Sibling Rivalry

The twelve sons of Jacob became the foundational family of Israel. In Genesis 37, the focus of Jacob's family is on the sibling relationships of the twelve. In verse one, the record indicates that Jacob was living in Canaan. In the ensuing verses, we find out that Joseph was a favorite of his father, Jacob, because he was a child of his old age. He gave him a beautiful coat of many colors. This did not sit well with his brothers.

In verse two,  we read about Joseph tending sheep with four of his brothers: Naphtali and Dan, (who's mother was Rachel's servant, Bilhah) and Gad and Asner (born of Zilpah, Leah's servant).  Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rachel (three varieties of half-brothers listed here, there were four in total). These mixed polygamous marriages spawned complicated and difficult relationships. Joseph returned to Jacob from tending sheep and delivered an evil report on some things going on. The end result was more ill feelings.

Joseph had a dream in the middle of all this, that stirred up even more dislike. God had called Joseph to be a leader.  Joseph's brothers' reactions to this dream were predictable:

⁸ And his 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. Genesis 37:8

His father's reaction to a second similar dream was recorded in verses 10-11:

¹⁰ And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? ¹¹ And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

The brothers were ready to kill him. Ruben and Judah stepped in and it was decided to sell Joseph to traveling Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver and that is how Joseph ended up in Egypt. The rest of Genesis is about the Joseph story from chapters 37, 39-50. We can read the detailed outcome of all this by reading the ending, but Joseph could not have seen this. He must have trusted in Almighty God by putting one foot in front of the other and believing day by day.

When the brothers decided to get rid of him, the coat was one of the first things to go. Then they cast him in a pit. When stuff like this happens, it can be attributed to several things: like jealousy, envy and anger. All these feelings thrive in a mind where there is a lack in trust and believing in the Almighty God. The outcome of all of it, whether the brothers understood it or not, was to try to bring Joseph down in his own mind and challenge what God had called him to do.  Joseph found himself at the bottom of a pit, without the beautiful coat and he knew that his brothers had turned against him.

The only answer for Joseph was God as we will see later. The story of Joseph is one of believing, success, victory, forgiveness in true sense of forgiveness, the story of a man in whom the spirit of God was, and most important: the love of God for His people:

¹⁸ Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.¹⁹ He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.²⁰ Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Micah 7:18-20