Joseph Goes to See His Brothers Who Hate Him

Genesis 37:1–17
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When F. B. Meyer was the pastor of Christ Church in London, Charles Sturgeon was preaching at Metropolitan Tabernacle, and G. Campbell Morgan was at Westminster Chapel ... More

Envy

The events of this chapter took place a few years before Isaac’s death, while Jacob and his family were living near Hebron (v. 1). The story begins with Joseph, the 17-year-old son of Jacob, bringing a bad report to his father about his half-brothers (v. 2). Naturally his brothers Envy him for this. We find that Jacob loved Joseph more than all his children (v. 3). He made a special robe for him which cased his bothers to envy him even more (v. 4). This shows that he had not learned his lesson from a previous experience as it had separated him from his mother (Gen. 27:1; Gen. 28:5), and it would separate Joseph from Jacob. This shows what parental favoritism will do to a family. It was evident that his brothers really envy him and sooner or later their anger was going to cause a serious problem.

Then Joseph had two dreams which he shared with his bothers that caused even deeper envy (vv. 5-6). These dreams which had to do with sheaves of grain (v.7) and the sun, moon, and stars (vv. 8-9) symbolically pointed out that Joseph would one day rule over his whole family. Rather than recognizing this as God’s choice, his brothers set out to destroy him (vv. 10-11). One day the opportunity came while the brothers were shepherding the family flocks in Dothan (v. 12). Jacob asked Joseph to go and see how they were getting along (vv. 13-14). Despite the envy Joseph knew his bothers had for him, he complied with his father’s wishes. When Joseph was near Shechem he met a man who told him that he heard someone say his brothers were going to Dothan (vv. 15-17). Immediately he left and found his them in Dothan. Knowing that his brothers were angry at him you would think Joseph would have questioned his father about going to find his brothers. It appears that Joseph was enjoying the favoritism so much that he didn’t care what his brothers thought about him.

Application

Joseph did what his father asked him to do even though he knew his brothers envied him. The question is, am I willing to do what my heavenly Father asks me to do no matter what others think?