Joseph – His Potential (Genesis 37:1-11)

Joseph is perhaps the most prominent character in the book of Genesis. Much more is said about him than about most other persons mentioned, including believers like Noah and Isaac. He has a longer section than Abraham. His story overlaps with that of his father Jacob after he returned to Canaan. 

 

Joseph is different too from the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in that he attained to prominence in the world while remaining a faithful believer. It would have been difficult to persuade people that the great-grandson of Abraham the pilgrim would reach such heights. Yet he did, but the way that he did has long been recognised as a wonderful example of divine providence. 

 

His life overall contained so many negative experiences, experiences that seemed so disconnected from one other, yet all of them worked together for good, and not just for him, but also for many others. Yet nothing negative is said about his character.

 

Joseph was the eleventh of Jacob’s children. He was one of the two children born by Rachel, the other being Benjamin. As we know, Rachel died after giving birth to Benjamin. Joseph could have been nine or ten at that time, although it is not really possible to say with any precision because we are not told much about the passing of time during Jacob’s wanderings.

 

Although his birth is mentioned in a previous chapter, the passage we are considering is the introduction to Joseph. In it we see the seeds that will later come into fruition in his life. 

 

The faithful servant of his father

Moses, the author of Genesis, highlights incidents in the life of Joseph. The question that comes to us is this: does Moses highlight them to tell us how bad Joseph is, or does he mention them to show us how righteous Joseph is? The usual response to Joseph informing his father about the bad behaviour of his brothers is to find fault with him. Yet Moses does not indicate that Joseph did anything wrong when he informed his father about the behaviour of the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah.

 

A question is, why was Joseph with the sons of the concubines? Was it because the sons of Leah were away doing something else? Or was it because Jacob wanted to keep an eye on the sons of the concubines? Who can say why he was left with them, but there he was?

 

Another question is, why did Joseph say what his brothers were doing? A simple answer may be that Jacob asked him. Another possibility is that the brothers had left the sheep and gone and done something else. One commentator says that instead of being a talebearer, Joseph was a truth teller.

 

Moses tells us that this incident took place when Joseph was seventeen, which means that his brothers were adults in their twenties, and the expectation we have of adults is much more than we have of children. If an adult and a child break a law, the adult is held more responsible. Those older sons of Jacob deserved to be rebuked for their misbehaviour and it would have been remiss of Joseph not to have reported them to their father.

 

Moreover, the family of Jacob was the visible kingdom of God at that time. While there may have been others who acknowledged the true God, we are not told about them. The family of Jacob was very different from every other family in the country, indeed the world. In them lay the hopes of the future salvation of the world because the Saviour was to come from the line of Jacob. At that time, no one knew which of the brothers would be the next in line and they probably did not know which of them it would be until Jacob gave his detailed blessing in chapter 49. Would one not expect them to live differently from others, given that one of them would be the one from whom the Deliverer would come? Sadly, most of them did not care about spiritual matters as we can see from the various descriptions that are made of them. Yet one of them did, and that was Joseph. He could be relied upon to live in a way that pleased his father, and that also pleased God.

 

The coat of many colours

Moses tells us that Jacob loved Joseph and mentions three features of his love. First, he loved Joseph more than the other brothers; second, his love was connected to the fact that he was the son of his old age; and third, he gave a special coat to Joseph that signalled something about Joseph that caused his brothers to hate him, an attitude that was expressed in their speech. 

 

The first question we have to ask is what is meant here by love. Usually we regard it as meaning affection. But we also know that love can be action and affirmation. For example, when parents leave the family home to the oldest son, does that action mean that they do not love the other children in the family? Or, if the fourth child looks to have more talents than the previous three, is it a sign of a lack of love for the three when the parents provide that talented child with an education that costs more? We know that neither of those actions are expressions of lack of love. So we need to be careful when we jump to the conclusion that Jacob was showing favouritism here. There may have been a reason, a valid reason, why Jacob did what he did. 

 

It is also the case that we should be careful by condemning someone for an action that the Bible does not say was wrong. In this incident, the only ones who are described as acting wrongly are the brothers, and their wrong action rose out of jealousy. They hated Joseph because of an action by his father. Why did they not complain to their father about it? I suspect that they could not complain because they had no grounds to do so. 

