Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

-Genesis 37:1-4

The Genesis narrative shifts in chapter 37 away from Jacob and begins to focus primarily on his children. While the names of the children were listed in Genesis 29-30 in the context of the rivalry between Leah and Rachel, Genesis 34 provides for the reader the first details about them. This chapter describes the defiling of Jacob’s only daughter Dinah as well as the subsequent revenge taken by Jacob’s sons, led by Simeon and Levi. These events serve to illustrate the issues within Jacob’s family that continued to plague him even as an older man.

Genesis 37 begins by describing the relationship that Jacob had with children and illustrates once again the familial sin of favoritism that had characterized Isaac and Rebekah’s relationships to Jacob and Esau. Though he had been the son who was not favored by his father, rather than breaking this pattern of sin, Jacob loved his son Joseph more than any of his other sons (Gen. 37:3). This favoritism was not merely demonstrated in attitude, but in Jacob’s gift of a robe of many colors to Joseph. In the Ancient Near East clothing was symbolic of authority and inheritance, and so it is possible that this gift was a sign to Joseph and his brothers that he would be the one to receive the birthright of the oldest as well as the blessing of Jacob.

As the narrative progresses we find that Jacob’s other sons do not simply envy Joseph; the text mentions three times that they hate him (Gen. 37:3, 4, 5). This is furthered by a series of dreams that Joseph has which seem to indicate that at some point in the future he will have authority over them and they will bow before him. Though Jacob instructs Joseph to not speak of such things, the narrative informs us that he kept all of these things in mind (Gen. 37:11).

Sometime later, when Jacob sent Joseph to check in on his brothers and their flocks, the men conspired to rid themselves of the boy. After initially determining to kill him, they were persuaded to simply to leave him in one of the large water pits or cisterns in the area by Reuben who intended to rescue the boy later. They took Joseph and stripped him of his robe, but as they abandoned him, they noticed a caravan of Ishmaelites and determined instead to sell him for a price. They then took his robe, dipped it in blood, and brought it to Jacob who wept bitterly and mourned for what he perceived as the death of his favored son.

Unable to break from the sinful patterns of his own upbringing, Jacob repeats them with devastating consequences for his own family. The sons of Jacob conspire against Joseph with full knowledge of how their deception will harm their father, repeating the same pattern that he himself had established in his deception of his own father. In spite of all of this sin and family strife, the sovereign hand of God was at work, though no one at the time could have known it. The Lord of all creation is at all times working to accomplish His plans and purposes.

Join us this Sunday as we gather to worship Jesus Christ together and share our fellowship meal.

Soli Deo Gloria.

-Thomas