Two week ago, we started looking at the life of Joseph – and last we left him, he was on his way to check up on his brothers as they were tending their father’s flocks some 70 miles away from home.
Now before we jump into what happened next, let me give you a quick summary of what we’ve learned about Joseph so far.
To begin with, Joseph came from the family tree of Abraham. He was Abraham’s great-grandson and it was Joseph and his 11 brothers who would eventually grow to become the 12 tribes of Israel. Their father Jacob would actually have his named change by God from Jacob to Israel, and so Jacob’s 12 sons would eventually became known as the 12 sons (or 12 tribes) of Israel.
So Joseph and his family are some very famous and some very central characters of the Old Testament. However, this family was also extremely dysfunctional. Jacob had married four wives (two of them sisters, and the other two were servants of those sisters) and so family relationships were complicated to say the least!
But to make a long story short, both the wives and the children in this family, felt they continually had to compete for Jacob’s love and affection – and as a result, their home was filled with jealousy, favouritism, bitterness, and a pile of anger.
However, not everyone felt they had to compete for Jacob’s love. Joseph knew without a doubt that he was dearly loved by his father. He was clearly the favourite son of Jacob because he was the first-born of Jacob’s favourite wife, Rachel.
And as evidence of this assured love, he had been given a beautiful robe – or a coat of many colours. But this wasn’t just any coat of many colours – this was a special robe that was intended to elevate Joseph’s status and position far above that of his brothers’. His father might as well have given him a crown – that’s almost the kind of statement this robe made!
So as you can imagine – because of their father’s favouritism, Joseph’s brothers didn’t have much love for Joseph. In fact, we’re told repeatedly that Joseph’s brothers’ hated him.
Of course, Joseph’s dreams didn’t help the situation either. You’ll remember that he had two dreams (which he happily shared with this family) in which his brothers and his parents bowed down before him. Joseph must have thought these dreams were great – they must be a sign from God! But the rest of the family wasn’t so sure. In fact, Josephs brother were pretty convinced that they would never allow such a thing to happen and they hated him all the more.
So that’s the introduction we were given to life of Joseph. Joseph was hated by his brothers because he was dad’s favourite, he was hated all the more when he got that beautiful robe, and then he was hated even more when he talked about those dreams he had.
And that sets the stage for the first major, life changing event for Joseph. It all began when Jacob sent Joseph to go check on his brothers as they tended the flocks….
Leave a Comment