GENESIS
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Notes on Genesis 37
Jacob is a good man and a man that seeks after God. He inherited the blessings of Abraham and was chosen of God to be the seed in which Christ was to come into the world. In spite of this we see that the faults and weaknesses of Jacob cause much trouble for him. His favoritism of Joseph causes him to be robbed of Joseph for many years. Yet in all this God uses Joseph to save many lives.
Joseph was the one who was sent to see how his brothers were doing and he brought his father a bad report of this brethren. This made his brothers hate him for being a tattle tale.
He plainly shows his favoritism here and this same coat is used to deceive him later on. We reap what we sow so many times.
This type of jealousy could have been avoided but it seems that Jacob did not favor the other sons and was not close to them as he was Joseph and Benjamin.
Perhaps Joseph should have kept quiet about this but he didn't. This dream caused them to hate him even more.
We who know the story of Joseph can see clearly that this will come to pass and Joseph will rule over his brethren but also will save their lives.
Little did Jacob realize this was indeed a prophecy that will soon come to pass but not until he suffers much sorrow thinking his favorite son is dead. This part of Genesis also helps us to understand the vision in the book of Revelation where there is a sign in heaven of a woman.
Some believe the woman in Revelation is a picture of the church but because of this verse in Genesis, we see that the woman represents the nation of Israel.
I don't understand why Jacob would rebuke Joseph for a dream. How can we help what we dream? Even though he rebuked Joseph for this dream, he probably thought on this and wondered what it meant and whether it was just a dream or a prophecy from the Lord. The Lord spoke to people in dreams many times. This was the day before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit recorded in the book of Acts. Now, those of us who believe in Jesus Christ can be filled with the Holy Spirit and God speaks to us by that same spirit. We also have the written word so that God can speak to us in that way. Yet, in fulfillment of the prophesies in Joel, we know God occasionally still speaks through prophetic dreams. We have a responsibility though to never put the dreams and interpretations ahead of the written word of God that has been given to us. If it is by the Holy Spirit and if it is from God, it will not contradict His written word. After Christ came nothing from God will take away from the deity of Jesus Christ and the message of salvation through Jesus. There is no other prophet or messenger that we trust in for our salvation. All prophets, preachers, teachers etc. that come after Christ is equal to any ordinary believer and is not to be exalted above others. We do need leaders but a true leader will realize that he is a man totally dependent and reliable on God. He actually is a servant rather than an exalted ruler. This practice of making men bishops after passing tests and serving for years actually makes me wonder whether it is right or not. Usually the most highly educated ones are made bishops. Something is wrong here. Why do we feel we have to do these things when we all should be equal before God. That was the whole purpose of the washing of the disciples feet in recorded in the book of John. Some churches have made this a yearly ritual which is fine but it is of no value if we forget the reason behind the feet washing. If any man is chief among you, let him be his servant. By love serve one another. Hierarchy is not a practice the church needs to be engaged in. Leadership is for the purpose of keeping order and safe guarding the flock from false teachers and predators. It is never to become lords over them to run their private lives. Also leadership is needed to govern the believer's meetings so that the word of God can go forth without disruptions and false teaching.
This is the place where Jacob commanded his family to give up all idolatry.
Perhaps Jacob found that he couldn't trust his other sons like he did Joseph. He other sons were more likely to get into trouble.
Seeing Joseph out of the safety of his father's care was the only chance they had to get rid of Joseph. I guess they wanted to make sure his dreams did not come true.
Rueben the oldest, had compassion and wanted to secretly deliver Joseph back to his father. This was commendable. He had a little of Jacob in him because he was smart enough to know he couldn't just oppose what they intended to do for he was outnumbered so he had to pretend to go along with them in order to get Joseph back to safety.
Reuben had to pretend to go along with this temporarily.
Judah didn't want to actually kill his brother but thought of this idea to save his life.
This satisfied the cruel intent of the other brothers and they thought surely no dream could come to pass if Joseph was made a slave. Little did they realize they were doing the very thing that would make the fulfillment of his dream come to pass.
Jesus was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver and Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites were children of Ishmael the son of Abraham and Hagar. It is strange that Abraham went to Egypt to escape a famine thereby bring Hagar away with them back to Canaan and this Hagar had a son whose descendants brought Joseph into Egypt and later the other brothers to escape famine. I wonder sometimes if Abraham had not have gone into Egypt would all these things have been avoided.
Reuben being the oldest really felt responsible. Perhaps he left hoping they also would leave and he could then rescue Joseph. Perhaps the others didn't leave because they suspected that Reuben would do just that and then perhaps they wanted to stay and hear the cries of Joseph.
I wonder how the other brothers felt knowing they deceived his father like this. Here is another incidence where Jacob's earlier deception came back to haunt him. He kids inherited this tendency to deceive. The law of reaping and sowing is still in effect today. We get what we give. The blood of Jesus will cancel out our sins and cause our souls to be saved. We will inherit eternal life by our faith in Christ. However, our actions in this life will effect how we are treated even though our sins are forgiven by God, our children may have already been influenced by the life we lived before we came to Christ and our mistakes we make after coming to Christ. We still may reap what we sow in this life unless we really make a complete change and turn around to be obedient in thought, word and deeds by the help of the Holy Spirit.
This is one of the most heartbreaking stories of the bible.
Even though things look bad for Joseph at the present time, It would be better to experience the fate of Joseph than to be one of the brothers that surely would be suffering guilt over these deeds. They were free physically but in bondage to guilt and the fear of Jacob finding out what they had done. Sin does bring pleasure temporarily but in the end is death. It is just not worth it. Joseph made them uncomfortable and they just wanted to cut him off, seeking only their own comfort. Look at the price they would pay for this. They had to live for years with this deed.
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