this morning we turn in the scriptures to genesis chapter 37 we begin the final section of the book of genesis in our study of the whole book and this morning we start a study in the book in the series of joseph so genesis chapter 37 we'll be considering the entirety of the chapter let's give our attention this morning to god's word genesis 37 beginning at verse 1 jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of canaan these are the generations of jacob joseph being 17 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. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field and behold my sheaf arose and stood upright and behold your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf his brothers said to him are you indeed to reign over us or are you indeed to rule over us so they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said behold i have dreamed another dream behold the sun the moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me and when he told it to his father and to his brothers his father rebuked him and said to him what is this dream that you've dreamed shall i and your mother and your brothers indeed come and bow ourselves to the ground before you and his brothers were jealous of him but his father kept the saying in mind now his brothers went to pasture their flock father's flock near Shechem 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 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 and a man found him watering in the fields. And the man asked him, what are you seeking? I'm seeking my brothers. He said, tell me please where they are pasturing the flock. And the man said, they've gone away for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him afar from afar. And before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, here comes this dreamer. 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. But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands saying, let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, shed no blood, throw him into some, 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 so when joseph came to his brothers they stripped him of his robe the robe of many colors that he wore and they threw him took him and threw him into a pit the pit was empty there was no water in it then they sat down to eat and looking up as 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. Then Judah said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 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. Then Midianite traders passed by and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver they took joseph to egypt when reuben returned to the pit and saw that joseph was not in the pit he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said the boy is gone and i where shall i go and they took joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood 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 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 then jacob tore his garments put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and said, No, I should go down to Sheol to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. One of the things that we are all used to saying when some tragedy strikes or some terrible thing happens, the way that we cope with it, the way that we deal with it, is to say that God is in control. That's our way of responding to things. He's seated on the throne. I prayed that this morning. I emphasized that. We don't have to fear. His sovereign plan is working out. His sovereign plan, and it's true, isn't it? Those are wonderfully comforting things to say and to think about in times like that. But if I'm going to be honest, and if we're going to look at things openly directly as we face them it's not so easy to say today is it i said earlier that just in two weeks you know anyone watching the world scene by now is just appalled at the chain of events i mean some wicked group overseas islamic group is on a murderous tirade across iraq saying they're coming our way with gruesome descriptions some of the most that i've come across is not nation rising up against nation and we've seen racial tensions in this country again come alive when we thought that we were in this post era of that how alive and fresh these problems are and there's no respect for authority we're we're seeing so many things everyone's scared men's hearts fail them for fear At the time of the flood in Genesis, remember, from the beginning, remember how the Lord characterized it right before the flood came. He said the whole world was full of violence. We're living this. We're living it. And maybe your homes, maybe you feel these very sort of struggles inside your homes. And so we say, we say, well, well, well, wait, wait. God's in control. Be calm. God's in control. Everything that we're feeling, everything we're seeing, the problem is that it all seems directly contradictory to that little statement, God is in control. That's how I feel. That's how I feel. It doesn't seem like He's in much control of anything. It doesn't seem like anything really is happening that is good where is god in all of this mess you know there was a whole psalm that dealt with that in psalm 77 the psalmist described something that he was so disturbed about that he says the mere thought of god the mere thought of him was a disturbance to me my soul refused to be comforted when i remembered him i moan when i meditate my spirit fails i am so troubled i cannot speak has god forgotten to be gracious has he in anger shut up his compassion will the lord cast off forever is he favorable no more has his mercy ceased has his promise failed has god forgotten to be gracious has he in anger shut up his tender mercies you know how he got through it i will remember the works of the lord i will remember your wonders of old you have redeemed your people the sons of jacob and joseph of all places that the psalmist dealt with the tragedies and hardships he looked back at that event he looked back that god had redeemed the sons of jacob and joseph this was to be an event uh for future generations to marvel over to see how god works to see what god is doing to see how god works in our own lives to see how his plans and purposes are being fulfilled and and filled out and what we have this morning in genesis 37 as we come to