Genesis 37:13-28 “When you’re Put into a Pit” 3/9/25 a.m.
28 years ago we had bought the property that we live on today, we had moved a Mobile Home in, and my mother-in-law was out walking in the woods behind the Mobile and ... she found a PIT. A DEEP PIT. Somewhere between 15 and 20 foot deep and lined with stones. I think it’s an old hand dug well, around 4 foot diameter and straight down. It’s not really deep enough to have water in it year round and so I don’t really know what use it is. I mean, my mother-in-law didn’t fall into so what good is it? Just kidding.
Anyway, it was flush with the ground and there was nothing to keep a person or an animal from falling into it. It was kind of scary. The fellow we bought the property from had no idea it was even there.
And so I decided to see what was at the bottom. I got an extension ladder and I climbed down in there. It was a little bit UNNERVING. I’d fill up a bucket with dirt and a friend would pull it up with a rope and dump it. I shovelled out a lot of dirt and some rocks that had fallen in and .... COW BONES. Somehow through the years a cow had fallen into that PIT. What a rough way to go.
When we look at Genesis Chapter 37, we find a fellow by the name of Joseph and he’s down in a PIT. And sometimes we find ourselves down in a PIT. So let’s take a few minutes and turn to Genesis Chapter 37, and we’ll read Verses 13-28,
“And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.
14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
17 And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.
18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.
19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
21 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him.
22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.
23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him;
24 And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.
25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.
26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?
27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.
28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
What a HORRIBLE THING for Joseph to have to endure. Being PUT into a PIT. And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning. “When You’re Put into a Pit.”
And so before we get started, let’s go to the Lord in Prayer.
Brother ____, would you lead us?
I’m sure as Joseph set there in that PIT, his mind was RACING on how he wound up there. Because I think Joseph KNEW. I think he knew what caused his brothers to throw him down into that HOLE.
I. He knew that they were ANGRY with him and even HATED him. Why? Well, first of all,
A. He was a SNITCH!!! In Verse 2 we see Joseph is out in the field with his older brothers and the last line of Verse 2 says,
“and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.”
What were they doing? The Bible doesn’t tell us, but Jacob their father found out, because JOSEPH, the YOUNGER BRATTY LITTLE BROTHER, was a SNITCH. ILLUS: CARLA
B. Secondly, they HATED Joseph because they weren’t LOVED as much as he was. Look at Verse 4,
“And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.”
This wasn’t really Joseph’s fault. He didn’t get to choose when he would be born or who he would be born to. His mother Rachel, was his father’s favorite wife so why wouldn’t HER SON be his favorite child? Well, he was. I don’t know this, and this is just my opinion, but Joseph may have PLAYED this up a little bit.
He was his father’s favorite child and he may have been a little bit of a PAIN to deal with because of that. He may have USED his father’s love for him to get some special treatment.
C. And I think the third reason that they hated Joseph was because of his DREAMS. Look at the last part of Verse 8.
“And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.”
Now this wasn’t Joseph’s fault either. It seems that these DREAMS were VIVID and VERY DETAILED. He remembered each part. How they started and how they ended. And let’s face it, these DREAMS came from God. They came TRUE. Many years down the road his brothers did WORSHIP HIM. But where Joseph went wrong was him telling his brothers about the dreams. They didn’t hate him just for his DREAMS but for his WORDS. He should have kept his mouth shut. All it did was cause them to HATE HIM a little bit more.
Listen, he didn’t have to tell everything he knew. He didn’t have to SNITCH. He didn’t have to be a PAIN to his brothers but, this is what I think, I think he brought some of this on himself. And so there he is. He’s setting at the bottom of a PIT.
II. Secondly, as Joseph is setting there at the bottom of the PIT, he knew that his brothers were JEALOUS of him.
A. Look at Verse 3. Jacob made Joseph a COAT of MANY COLORS. You know, this says a lot about their relationship.
What I see here is a FATHER who not only LOVED one child more than the rest but a FATHER who DOTED and SPOILED one child more than the rest.
