Gen. 37:31- 38:30
Joseph’s brothers considered that they had acted very shrewdly in selling him to the Ishmaelites. But Reuben’s question presented a problem they had not weighed. What, indeed, should they tell their old father? Alas, how many there are today who have rejected the Son of God and have never given thought as to what they shall say when, in a future day, they stand before the great white throne, to answer for all their ungodly deeds which they have committed, for everything shall be revealed then.
Job was terrified to think of this and said: “If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.” Job 9:20. God will require that which is past (Eccles. 3:15). How happy for those who can now say, “The Lord Jesus has borne all my sins and suffered all the judgment in my place, on Calvary’s cross.”
The heartless brothers now conceived a means of covering up their evil deed and of deceiving their aged father. “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.” vv. 31,32. We look sorrowfully at this touching scene—the hearts of these hypocrites being so hardened that they can add another sorrow to their poor father, apparently with no conscience or pity. How true it is that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Jer. 17: 9.
Jacob readily recognized the blood-stained coat. Had it not been his special gift to his son and a token of his love? “It is my son’s coat,” he said; “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.” vv. 33,34. His grief was overwhelming and although his family sought to comfort him “he refused to be comforted.” There is no indication that Jacob recovered from this sorrow until many years later, when he saw Joseph exalted to a place of supremacy and glory in Egypt.
Meanwhile, the merchantmen journeyed south, looking forward to a profit in selling the young Hebrew as a slave. “And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.” v. 36.
Chapter 38 turns briefly from The story of Joseph and in it is recorded the evil that reveals itself in men’s behavior when walking after their own lusts. While Joseph suffers as a slave at the hands of the Gentiles in Egypt, Judah, who had taken the lead in rejecting him, sinks down into the most debasing moral conduct. He is the principle subject here, together with his daughter-in-law, Tamar. As the story of their relationship is recited, we are amazed at the grace of God, and wonder that He did not cut them off from a place in Israel. Yet such is man, such is Judah; but such also is God. Not only did He spare them, but granted them both a privileged place in the lineage through which the Messiah Himself came. “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda.” Heb. 7: 14. What grace on His part! Well may we exclaim, “How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” Rom. 11:33.
ML 03/05/1967