the end of the book is one of the greatest tragedies so far in the book as we look at this the greatest of messes and yet in it god displays as joseph will say at the very end of it all but as for you you meant it for evil but god his ultimate design his ultimate intention was good and he sent me ahead in order to bring about this day many people alive now no one saw that when they were going through it no one saw any of that no one saw how this would twist and turn and how it would go and yet when it was all done they stood in awe that that was the truth that was what happened that's how it filled out redeeming a people the lord fulfilled his plan and he saved them through this through this kind of mess through this ugliness this is what he did well that's what i want to consider with you this morning and see the whole big picture of what the lord is doing how when we don't understand his workings how something like genesis 37 is something that you can go to and you could say there it is look what he did in that and look what he brought about for us the way i'm going to break this down this morning is in three ways. I'm going to look at first with you the despising of Joseph. Second, the rejection of Joseph. And third, what amounts to the murder of Joseph. So the despising, the rejection, and the murder. So let's look here at Genesis. This is the last section of the book. The last section of Genesis. And what we have presented to us as we open it up is an aged old patriarch, Jacob. He's now where he should be. He's in the land where his father was a stranger. Jacob is sojourning. This is the history, it says, as we now focus on the lives of his sons, particularly one son. If you look at verse 2 in Genesis 37, we read that Joseph, being 17 years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. Now the whole section is really creating for us a tension. A strong tension between this particular son and the rest of the sons. You'll notice here that Joseph is dwelling as we open up chapter 37 with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. These were the maids, sons. And to highlight that, what seems to be happening here is that we have a contrast of Joseph as Jacob sees him as the truly legitimate son. Four things are said of him to highlight his uniqueness. I've given it the four R's. The first R is this, Joseph's report. Verse 2 tells us that Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. In my study of Joseph and how I've heard this approached for years is that this section presents to us a kind of youthful, tattletaling punk. And that's how he's generally preached. And I could really go after some of my own kids on this one today, on the tattletaling issue. Is that what's going on here? Is Joseph presented in this section as maligning his brothers and just a young, tattletaling, boastful, exalting figure? Well, there is another way to look at this. the hebrew construction can read somewhat differently it's what you call subjective genitive what does that mean means this joseph brings a report to his father of their slander against him it's interesting and i think in the context that's correct verse 3 tells us that israel loved his son more than all the other sons and it's using the name israel isn't it interesting the intention of the narrative the intention of the spirit is to offset this son to offset him so radically jacob loved this son he was his beloved son the firstborn son of rachel and the sense here is that in jacob's mind this is the son of promise this has got to be him this has got to be the one this is the son through whom all the abrahamic blessings will come the new testament only mentions joseph four times he's an interesting figure out of the gates isn't the second r is that joseph then makes his son a beautiful robe that we know as a robe of many colors joseph's robe it really was a long robe with sleeves so it covered his whole body it would be similar to what we know as a long overcoat covered beautiful that covered the whole body full of fur and skin it was impressive again uniqueness this is an amazing son in verse four his brothers see this that jacob loved joseph more than all his brothers and what you have presented in each action that happens is growing anger and hatred on the part of the brothers against him it goes somewhere it starts you'll notice here with bitterness and then hostility and then strife. And ultimately, they get revenge and it works its way out to murder. So because of Israel's love for Joseph, they hated him. Then comes the third R, his reign. Joseph has two dreams at this point. He gathers together the brothers and he begins to tell them, hear this dream that I've dreamed. And behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brother said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated him all the more. Notice the growing hatred here for his words. And he tells another dream. The sun, the moon, the 11 stars are bowing down to me. And Jacob even responds, seems angrily at this dream. This was revelation. This was a dream spoken that God had given in revelation. God spoke throughout the Old Testament to his prophets and dreams. And what you have here is Joseph doing what every faithful prophet would ever do in history. He would speak as he was commanded to speak the words that come from God. You're going to bow down to me. Stuff's building here, isn't it? I want you to picture this. 17-year-old son. Favorite son. In a fur coat-styled robe. Can you imagine if somebody walked in here with one of these? Probably say, pimp. You guys are all going to bow down to me. Not a good situation. Not a good situation, is it? These guys slaughtered the Shechemites. I mean, these guys are ruthless. These are a ragtag, backwood, northwest-style group. Rough. Notice the progression, verse 4. They hated him. They couldn't speak peaceably to him. Jealousy is filling them. Verse 3, you'll notice that every time. Intensity, intensity. In verse 11, it gets to the point of envy. Israel himself is angry. Shall we bow down to you? And then we come to the fourth R, which I call Joseph's righteousness. In verse 12, Jacob's concerned about his sons. They're dwelling in Shechem. Well, that's a reason to be concerned. They had already wiped out the whole region. So in concern, he sends Joseph to them. Listen to the beauty of this. Come. I will send you to my sons. The ones that I'm concerned about. And as soon as the father says come, what does Joseph say? Here I am. I'll go. So Joseph goes in concern for his brothers to a far country. And he comes to a man and the man directs him. And in verse 16, Joseph says, I'm seeking my brothers. they all hate him. They all can't stand him. They want nothing to do with him. They have been giving over and over evil reports of him, sharing the concern of his father for his distant sons. Joseph loves them. Joseph goes to them and is pictured on a mission to bring back word to his father of them. At this point, the narrative goes well beyond just despising of Joseph. Notice the rejection here as he comes to Dothan. We read in verse 18 that they saw him from afar, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, here comes this dreamer. 