The Saga of Joseph, Part 1

We're ready? Okay. Galatians 5 22. You all know it. You should know it. It should be a memory scripture by now. In it, Paul tells the church in Galatia that there are fruits of the Spirit, and he lists those fruits. He starts out with love and joy and peace. And then he goes to something, depends on what translation you have, something called long suffering. In other translations, it's translated patience. Love, joy, peace, patience. A lot of us would like more patience. I need more patience. Most people I've even heard the saying where they've asked, God, I need patience, and I want it now.

Can't say I've said those words, but I've probably thought them before. Are you patient when you need to be? Because it's easy to be patient when everything's going right or you're in no hurry. But when you want to accomplish something, something needs to get done, then sometimes it requires patience. In my current job, especially international work, I have found that I've had to build more patience. When I was in Tennessee, there's something called the DMV, Department of Motor Vehicle.

And you would get there, unlike here, where you can actually call and make an appointment and get yours, which I found to be very nice and easy to do. In Tennessee, you went, drove up to the place, looked at the incredible line standing outside the door, and that wound inside. And you knew you were going to have to wait. And I thought that I had learned a little patience doing that a time or two until I found out what it was to stand in line at the immigration line, entrance to the various countries that I travel in the Caribbean.

And I found sometimes an hour, hour and a half, and even two hours standing on your feet after you've flown for a few hours or whatever time, and nobody's in a hurry. And so I've had to learn patience like I never thought I would. I also learned to carry in my little bag, which I carry on the plane, one of our booklets, or an article that I can read so that it helps me through my lack of patience. And then I think about patience, long suffering, and I think about my bank in Deerfield Beach. BB&T is what it's called, and it's right across the street from us.

And so I can either walk or just drive just not even a tenth of a mile to our bank. And unlike Tennessee, where I was close to my bank there and had one on the corner where I went in, and there were five tellers, and I never had to wait more than one person. So two minutes, we're done. I was done. Well, in Deerfield Beach, the banker, they usually just have one in there. And the other time she is taking care of the drive-through and three places here. So I've had to learn patience because I think my mindset was go into the bank, I'll be out in three or four minutes.

That's not how it is. And so I actually found myself having to develop more patience. And even in my own mind, complaining about why this bank cannot hire a couple more people and speed things up. And then about three weeks ago, I had the opportunity to do banking in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

And I found that my bank in Deerfield is doing a fantastic job compared to Montego Bay, where no one is really in a hurry. Everybody seems to know everybody except me. And so I had 72 pages to sign on some paperwork for the church there, at which time it took one hour, 45 minutes to sign those 72 pages. As they would just do three pages at a time, I would sign and then run somebody back to make copies, and then they would come back with three more pages.

And I'm like, hmm, let's get this done. And the only thing she said to me was, I'm amazed how fast you sign your signature. And so it takes patience. So where do we learn patience? How do you get patience? Let's go to the Scripture, if you will.

I'd like you to turn to the book of Psalm. I'd like you to turn to Psalm 37, one of my favorite psalms, that we will actually go through verse by verse somewhere down the road, as I always like to cover one psalm each year, verse by verse, to show the beauty and the knowledge and information that's in there.

But I want you to turn to Psalm 37 and verse 7. Psalm 37 and verse 7 says, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. It's interesting because in the original Hebrew, the actual words there are, Be silent! Be silent and wait patiently for Him, which I find that interesting because most of the time when we are anxious, not patient with God, we're usually complaining to God. Or if we're not complaining to Him, we complain to ourselves about this.

So be silent and wait patiently for Him. But that's easier said than done, isn't it? You can talk about it all day long. It doesn't make you any more patient. But I would like you to turn now to a book of Romans.

I'll read from the New King James. I'd like you to turn to the book of Romans. Something is put here that really helped me to understand where I need to go. Romans 15 for some patience and for a deeper understanding. Romans 15 and verse 4. For whatever things were written before, what's he talking about?

The Holy Scriptures. He's talking about the Holy Scriptures that they are reading. That's what they have. That was what was written before. That's what the church was studying. We would know it as the Old Testament. It says, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Now, may the God of what?

