Joseph Seeking His Brethren
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
It is difficult for us to understand why Joseph's brethren should have hated him. Joseph was but a youth of quiet mien and true integrity. His deeds were righteous and his life was clean. His being hated of his brethren only cast shame upon them.
As we run our eyes down through the opening verses of Genesis 37:1-36, we discover that in each instance the hatred of Joseph's brethren is in full accord with the hatred of Christ's brethren.
Let us consider, then, step by step, the Scriptural reasons for the malice that was so deep-rooted against Joseph. As we consider these, we will compare them, in each case, to the Savior and those who despised and rejected Him.
1. Joseph was hated because his father loved him. This special love of Jacob for Joseph was visible to all. The coat of many colors, which the fond father gave his son, was proof sufficient.
The scribes and the Pharisees and the rulers of Israel well knew that Jesus Christ was beloved of the Father. They had heard of the voice from Heaven which had spoken at the baptismal waters. They knew about the star which had guided the wise men, and the message of the angels to the shepherds. All of this made them hate Christ. They wanted no one to hold the place of favoritism above themselves. They had long considered themselves as the elect of God, and they were unwilling to yield their place of superiority and power.
2. Joseph was hated because Joseph reported their evil deeds unto his father. Some may think that Joseph was a talebearer and that he made himself a spy against his brethren. This is altogether unjust. Was Jesus Christ a spy? and a talebearer? Yet, Jesus Christ took the robe of hypocrisy from off the scribes and the Pharisees and laid bare their evil deeds. The Lord Jesus testified of His generation, that their works were evil. He showed the hypocrisy that lay beneath the fair words of the religious hypocrites who ruled in the synagogues. He described them as wolves in sheep's clothing. He told them that they robbed widows' houses, and then for a pretense offered long prayers. He told them that they did their works to be seen of men, that they were blind guides and fools. Against the scribes and Pharisees Christ denounced His woes. He likened them unto whitened sepulchers, which indeed appeared beautiful outwardly, but within were full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. He called them a generation of vipers who could not escape the damnation of hell.
3. Joseph was hated because his own righteousness contrasted the villainy of his brethren. Never did the sins of the Pharisees stand forth in stronger light than when Jesus Christ moved among them as the Holy One of God. The people readily saw the sins of the one, as they were contrasted with the righteousness of the other. Jesus Christ was so different from the scribes. They lived for themselves, He lived for others. They went about laying heavy burdens upon men's shoulders; He cried, "Come unto Me * * and I will give you rest."
4. Joseph was hated because of his marvelous words. Jesus Christ was hated also because He spake as no man ever spake. His words of revelation concerning the Father, concerning all the good things that the Father had prepared for His saints, were so far above and beyond the messages of the scribes that they only hated Him the more.
We may sum this all up with one word first, concerning Joseph: "And his brethren envied him." The second word is concerning Jesus, "He knew that for envy they had delivered Him."
I. JOSEPH SENT TO HIS BRETHREN (Genesis 37:13)
1. The analogy between Joseph sent of Jacob, and God sending His Son into the world is so simple and so striking that it hardly needs emphasis.
The key verse reads: "And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I."
Jesus Christ continually spoke of being sent forth, from the Father, and of having come down from the Father. Only once indeed, did He speak of His own birth, and then He said, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world."
In all of this we see, first of all, the Christ of God as one with the Father in the eternity past; then we see, also, how Jesus Christ was sent forth by the Father. He did not come to earth as an adventurer. He came forth on a mission, Divinely planned and Divinely ordered.
2. When Jacob said, "I will send thee," Joseph replied, "Here am I." We can almost catch in this, the voice of the eternal Son as He said to the Father those same matchless words.
We must remember, that not alone in Heaven, before Christ came to earth, was He the willing servant of the Father, but that upon earth He went forth obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.
There was no resistance with Joseph against his father's command, although Joseph full well knew the tyranny of his brethren, and how they had ofttimes evilly entreated him.
Jesus Christ also knew that He would be despised and rejected of men and yet He went as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before His shearers, dumb, He opened not His mouth.
II. JOSEPH SENT TO SHECHEM (Genesis 37:13)
1. There is one word in the Genesis 37:13 which stands before us in illuminating power, that is the word "Shechem."
We have no doubt that Jacob had fears as to the safety of his sons at Shechem. The memory of his own sojourn there and the bitter experiences which befell him had not faded from mind.
Shechem stands at once for sin and sin's tragedy. It was to Shechem that Joseph was sent.
It was to a world sunken in iniquity and covered with shame that God sent Jesus Christ.