Listen, I ALWAYS KNEW I was my mom and dad’s favorite but they never showed it!!! LOL Just kidding.
ILLUS: But it does remind me of the husband who was trying to reason with his wife about showing favoritism to one of their kids. He said, “You love little Johnny more than the other two and you show it.” She said, “I absolutely DO NOT show favoritism to little Johnny. I don’t love him one bit more than his nasty, ugly brother and sister.”
And so, because of Jacob’s favoritism to Joseph, the brothers were JEALOUS.
B. And Jacob’s brothers hated him for his dreams but they were also JEALOUS of him because of his dreams. Look at Verse 11.
“And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.”
It’s interesting to me because in Verse 10, Jacob REBUKED JOSEPH for telling his DREAMS but then in Verse 11, Jacob “observed the saying”. In other words, what Joseph had said he took it to heart, he kept it in his mind and he PONDERED IT and THOUGHT ABOUT IT. I believe Jacob realized that these dreams that JOSEPH was having were from God and they would eventually happen. And we know 22 years later it did.
In other words. Jacob told him to HUSH. “Quit telling your dreams. You’re making your brothers mad and all it’s doing is causing trouble BUT.... I believe you’re hearing from God.” So the brothers didn’t like this. They were ENVIOUS of him because of his dreams.
C. I want to say one more thing about this before we move on. Looking at Verses 24-33. These brothers THOUGHT that they’re problem was solved. Joseph was down into the PIT. A group of merchantmen, the Ishmeelites or Midianites, they were the same people, came along headed down to Egypt. What a perfect opportunity to make some money and get rid of Joseph. They wouldn’t have to kill him but yet they would be rid of him. So they stripped him of his coat, SOLD HIM into slavery and soaked his COAT with GOAT BLOOD and gave it to their father Jacob.
I told you at the beginning that I’ve been in the bottom of a PIT. LITERALLY. Down there with a short handled shovel. Picking up dirt, rocks and bones. There’s nothing to pleasant about being in a PIT. Let me tell you a few things about it.
A. It may be the middle of the day and yet it’s DARK at the bottom. The only time that there’s light is when the sun is perfectly overhead.
B. It can be warm at the top but the further down you go the cooler it gets. You know, it’s COLD at the bottom of a PIT.
C. There may be fresh air outside but it STINKS at the bottom of a PIT. Mold, Algae and frogs down there in the bottom. It’s a NASTY PLAACE to be at the bottom of a PIT.
D. And one more thing, it’s kind of SCARY at the bottom of a PIT. You never know when your old buddy may, on accident of course, bump a rock and it falls down and hits you in the head. And when I was down there at the bottom, my mind kept worrying about all of those rocks that had been stacked in there all the way to the top. What if they collapsed and fell in on top of me. A PIT is not somewhere you really want to be.
And yet, we find ourselves there at times don’t we? I’m not talking about literally being in a pit. I’m talking about SPIRITUALLY and EMOTIONALLY being in the DEPTHS of DESPAIR and SORROW. We get down. We get depressed. We get to feeling like we’re down in a PIT. It’s DARK, it’s COLD, it’s STINKY, and it can be really SCARY. Not knowing WHEN and IF our world might collapse.
And listen, there’s all kinds of reasons for being there. People get ANGRY with us. Sometimes it has NOTHING to do with how we act or what we say and sometimes it is OUR OWN FAULT. We SAY and DO things we shouldn’t. Sometimes we KNOW that God is NOT pleased with us. And we wind up DOWN in the PIT. And somehow, someway, we have to figure out HOW we’re gonna get out of there.
III. But there is HOPE my friends. There is a REMEDY. I mentioned this passage a few weeks back it’s such a good lesson for us today. David tells us in Psalms 40, Verses 1-3,
“I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
No one really knows what David was going through here.
No one knows for sure why he wrote this Psalm.