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 has become of his dreams. They conspire. It's appalling at this point, isn't it? I mean, the kind of anger and hatred toward a brother. The one character you might think that stands out here and is somewhat noble is Reuben. You know, Reuben says, let's not do that. We don't want to kill him. His intention was secretly to get back in his father's good graces after the whole Bilhah incident. Then we read the most disturbing section, verse, in verse 23. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore, and they took him and cast him into a pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat and drink. Notice the chain of events. They take him. They strip him. They strip him of all of his dignity. They leave him like a dead dog, naked, thrown into a pit. Sixteen feet were these pits. It was for refuse. It was for robbers. They launched him in there. You read one word from Joseph? Not a word. The worst is the total disregard of his life. They sit down and they eat a meal, you know. They sit down and they feast. Totally hardened consciences while casting their brother into the grave. Despised, rejected. It gets worse. they look up there's ishmaelites traveling on the trade route with spices to egypt and judah speaks up now judah judah says you know we really can't conceal his blood we know with the cane incident god sees all everything you can't conceal his blood the blood will cry out from the ground i tell you what we're going to do let's sell him let's sell him to these traders to take him down and we're done with him forever. And so they do that. They take 20 shekels of silver and deliver him into the hands of foreigners. It takes him down to Egypt, to Potiphar. And the most painful ending to all of this is that the brothers then take that cloak and they dip it in blood and they hand it back to their father. And they say, is this your son's? What a tragic ending to Genesis 37. Do you know whether this is your son's tunic? Jacob says, it's my son's. It's my son's. I go down to the grave in mourning. Ending here, the very scene is repeated that when he deceived his father with clothing, so now he's deceived. this is your holy family this is your holy family Joseph left for dead hauled off to Egypt gone now I wanted to paint that as quick as I could I wanted you to feel that how dark the scene is how bad it is this is God's holy family this are his people hatred for brothers stripping him naked human trafficking left for dead soul tormenting your own father like this the epitome of hatred everything you could ever conjure up and put into a narrative of the brutality of humanity is right here and thus begins the story of joseph i could have a lot of good application today i mean hatred at homes fighting treatment of brothers i think it would be a scandal to preach this as a passage only about sanctification. An absolute scandal. What do you think this is about? What story is this? You know it. What story? You know the story. God has a son. God has a son. A son in whom was all his delight. The elect one, whom he loved. This one had absolutely no sin whatsoever. None. Clean. Pure. His own righteousness, spotless. He is the righteousness of God. He didn't come flaunting it. He made Himself a servant. Speaking God's Word. Making Himself of no reputation. Taking the form of a bondservant. Coming in the likeness of men. His father was concerned. Oh, his father was concerned about a bunch of rebel sons out there. And his father said to his favorite son, go to my sons there. And the Father sent His eternal Son to these sons, to a fallen world, to a dangerous land where His brothers were. What did this favorite son say? Here I am. I'll go. Behold, it's written in the volume of the book, I've come to do Your will, O God. I'll go. He cheerfully came with joy that was before Him. He came to his sons. And he came seeking. He came seeking. This was the whole picture of his ministry. He was seeking the lost sons of Israel. He was going after them. And only blessing and not cursing. What did he do? For no cause at all, the whole while, you study an entire New Testament of his brothers hating him. That's your whole New Testament. Who's this dreamer? Who is this wine-bibber? We hated him. We esteemed him not. It grew. And it grew. Joseph's brothers conspired against him. And in Matthew 26, the elders and chief priests conspired against Jesus. He was arrested. He was sold for 30 shekels of silver. He was stripped naked. He was flogged. He was beaten. The mockery was upon him. We crowned him with thorns. And then imagine what we did when we stripped him. Imagine what we did when we stripped him. We handed this beloved son of the Father. We handed the beloved son into the hands of sinners. We gave him to Pilate, not Potiphar. How about this? A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for a wine vat and built a tower, and he leased it to vinedressers and went to a far country. Now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vinedressers that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from his vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent them another servant. And at him, they threw stones and wounded him in the head and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed, and many others beating and killing some. Therefore, still having one son, his beloved, he sent to them saying, they'll respect my son. They'll respect him. But those