daily scripture 17 march 06

genesis 37 (niv)

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 a richly ornamented robe for him.

4 when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

11 his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

12 now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near shechem,

13 and israel said to joseph, "as you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near shechem. come, i am going to send you to them."
"very well," he replied.

17 "they have moved on from here," the man answered. "i heard them say, 'let's go to dothan.' " so joseph went after his brothers and found them near dothan.

18 but they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 "here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other.

20 "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."

21 when reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "let's not take his life," he said.

22 "don't shed any blood. throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23 so when joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing-

24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25 as they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of ishmaelites coming from gilead. their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to egypt.

26 judah said to his brothers, "what will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

27 come, let's sell him to the ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." his brothers agreed.

28 so when the midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the ishmaelites, who took him to egypt.

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What is sort of bizarre to me about hod God acts is that it doesn't always seem just.

I mean, Joseph got all the stuff. If I were a brother, i'd be pissed, too. I may not have sold him into slavery and faked his death, but still.

Sometimes, these Bible stories are over the top soap operaish. Or is it that soap operas are over the top Bibleish?

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I learned some interesting things about this passage.

1. The coat Joseph was given signified leadership. It was a coat with many different strips of cloth in the sleeves. They were multicolored. This garment symbolized a mantle of authority and when Joseph's brother saw it, the realized that their younger brother was to be ruler over them. It wasn't jealousy over a garment. It was jealousy at his placement in the family organization.

2. Joseph was the birthright son even though he was one of the youngest. Jacob first is tricked into marrying Leah even though he loved Rachel. He then is given Rachel as a wife. Then two handmaidens were given as secondary wives/concubines. The birthright order passed from Leah's children to Rachel's because of her sons disobediences. Joseph stood next in line because he was the firstborn son of the second wife.

3. With Joseph's placement at head he had rights--and responsibilities. He shows that awareness of familial stewardship when, in Egypt, he feeds them during the famine and forgives them.

The sons' inheritance was split 13 ways with Joseph receiving a double portion to handle the matters of his father's estate.

Interesting stuff...

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