions of the characters involved. Whatever happens, we know that in the end, He will work everything out for their good and for His glory. (Romans 8:28)

 

 

In our next episode, as Joseph is on his way to Egypt, we will be taking a look at a series of events in the life of Judah, Joseph’s brother—events which, on the surface, seem to be totally out of place within the overall context of the story.  So be sure to come back for our Meanwhile…Back at the Ranch episode!

 

 

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