Good Morning and welcome back to this series on the life of Joseph. This morning’s scripture is a crucial part of Joseph’s story and is one that I think can speak volumes to each of us as well. This morning comes the very verses following last week’s scripture where Joseph has shared his dreams with his brothers. Tension in the text is building, the favoritism Joseph is enjoying is becoming more palpable and then we jump into verse 12. If you’ve got your Bible with you feel free to read along. Starting in verse 12. 

12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.”14 So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” 16 “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” 17 And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

Context

• Joseph’s family is herders/agricultural. 

 Setting: Canaan

• In the fields where the brothers were tending to the sheep
• This was an important role for their family, they were a bit nomadic. 
• Joseph is NOT in the fields but is with his father. He is 17 years old, plenty old enough to be in the fields with his brothers. Not being in the fields was likely due to his father’s favor. This is further confirmed by Jacob sending Joseph to check on the brothers and report back to him. Further favoritism has him in a position higher and more lax than his brothers. 
• Joseph agrees to go check on the brothers. This paired with his sharing of his dreams to his brothers may indicate either an extreme naivety or more likely an embracing of his own favoritism
• Joseph happily agrees to go check up on his brothers. 
• Think about kids, if you’ve got kids that are potentially up to no good, how happy, almost gleeful, is your younger one to go check on them and potentially catch them misbehaving.
• Joseph sets out with to find his brothers happy to report back on them to their father

• As Joseph does, he gets to the field he thinks they are in and finds out they are not. 
• He runs into some guy there and gets redirected to a field near Dothan and heads there.

18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.[a] Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 

• V18-20 The brothers see him in the distance and plot to KILL him.  

• This is a jarring and shocking statement, don’t gloss over this.
• Sin is a real problem in the heart before it takes action
• Sin starts as a heart problem before it becomes an outward act problem. Sometimes we think being christians is all about how outwardly it shows but being a christian isn’t simply about acting correctly, but about being changed internally by Christ’s sacrifice so that it can’t help but overflow into our outward actions. Sin is a heart problem first and foremost and the gospel message isn’t simply about living a better life but about heart change and heart posture first and foremost. 
• Jealousy and hatred fester like a bad wound unaddressed. 
• They mock him
• “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.[a] Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 
• They Mock God’s plans
• The dreams were foretelling of God’s plan for Joseph’s life. They weren’t his aspirations and goals. He was already “living his best life”
• Joseph, at this point in his story arc, is not some great respectable person, he has likely been rubbing it in and exacerbating the jealousy of him every chance he gets. He is enjoying the favor of his father, he is volunteering to be out in the field with them. He shared his dreams with the brothers, likely fully knowing that it would antagonize them. 

21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

25 Then they sat down to eat.

They are so aggravated by the favoritism, and clearly here also by the dreams that Joseph shared with them, God’s plan for their lives, that they not only plotted to kill him as they saw him coming, they are about to start to carry out the act only for Reuben to interject, hoping to buy time as he evidently feels some sort of regret.They so they strip him of the robe which is a clear sign of the very favoritism that has festered such jealousy and hatred in their hearts. And they stop in the middle of the act of murder to eat. 

They stopped in the act of murder to eat. This may seem like an odd thing to do but I think it speaks volumes about their disposition. They were so calm and comfortable with what they were doing they could stop themselves in the middle of it to sit down and eat a meal. Now keep in mind there are 10 or 11 adult men beating up this 17 year old boy. They are not incapable of killing him. It’s not what anyone would remotely consider a “fair” fight - if such a thing exists. I say that to say, that they weren’t just going to attempt to murder him, they would have absolutely succeeeded. Instead they throw him. Throw him into the pit. And this pit wasn’t shallow. He couldn’t climb out of it. So I can’t imagine that Joseph is in good shape as he sits there alone. In the pit where he is alone, probably whimpering crying out for help.  And he wonders how he has gotten to this point. 

