The Abduction of Joseph

"And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. 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. 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. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren, tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. 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. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another Behold, this dreamer cometh. 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. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. 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. 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; and they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. 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. And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? 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. 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. And Reuben returned unto the pit; and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, wither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard." (Genesis 37:1-36)

This passage of scripture is easily understood. We can see clearly the evil being plotted against Joseph by all the brothers (excluding Reuben, and Benjamin who, being the youngest was still at home); a plot, that at first, was to murder Joseph because of their great hatred and envy of him. And perhaps, the brothers feared that Joseph's dreams might be prophetic and might indeed come to pass one day; in which case the most expedient way to stop that from happening was to kill Joseph.

An interesting note here is that the pit into which Joseph is thrown had a further descriptive that tell us "there was no water in it." We might wonder why that bit of information would be considered important for us to know; other than it is clear Joseph could not have drowned in it? Yet there is another similar descriptive in Zechariah 9:11 which says "As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water." Again it is mentioned that "there is no water." If you have time, it would be an interesting study to find out what the "pit wherein there is no water" really is. But I haven't the space for that study right now. We will, however, get into it when we get to Zechariah. In the meantime, just remember that ALL scripture points to Jesus Christ. Even this passage we are studying in Genesis concerning Joseph. The Holy Spirit never lets us forget about Jesus Christ; that is after all His job: to glorify Jesus.

Now let's get back to Joseph. It was only Reuben's quick thinking that prevented Joseph being immediately murdered; if Reuben hated Joseph as well, then his intervention was possibly because Reuben knew the grief his father would suffer and did not want to bring this on his father.

Judah agreed with Reuben, finally, in not killing Joseph; but it was his idea to have Joseph sold into slavery. The Ishmeelites (the Arabians, descendents of Ishmael, Abraham's son) besides being well-known in Egypt for their merchandise of spice, balm and myrrh, all of which were used for embalming, also trafficked in slavery. Judah sought a "profit" from this violent act against Joseph, which was a terrible thing, but we are thankful for Joseph's sake that it was not murder. It is interesting that a man named Judah sells Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, while it was a man named Judas who negotiated the deal to sell Jesus to the High priest for thirty pieces of silver.

What is not told us here is what Joseph's reaction to all of this violence against him was. We can only imagine what Joseph was going through until we get further into the scriptures which will at one point mention his "agony and despair." We can be sure that he was terrified of what was happening to him at the hand of his brothers. His innocence was badly abused and perhaps lost that day! For many in his place, bitterness might take over and last a lifetime. But we will see this will not be the case with Joseph.

One other thing we will not be told until further along, is that God had things in HIS control. This does not mean that He inspired the brothers to do such evil; instead He took what the brothers meant to be for evil and He used it for good, not only for Joseph, but even for the brothers. Reuben had in mind to deliver Joseph from the evil his brothers intended, although most likely not for Joseph's sake, as much as for Jacob's sake. But God had in mind that HE would be the One to deliver Joseph. Somehow, Reuben was re-directed away from the group just long enough for the selling of Joseph to take place; for if Reuben had been there he would have tried to stop the selling. Perhaps he might even have been killed by his own brothers in the process as well, we don't know. But God knew. And God's hand perhaps was in Reuben's temporary absence from the scene at a critical moment.

Now, we have to note also, that Jacob (who doesn't yet know he has been deceived) has actually been deceived by his sons in much the same manner in which he once deceived his own father, Isaac. In this case the blood of kid goats was used to deceive Jacob; while Jacob defrauded his father using the skin and fur of kid goats.

Jacob's grief is shown by the traditional Middle Eastern response to the death of a loved one: to rent his clothes (tearing the front of his long dress up the middle more or less long, depending on the amount of grief felt) and wearing sackcloth (a black coarse material worn as a belt to indicate that he is in a mourning period). But in this particular case, Jacob's despondency is so great that no one can comfort him. He is determined to mourn this favorite son until he himself is dead.

In the next posting, we will leave the brothers and Jacob behind and follow Joseph into Egypt, where he is now a slave in the household of Potiphar who is an officer of Pharaoh.