Joseph: Sold Into Slavery Series

You have met the child who is the informer? The one who loves to report the wrongdoing of the other children. The probably start their informing with the words, guess what? It every family has an informer then Jacob and his 12 sons were not so different.

What is shocking and unusual is for 10 of the brothers to plot to kill their brother who reports all their wrongs. That goes way beyond the steps taken by the siblings against the informer. The action of Jacobs sons against his favored son Joseph means Jacob vows to go to his grave in grief and mourning.

Jacob is 17 years old. What are the factors that brought about a situation where his 10 older brothers would want to kill him? After all, this is not a godless abusive home environment. It not broken and unloving family that might account for violence. This was the Patriarch Jacob’s home we are talking about. This is the family where the national Israel gets it’s name.

The 10 men who plot to kill their brother are the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Let’s look at the factors leading up to Joseph’s brothers planning to kill him.

The bad report.

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. (Genesis 37:2)

Here is the younger brother as the informer bringing the bad report. He is going to his father Jacob with the guess what my brothers did this time. Dad, guess what Ruben, Judah, Simeon, Levi, Gad, Asher and the others were doing.

Joseph was stirring up the anger of his brothers because he was a tattletale. Already the seeds of strife and discord are being sold between Joseph and his brothers with this bad report he brought about them.

Joseph getting favored treatment.

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. (Genesis 37:4)

This was not any fault of his that Joseph received favored treatment and that Jacob loved him more than the other sons. The blame for this resentment falls on Jacob. It was Jacob who was fanning the flames of jealousy within the family.

Jacob made Joseph a special coat. It was a richly ornamented coat of many colors. His coat stood for the high standing he had with his father. This special coat set Joseph apart and the hatred of his brothers burned against him.

When people carry jealousy and hatred like Joseph’s 10 brothers it eats at them like a cancer. One jealousy feeds another. Look at him in that coat. The others became more angry every time that coat was mentioned. Because of the coat the others could not even speak a kind word to Joseph.

The dreams of Joseph.

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. (Genesis 37:5)

Some things are better left unsaid. Joseph’s dreams fell in that category. Already Joseph’s brother’s hate him and have expressed that. The 17 year old is saying, guess what, I had a dream. There were two dreams he shared that were causing more jealousy.

He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 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.” (Genesis 37:6-7)

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.” (Genesis 37:9)

There was a lack of wisdom on the part of Joseph by bringing up these dreams to his brothers. The dreams Joseph shared fuelled the fire that they felt Joseph with his special coat had a feeling of superiority over them.

It seemed like he delighted in telling them the dreams that humiliated them. Ultimately the hatred being stirred up is going to cause damage. The jealousy and hatred that had grown was festering.

This hatred Joseph’s brothers had against him will tragically lead to violence. Hatred is so powerful. When it is allowed to fester rather than allowing God to deal with it. That brothers from a God-fearing home with everything that could be offered to them are willing to kill their brother tells us how hatred can take control of any life.

Because of how jealousy and hatred have overtaken Jacob’s sons they are willing to lie to their father and break his heart. Who knows the untold damage from bitterness, jealousy and hatred? In this case the hatred was acted on when the 10 older sons were out grazing the sheep.