Some of you have been thrown into the pit. Some of you have been kicked and bruised and battered by the very people that are supposed to love you and have been thrown into the pit. But here’s the thing. God’s plan for Joseph’s life isn’t stopped because of the actions of his brothers. It doesn’t end with Joseph in the pit. The plan God has for Joseph’s life is so much greater and bigger than anything Joseph could ever imagine and nothing anyone does can stop it, not his brothers, not Midians he’s sold to and not the Egyptians that buy him as a slave. But I’d be willing to bet that while Joseph is in the pit, bruised and battered, he didn’t have much faith in his dreams anymore. I bet he didn’t have much faith that the messages he’s received from God would come true. I bet he was giving up on all of that too. 

There are plenty of people who give up on faith in Jesus and God’s plans for their lives because of something a christian or a loved one has done. But folks God is faithful. Even here, we know the end of the story of Joseph’s life and God’s plan and God can even use the sinful actions of Joseph’s brothers for his good. 

Romans 8:28 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. 

25 cont. …And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.

So the brothers in the middle of eating sit down to eat a meal with whimpering Joseph in the pit. And they see these midian traders come by and one of them suggests, hey killing him would be a lot of work, we would have to bury his body and then we don’t get anything out of it either. What if we just sell him to these traders as a slave. You know then we at least get something out of this. So they do. They lower a rope into the pit for Joseph to grab onto. And they are pulling him out of the pit. Joseph is probably thinking ok finally they are going to show me some mercy. I am going to stop rubbing this favoritism in their face, I’m going to be such a better brother. Thank you guys so much for pulling me out of the pit. And then they hand him over to the Midians to never see him again - or at least so they think. Their problems with him are almost gone. They just have the matter of what to tell their father. 

29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” 31 Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.” 33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” 34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.

Evidently when they threw Joseph into the pit Reuben then went somewhere while they ate. He returns and is furious that his brothers have sold Joseph. They then decide to take his leftover robe and convince Jacob, their father, that Joseph has been killed by an animal. Which they KNOW will break his heart but likely is better, in their minds, than the truth. They were completely fine not only with the idea of murdering their brother but also with breaking their elderly father’s heart. 

Jealousy and hatred born out of Jacob’s favoritism are horrendous and sinful. They were the emotions that produced such horrific behavior. Not only can we learn in this scripture about Joseph who has things perpetrated against him and yet God’s plan prevails, but we can see that jealousy and hatred should have no place in our hearts. Some of us like to use the term “righteous anger” don’t get angry and sin but righteous anger, well that’s ok because at least it is right. Folks I’m not sure this is even possible for us. You can point to Jesus flipping tables in the tabernacle and say, look Jesus had righteous anger. Ya, but last I checked none of us are Jesus. And in fact I think our ability to not sin while angry is quite poor. Jealousy, hatred, and anger have no place in the heart of a follower of Christ. First of all we aren’t here on this earth to be the judges and prosecutors of all sinners. And Thank God we aren’t because that isn’t a job I think any of us could do well. Our job is to preach the message of Jesus, bring people to Him and let the judge be the one that judges. Let the restorer restore. I think sometimes we get caught up in some of our instructions in the great commission. We are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything he commanded. Our job is to teach and preach the truth, and point people to Jesus. To walk alongside people and love them and to point them to the truth of His word. We don’t judge people when they fall short because we all do. 

Anger, hatred, jealousy, judgment, none of them produce grace. And while God is Just and will judge the unrepentant. We ought to leave that to him and love all people as we were called to do. Don’t be the brothers in this story. Don’t let jealousy or anger or hatred take root in your heart. Turn from the temptations of sin and instead follow God because no matter what your circumstance is, whether you’re in the pit or whether you threw someone into the pit, God is faithful and there is hope and redemption for all through faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for all sins so long as we repent of our sins and place our trust and hope in Him. Amen.