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Joseph is Sold Into Slavery

Genesis 37: 12-36

(Part 2 of 3))

At the beginning of our time together in Genesis chapter 37 I asked if we had ever been the object of jealousy? I suppose everybody goes through that to some degree. Sometimes we must go through periods of animosity towards us by other people maybe in a work or in social environments. Maybe we should not be surprised that this should happen, especially if we are Christians, because Jesus said that if they hated him, they would very likely us also. The consequences of such hostility can be devastating, but it is a scenario that is present in the Bible right here in the earliest stories like this one here in Genesis chapter 37.

As we go through the story of Genesis as recorded in this chapter, this is what you need to know, so far. These first 11 versus are telling us that Joseph was hated. That’s the point of this introductory passage, and it goes downhill from there. Let’s pick it up at verse 12.

“Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied. So, he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron”.

(Genesis 37: 12-14)

Now Shechem is a little town in the north of Israel. Shechem is to the north. In this case it seems his sons to take the flock and go wandering around to find a good pasture towards the southern part of Israel. The far South of Israel is generally more barren than the North, so they are moving toward more the central part, where hopefully there was fertile fields for the sheep and goats to graze. So, the father simply says they're out there somewhere towards Shechem, you know, 50-60 miles up the road. Go, go see what’s happening, go see how the brothers are doing, go see how the flock is doing and bring me back report. So that’s the commission that Israel gives Joseph, and he takes off in that direction.

“A man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, ‘What are you looking for?’  He replied, ‘I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?’ ‘They have moved on from here,’ the man answered. ‘I heard them say, “Let’s go to Dothan.”’ So, Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

(Genesis 37: 15-17)

So, he heads out and he finds a man who says they’ve already moved again. That part of the story is not unusual, when the sheep eat all the grass or that field it would no longer be a fruitful for the sheep to graze and they would then move on. So, they moved on towards Dothan, so how far is that? I read and checked a selection of different commentaries and they all said different things, but we can defiantly say it was somewhere between 12 and 24 miles down the road. So, he’s now travelled of total of between, 70-80 miles away from home, and the text tells us he eventually arrives at Dothan and finds them there.  Let's pick it up at verse 18. 

“But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him”.‘Here comes that dreamer!’ they said to each other. ‘Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.’

(Genesis 37: 18-20)

You know, we got him now, 70 to 80 miles away from home and the brother think, “now’s our chance, we hate this guy, and now we can eliminate him once and for all, let’s kill him and throw him into a pit and say some wild animal killed and ate him”. 

“When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. ‘Let’s not take his life,’ he said. ‘Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.’ Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father”.

(Genesis 37: 21-22)

But Ruben heard it and said wait a minute, guys. don’t kill him, you’ll have blood on your hand just throw him into the pit and leave him there. Rubin is trying to save his brother; the text confirms this when it tells us in verse 22 that he planned to rescue him later and bring him back to their father. Rubin had every intention of going back and rescuing him and taking him back to his father so that all these brothers are involved   but in different ways now.

“So, when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe – the ornate robe he was wearing – and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, ‘What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.’ His brothers agreed.

(Genesis 37: 23-27)

Judah’s got their attention now, wait a minute, we can make some money off this, he thinks. We can sell him and pocket the money. They like that, and they all agree to it

“So, when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt”.

(Genesis 37: 28)

They sell him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver and they take Joseph of to Egypt. So, they didn’t kill him in the end, but he is a slave now. Put yourself in Joseph’s place for just a minute. What did he do? There’s no indication he did anything wrong. He's guilty of doing nothing more than being a bit immature and annoying to his older brothers, and simply obeying his father. He set off to do what his father, told him to do and find them but because of the hatred of his brothers, he gets sold into slavery and this will be only the beginning of his trouble, but right now he’s a slave.

“When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, ‘The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?’

(Genesis 37: 29-30)

Remember, Ruben was the one that persuaded them not to kill and he intended to go back and rescue him. Remember that. So now he goes back and he’s not there and he “tears his clothes”. In the ancient world, when you see in the Bible someone “tear their clothes”, that was a sign of deep grief. He’s grieving that his brother is missing, and he doesn’t have a clue as to what happened to him at this point.  Rubin goes back to his brothers and says, “What shall I do, he’s gone”. What are we going to do?

“Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 3They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, ‘We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.’”

(Genesis 37: 31-32)

Notice carefully, what they say, the ask their father if he knows whether it is your son’s tunic or not?  Talk about shrewd. Remember, the original idea was that that kill him and then say some wild beast wild beast ate him. They didn’t say Joseph got attacked by wild beast and we found his tunic, they didn’t do that, they ask a question, and the question was, do you recognize this?  Well, of course he’s going to recognize it. They didn’t say, is this the tunic of our brother, they said, is this the tunic of your son?  So, everything they say is just an indication of the shrewdness of their plotting and manipulation their intense dislike for Joseph.

“He recognised it and said, ‘It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.' "Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.’ So, his father wept for him”.

(Genesis 37: 33-35)

Jacob recognizes the coat and he jumped to the conclusion, that Joseph has been killed by a wild animal. So, Jacob tears his clothes and puts on sackcloth and mourns for his son many days. I'm sure you heard of the weeping in sackcloth and ashes. The mourners would pour ashes on their head and wear sackcloth. The sackcloth would be rough and uncomfortable against the body, and this was part of the grieving process people went through in biblical times. Verse 35, it says, and all of his sons and all of his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and he said for I’ll go to my grave morning, my son. The story continues.

“Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard”.

(Genesis 37: 36)

Now that last verse is introducing to us what’s going to happen to Joseph in the next chapter. But we’ll get to that next time. Right now, I want to just pause and say what is going on in this chapter. The story is straightforward and plain for all to see. Because of their envy and hatred towards him Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery and deceived their father. That’s sort of the sum of what’s going on in this chapter, but we will take a break and think about what observations I can draw from that, next time.