Genesis 37:1-36
Midweek Lent 1
✠ In the name of Jesus ✠
Sometimes telling the truth about things comes across as arrogance and gets you in trouble. That’s certainly how it was for Joseph with his brothers. First, he gave a bad report about them to his father; he told the truth about their unrighteousness in their work and their behavior. Then he was given a vision of the future in his dreams, about how his brothers and even his father would bow down to him. Perhaps the way he said it bothered them. Probably even more though, the idea that they who were older would honor and obey him as the greater one grated on their nerves. Joseph’s truth-telling annoyed them and went against the way they thought things should be. And to top it all off, Jacob their father favored Joseph and showed him more love. The inward envy and hate of the brothers gave birth to outward cruelty toward Joseph. They contemplated killing him, threw him in a pit, and then sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites who took him down to Egypt.
In all of this we see Jesus. For He also incurred the wrath of His Jewish brothers, the religious leaders of the day. Even Pontius Pilate recognized that they handed Jesus over to him because of envy. They were jealous of the following that He had and didn’t like the threat that He was to their power. Jesus’ teaching of the truth gave a bad report of them, exposing their unrighteousness, so that they could not speak peacefully to Him and wanted to kill Him. Jesus is the chosen One in whom the Father delights (Is. 42:1), but they could not accept that He is the Messiah and the Son of God. “Who do you make yourself out to be?” they said (John 8:53). They thought He was arrogant and blasphemous for what He said and taught.
Don’t be surprised then as disciples of Jesus, if you are treated badly or unfairly for speaking the truth of God’s Word and for following Him who is the Truth. To be sure, we should be kind and understanding in our talk, speaking the truth in love. But often it doesn’t matter how you say it; people just don’t want anyone to threaten their world view or even to suggest that we all need to repent and cling to Christ’s mercy, which alone can save us. To do that can get you branded as arrogant or unloving. People might want to take you down a peg. It can bring hard consequences.
For Jesus, many of those consequences were prophesied in the life of Joseph. As Judah sold his own brother for silver shekels to the Ishmaelites, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities for silver pieces, so that they might be rid of Him (Mt 26:14). As Joseph was stripped naked and placed into a pit, so Jesus was stripped, hung on the cross to pay for our foolish sins of envy and jealousy, and put into the pit of the grave. Yet, like Joseph, Christ was in the pit of death only for a short time. He rose again so that we may be restored to the Father and so that our sorrows may one day be turned to pure joy. As Joseph was taken down to Egypt, Jesus was also taken there as a young child, so that He might encapsulate and perfectly fulfill the life of His people Israel and make all things new, freeing us from our slavery to sin and death and the devil and bringing us into the new creation.
Joseph’s brothers had to come up with a story and something to tell their father to try to cover up their wrongdoing. That’s the problem with sin; it always leads to more sin and futile attempts to hide it. Sooner or later the truth will be revealed, as it is by the end of the Joseph narrative. For now though, Joseph’s blood-stained multi-colored robe covers over the sins of his brothers. But it only hides them temporarily. However, the blood of Christ becomes the robe which covers our sins eternally. And it doesn’t just cover them over, it takes them away. For Jesus is the sacrificial animal who redeems us and clothes us in His own righteousness, as it is written, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” “The blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us of all sin.” “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” You wear the rich coat of the Father’s manifold love.
Joseph’s dreams would come to pass. His brothers eventually would bow down to him. But his dreams are especially fulfilled in Jesus. For in the end every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Rom. 14:10-11; Phil. 2:10-11). It was the sun, moon, and stars that bowed to Joseph in his dream. And consider these heavenly bodies as they relate to our Lord. As a star led the Wise Men to the infant Jesus (Mt. 2:9), as the sun was darkened at His crucifixion (Mt. 27:45), so all the heavenly bodies will bow before Christ when He returns to usher in the new creation. As it is written, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:24-26).
Jesus spoke the truth before the Council, that He is the Son of God, whom they would see sitting at the right hand of God’s power even though it got Him condemned. But this He did for you, that you would not be condemned but saved. Let us then bow before our Redeemer this Lententide; for in Him your vindication is coming.
✠ In the name of Jesus ✠