I’m willing to bet that you are at least a bit familiar with the story of Joseph.

Joseph feels familiar to us because of the myriad of pop-culture references, kids illustrated books, TV shows and West End musicals.

But the familiar story is a lie.

In the west we’ve grown up thinking the story is about an arrogant boy who’s dad buys him a lovely coat.

His brothers hate him, sell him into slavery and Joseph eventually works his way to the position of Pharoe’s right hand man – he’s got it all: fortune, fame, power and influence, children, a great job and all the food he can eat.

We’re led to believe the story is about holding on to a dream despite our circumstances.

If we believe it and stick it out, God will reward us with everything we’ve dreamed of and more.

But that’s not what the story is about. There’s a hint of truth in that summary, God certainly blesses Joseph’s faithful obedience – but that’s not the point.

Joseph, like the rest of the book of Genesis is about three things:

The Land

Joseph’s story starts in the promised land of Canaan, the land in which God promises to bless His people earlier in the book of Genesis.

The story ends in Egypt – the exact opposite of Canaan.

A land of idolatry, slavery and suffering.

A barren and godless land.

The Seed

God promises a seed that will one day lead to the redemption of all of humanity from their sin and shame.

The story of this seed can be traced throughout the bible, like a golden thread that points to Jesus.

I’ll highlight how we can trace that thread through Joseph’s story a little further on in this post.

The Covenant

God makes a contract and a promise to humanity through Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3.

He promises unconditionally to lead his people into a promised land where they will multiply and bless the whole world.

Let’s look at Genesis 37 together…

Here’s what we’re going to do:

• 1.We’ll start reading through the story together now
• 2. I’ll stop us here and there to talk about what we see going on

Starting in verse 1, let’s read…

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Stopping there for just a moment – notice already how two of those ideas just mentioned leap to the front when you read through fresh eyes.

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed → this is the promised land of Canaan where God is going to bless His people and have them be a blessing to the whole world.

The story starts in the land.

And then we see the first hint of seed with the sentence – “This is the account of Jacob’s family line”

Let’s keep reading…

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, 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 his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate 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.

We learn so much in a handful of verses here.

• We learn that Joseph is a teenager – 17 years old when Moses (who wrote Genesis) picks the story up.
• We learn that Joseph’s job is a shepherd alongside his brothers.
• We learn that Jacob has had lots of children via multiple wives.
• We learn that Joseph’s brothers are already up to no good.
• We learn that Jacob loves Joseph the most.
• We learn that Joseph’s brothers hate him.

And I can’t help but think at this point –

Oh come on Jacob. You of all people.
Surely you know how destructive it can be to have a father who shows obvious favouritism to one child.
How could you be so stupid as to inflict the very same family breaking upbringing on your own children?

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s keep reading.

Picking up from verse 5…

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 moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father 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 mind.

I want to pause there for a second.

Joseph has a gift it appears of having very vivid dreams that he clearly understands as having meaning. We know that because he shares his dreams.

We can read this text as modern readers and I think Joseph can come across as a bit cocky, a bit self assured.

A bit of a tell tale. You can almost read a gloating smirk onto his face as he tells his brothers this dream.

When we think like that, it’s important to acknowledge – we don’t get that from the bible.

The bible doesn’t show Joseph to be a telltale – yes he brings a report about his brothers to their father but, based on what his brothers are capable of doing, it was probably the right thing for Joseph to bring such a report, you’ll see in a moment that Jacob even asks Joseph to bring reports about his brothers.

The bible doesn’t show Joseph gloating.

The story is presented as facts – Joseph simply shared the contents of his dreams.

We don’t read a description of his expression as he told the story, we don’t read that he spoke in a nee-nah-nee-nah-neeeee-nah voice.

So, if you find yourself sympathising with his brothers here when you read – maybe recognise the little red flag that you’re reading something into the text that isn’t there.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Joseph was flawed – there hasn’t been a human alive on this planet who was perfectly sinless, except one. Jesus.

But, we don’t know that he was smug, a telltale or that he talked too much – in fact, Joseph is presented in Genesis as faultless.

Joseph in no way deserves what happens to him in this story.

I think Jacob’s response to Joseph’s second dream is really helpful here in highlighting that tension we feel about Joseph.

Clearly Jacob is disturbed by that dream.

It’s quite possible that he thought similar things to what we feel when we read the story – he’s arrogant or smug – but notice Jacob’s response in comparison to his sons’ response. The text says

His father kept the matter in mind

Let’s keep reading from 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.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.

Just quickly, what I said a minute ago about Jacob asking for a report back from Joseph… Jacob knows all too well that Joseph’s brothers are trouble.

I don’t think Jacob is being a responsible parent here, it feels like he’s stirring the pot a bit.

Let’s carry on.

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’m 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.

I notice something really interesting here.

His brothers are out doing their thing and shepherding the sheep in green pastures in Schechem.

Have you ever read this and wondered how far Schechem is from Hebron where Jacob lives?

No – just me?

It’s a long way.

72 miles.

It’d take 27 hours of non-stop walking following modern roads and paths to walk that distance today.

It’s not the field over the road.

But, the text says that Joseph doesn’t find his brothers in Schechem where he expects to, they’ve moved on… They’re in Dothan.

That’s another 20 miles north.

7 hours walking modern roads.

What’s going on with that?

Well, I think it points forward to something important that happens later in the story.

Joseph has another dream while working for Pharaoh and he prophecies of a great famine to strike the land.

It’s getting harder and harder to find green pastures for the sheep. The land is drying up.