 

What is meant by the expression ‘the son of his old age’? It cannot merely refer to Jacob being an old man when Joseph was born because another son, Benjamin, was born after Joseph. Is the meaning connected to Jacob having to wait for Rachel, the wife he really loved, to have a child? He had other sons through Leah and their concubines, but Rachel was special. An evidence that this is the case is to check which of the sons of Jacob received a double portion in the family inheritance. The son that received this portion was not Reuben the oldest or Judah the one who became the ancestor of Jesus. Instead it was Joseph, who received it through each of his sons having a special inheritance. Both Ephraim and Manasseh received their own inheritance because they were the sons of Joseph. He received the double portion.

 

So what is the significance of the coat of many colours? It is not the equivalent of a parent buying a nice suit for a son. Rather it was an indication from Jacob that he regarded Joseph the son of Rachel as his heir, and that was why his brothers hated him. He was going to get the double portion eventually, and they did their best (or worst) to prevent that happening. But they could not.

 

The conveyor of divine messages

Today, we know that way for us to find out information about the kingdom of God is to search the Bible. But what would happen if we lived before the Bible was available? Jacob and Joseph never saw one verse of the Bible, even although some of their words would later be included in it. So how did God make his will known in those times? One answer is dreams, as the author of Hebrews tells us when he says at the beginning of his letter that ‘Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.’ It is obvious from Joseph’s later life that he received information from God on numerous occasions. But when did this begin with Joseph? Maybe it began when he had the dreams mentioned here, or perhaps it had began before then. But we do have the two dreams to think about. What can we say about them?

 

First, we can say that they were not caused by eating too much cheese. Second, they are very clear in their meaning. With regard to the first dream, the brothers understood what was meant, and it is interesting that they had the same reaction to this dream as they had to the coat of many colours – it caused them to hate Joseph. The meaning of the second dream is also very clear. His father Jacob understood what it meant.

 

Third, the fact that there were two dreams points to confirmation of the status of Joseph. It is obvious that the brothers opposed the idea that Joseph would be prominent, and it could be the case that Jacob himself did not fully grasp how great his special son was going to be. But God gave them ample confirmation.

 

Fourth, the message of the dreams had to be conveyed by Joseph. Some say that Joseph should have kept quiet about his dreams. But why should he if they were communications from God? God was speaking very clearly and the fact that they indicated his prominence really did not have anything to do with the decision to convey the dreams. God was speaking and his message had to be conveyed.

 

Fifth, the message of the dreams should have been comforting and challenging for those involved. They could have been a comfort for Joseph after he was sold into Egypt. They should have been a comfort for Jacob when his sons later concocted a story about Joseph’s death. He could have said to himself – God spoke and said that we would yet bow down to Joseph. And it should have been challenging to the brothers. Because the reality is, that like all of God’s communications, it was shown eventually to be completely true.

 

Sixth, the message of the dreams should have brought careful thought. We can see that Jacob responded in that way. Moses says that Jacob ‘kept the saying in mind’. It is interesting that Moses calls the dream a saying. Why would Jacob do this? I would suggest it is because he himself had received personal messages from God at various times such as at Bethel when heading away from his father’s home and at Peniel when he met God face to face.

 

Application

Usually when we think about Bible characters we should ask, in what ways is this person a picture of Jesus? Joseph is a picture to some extent of Jesus as the perfect servant of his Father, of Jesus as the One who will receive the inheritance, and as the One who will faithfully convey to others what the revealed will of God is.

 

A second application is that the best time to start serving God is when one is young. The best possible testimony is to say, ‘I have been a Christian all my life because I responded to the gospel as a child.’ To be able to say that one has no memories scarred by sin, no awareness of what goes on in places of sin, is a precious heritage, and to have an understanding that Jesus has been one’s shepherd since childhood says a great deal about the grace of God and his covenant promises.

 

A third application is that God can use teenagers to convey his message when others are unaware of what is going on. He did this also with David, the shepherd boy. The Lord also must have commenced working in the life of John the apostle when he was young. Similarly, Timothy served the Lord from his young days. Both John and Timothy were used by the Lord when they were young.

 

A fourth application is that sometimes a believer can be misunderstood when he is engaged in the service of God. The important thing is to do what God commands and leave the outcome with him. That is what Joseph did. There is no indication here that he responded wrongly to his brothers. But neither did they divert him from putting God first.

 

A fifth application is that in order for a tree to flourish it needs to have deep roots. The roots of Joseph’s life lie in his fear of God, a fear that kept him from doing anything wrong at any time. Can we live a flawless life outwardly and in relationship with others, so that they cannot point a finger at us? Joseph as a teenager could say yes, as he could later when he was a slave to Potiphar, a prisoner, a prime minister and provider of sustenance for the world. He had sins in his heart like others, but his life pleased God.