When we think of our Lord wrapped in swaddling clothes, we think of how He was circumscribed by being found in fashion as a man. When we think of Him as lying in a manger mid the cattle and the plunder, we consider Him as mixing and mingling with the publicans and the sinners and the outcasts of earth,
Jesus Christ did, indeed, come down, to seek and to save that which was lost. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to a land in which He would find Himself an alien, rejected and despised of men.
2. The meaning of the word Shechem is "Shoulder." This was because the city was situated on the shoulder of a hill from whence the waters made their way either to the Mediterranean, or to the Valley of the Jordan. The word itself is suggestive of servitude the servant bends his shoulders to his burden. It was this which Jesus Christ did. He came in fashion as a man and being found in form as a servant He humbled Himself. He was among men as one who served. He went about doing good, healing the sick, raising the dead. It seems to us that upon His shoulders the burdens of the whole world rested. Finally, He laid bare His shoulders and bore His Cross bore the Cross upon which He was to die, that He might bear the sins of the world.
III. JOSEPH SENT FROM THE VALE OF HEBRON (Genesis 37:14)
1. "So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron." The word "Hebron" means, "Fellowship" or "communion." Hebron therefore makes us think, first of all, of Joseph's comradeship with his father. His father, Jacob, loved him and gave him every consideration.
Beyond Joseph and his happy home we pass on to our Lord and His Heavenly Home. Christ once spoke of the glory He had with the Father before the world was. In Heaven there was unbroken joy and fellowship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Even on earth that fellowship was maintained in a most gracious way, save when, on the Cross, the Lord passed alone around the cycle of His suffering.
It is also the privilege of saints, even now, to dwell in their Hebron, for Christ said, "We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." There is no comradeship which can be compared to that which we have with the Father, and with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The VALE of Hebron gives an added significance. A vale is a place of quietness and perfect peace. It is the place where the fruit trees grow and where the shade of the forests gives rest and repose.
As we turn our faces toward the Eternal City we can but think of its river, with the trees growing on either side of its crystal waters. We do not wonder that songs of the Heavenly state are often centered in the rest that awaits the sons of God.
Even now He makes me lie down in green pastures and beside the waters of quietness; but what will it be over there in the eternal vales of God?
Thank God for the perfection of peace that shall be ours when we are with Him in Glory. It was from that "vale of Hebron," thus symbolic, that Joseph went down to Shechem; and it was from Heaven's vale that Christ came down to a world of sin. and woe.
IV. JOSEPH WANDERING IN THE FIELD (Genesis 37:15)
"And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field." As Joseph came to the land of Shechem he came to a strange land, and he wandered about seeking his brethren.
1. The field suggests the world. We remember the parable of the Sower, wherein Christ said, "The field is the world." Joseph in the field makes us consider Christ in the world. "He was in the world, * * and the world knew Him not." "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
2. Joseph, wandering, suggests the Savior homeless and friendless among men. We read that the foxes had their holes and the birds of the air their nests, but that the Son of Man had nowhere His head to recline. When He was born there was no home in which to lay Him; when "He died there was no grave of His own, in which to lay His body.
We should not pass by this thought without suggesting that we, too, are strangers and pilgrims in this world. We have no abiding city. We are wanderers among men.
3. Another thought that comes to us: Joseph, wandering in the field, speaks of Christ going hither and thither, from town to town, and village to village, seeking for that which was lost. On one occasion the Master said, "Let us go into the next towns * * also: for therefore came I forth."
The Church, also, should go out through the lanes of the city, on through the byways and hedges, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth. Paul said, "Having hope, when your faith is increased, that we should be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you."
God grant that we may ever keep in mind, that, as Jacob sent Joseph, so also the Father sent the Son; and as the Father sent the Son, so also the Lord has sent us. All are "wanderers in the field."
V. JOSEPH WENT AFTER HIS BRETHREN (Genesis 37:16-17)
Step by step we are finding in Joseph the unmistakable outline of Christ and His coming forth from the Father to the earth.
1. Christ came primarily to His own people, Israel. We read from Joseph's lips these striking words: "I seek my brethren." Our Lord said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel." His quest on earth was preeminently a search for His own.
It was not until after Christ was risen that He gave the commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." It was not until the veil of the Temple was rent at the time of Christ's death, that the middle wall of partition was broken down and the Gentiles became fellow heirs and members of the one body.
2. Christ came to His own people and sought until He found them. Joseph came to Shechem and found his brethren had gone to Dothan. Then, Joseph went from Shechem to Dothan and there he found them.
The Lord gave a parable of a man who had an hundred sheep, and one of them was lost. Thus the shepherd left the ninety and nine in the wilderness and went out after that which was lost until he found it. In this parable the Lord Jesus was showing the faithfulness of His own heart in seeking Israel.
