Genesis 37:12-36 Evil Intent, Good Intent
10/2/16 D. Marion Clark
Introduction
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” So Joseph assuages the fears of his brothers after the death of Jacob, and so he articulates the providence of God. The story of Joseph is the display of the providential power of God to accomplish his good purposes. Let’s read our text and consider what it teaches about us, about God, and what it all means for us.
Text
12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 14 So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” 16 “I am seeking my brothers,” he said. “Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.” 17 And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” 31 Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.” 33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.” 34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. 36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
Lessons
1. What it teaches about us: depravity of the human heart.
What does our passage teach about us? Does it teach that we, like Joseph, can experience mistreatment and trials? Yes. Does it teach that we, like Reuben, can have our plans be frustrated? Yes. But we need to take a look at the rest of the brothers.
The brothers of Joseph have only distinguished themselves by their depravity. They have already terrorized a town – slaughtering the men, pillaging the city, and kidnapping women and children. Why? Their sister had been “defiled.” This reasoning is particularly galling given that Reuben afterwards lies with his stepmother Bilhah. Judah, we will see in the next chapter, has no qualms making use of prostitutes. Some families have black sheep that stand out; in Jacob’s family, it is the one or two white sheep that are notable. Dysfunctional does not begin to characterize the deep-rooted, sin-soaked hearts of the Israel boys.
This is the replay of Cain and Abel. Cain murdered his brother Abel because of jealousy – Abel’s sacrifice was accepted by God, while his was not. Joseph is the accepted/favorite son of Jacob; the other brothers have a bad report made of them by Joseph, which probably was an accurate report. It is a story that is replayed in the Scriptures, wherever murder takes place; it is a story that is replayed countless times throughout human history.
We certainly see murderous hearts today in the terrorists abroad and senseless killings in our country, and in the rampant violent crime in the cities. But if we are to open our minds and hearts to God’s Word, we must also be willing to see what lies within each of us. Are we murderers? Are we susceptible to killing, at least killing unjustly? It is likely that none of us will do so. And yet, the possibility lies in each of us as members of the fallen human race. And granted that we probably will not go to such extremes, nevertheless we need to consider what Jesus our Lord and Savior has to say about the subject.
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21-22).
Taking the lead from Jesus, our Westminster Larger Catechism identifies breaking the sixth commandment this way: “sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge; …provoking words, oppression, quarreling, striking, wounding” (Q. 136). According to Jesus and the Larger Catechism, the brothers had murdered Joseph much earlier, when they were described as hating him.
What we also see in them is what happens when we allow anger to stew. It turns into hatred, and as it continues to stew, that hatred leads us to say and to act in ways that surprise even ourselves in our sober reflections.
The late great mystery writer Agatha Christie picked up on this very idea for her last Hercule Poirot crime novel. The perfect murderer is the man who does not murder. Instead, he stokes the resentments and fears of others so that they – who never would have condoned such behavior – do the killing. That was the premise for the character Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello.
We too have someone feeding us hate and resentment – the great Murderer Satan. What are we capable of, even as regenerated believers in Christ, if we allow his insidious work in us? This is the lesson that Joseph’s brothers teach us about ourselves.
2. The providence of God.
What then does our passage teach us about God?
That is an interesting question considering that there is no reference to God, just as there was no reference to God in chapter 34 that presents the ignoble episode of the brothers committing murder the first time. Where is God? Why is he absent in the times when evil rises up?
This is one time in which the question is actually easy to answer. God is very present and very active in the whole story of Joseph’s life, for he is leading the events to carry out his clear purpose. Let’s turn again to the words of Joseph many years later in looking back. He says to his brothers:
“Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones” (Genesis 50:19-21).
God used the evil intent of the brothers – which was to destroy a life – to carry out his good intent to preserve many lives, even their very own.
This is called the providence of God. It is God’s ability to move the course of human action so that it carries out his ultimate will. In this case, Joseph identified that will as the preserving of Israel’s clan when the years of famine came.
