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.
Jacob’s sons were grazing sheep at Shechem. This would be a place that would worry Jacob because his daughter Dinah had been raped here. His sons took violent revenge on the people there. They attacked the unsuspecting city at Shechem killing every male carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses. (Genesis 34). Because there could be further trouble at Shechem Jacob sent Joseph to bring back a report that all was well grazing the sheep in that area.
The brothers saw Joseph coming wearing his special coat. It was more than they could bare. Hear comes that dreamer, they said. There was a plot to kill Joseph. Ultimately 8 of the 10 brothers wanted to murder him. Ruben who had a history of sexual immortality, had the moral decency to want to spare his brothers life.
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. (Genesis 37:23-24)
The brothers threw Joseph in a well and Ruben then planned to go back and rescue Joseph. With Ruben gone the brothers saw a merchant caravan headed to Egypt. They sold their brother for 20 pieces of silver.
As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. (Genesis 37:25-27)
When tragedy occurs, we don’t always see what God is doing. Not even the dreamer would have dreamed what God was doing. He did not know that this was part of God’s plan to make him Prime Minister of Egypt. It was all part of fulfilling the dreams Joseph had that had come from God.
They sold their brother and then slaughtered a goat to make it look like he had been killed by an animal.
Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.” (Genesis 37:31-32)
They lied to their father about what happened to Joseph to cover up their wickedness. Hatred consumed them and not they would have to lie to their father to cover up. Jacob was grief stricken. He had made his own contribution to the tragedy by the way he favored Joseph.
Joseph had been unwise the way he spoke to his brothers when he should have remained quiet. But the ones who were most guilty were Joseph’s brothers. Hatred grows and will destroy the one who allows it to fester in their life.
Allowing hatred in your life like burning down your own hose to get rid of a rat living there.
Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him. 36 Meanwhile, the Midianite sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard. Genesis 37:34-36)
We need to replace jealousy and hatred with love.
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-38)
Do not let jealousy and hatred destroy you and those you love. Seek the Lord to replace any hatred with love.
