Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of the other sons because he had been born to him in his old age, and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.
He said to them, listen to this dream I had.
We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.
His brothers said to him, do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?
And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers.
Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.
When he told his father as well as his brothers, his fathers rebuked him and said, what is this dream you had?
Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?
His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in his mind.
Verse 12.
Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem.
And Israel said to Joseph, as you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.
Come, I am going to send you to them.
Very well, he replied.
So he said to him, go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me.
So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron.
When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, what are you looking for?
He replied, I am looking for my brothers.
Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?
They have moved on from here, the man answered.
I heard them say, let's go to Dothan.
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.
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 the cistern here in the desert, 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 richly ornamented robe he had been wearing, and they took him and threw him into the cistern.
Now the cistern was empty.
There was no water in it.
As they sat down to eat their meals, 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 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 brother agreed.
So when the Median merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.
He went back to his brothers and said, The boy isn't there.
Where can I turn now?
Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in his blood.
They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, We found this.
Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe.
He recognized it and said, It is my son's robe.
Some ferocious animal has devoured him.
Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.
Then Jacob tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.
All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
No, he said, In mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.
So his father wept for him.
Meanwhile, the Midianite sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.
Thank you, Sam.
Thank you, Jonathan.
Good morning, everybody.
Why don't we start by asking God for his help?
Sovereign Father, open our eyes this morning to see your wonderful care for us in the places where we may not see it at all.
For Jesus' sake.
Amen.
I used to watch The Simpsons as a kid.
It's a cartoon show, if you're not familiar with it, about this family who basically model how not to do family most of the time.
They model how to make a mess of it, in fact.
I don't know why it's so popular.
Maybe it makes us feel better when we compare our families to their family.
Maybe that's why.
I'm not quite sure.
But in that show, anyway, every episode kind of had a happy ending.
You know?
Homer and Marge came to some sort of an agreement.
Barrett ended up saving Lisa's bacon.
And they kind of, you know, smoothed things over, despite their flaws.
But in this chapter, we meet Jacob's dysfunctional family.
But unlike The Simpsons, we don't get a happy ending here, do we?
You may remember that this was God's chosen family.
So if we're just thinking about the whole context of the book of Genesis.
Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, was a pagan.
He did not know God, didn't worship God.
But God spoke to him.
God chose him.
Out of all the peoples on the earth, God placed a special favor upon him.
And God gave him promises.
A promise to bless him.
And to bless all peoples in the world through him.
Now, through this family, God was going to send a promised son.
A seed.
And he would crush the serpent, who way back in the Garden of Eden, had deceived Adam and Eve.
And this son would deal with our rebellion.
And would make a way for us to get back to God.
So that was the promise made to Abraham.
And God had reiterated that promise to Jacob.
So the hopes of all the nations are resting on this family line continuing.
But what a sorry mess we find when we read their story.
Where we should see them being a blessing, we see only chaos and dysfunction.
We see a catastrophic failure in parenting as Jacob's favoritism of Joseph sparks sibling rivalry and jealousy.
Then come Joseph's pride and his immaturity as he shares his dreams of rulership over his brothers.
Stoking the flames of their hatred.
Which in turn spirals into violence.
And after thinking better of killing Joseph, his brothers finally settle for selling him into a life of slavery.
That's the end of him, they think.
Before devising a cruel lie to cover their tracks.
Plunging their father into crippling grief for the rest of his days.
And no, God does not spare us from seeing the chaos of this dysfunctional family.
Every character fails.
And while none of us would like to admit to our own families being dysfunctional.
When we read the story of Jacob, when we read the story of Jacob, in many ways, it's like looking in a mirror.
Because, being brutally honest, we all have our fair share of arguments, jealousy, rage, and lies in our families, don't we?
And here's the thing.
The dysfunction in our families, it actually comes from within us.
We are all broken by sin.
We are all the victims of each other's brokenness and sin.
Be that in our families, or in our communities.
In fact, when you think about it, the whole human race is one big, dysfunctional family.
Hard as we try, we cannot escape it.
Generation after generation, does it actually get any better?
Think about it.
No, it doesn't.
We repeat the same sins.
We're just as dysfunctional as the ones who've gone before.
Maybe it might look a little bit different.
What hope is there?
If we cannot escape this endless cycle of dysfunction.
And as you read chapter 37, maybe there's a part of you that wonders,
where is God?
And all the chaos of this dysfunctional family.
I mean, after all, this is his chosen family.
So where is he?
I mean, did you notice?
His name actually isn't even mentioned in this whole chapter.
God is hidden.
He is seemingly silent.
It appears like he's just letting it all happen and he does not care.
Do you ever feel that way in the middle of your chaos and mess?
Maybe you've gotten yourself into a sin spiral.
