For the Genesis 37:15-22 PODCAST, Click Here!
15 Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you seeking?” 16 So he said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.” 17 And the man said, “They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. 18 Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19 Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! 20 Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!” 21 But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father. ~ Genesis 37:15-22
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 37 where the spotlight has firmly been placed on the fourth patriarch of Israel, Joseph who was Jacob's most favored son causing Joseph's brothers to hate him. Due to his favoritism, Jacob did not require Joseph to work as his brothers did as shepherds. Jacob made Jospeh the overseer of his brothers. In our last study, Jacob sent Joseph to the fields to make sure that his brothers were doing well.
In v.15-17 of today's passage we read, "15 Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, 'What are you seeking?' 16 So he said, 'I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.' 17 And the man said, 'They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.' So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan."
Joseph arrived at his father’s field in Shechem which was about 60 miles away. It was then that Joseph discovered his brothers weren’t there. As he wandered the area, a man asked him what he’s seeking. Whoever the man was, the Lord had him there when Joseph’s brothers were there, and he was there when Joseph arrived as well. The brothers may not have felt lost, but to Joseph they were. Joseph, not sure where his brothers were at that point, asked the man where they have gone.
The man then told Joseph that his brothers had gone to Dothan which was about 12 miles due north of Shechem. Dothan means "two wells." As we learn in John 4 the piece of land where they were in Shechem contained Jacob’s well, but Dothan has two wells. The message that emanates from these two wells is we always have the choice to partake of the true waters of life or the false. In Jeremiah 2:13 we read, "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water."
There are wells which nourish and there are those which disappoint. We are told again and again in the Bible, people either forsake the true water of life and hewn for themselves broken cisterns. In the Bible, the well is the place of spiritual nourishment and the true well is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of turning back home to his father, Joseph went on to Dothan in order to find his brothers and he found them there.
In v.18-20 of today's passage we read, "18 Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19 Then they said to one another, 'Look, this dreamer is coming! 20 Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!'"
Even from a long distance, the brothers identified Joseph, probably due to his coat of many colors. They hated him so much due to his favored position and his dreams, his brothers drew up a plan to kill him. The book of Matthew is 28 chapters long and each of those chapters has one or several links, or hidden connections, to the first 28 books of the Bible. In Genesis, there are no less than four of these links. One of them is in the dreams of Joseph. In Genesis, Joseph the son of Jacob, is shown to have dreams. In Matthew 1, Joseph the legal father of Jesus was given dreams as well. There is a difference here though. The dreams of Joseph, the father of Jesus, were intended to save Jesus, but the dreams of Joseph here were used as an excuse to kill him.
Throughout the Bible, God the Father is the One who directs man’s dreams, both in the giving and interpretation of them. And so even though the title is meant one way when spoken by his brothers about Joseph, it is intended in its fullest sense in another way when picturing for us the Lord Jesus.
At Dothan, the place of the two pits, the brothers intended to kill Joseph and cast him into one of the pits. The word for "pit" is used symbolically in the Bible for the place where the dead go. There is Sheol, the place of the dead, but there is also the pit. In Psalm 30:3 we read, "O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit."
Jealousy, murder, conspiracy, and lying in one story. Not only did his brothers hate Joseph, but they had no regard at all for their father. All they could think of was doing away with Joseph. As was the case with Genesis 34 in the incident with their sister Dinah, the Lord is never mentioned in this entire chapter. Not in general and not specifically, the Lord was entirely left out of the picture.
In v.21-22 of today's passage we read, "21 But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, 'Let us not kill him.' 22 And Reuben said to them, 'Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him'—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father."
Reuben was the oldest son, the firstborn. He was in charge, and he was the one their father would hold responsible. Reuben tried to exercise his leadership by talking his brothers into a different plan to which they end up agreeing, for now. The Bible doesn’t specifically tell us why Reuben protested his brothers' plan, but scholars generally attribute it to his heart being more tender than the other brothers. The explanation is hinted at in Genesis 42 when they all stood in Joseph’s presence in Egypt, not knowing it was him and Reuben said, "Did I not speak to you, saying, 'Do not sin against the boy and you would not listen? Therefore behold, his blood is now required of us.'"
