Genesis 37:1-24 (NIV)

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

The story of Joseph reads like a novel. After each section of the story, you discover how the plot thickens. You’re anxious to see what’s going to happen to Joseph next. At this point we read just how much Joseph’s brothers hate him. And how they plot and scheme to get rid of him. But God has other plans for Joseph.

Exodus is the prominent theme of the Old Testament. God leads His people out of bondage into freedom. How did they get into bondage in the first place? It began when the Hebrews/Israelites migrated to Egypt to escape a severe famine in Canaan. They were invited by the Pharaoh at the time and settled peacefully in Goshen, where the land was fertile. A new Pharaoh emerged generations later. He was threatened by their growing population. So he enslaved them. He feared they would join his enemies in a war against him. This Pharaoh came many years after Joseph.

You have to go back to the beginning of Joseph’s story to understand how the plot thickens. This is where our scripture begins.

Joseph is a 17-year-old kid and the favorite son of his father, Jacob. We soon discover that Jacob is the most messed-up character in the Bible. He totally runs a dysfunctional family. Especially by spoiling Joseph. His reasoning for this is that he had Joseph in his old age and by his beloved Rachel.

Joseph makes it worse by telling his brothers, who already hate him, about his dream. He tells them that they were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly his sheaf rose and stood upright, while their sheaves gathered around his and bowed down to it. Needless to say, his brothers were like, “Say what?” They asked him if he thought that he was going to reign over them and rule them. Of course, this made them hate him even more.

Then Joseph couldn’t leave well enough alone and compounded the situation by telling his brothers the next day that he had another dream. In that dream, he tells them that this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to him. He makes the mistake of not only telling his brothers of this new dream, but he tells his father, Jacob. Jacob rebukes him and tells him to go away and not speak of it any longer.

Joseph doesn’t understand that the dream is not about him but what God has in store for him.

At this point Joseph’s brothers hate him so much that their relationship goes to a dangerous place. They talk about killing him but decide to throw him in the pit.

Photo by Aparna Johri on Unsplash

They cast him into a pit/cistern, and it was empty. That’s significant. Cisterns in those times were these deep holes carved into rock. It was meant to catch and store seasonal rainwater. Since the pit was dry, Joseph had no access to water. This meant he would die a slow, agonizing death from dehydration. And he couldn’t escape because there were no handholds or footholds. It was a sheer-walled cistern. He was trapped, putting his life in utter despair, helplessness, and isolation.

Our hopes and dreams can take a wrong turn until we fall in the pit where our hopes and dreams go to die. How many of us have found ourselves in that same pit? We’re of the mind that no one knows or cares how we feel. We ask questions. Where’s God in the pit? Why is He allowing this to happen to me? The brokenness of Joseph’s family put him in the pit. God didn’t put him there. Although sometimes God may seem silent, don’t doubt for a moment that He’s not right there with you.

Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

Through this dysfunctional family, God saves the world, and His vision is then fulfilled.

God can and will open a future for us that we can’t possibly see when we’re in the pit.

And that’s what I learned in Church……see ya next time!