It's been days or weeks since you even talked to God.
Or maybe you're in the middle of a chaotic family or work situation and you're suffering under the effects of someone else's sin.
Maybe it's health issues that are just not getting better.
As you walked in the door today, you brought all these situations in with you.
And they're weighing on your mind this morning.
And I've got my own too.
Situations where very little seems to be going right at all.
In fact, even though you may be an optimistic person, you can't see any good.
And you wonder, where are you, Lord?
Can you not see?
Do you not hear my cries?
See, the big question in Genesis 37 is this.
Is God even there in our chaos and dysfunction?
Because if this story is ultimately just a series of unfortunate events outside of God's control,
then there really is no hope.
But if we take a step back for a few minutes and view this whole mess from a different perspective,
I think we can see that God is present in the chaos.
And he's sovereignly working all things for his good purposes.
Even the sin and dysfunction.
Now, God's sovereignty, just to explain that word for a second,
that means God has total authority and is unrestricted in his control over the universe.
And we're going to test that theory against this chapter here and see what does it stand up.
And we're going to see five things in this chapter over which God is sovereign and in control.
Here's the first one.
We're going to start with Joseph's backstory and see that God is sovereign over barrenness and tragedy.
So, we didn't cover it in this chapter, but Joseph's mother was called Rachel.
Now, Rachel was Jacob's favorite wife.
Yes, he had more than one wife.
And no, that did not work out well for him.
In fact, that's most of the reason for all the chaos and mess in this story.
But she struggled to conceive for many, many years.
Until, finally, God enabled her to have a son, naming him Joseph.
Now, if you look down at verse 3, you'll notice that Jacob was elderly at this point.
And he favored Joseph over his 11 other sons.
Well, probably because Rachel was his favorite wife.
Also, probably because Rachel tragically died, giving birth to her second.
So, this made Jacob value Joseph all the more.
And he became so precious to his father.
And we can see what he does in verse 3.
Jacob gifts Joseph this stunning robe of many colors, but not without its side effects.
Verse 4.
Let's read together.
When his brothers saw their father loved Joseph more than any of them,
they hated Joseph and could not speak a kind word to him.
But we have to remember, God was sovereign over the barrenness and the tragedy which led to this favoritism.
God could have stopped these things from happening.
But he didn't.
And he knew how each character in the family would react.
So, we also learn that no sadness or tragedy in our lives is outside of his control either.
God is always working his good purposes, which we will see in this story also.
Secondly, he's sovereign over dreams.
In verses 6 to 11, Joseph had these very specific dreams.
Now, let me just say, these are not usual dreams that a 17-year-old boy has.
I mean, I can think back to when I was 17 years old.
I was probably dreaming about scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final, something like that.
And as you can see, it didn't come true.
But one could say there's still time, but I think it's very unlikely.
But these dreams are different.
God gave Joseph two dreams that foretold his rule over his family.
Look at verse 6.
And Joseph says to his brothers,
And verse 9 continues this theme of the others in the family bowing down to him.
And while it may appear from the outside that God was absent in this whole story,
we can actually see here, very practically, God was sovereignly working in the background,
even through the dreams of a 17-year-old boy.
Isn't that amazing?
And next, we also learn that God is sovereign over foolish mistakes.
The first mistake, we could say, was Joseph foolishly boasting about his dreams,
which caused his brothers to hate him all the more.
I mean, let's face it, he should never have done that.
That was immature of him.
And the second big mistake, verse 13 this time,
was Jacob, who foolishly decided to send Joseph off alone to check on his spiteful brothers.
Now we stop here and ask,
Who in their right mind would send Joseph into harm's way like that?
Did this father not realize the brother's hatred?
Was it not obvious?
But in God's purpose, Joseph churns up his brother's hate,
and Jacob sends off his beloved son into grave danger,
not knowing it was the last he would see of him for 20 years.
It was a terrible mistake.
How else can you put it?
But God was working his good purposes,
which would only be revealed later.
And God is sovereign over our worst mistakes too.
Now that doesn't make them right.
That's not an excuse for us to act sinfully without care.
No, no.
But what a comfort it is
to know that God will save his chosen people
despite our mistakes,
and even through them.
Wow.
Isn't that amazing?
Next thing,
we learn that God is sovereign
over seemingly chance encounters.
I put inverted commas around the word chance there for a reason.
We can imagine Joseph, right,
he's maybe hesitantly setting off to see his brother saying,
okay, dad, if I have to.
I don't think this is a great idea,
but yes, I'll go.
And when he arrives in Shechem,
the brothers have already left.
They've moved their flocks on somewhere else.
And in verse 15,
we find that he's aimlessly wandering around the fields,
but then he bumps into someone.
