Genesis chapter number 37, as we see a major turning point, if you will, in this story of Jacob's family, we are coming to really toward the middle of the 430 years time frame that God has given for the children of Israel. And he made specific promises concerning that, telling them they're going to be in a strange country for 400 years, 430 years. And of course that 430 years began when he called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and he come in to the land of Canaan. This will come about halfway through where we're at right now, and then we see their migration down into Egypt following this chapter, and we see what takes place there. I think, of course, they will stay in Egypt for ... I think it's four ... I just went blank. I think it's four generations they stay in Egypt. We're given the specific a number of years that they were in captivity there during that time. But this is God's provision for the children of Israel to fulfill the promises that he has given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. to events that are about to take place that they themselves have no understanding of, they have no idea what's about to go on, they have no idea what's coming down the pipe, but God has already provided for them. And He's going to provide in a weird way, in a way that would not be pleasant for the one who's providing it through. And that being the case, Joseph takes the center stage here. Really, it's the story changes from Jacob here in chapter 36, or chapter 35 rather. We have Esau's family there in chapter 36. Here in chapter 37, it becomes about Joseph from here on out. through the end of the book. And God's provision for the people of Israel in this time that's coming their way. And for that reason, as we will continue on through this book and see these workings that take place in Joseph's life, we have a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in this man Joseph. We have a type of the Lord in his provision for his people in salvation and the suffering that he would endure for us. We have that type in Joseph in the suffering that he would endure for the very people that would sell him into slavery and would provide that provision for them. And so we see a remarkable picture here of grace and forgiveness and provision of God as we move forward in this study here in the book of Genesis. And it all begins here in chapter 37 in the changing of the story from Jacob to Joseph. Joseph, again, he becomes the centerpiece the target at which this is all focused here in this latter several chapters here of the book of Genesis. Now Joseph of course is the oldest son of Rachel. He is beloved of his father as we find in this particular passage. And to the point that in being beloved for his father, his father showed some lack of wisdom here, I guess, in how he doted on Joseph to the downfall of the rest of his sons. put on them the kind of love and the kind of attention that he puts on Joseph. And we're given a little bit of that here. We also see Joseph, him being young, no doubt is a big part of it. He's 17 years old when this event takes place here in chapter 37. And Joseph didn't have the best wisdom either. to go off telling the dreams that he had and incited this anger toward him. It was like it was nothing to him. And even his dad said, what are you telling us? What are you drinking for? You know, it was kind of a lack of wisdom on his part in what he was telling. But notice with me here, begin in verse number 1 as we see this story. As Joseph again takes center stage here in this passage. Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 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 colors. When his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably about him. Now, we see some issues right away of what's going on here in his family. Joseph is with his brothers, specifically the sons of the handmaidens of Jacob's wives, and he brings back a report against them. He paddles on his brothers. And when he paddles on his brothers, no doubt that made them angry. And then their daddy turns around and gives him a special coat, a coat of many colors, No doubt an expensive gift there that he'd never given any of the rest of them, never doted on them in the way that he doted. And the Scriptures tell us here he loved Joseph more than all his children. Loved them more than all his children. And they knew it. They knew it. They saw it. They saw how he acted toward Joseph and understood this love that their father had for him. Now, again, according to the timetable here, Joseph was 17 years old. And we find that the timetable given in chapter 30 and verse number 25, Joseph was born at the end of the 14-year servitude. Because it says immediately after Rachel had Joseph, Jacob went to Laban and told him, I've served my 14 years, I'm getting out of here. And Laban begged him to stay. No, no, please stay. If you stay, I mean, the Lord's blessed me since you've been here. My wealth has increased since you've been here. Please stay with me a little longer. You name your price and I'll give it to you. And so he stays the other six years there with him in service. And so he stays for 20 years there, so by the time he leaves from the household of Laban, Joseph is six years old. Then he goes up to Shechem and they are there at Shechem for about ten years, it's believed. So when they leave Shechem and come into the Promised Land, Joseph is sixteen years old when this takes place. And so this is kind of backtracking a little bit here in chapter 37 because Isaac is still alive here when this event takes place. So we have no We have no record of what Isaac thought about the situation. We have no detailing of his position in this situation as it unfolds. But Isaac is still alive at this point when this event happens to Joseph here at 17 years old. It tells us there of his love for Joseph above the rest of his brethren, and that coat there, it sealed the deal there. In fact, as we'll go on and see here, as many of you already know, that coat becomes an integral part in the story itself. to try to convince Jacob of their lies here in