A. Some believe this was during the time that David was exiled from King Saul and running for his life out in the wilderness. In 1 Samuel 18, David was becoming more and more popular with the people and Saul was becoming more and more JEALOUS of him. And so when David began to play his harp for Saul, an evil spirit came upon him and he threw his javelin at David trying to kill him. Eventually David had to run for his life. This wasn’t David’s fault at all, but yet he still found himself running for his life. He may have felt like he was in a DEEP PIT.
B. Others believe this may have been when David was king and running for his life from his own son Absalom.
This all started in 2 Samuel 13. David had a daughter named Tamar and she was a full sister to Absalom. Their father was David and their mother was Maacah. Their half brother’s named was Amnon. He was the son of David and Ahinoam. Well, Amnon became infatuated with his sister Tamar and forced himself upon her and took her virginity from her. And David did NOTHING about it. And so Absalom, I believe justifiably, killed Amnon. And that caused a rift in the family that eventually led to Absalom trying to take the kingdom from David. What a TERRIBLE, DARK time David was going through. His daughter was defiled by his own son. His other son took it upon himself to take vengeance upon him. And now he is trying to take the KINGDOM from David.
This is one of those times where, I believe, David was paying the price for his mistakes. He was down in the PIT because of his own doing.
C. Just like when he sinned with Bathsheba. He lusted after a married woman. He commits adultery. Then has her husband MURDERED. Numbers 32:23 tells us,
“Be sure your sin will find you out”
And this is the fulfillment of that Verse. Everyone found out. A price had to be paid. David deserved to DIE for what he had done. I can’t think of a more terrible thing to endure.
But yet in each one of these situations, God had MERCY upon David. God heard the CRIES of DAVID and He reached down HIS MIGHTY HAND and brought him up out of that HORRIBLE PIT. He SET HIS FEET upon a ROCK. He ESTABLISHED his GOINGS and He put a SONG of PRAISE in his MOUTH. A SONG of PRAISE unto God.
Back in Genesis 37, we see that’s what God did for Joseph too. It might not have been seen as a BLESSING to him at the time but he was brought up out of that PIT. He was saved from DEATH. And he was taken to Egypt where he FULFILLED God’s plan for the SAVING of the HOUSE of ABRAHAM, ISAAC and JACOB. The HOUSE of ISRAEL. All of those DREAMS that God had given him, did come to pass.
Can I be honest with you folks, I’ve been in that PIT. And I’m not talking about the one behind the house. Don’t worry, it’s got a cover over it now. If one of my sons-in-laws wind up down in there it’s because they made me MAD. OK!!!
No, I’m talking about a SPIRITUAL PIT. Sometimes it was my own fault and sometimes it wasn’t. Sometimes God was punishing me and sometimes it was just because we live in a BROKEN WORLD. But God ALWAYS HAD LESSONS for me to learn. I’ve been down in that PIT of DESPAIR. The PIT of DEPRESSION. The PIT of FRUSTRATION. The PIT of SHAME and SIN.
But here’s the GOOD NEWS. He BROUGHT ME OUT of that PIT. That OLD MIRY CLAY. He ESTABLISHED my GOINGS. He GAVE ME a NEW SONG. He SET MY FEET on a ROCK. And that ROCK is JESUS folks. And NOW I’m SINGING a NEW SONG. Hey, that’s PRETTY GOOD.
Now that doesn’t mean that life will be SMOOTH SAILING from now on. No, there will still be hard times as I travel on through this world. There will still be times that I just don’t understand what is going on. And there may be times that I wind up back in a PIT. But God is always able to lift me up. And He’s able to lift you up too.
And I don’t know where you’re at this morning. But I know people that are here this morning that were at ONE TIME down in the DEEP PIT of SIN. They were addicted to ALCOHOL and DRUGS. I know people here that some counted out. They THOUGHT that there was NO WAY they would ever come out of that PIT ALIVE. But they did by the POWER of God. I don’t known if you’re in a PIT or on a MOUNTAIN this morning. You may be somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter because whoever you are, you need God this morning.
Why don’t you give Him a try?
