# 40 2023 Dev. Ge.36, 37:3. The Wonder of Dreams! Read all of chapter thirty six and thirty seven first . We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Ge.37:3 “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.”
Ge. 36 and 37: Ch. 36 is a genealogy of Esau’s family and indicates that Esau had to move because the land could not support both his and Jacob’s livestock. The same thing happened to Abraham and Lot. Esau moved south to the hill country known as Edom. Edom comes up again when the Israelites come out of Egypt following the king’s highway that ran through Edom. Moses requested to pass though twice but was refused. Edom sent an army to protect their border. Moses refused to fight them and went around them.
Ch. 37 starts out with vs. 2. “This is the account of Jacob’s family line” but not until ch. 49 are all the sons mentioned when Jacob blessed and commented on each of his sons.
Vs.1-11 There was a major problem in Jacob’s family because he, Jacob, loved Joseph more than his other sons. Joseph did not help matters by being a snitch to his father about his brothers. Second, God sent Joseph dreams that annoyed his brothers and his father. As we know the dreams came true. Jacob, who also had his own dreams, kept Joseph’s dreams in mind. Third World peoples, in general, put a lot of stock in dreams; us, not so much. Does God still use dreams today?
Vs.12-20 Jacob sent Joseph to find his brothers who where in the field grazing the livestock near Shechem, after what happened at Shechem one would think they would not go near the place. When Joseph arrived there he couldn’t find them. He was told they had gone to Dothan. Joseph headed to Dothan and when the brothers saw him coming they decided to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” Jealously is a powerful motivation to do evil!
Vs.21-30 “When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life” he said. Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into one of the cisterns here in the wilderness. Reuben was hoping to save Joseph and take him home. While they were eating their meal Ishmaelite’s traders came along, Judah, talked the brothers into selling Joseph to them and send him down to Egypt. God used the brother’s Jealousy and Judah’s compasion to get Joseph to Egypt, he was to be part of the larger plan to save Israel and to grow Israel. Praise be to God!
Vs.31-36 Now they had to convince their father, Jacob, that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. They killed a goat and soaked the coat of many colors with blood, Jacob’s response; “Joseph has surely been torn to pieces”. Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave. So his father wept for him.” The sons who did this travesty under estimated the affect on Jacob, he did not recover, not even after he met Joseph again. Beware if you plan to bring a deception on your family – no matter how small it will lead to more and more sorrow!
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Heavenhigh 