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Genesis 37:1-36 - Brotherly Hate - Part 4
Last week we ended the text with an incredible picture of the Gospel. We now pick it up in vs. 18...
Vs. 18-28 - “ 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.”
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.
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.
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.
We’re able to see that the idea is: here’s Joseph, and he’s going to his brothers and his brothers are rejecting him, even as Christ was rejected when He came unto His own (Luke 4:24).
This narrative is spectacular! Notice vs. 23, they “stripped” Joseph of his tunic, even as they stripped Christ before they put the crown of thorns upon His head (Matt. 27:28-29).
Who’s idea was it to sell Joseph? Vs. 27, It was Judah’s idea! And what did he sell him for? 20 shekels of silver! Sound familiar? (Matt. 26:15). Who sold out Christ? We know it was Judas. Now “Judas” is the Anglecan form of the Greek equivalent for Judah. And what did he sell him for? 30 shekels of silver. And so Judas is the N.T. name for Judah and here Judah is selling Joseph for 20 shekels of silver even as Judas will one day sell Christ for shekels of silver. Are ya catching this?
And we’re not done yet! Notice Ruben gets into the act here. I had ya mark the end of vs. 22, he wants to circle back later and rescue Joseph. So who is Ruben a type of in this Gospel picture? PILOT! Vs. 21 - “Let us not take his life.” Vs. 22 - “Shed no blood,” even as Pilot had no desire at all to see Christ die. If Pilot had his way he would have chosen to release Barabbas. It was the passover custom that Rome would release one prisoner to the Jews each passover and the Jews were screaming out to Pilot to crucify Christ.
And what was the charge? The charge was “Treason.” They wanted to crucify Him for being what? “King Of The Jews.” Back up to vs. 8. What did Joseph’s brothers say? “Oh, you wanna be KING over us, right? You wanna rule over us...” The parallels here are just stunning!
It’s all about Jesus Christ! The entire revelation of God from cover to cover is pointing to, lifting up, elevating, teaching the person and works of Jesus Christ! (HEB. 10:5,7). Just over and over, the shocking, staggering symmetry of the Scriptures blows me away! How, that God wired these books that were written thousands of years apart, inspired through independant authorship by the H.S. in such systematic perfection! There are no words to describe the equilateral divinity of the Scriptures. This stuff just shuts the door on any doubt as to the divine authorship of the Word of God!
Notice here also that as soon as these guys threw him in the pit in vs. 25, they just proceed to sit down and enjoy a meal! Now one of the pretty good signs that a person is a sociopath is that they commit some crime and just turn around and get back into the groove of everyday living. These guys throw their brother into this pit that he can’t get out of and they turn around and order food.
And again, what did the Jews do concerning Christ? “Let’s hurry up and kill this guy so we can keep the passover feast. Let’s hurry up and kill Him so we can eat unleavened bread.” (Matt. 26:1-5; John 18:28). Stunning! And it's gonna just continue as we move through the rest of Genesis!
It’s interesting that there is nothing recorded here concerning Joseph’s reaction to this. This had to be a heck of an ordeal, yet the H.S. has seen fit to exclude any reaction, any complaining and grumbling on the part of Joseph. Interesting and consistent with His typology of Jesus Christ. But there’s no doubt that he’s just crying out, and maybe that cry is getting fainter and fainter.
Join us next week for the conclusion to this awesome chapter.
Blessings to you all.
Last Update: Aug 16, 2021 7:33 am CDT