I’ll point out another little detail in a moment that adds weight to this idea, see if you can spot it when we read on…

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.

Did you also spot the little detail? → the cistern (pit) Joseph is thrown into is dry. These things are not supposed to be dry.

While we’ve stopped here, I want to point something else out.

I think it’s hard for the gravity of this situation to impact us because we’ve seen this story play out in illustrated children’s’ books, or hit West End musicals.

But Joseph’s brothers bundle him – they strip him naked and throw him into a huge pit in the ground.

Can you imagine what was going through that 17 year old boy’s mind as his 11 brothers swamped him?

What a terrifying experience it must have been.

What happens next?

His brothers take a quick lunch break!

Let’s continue from verse 25…

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.

Remember I talked about the idea of a seed running through Genesis.

Joseph isn’t the seed.

The point of the story isn’t that Joseph comes out on top.

The point is that God uses this horrendous sequence of events to preserve the promised seed.

Here we see the seed come into the story → Judah.

Even now, Judah’s life is in immediate danger but he doesn’t know it. There’s a famine just around the corner. He and his entire family will no-doubt die in the famine.

In this moment of evil decision making where Judah decides to sell his own brother into slavery – to betray him into the hands of people who will exploit Joseph and harm him → God is working it together to spare Judah so that he can continue the family line that leads to Jesus.

I think it’s stunning when you spot what’s going on at a cosmic scale in this text.

Do you also see a bit of a theme in this story emerging that feels familiar?

Joseph – an innocent young man who is living out a life of obedience to God is despised by his own people, and is betrayed for silver coins and left for dead?

Yet, in that story of betrayal God is working out a bigger story of salvation and redemption.

I don’t think that’s an accident.

Let’s keep reading…

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 the blood. They took the ornate 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, 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, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

Joseph, sold into slavery by his own brothers. They go on to deceive their dad in the worst possible way by convincing him the son he cares about most in the world has just died in tragic circumstances.

Talk about a messy family environment.

I think we can all relate to parts of this story.

In the West, I think its easy to buy into a big lie about the purpose and meaning of life…

We’ve been conditioned to think we deserve a happy, peaceful life where all our deepest wishes and dreams come true.

If only we pursue that goal: happiness.

If only we chase our dreams unrelentingly, then, our life will have meaning.

It’s a nice idea isn’t it.

But let’s just be real for a minute:

life isn’t like that.

More often than not, things don’t pan out as we’d hope them to.

• Families break down
• People get cancer
• People die
• People have affairs
• People get divorced
• People hurt people close to them
• People lie to their wives, their husbands, their children, their parents
• People pursue selfish ambition at the cost of their families

And it can seem like you go through these events and it’s like…

Where are you God?

Wasn’t my life meant to look purpose-driven? Wasn’t it all meant to pan out for me?

Wasn’t I supposed to get the house? The Job? The Car? The husband? The Wife? The life I’ve always wanted?

Isn’t God supposed to be working this together for my good?

God, it doesn’t look good.

I’m living in the midst of family chaos – where are you?

If you’ve ever felt remotely like that -Well, now you might be feeling similar to how Joseph felt in the pit.

Or when he was being bound and taken away from the only people he’d ever known and loved.

Betrayed.

Broken.

Hurting inside and out.

Wondering → God what’s going on? Where do I find my hope?

But this story points to something much much greater.

Ultimately, through Joseph’s trials and pain, Judah survives and the seed carries on…

• Through Judah’s son Perez…
• Through Perez’s son Hezron…
• From Hezron to Ram…
• From Ram to Amminadab…
• From Amminadab to Nashon…
• From Nashon to Salmon…
• From Salmon to Boaz…
• From Boaz to Obed…
• From Obed to Jesse…
• From Jesse to David…

And down and down from father to son until we arrive at just one name…

The name above all names.

Jesus.

And Jesus came for the broken.

Jesus came for those who feel caught up in the family chaos of heartache, pain, abuse, trauma, loss, despair, hopelessness, depression, fear, uncertainty, doubt.

Jesus came to make a way for hope to stay alive.

When Jesus died on the cross taking on the sins of you and me – he dealt with their consequence once and for all in that moment.

And when he rose again and ascended to heaven, Jesus made a way for us to live now knowing the full promise of God is ours to inherit either when we die or, and Lord let this happen first – when Jesus returns.

The promise is this:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea (sea here represents death and seperation).

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband → that’s us church we’re the land, the new Jerusalem.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children

So, there’s a response to all of this.

If you’ve experienced a bereavement that’s still sending ripples of grief into your life or those who are really close to you – this is for you.

If you’re hurting right now because something has broken in your family relationships – perhaps you’ve had an argument, perhaps you’ve been betrayed, perhaps it’s you who has let someone you love down – there’s an opportunity to pray, this is for you.

If you’re feeling convicted because you’ve caused problems in your family, maybe like Jacob through unequal treatment, maybe like Joseph’s brothers by harbouring resentment, maybe some other way – I believe there’s an opportunity for you to confess these things before the Lord and receive forgiveness and freedom, an opportunity to restore hope into your family situation.

Joseph’s story doesn’t get better and better straight away, he finds himself in all kinds of dark places. God must have felt very far away at times.

If you’re feeling like that as you read, that your walk with the Lord used to be intimate, it used to feel real but that’s phased out recently – you’re feeling out of step, dispassionate, like God has moved on and left you where you’re at, perhaps you’re even doubting the faith you once had – I think now, this is an opportunity for you to know the presence of God up close and personal again.