The journey from Heaven to earth was a long one, but it was not too long for the Master's love. The journey from the cradle to the Cross was also long. As the Lord of life passed along this way, the days grew on toward the eventide. The darkness deepened and the threatening clouds hung over His head. Yet, the Master pressed on His way, all forespent. Up Calvary's rough and rugged road He trod until He reached the hill that was lone and gray. It was there, in truth, that He found His own. It is from there that He made possible the future restoration of His people. He shall yet bring them Home with rejoicing.
VI. JOSEPH'S RECEPTION BY HIS BRETHREN (Genesis 37:18)
The Scripture says, "And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him."
1. There was an utter contempt toward Joseph's spirit of love and sympathy. Joseph had come from his father unto his brethren. He had come with messages of love from the father. He had come because the father's heart yearned after his sons. Yet, his brethren rose up against him and conspired to slay him.
The Lord Jesus Christ came forth from the Father. He came because of the Father's concern for His chosen people. He came with messages of love, and with gifts of unspeakable worth, and yet His brethren, the Jews, conspired also against Him to slay Him.
There is a Scripture in Isaiah 53:1-12 which shows the travesty of this whole scene: "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Jesus Christ came to relieve the oppressed, and yet He was Himself, oppressed. He came to save men from the power of Satan and from the slaughter of sin, and yet they led Him as a Lamb to be crucified. He came to cut off from His people the tyranny of Rome, and yet He, Himself, was cut off from the land of the living.
2. The attitude of Joseph's brethren toward Joseph is still the attitude of the world toward Christ. Jesus Christ at this moment is being set at nought by men. There is no more room for Him now, than there was when He came of yore. His own people Israel still receive Him not, neither will the Gentiles have Him to rule over them. In all of this we stand amazed. What is there which Christ has done that He should be so maligned and so trodden underfoot? Surely, His own people Israel, and surely the world in their treatment of Christ, have manifested the spirit of the viper which stings the hand which reaches forth to feed it.
VII. THE CHARGE AGAINST JOSEPH (Genesis 37:19)
Let us quote the words which Joseph's brethren used as their excuse for seeking to slay him. They said, "Behold, this dreamer cometh."
1. In this charge against Joseph there was nothing worthy of death. It was no sin to have dreamed dreams, particularly, when those dreams were Divinely ordered, and Divinely true.
Against the Lord Jesus Christ there was nothing found worthy of death. The Lord looked His haters in the face and said, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?"
After Pilate had heard all of the accusations which they brought against Christ, he said, "I find no fault in this Man." The populace went so far as to suborn witnesses. These they paid to fabricate lies against the Lord.
2. In. this charge against Joseph there was a distinct rebellion against Joseph because of his superiority. His brothers knew that Joseph's dream set forth the truth that Joseph was in every way their superior, but particularly, he was a superior in righteousness.
Those who sought to slay the Christ set their faces against Him, not because of any sin which they had found in Him, but because He was the Son of God.
3. In this charge against Joseph there was an attempt to bring to nought the purport of Joseph's dream. This is plainly set forth in the next verse, when his brothers said, "Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams."
When the Jews set themselves against Christ as He hung upon the Cross, they wagged their heads against Him and reviled Him. Tauntingly they said, "Let Him (God) deliver Him now, if He will have Him." "Let Him now come down from the Cross, and we will believe on Him." They were determined by killing Christ to utterly spoil every claim He had ever made to Deity.
AN ILLUSTRATION
STORY OF THE KNIGHT
Joseph seemed to count his sufferings as "all joy."
"'Thuanus repenteth of Ludovicus Marsacus, a knight of France, when he was led, with other martyrs that were bound with cords, to execution, and he for his dignity was not bound, he cried, "Give me my chains, too; let me be a knight of the same order.'"
Certainly, it is an honor to be made vile for God; David purposed to abound in such vileness (2 Samuel 6:22). Shame for Christ's sake is an honor no more to be declined than the highest dignity a mortal man can wear. Among the early Christians the relatives of martyrs were a sort of aristocracy, and the martyrs themselves were regarded as the nobility of the Church. We need a spice of the same spirit at this day. A true believer should tremble when the world commends him. but he should feel complimented when it utterly despises him.
What do we suffer, after all? The most of us are but feather-bed soldiers. Our ways are strewn with roses compared with those who endured hardness in the olden time. We are poor and mean successors of noble ancestors ennobled by their supreme sufferings. If we cannot reach their superior dignity, nor hope to wear the ruby crown of martyrdom, at least let us not shun such glory as may be obtainable, but accent with cheerful patience whatever of opprobrium this worthless world may honor us with.