The Reverend Dr. Samuel T. Powers
Boston Avenue Methodist Church
Genesis 37: 1-28
“Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land
of Canaan. These are the descendants of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his
brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s
wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now
Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was
the son of his old age, and he made him an ornamented robe. But when
his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers,
they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated
him even more. He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream that I
dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my
sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it and
bowed down to my sheaf.’ His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to
reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?’ So they hated
him even more because of his dreams and his words.
He had another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, ‘Look, I have
had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing
down to me.’ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his
father rebuked him and said to him, ‘What kind of dream is this that you
have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers,
and bow to the ground before you?’ So his brothers were jealous of him,
but his father kept the matter in mind.
Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And
Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at
Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ So
he said to him, ‘Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the
flock, and bring word back to me.’ So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the
man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’ ‘I am seeking my brothers,’ he
said; ‘tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.’ The man said,
‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.”’ So
Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him
from a distance, and before he came near to them they conspired to kill
him. They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let
us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a
wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his
dreams.’ But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands,
saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood;
throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him’ –
that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his
father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his
robe, the ornamented robe that he wore, and they took him and threw
him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat, and looking up they saw a caravan of
Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm,
and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his
brothers, ‘What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him,
for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers agreed. When
some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of
the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And
they took Joseph to Egypt.”
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