And this person
just happens to know exactly where the brothers have gone.
Now if you just stop here and think about this for a second,
if Joseph had never met this man,
he just would have gone back home,
and the rest would never have happened.
When you think about it,
but according to God's purpose,
Joseph bumped into this man,
and he found his brothers in Dothan.
So remember,
God is sovereign over all the people
that you meet during the day.
There are no chance meetings in God's kingdom,
and we must keep our eyes open
and be ready.
I think the last thing we can see God is sovereign over
in this chapter is
sin.
And I think this is the one
that could be hardest to understand.
In verse 18,
if you look down there,
God knew the violent thoughts
that the brothers would harbor
now that they had Joseph alone
to themselves.
Let's read from 18.
But the brothers saw Joseph 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.
Let's throw him into one of these cisterns,
and say that a ferocious animal
devoured him.
Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.
You know,
God was in control.
Both over their plot to kill him,
and Reuben's intervention.
Read in verse 21.
When Reuben heard this,
he tried to rescue Joseph 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 the brothers threw him in the cistern.
And we know
that Reuben,
he's wanting to get Jacob
whipped up out of that cistern,
sorry, get Joseph
whipped up out of that cistern
and back to his father
as soon as possible.
And surely that's what God will, right?
I mean,
that the boy will be saved.
No.
You see,
what happens next
just illustrates
God's amazing sovereignty
all the more.
God was able to see
to it that Reuben
was present
to save Joseph
from death.
But then that he was
absent
when the Midianite traders
came along
and Joseph's brothers
sold him into slavery.
Maybe Reuben
had to take a run
to the well for water
or maybe he forgot
his cloak
in the other field.
Who knows
why
he wasn't there?
The writer doesn't tell us
the reason why
he wasn't there.
All we know is
he wasn't there.
Whenever it was dinner time
and whenever the traders
happened
to come by.
And the rest is history.
Look in verse 29.
When Reuben
returned to the cistern
and saw that Joseph
was not there
he tore
his clothes.
He went back
to his brothers
and said,
the boy isn't there.
Where can I turn
now?
If Reuben
had been there
Joseph
would never
have been sold
and he never
would have got
to Egypt.
But it was
God's purpose
that Joseph
would get to Egypt.
So God
made sure
Reuben
wasn't there
for dinner.
God was even
in control
over the cruel
sinful
betrayal
of Joseph
into the hands
of those
traitors
in everything
achieving
his good purposes.
Now
let's just stop here
for a second
and ask the question
is all of this
chance?
Is it all
just coincidence?
I believe
the answer
is no.
When we
dig beneath
the surface
we find
God's
fingerprints
his sovereign
work
all
over
this
story.
God had a purpose
behind every
single one of these
sinful actions.
He is sovereign
over sin.
Now
we must be
careful
not to accuse
God of
causing
people to sin
or
saying that
God is
morally
responsible
for sin.
The Bible
is clear
that God
is holy.
He hates
sin.
So
this
is tough
to understand
but in one
sense
he wills
that no one
would sin.
and yet
there is
another
sense
in which
he ordains
that some
evil acts
take place
in his
perfect
plan
to save.
But the
Bible is
always
clear
that people
are always
held
responsible
for their
sin.
And I
think
there is
a verse
later
in this
story
which
Joseph
says
it is
from
Genesis
50
20
and this
helps
us
to
understand
this
it is
on the
board
there.
And Joseph
is saying
this to his
brothers
20 years
later
when the
whole
saga is
over
everything
has been
smoothed
over
and this
is what
he says
you
brothers
you
meant it
for evil
against me.
So he's
like
you
chose
that
sinful
course
of
action
you
are
responsible
for that
and yet
equally
so
Joseph
says
God
meant
it
for
good
this
was
in
God's
plan
it's
not
one
or the
other
somehow
both
of
these
are
true.
My
brothers
you
committed
the
evil
act
because
it
was
what
your
sinful
hearts
wanted
most
and
God
ordained
that
sinful
act
for his
good
purposes
to
save
all
of
you.
God
is
100%
sovereign
people
are
100%
responsible.