this passage. And so this code has a very pivotal place in not only their hatred for him, but the proof of his father's love for him. And it says there that they hated him so much, there in verse number 4, they could not speak peaceably to him. They couldn't even say hi to him. They hated Joseph. The fact that he's tattling on them probably made it worse. They're being mean to me, Daddy. What are you going to do? I'll give you a pretty coat. I don't know what he told them about, but he tattles on them and they cannot stand their little brother Joseph. We find in verse 5, Joseph was also a dreamer. It says, Joseph dreamed a dream and he told it his brethren and they hated him yet more. Now here we see a little bit of... of bad decision-making on Joseph's part, with knowing the hatred of his brethren for him, the fact that they didn't speak peaceably to him at all, he tells them about a dream that he had about how they're going to serve him. And you know how that would fly over with people that already hated you, you see. And so he has this dream, and he tells them about the dream and says they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I pray you this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and below my sheave arose, and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheave. And so there he said, we're all out in the field together and we've bundled up our wheat and my wheat bundle stood up and all of your wheat bundles bowed down before my wheat bundle. And they hated him the more for it, he said. And the 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. You think after the first one especially, you'd learn, don't tell them any more dreams. But he tells them again, tells them what he dreams, you see. And so he tells his dream and says, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. Not only he says, are you all going to serve me, but mommy and daddy's going to bow before me, too. That was his dream. Now, he's not bragging on that. He's just simply saying, I had a dream. That's what I dreamed about. But they recognize it right away as what's being told them in the dream. And it says there, he told it to his father, verse number 10, and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him. Jacob rebuked him for the dream. Perhaps he believed the dream as it goes on to tell us here. So his rebuke may have been more about, don't tell your brothers that dream, you dummy. They already hate you. Why are you telling them that dream for? It's probably more about what the rebuke was because it tells us here that Jacob, after hearing the dream and mulling over the dream, he believes what he's heard there. of what the dream was about. It says, 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 same. So Jacob believed the dream there. He heard what he heard. Well, maybe that's what the Lord's going to do someday. And that would seemingly be a pleasing thing to Jacob because this is his favorite son. This is the one he loved more than all the rest, he said. So this is, you know, seemingly a good thing in his mind. And he doesn't have, for himself, much use for the firstborn anyway, because he wasn't firstborn. And yet the blessing was passed on to him. And so far, yet he's not gotten a direction from the Lord on whom the seed would be passed to, specifically. Who would be that one who would receive the firstborn, the right of the firstborn? He was pretty specific in the times before with Isaac and then with himself, but he's not received anything of that from the Lord as of yet. And so his brethren envied him, and his father observed the saying. And then it says in verse 12, 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." Probably that very piece of property that he lived on before there next to the city of Shechem where they had that field that Jacob had bought. No doubt he'd sent his flocks up to feed on that field as well. and so he'd have traveling flocks going back and forth to feed on that ground there, and then come back and feed on the ground there in Hebron. So he sends them up to Shechem there, and sends Joseph after them to return him word on how things are going. And so it says, a certain man found him, verse 15, 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 far 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. So they see Joseph coming, and they conspire together to slay their little brother. It's not like they had too many qualms about slaying, especially after wiping out the city of Shechem, at least Simeon and Levi, so they didn't have too much concern about the ramifications of that or the or what laws they might be breaking or what wickedness they were harboring in their hearts, they were not too concerned about that. They simply saw the one they hated and they said, hmm, here's our chance, let's kill him. So they conspired together to kill their brother and began to cook this plan up about how they were going to do it. And it says in verse 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. We'll 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. 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. So Reuben cooks up his own plan and says, don't just put him in the pit. We don't have to kill him. We don't want his blood on our hands. Just put him in the pit. We'll leave him there to die and we'll go on. But Reuben had full intention of going back to rescue his brother. and get Joseph out of the pit and bring him home again. That was his intention. The Bible tells us that's what he was thinking on doing. No, no, no, don't kill him. We don't want his blood on our hands. Y'all just put him in the pit. And you put him in the pit and we'll just go on and we'll do what you said. It came like some beast killed him. But he had full intention of going back and rescuing Joseph and taking him home again. And it says there in verse number 23, And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors 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. So this is apparently an old well that was dried up. And they put him in that well pit. And they sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt." So