The Dreamer

"And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 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. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying." (Genesis 37:1-11)

We are about to embark on a journey with Jacob's favorite son, Joseph. We will learn quite a bit about Joseph before we are done. In fact, there are more details provided to us about Joseph than just about any other biblical character, excepting of course, David and Jesus. And we will find that the scriptures do not give us details of any sin of Joseph's. We know he had to have sinned, because there was ever only one man who never sinned, and that was Jesus Christ. But on the whole Joseph appears to be a very righteous both as a youth and as a man; we will see he has much in common with Daniel, another righteous youth who grew into a righteous man.

In spite of the righteousness of Joseph, or perhaps we should say because of it, he will end up suffering greatly at the hands of his brothers. And Jacob unwittingly helped to bring this evil upon his son Joseph, both by letting his other sons see his favoritism of Joseph, and by supplying Joseph with a "coat of many colors."

Chuck Missler says that the term "coat of many colors" was incorrectly translated in the Latin Vulgate. It should be termed "a long-sleeved robe." The significance of this is greater than you would think.

It seems that a long-sleeved robe was the clothing of a ruler. When Jacob produced this for his favorite son, Jacob, jealousy immediately increased amongst his brethren. Compound that further by a dream (two dreams!) symbolizing that the brethren might be "under" Joseph in any sense of the word sometime in the future, and that jealousy began to take on a life of its own!

Joseph seems to be without guile and unable to see that his dreams and his words are turning his brothers against him. Jacob, however, knows his own sons. He has already clearly seen the evil actions of the first three of his sons by Leah. And Jacob, probably remembering himself as a younger brother to an elder brother of whom he coveted things, surely is able to discern undercurrents of envy surrounding his beloved son. This is most likely why he responds outwardly to Joseph with a rebuke, while inwardly he ponders the meaning of the dreams.

Meanwhile, Joseph's brothers hated him. It is interesting that scripture says that Joseph's brothers "hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words." So it is not just that they believe Joseph is an obnoxious little brat of a younger brother; they are fearful that the dreams (and they do believe dreams can be prophetic) will come true. They dwell on this hatred, until they hit upon a plan to get rid of Joseph, which we will see in the next posting.