Now
if anything
this
drives us
to our
knees
in
humility
and
all
because
our
finite
human
brains
cannot
fully
comprehend
this
and we
are
called
to
trust
God
with
the
things
that
we
don't
yet
understand
and
let me
just
say
I
think
we
have
more
than
enough
reason
to
trust
I
mean
step
back
and
survey
what's
happened
in
this
story
the
brothers
they
wanted
to
kill
the
very
person
who
ended
up
rescuing
them
from
starvation
20
years
later
and
in
their
attempt
to
get
rid
of
him
once
and
for
all
where
did
they
send
him
to
the
very
place
from
where
he
could
rescue
them
how
extraordinary
are the
plans
of our
sovereign
God
may
his
awesome
sovereignty
and control
be a
comfort
to you
in
the
midst
of
your
chaos
and
dysfunction
no
one
in
this
story
would
have
imagined
how
these
evil
acts
could
have
turned
out
for
good
I
mean
as this
chapter
finishes
where's
Joseph
well he's
changed to
the back
of a
camel
his
throat
is
parched
he is
trudging
his
way
down
the
dusty
road
to
Egypt
wondering
how
on
earth
did
I
get
here
and
where
is
that
God
who
made
the
promise
where
is he
now
and I
don't need
to tell
you
how
difficult
it is
to trust
God
I don't
need to
tell you
how
difficult
it is
to trust
God
in the
chaos
in your
life
those
situations
where
you've
tried
but
just
cannot
see
how
any
good
could
possibly
come
of
this
it
doesn't
make
sense
to
us
at
all
but
this
passage
gives
us
hope
because
it
sure
didn't
make
sense
to
Joseph
and
yet
God
was
present
in
his
chaos
working
out
his
good
purposes
we
tend
to
think
God
is
only
at
work
in
the
times
of
blessing
health
happiness
or
success
but
not
so
God
is
also
working
through
our
deepest
pain
he
is
sovereign
over
our
tears
and
chaos
though
you
may
ask
him
time
and
time
again
to
take
it
away
he
may
choose
not
to
do
so
to
fulfill
his
good
purposes
in
your
life
he
has
not
rejected
you
just
like
he
had
not
rejected
Joseph
now
this
all
begs
the
question
what
are
those
ultimate
good
purposes
of
God
well
in
this
story
God
was
saving
Jacob's
whole
family
from
starvation
20
years
later
but
ultimately
God
wasn't
just
saving
this
family
he
was
preserving
the
promised
seed
who
was
to
come
through
this
family
line
this
son
came
from
a
different
sort
of
family
the
father
son
and
spirit
have
existed
for
eternity
in
perfect
love
there
is
no
dysfunction
in
this
family
and
our
sin
always
prevented
us
from
entering
into
the
love
of
this
family
but
the
most
astounding
reality
of the
bible
is that
God
the
son
the
promised
seed
stepped
into
our
dysfunction
and
chaos
he
became
a
human
being
and
lived
in a
dysfunctional
family
and
community
he
knows
what
it's
like
and
amidst
all
that
dysfunction
around
him
he
lived
the
perfect
life
of
obedience
to
God
that
we
could
never
live
and
then
on
the
cross
he
took
the
blame
for
our
dysfunction
and
rebellion
against
God's
loving
rule
rising
again
he
won
the
victory
over
death
for
us
and
then
even
more
astonishingly
John
chapter
1
verse
12
tells
us
that
anyone
who
receives
this
son
who
believes
in
his
name
they
are
given
the
right
to
become
children
of
God
that
is
we
can
be
welcomed
into
God's
perfect
family
forever
there
will
be
no
more
sin
or
dysfunction
or
chaos
instead
caught
up
in
the
eternal
love
joy
and
peace
of
the
Trinity
tell
me
one
thing
that
could
be
better
than
that
so
when
you
cry
out
and
ask
why
God
seems
absent
in
your
chaos
look
to
the
cross
he
stepped
into
our
chaos
to
ultimately
rescue
us
out
of
it
for
eternity
and
it
was
all
achieved
through
that
promised
seed
who
came
through
the
family
line
of
Jacob
preserved
through
the
suffering
and
pain
of
Joseph
yes
now we
see
all the
more
that
God
was
sovereign
over
all
that
evil
and
pain
in
Joseph's
life
working
his
good
purposes
to
save
his
chosen
people
and
our
God
is
still
working
those
purposes
here
and
now
in
our
lives
so
as
we
walk
out
that
door
today
and
back
into
our
different
messy
situations
we
have
hope
that
the
outside
world
can
never
know
because
God
is
present
in
our
chaos
sovereignly
working
all
things
even
sin
and
dysfunction
to
save
his
people
bringing
them
into
his
family
forever
now
that
is
good
news
for
you
and
for
me
let's
pray
thank
you
sovereign
lord
that
you
are
in
control
over
all
things
give
us
your
grace
to
trust
you
in
the
places
we
can't
see
you
increase
our
faith
in
your
sovereign
care
fulfill
your
purposes
to
save
all
your
chosen
people
and
help
us
remember
who
we
are
as
precious
and
dearly
loved
sons
and
daughters
of
the
king
it's
in
Jesus
name
that
we
ask
amen
going
to
return
to
the
past
the
next
we
will
mais
Kevin
you
huh
yeah
peace
c
again
to
peace
to
rest
best
love
all