Genesis

Genesis 37: God keeps Joseph alive

Begin in prayer

Before we read how Joseph's brothers hate and betray him, let us come to the God who sees hidden sin and rules over human plans. Please ask Him to show us Christ and lead us from envy and deceit into repentance and faith.

The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming.

Psalm 37:12-13

Father, please help us understand Your purpose and the guilt of hatred and deceit. Show us Jesus, who willingly gave His life to save sinners. Make us more like Him, truthful in our words and loving toward those we resent. Please bless our family with repentance, faith and confidence in Your faithful care. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Joseph is seventeen, brings a bad report and receives his father's special love and coat, while his brothers hate him. His dreams of sheaves and heavenly lights bowing to him increase their hatred and envy, while Jacob rebukes him yet remembers his words. Sent to check his brothers' welfare, Joseph follows an unnamed man's directions from Shechem to Dothan. The brothers plan to kill him, yet Reuben proposes a pit so he can later restore Joseph to Jacob. Judah proposes a sale, Joseph is sold for twenty pieces of silver and taken to Egypt, and Reuben returns to find the pit empty. The brothers send a bloodied coat with a false claim, and Jacob believes Joseph is dead and refuses comfort. Joseph is sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

As you read Genesis 37, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God keeps Joseph alive through his brothers' hatred and sends him ahead to serve His saving purpose.

Joseph brings his father a bad report, and Jacob's special love and gift of a coat make the brothers' hatred visible in their speech. Two dreams show others bowing to Joseph, increasing his brothers' hatred and envy while Jacob rebukes him yet keeps the saying in mind. Sent to learn his brothers' welfare, Joseph reaches Dothan after an unnamed man tells him where they have gone. The brothers plan murder and a false story, yet Reuben urges them to leave Joseph in a pit, intending to restore him to Jacob. They strip his coat and throw him into the empty pit, then sit down to eat as traders approach on their way to Egypt. Judah proposes selling their brother, and Joseph is sold for twenty pieces of silver while Reuben's plan to return him fails. The bloodied coat deceives Jacob into believing his son is dead, and the men who know otherwise leave their father mourning. Joseph is alive in Egypt, where Potiphar buys him, and Stephen later explains that God was with him (Acts 7 verse 9). God works through this guilty betrayal toward His purpose of preserving lives, without excusing the hatred that exposes our need for Christ.

How does Genesis 37 show us that God keeps Joseph alive through his brothers' hatred and sends him ahead to serve His saving purpose?

God's purpose stands while the brothers grow in hatred and envy.

Jacob's special love and coat stir the brothers' hatred, and Joseph's dreams of bowing provoke still more hatred and envy. The brothers challenge the rule shown in the dreams, yet their hostility cannot cancel God's purpose. Jacob rebukes Joseph, yet he keeps the saying in mind (verse 11).

God keeps Joseph alive when the brothers plan his death.

Reuben proposes the pit in order to rescue Joseph later, while Judah persuades the brothers to sell him. Their words preserve his life, yet the sale still treats a brother made in God's image as property. God's rule restrains their plan to kill without making their hatred or sale good. Jesus was handed over through guilty hands under God's saving plan, then raised to life (Acts 2 verses 23 and 24).

God sees the deceit that leaves Jacob grieving.

The brothers dip Joseph's coat in a goat's blood and claim to have found it, leaving Jacob to conclude he has died. They try to comfort him while withholding the truth that his son is alive. Deceit includes arranging what someone sees so that a false conclusion stands, and God sees the guilt silence cannot remove. Christ bore His people's guilt and gives forgiveness to everyone who repents and trusts Him, freeing them to tell the truth.

God carries His saving purpose forward with Joseph alive in Egypt.

Jacob refuses comfort, yet Joseph remains alive and is sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Stephen later tells us that God was with Joseph and delivered him, so the sale did not put him beyond God's care. The saving purpose unfolds through the hardship that will eventually bring Jacob's family to Egypt.

Memorise

Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.”

Genesis 37:21

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what envy or deceit do I need Jesus to forgive and change in me?

Reuben says, “Let’s not take his life.” Joseph lives, though his brothers sell him and leave their father grieving over a bloodied coat. The chapter ends with him in Egypt, beyond Jacob's knowledge and under another man's authority. Stephen later tells us that God was with him through these troubles (Acts 7 verses 9 and 10).

Jesus too was handed over by people whose guilt remained their own, while God accomplished His saving plan (Acts 2 verses 23 and 24). The sinless Son willingly bore His people's judgment in their place on the cross, paying their debt before God. Death could not hold Him, and He rose in victory. His finished work is enough to forgive every sinner who trusts Him and bring them into lasting peace with God.

Please turn from hatred, envy and the lies you keep standing, and trust Jesus Christ. Everyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith receives forgiveness. If you belong to Him, tell the truth you have withheld and speak with care to the person you resent. You can entrust what others have done to you to the God whose purpose will never fail.

Parent's note

Tell your children that hatred grows into a plot, a sale and deceit, explaining verses 18 to 35 without graphic detail. Jesus bore His people's guilt under God's saving plan and rose, so call each child to repent and trust Him for forgiveness. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Pray that God would give them new hearts that love Christ, reject envy and tell the truth.

Pray together

Please bring God the envy or deceit named in the heart question and ask for forgiveness through Jesus. Thank Him that His purpose is greater than guilty human plans. Invite each child to pray if they want to, asking for truthful words or help to love someone they resent.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Father, thank You for preserving Joseph and for the salvation You accomplished through Jesus. Please forgive our hatred, envy and deceit, and lead us to repent and trust Christ. Help us tell the truth, love those we resent and care for those who suffer. Teach our family to rest in Your faithful purpose. Amen.