vinedressers said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. So they took him and they killed him and they cast him out of the vineyard. A father who only loved, a father who only cared, gave his beloved son to us and we took off those garments, those bloody garments. We divided them up and we didn't even hand them back to Him. Stole them. That was our response to God the Father for sending His Son to us. You see, in Jesus we see the whole story, don't we? Isaiah 53, He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. I want to ask this question this morning. Do you look at ISIS and say, how barbaric? I mean, they're cutting off heads. Do you look at ISIS and say, that is the most extreme version of barbarism. That is so barbaric. John McCain, quoting John McCain. We need to blow them all smithereens and into the hell that they deserve. Amen. Violent, ravenous murderers they are. Guess what? You're no better than them. You did that to God's Son. I did that to God's Son. We chopped off his head. Gruesome, I know. And that's the way Peter preached. Remember? Him, first sermon in Acts. Being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. Crucifixion was the worst form of torment you could do to somebody. You're the brothers. I'm the brother. And then he says, Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, here's the response. What did we do? We did this to God's Son. You ever feel that? do you feel that you were the cause of that we look at the mess around us and we look at the blame and we throw out the question where is god in all of this evil that's happening i mean it just inevitably always comes and you know we see this this sad world and all the terrible things that are happening and we see what's happening in our homes and our families and and you you feel like psalm 77 has his mercy ceased has has his promise failed has god forgotten to be gracious has he in anger shut up his tender mercies i don't see where you are in any of this i don't see you working in any of this i don't see you in this sad world at all look at it look at it i mean you could have stopped the cart going to egypt you could have stopped that there he goes he's gone So, thoughts of you trouble me, Lord. Thoughts of you trouble me. Where is God in this mess? Sending His Son ahead of you to preserve life. Where is God in the midst of history pinning His Son to the cross for you? Where is God in all this death killing His Son for you? The next time you're discouraged, remember the works of the Lord. God in His determined purpose and foreknowledge delivered Him up. Our murderous actions did that. And it was God's way to save you. You've redeemed with your people, your arm. He doesn't say Jacob and Joseph. He says the sons of Jacob and Joseph. He redeemed you. People who did this. People who act like this. Through this tragedy, God so worked His purposes that Joseph was sent ahead to save his brothers from death. No one saw it at the time. But when Joseph stood up, and if you ever wonder, this is why the whole story is so beautiful, if you ever wonder how Christ responds to sinners now, what does Christ say? Listen to the words of Joseph. If Joseph can say this, how much more? does not jesus say this to us today but now do not therefore be grieved unreal you know unreal an isis murderer don't be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. God sent me before you to preserve life. Don't be grieved that you did this to me, says Jesus. Repent of it, confess it, but I'll lift that. You see, when we begin to think this way and we look at our afflictions and we don't see the big picture, I want you to remember this passage. This is the only thing I wanted to do. God is saying, look at the lives of Jacob and Joseph's sons. I redeemed those sons. And look at what I can do for you. So next time we wonder, where is God in this mess? Look at the cross. He had pinned his son there. Set your eyes there of faith and be cheered. He was smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. You don't have to be flagellant. By His stripes we're healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His own way. And the Lord did something so wonderful for you. He laid on Him the iniquity of us all. What's the response? Repent. Peter says, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is not just to you, but I'm going to include your children, says the Lord. And all who are far off, whoever calls on me, that is for them too. That's the response the story demands. He loves us. He loves us. You're a great failure. I'm a great failure. But the son went ahead. He's the captain of our salvation. He's gone ahead and he's promised. We're going to meet up with him again. We're going to stand before him again. And you will be received by faith into his kingdom. The story of Joseph tells us that God has fulfilled his promises in life and in death and He sent His Son to preserve our lives. Even though we did this to Him, we'll see Him again. In love and compassion then for one another, shouldn't that change how we respond? We respond to one another in the way that we love, in the way that we give, in the way that we cherish and treat one another. Christ did this for us. God gave His beloved Son. And I hope that's set afresh. We preach this message all the time and we say it over and over. And I feel like in the course of my ministry, I say it over and over. But as it's set in, look what He did for you. Look at His love. Respond by believing and trusting in His holy name. In Jesus' name, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Genesis 37 in the story of Joseph. And surely there are many things that we learn from this. But ultimately, we learn how you responded to us and what we did to you. Thank you for telling us this. The book of Genesis began with a terrible failure of the first Adam. And the book of Genesis ends with a remarkable conquest telling us a lot about the success of the second and last Adam to come. And how thankful we are to know the gospel of our salvation and that you've treated us as adopted sons by grace. Thank you for loving us this way. Give us then strength and confidence to go forward in whatever life's trials are. To know that you're with us. That your face is shining upon us. And that you love us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.