A Coat Of Many Colors - #9 Purple Series

This was a series of messages on the coat of many colors – Power point is available through E-Mail retssi@bellsouth.net

Several Illustrations, points, and the main idea for this series of sermons dealing with the coat of many colors was from James May’s sermon, “A Coat Of Many Colors.” Also Several Illustrations and points came from Preacher’s Outline And Sermon Bible. Many other sources were used to help compile this series!

A Coat of Many Colors #9 Purple

Genesis 37:1-3 (KJV) 1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.

What, have we learned so far about this coat of many colors?

The First was Amber which represented God’s Presence and Glory.

The Second color Black which could have represented two ideas, days of darkness & future of the Famine

Dark Blue which signified Worship!

Sky Blue or Light Blue = Heaven. .

Green = Spiritual Growth.

Crimson or Red = Blood or Sin

White = Purity, Holiness and righteousness!

Yellow = light

Today we will be looking at the color Purple!

Purple combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red. The color purple is often associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, power, and ambition. Purple also represents meanings of wealth, extravagance, creativity, wisdom, dignity, grandeur, devotion, peace, pride, mystery, independence, and magic.

Purple wasn’t just an indicator of wealth. It was a symbol of political power. The more important you were as a Roman senator, the more purple decoration you had on your tunic and your toga. The emperor, and only the emperor, would wear a toga made entirely of purple cloth. Purple was also the color of the Roman elite.

Maybe Jacob put some purple in the coat to remind Joseph of his possible future not truly realizing the outcome.

It is amazing though how God can take our bad decisions and good intentions and use them to His favor.

I. From Promotion to Demotion - Clearly Not His Time.

A. Jacob made several very unwise decisions within his family.

1. Jacob made Joseph the superior, the manager, the supervisor, the overseer of his other sons. Note that he was feeding or "tending the flocks" with his brothers.

Genesis 37:2 (KJV) 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

Scripture says that he was the person tending the flocks.

This indicates that he was the master shepherd or the overseer, that the other sons were helping him and working under his supervision.

This was unwise, for Joseph was younger than the other sons: he was only seventeen years old, and all the other sons were older than Joseph, some even several years older. Hard feelings among the sons were bound to result, hard feelings that stirred strife and bitterness.

2. Jacob had Joseph bringing reports to him on the other sons' behavior.

Most shepherds and overseers have the authority to handle job problems themselves, but apparently Joseph was not able to handle the problems.

Why? Probably because he was the youngest son.

Being only seventeen years old would indicate that he was not able to manage his older brothers who were full-grown men.

The brothers were rough, ungodly young men. They had bitterly disappointed their father and he just could not trust them.

This was probably the reason Jacob had promoted Joseph to be the overseer of his flocks. His older sons were too unpredictable and untrustworthy.

You know, they were subject to getting into all kinds of trouble.

They were not responsible type.

This, of course, meant that Jacob had no choice: he had to elevate Joseph to oversee his livestock operation, and he had to have him report on his other sons' behavior.

And note: this is what Joseph did. He brought a bad report to his father about his brothers.

What the report was is unknown, but the fact that he reported the matter was bound to add to the hard feelings between Joseph and his brothers, add more strife and bitterness.

3. Jacob unwisely gave Joseph the coat or robe of the superior, the overseer. We know this was the role of the overseer for two reasons.