And that is as far as Joseph could take the matter. He did not consider other dangers for his family – that remaining in Canaan threatened their destruction by hostile peoples; that there was the further danger of them losing their covenant identity and dispersing among the different people groups. Their years of sojourn in Egypt will protect them and provide a secure place to grow and to coalesce. It is in Egypt where the family clan turns into a nation.
All of us can attest to providence. We see it on the grand scale of human history – how seemingly small incidents literally changed the course of history. George Washington described himself as a preacher for providence because of his own witness of it at work in the American Revolution. He capitalized Providence as another divine name for God, which was common in his time. Providence is God; God is Providence, and as far as Washington was concerned, “The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this [the strange changes in the war], that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith.”
Who will not attest to it in your own life? You look back on troubles of years ago and now can see how those “troubles” worked toward your good. You think of “chance occurrences” that led to the change in your fortunes. “God knew I wasn’t ready and so he…” “God protected me…” “God lead me to…” “God brought _____ into my life when I was least expecting.”
There are some things in our past that we still scratch our heads over: Why a loved one died. Why certain misfortunes took place. On the whole, though, we believe ourselves to be better or stronger, if not happier.
The real challenge for us is the present – to see the hand of God at work right now. We look out at the world and see the madness of terrorism; we look at our own country where we find our long-standing Christian beliefs and values move from being the standard to being held in distain and even punished. Where is God? What is he doing? Why is he not doing anything?
How do you think Joseph felt in the pit? Was he confident then of everything turning out well? We don’t know. The only thing we know about Joseph – what we will see throughout his story – is that he remains faithful to God, that he does not slip into the immorality of the culture around him, and most importantly, that he does not give way to bitterness, to a murderous heart even as he gains the power and seemingly the right to do so.
It is such a heart that changes the course of history both in individuals and in the world. It was the heart of Nelson Mandela, who chose to forgive his oppressors and to lead his followers to forgive, that averted the expected bloodbath in South Africa when he rose to power. It was the heart of the Christians at Emmanuel Baptist Church, who chose to forgive, even to witness to the murderer of their pastor and people – and so stunned the nation and averted potential violence in Charleston.
It is such a heart in many followers of Jesus Christ who have covered a multitude of sins with the love of Christ, who have forgiven enemies, who have responded to hate with grace. We can let bitterness stew in our hearts and become murderers in the sight of God; or we can choose to forgive, choose to let God’s grace stew in our hearts, and so become true sons and daughters of our God. This all we can do when we trust in the providence of God.
3. The story of the promise.
Our story teaches the dangerous evil that lies within our hearts. It teaches the providence of God who will carry out his good will regardless of anyone’s heart. It teaches about the promise.
We know that the story of God’s people goes on. The people will become enslaved in the very country that preserved them. A savior will rise up, Moses, who will lead the people out of Egypt and back to the Promised Land. Who will raise up this savior Moses? God, who tells Moses to refer to him as “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” (Exodus 3:16). The God who by providence brought his people into Egypt will deliver them out of Egypt. By his providence, a savior will be preserved and prepared through seemingly random and adverse incidents.
This will be the same God – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – who will preserve his people – sometimes through unseen providence, sometimes through clear intervention – through the centuries. Sometimes he will send “saviors” to fight for his people and to deliver them from enemies; sometimes the course of events will simply take place outside of Israel that will prove to be for their good. In whatever manner, the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – that God will give to them many people and a great inheritance that will bless the earth – that promise will live on even when it seems to have died.
By providence a baby boy will be born to peasant parents who providentially come from the royal lineage of David; who will be born under an empire that provides stability in an otherwise turbulent land; who will providentially fulfill all of the scriptures that prophesy where he will come from, how he will carry out his work, how he will die, and how he will rise again.
He who has eyes to see and ears to hear, can look back over the pages of Scripture and over the pages of history to see how all of the events by God’s providence work toward the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ to carry out the great redemption of God promised since the fall of man. And he and she will trust that whatever is taking place now or will be will serve the providence of God to complete the promise. Christ came the first time to bring redemption; he will come again at the end of history to set up the New Heaven and the New Earth so that all of the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will fulfilled. With such hope, the follower of Christ will remain obedient, keep the faith, and trust in the all-powerful providence of our God to carry out his good and pleasing will.