this group of Ishmaelites off in the distance, they are traders that are going on their way to sell their wares in Egypt. And so they see them coming along and they get this idea that Judas specifically is the one that speaks up there in verse 26. And Judas said unto his brethren, what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? We can't make no money off that deal. But what if we sell him? Come, let us sell him to the Israelites. Let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our flesh. And his brethren were content. All right, we'll sell him into slavery. That's a good idea. We don't want any blood on our hands. We'll sell him into slavery. And so we see there, verse 28, it says, Then there passed by Midianites, merchant men, And this, by the way, is the same group. They're called Midianites here in verse 28, but they're Ishmaelites. They're considered one and the same. And so they're called both in the scriptures. In fact, you go over to Judges chapter 8 and you see that as well mentioned there where they're Speaking of Ishmaelites and the Midianites together, they're the same people. And so here they're calling them the same people. It's just they are Ishmaelites. This is Abraham's family, but specifically Midianites from the land of Midian of Ishmael's family. And so you're given both here. This is family that's doing this, that's buying him into slavery. This is distant cousins that's carrying this out. But specifically, it's the Medianites that are doing it. They're the ones that get him. They're the ones that enslave him here, buying. And they do so for 20 pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. And so his brother's selling for 20 pieces of silver to the Midianites. And it tells us there in verse 29, Reuben returned to the pit. Reuben had been gone from them. They sell him while Reuben is away. Reuben goes to do what he had planned to do. He's coming to rescue him. And his purpose is to go get him out of the pit and take him home before his brothers have any ability to do anything else to him. And so he comes to get him out of the pit and he finds he's gone. Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rent his clothes. He rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren and said, The child is not, and I, whither shall I go? Reuben said, I can't go home. My little brother is gone. He's the eldest. He's the firstborn. He feels responsibility of taking care of his brother. He said, how can I even go home? He's missing. He's gone. He's not there. It tells us there that He knew it. Verse 32, rather. No, I'm sorry. Verse 31. They took Joseph's coat and killed the kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood. They 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. No, now, whether it be thy son's coat or not. 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 sat cloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. So Jacob thinks his son has been killed. Joseph has been slaughtered here by some animal, given this coat of many colors with the blood sprinkled upon it. 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 and to my son mourning, thus his father wept for him. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt under Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's and captain of the guard. As far as his brothers were concerned, they had not another thought about it. As far as his brothers were concerned, he's gone at last. We're rid of him. That one who Daddy loves so much. That one who we hated so much. That one who had dreams about ruling over us. We're rid of Him at last. And they went right along with their own lie. They were not concerned what happened to Him after He was sold to those Vidianites there. But God, God has a plan. God has a purpose for Joseph. to be the Savior of his people. And being that one whom God has set aside to save the people of Israel here, God is working everything out and putting Joseph exactly where he wants Joseph. And the Midianites go directly to Egypt and apparently go directly to Potiphar and sell Joseph there to Potiphar, the captain of the guard of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The captain of the guard of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now life will not be easy for Joseph in these first years. He will struggle greatly because of the place that he is at, because of the situation that he is in as a slave. But the Lord will continue to move him exactly where He wants him, in exactly the right time where He wants him, to accomplish His will to the saving of the people of Israel, to provide for them to provide for them a salvation, a physical one, but a salvation that He will provide through this one that is so hated by His brethren. We see this same example again. He is the top of Christ. We see that example of how hated the Lord was of His own people. of His own brethren. They didn't want anything to do with Him. They hated Him. They rejoiced in His trouble. They rejoiced in His suffering. They mocked Him in it even, as He would provide salvation for them, as He would make that offering that only He could make for them in their place. And so we see that parallel between Christ Jesus and Joseph as Joseph is going to be put in that place by God to be that one that would redeem the people of Israel. Physically now, but would redeem them again and save them from these events that are coming their way. But they have no idea of what is coming. The Lord is already prepared. The Lord has already established the way by which He is going to save them. And we get to see, we get to see it as we read along. Joseph had to live it. His brethren had to live it. But we get to see it as we read along. And the remarkable understanding of Joseph that that is exactly what God had accomplished and what God had done when we get to the end of this story. That he saw exactly what God had accomplished in his purpose to save the people of Israel. Remarkable story of grace. Remarkable story of forgiveness and the provision of God for his people. Let's all stand and we'll be dismissed tonight.