Patience. May the God of patience and comfort grant to you, being like-minded toward one another, according to Christ, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a mouthful. I'll read from the New Living Translation just to touch on just a scripture or so. And it says, Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. What's he saying? To teach us what? To teach us about God, but also to teach us patience. So we can read the instruction given to us in God's Word, which in turn helps us to learn patience.

So it says, And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled. May God, who gives us patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other as his fitting followers.

Now, why does he talk about others? Because he's talking about us developing the patience of God. That is not an easy thing. But I must ask this question. Are we developing the patience of God? Do we demand more of God than he demands of us when it comes to patience? You know, I have to pray many times and thank God for his patience with me, because I know not to say this, I know not to do this, I know not to think that, and I do it anyway.

And I have to come back, and I know sometimes he must think it sounds like a broken record in my prayers. But he is so patient with me, and he is so patient with us, all of us. Right? What are the requirements of patience? Have you ever thought about it? What are the requirements of patience?

Well, it's a mindset. That's one thing. We have to set our mind to say, I'm going to be patient here. I'm going to wait, and especially when it deals with God's promises. Right? We pray and we ask him every day for this and go, I'm waiting, waiting. God, I'm waiting. God. And you know what he gets a chance to do? He gets to see if we are patient. Just like he is. Have you ever thought about it? Second Peter 3 and verse 8 says, and everybody knows the scripture, with God, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.

Okay, our minds can't fully comprehend that. But if we try, we can see that when we say, God, I need you to do this for me, and he waits three months to do it, that's like a split second to him. And someday we will understand that when we have the mind of God. I don't know if many of you have prayed for the wisdom of Solomon, the faith of Abraham, and the patience of Job.

Job showed some patience. I do not know that I would have that much patience. My right, they showed his friends. They came with him. They sat with him for seven days and didn't say a word. Like you turn back to Daniel. Because we can see through scriptures that a lot of God's servants, those who were very close to him, those who depended on him, those who worked for him, those who were called by him, were asked to exhibit or have patience.

Here we have this incredible servant, Daniel, that if you look through the scripture, you look through everything you can on Daniel, you will not find one thing written that showed a flaw or a fault of Daniel, which obviously God taught a lot of him. And his life, all 90 years that we know of, basically, in scripture, was exemplary. And so he gave Daniel these visions and showed him what would happen from his time on as Daniel was actually looking because the 70 years, by the time he reached about 90 to 70 years, they had already been in captivity.

And so they were about to head back to the nation of Judah, was heading back to Jerusalem soon. But he told Daniel and showed him visions of not only his time, but of Alexander the Great coming on the scene, the Roman Empire, all the way into Armageddon and the return of Jesus Christ. And so you can imagine God gave him this incredible vision, these incredible thoughts, and he just asked a simple question. And in Daniel 12, verse 4, he said, But Daniel, God is saying this, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. And in verse 8, he says, Although I heard it, I did not understand it. Then I said, My Lord, what shall be the end of these things? When are these things going to happen? God, please tell me. And what did he say? Go your way, Daniel. For the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Well, if you're like Daniel, I'm sure from what we can read from the Scriptures here, Daniel wanted to know more.

Is it going to be like 10 years from now? I'm 90 years old. Is it going to be 100 years? I'm sure he wasn't thinking it was going to be thousands of years. But then in verse 13, the last verse, he said, But you, Daniel, go your way till the end.

For you shall rest, that means you're going to die, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days. So, guess what, Daniel? You're not going to know anything till you're resurrected. And then you'll know how it all came about. And that's why I think it's so amazing that even at the wedding supper, I wonder if Daniel isn't going to come to some who live in the last days and live through it, and come over and go, tell me, how was it?

What did it look like? You know, I saw it in these visions. Tell me, did I lay it out pretty well? Or was there something else you'd like to know? Patience was required of so many of God's people, time and time and time and time again. And as we look back at Romans, these examples were given to us so that we could learn patience. We look at people's lives because God knows, he knew way back then, that we can relate to people because we're people.

And that's why he gave us all these incredible stories that are in the Scriptures. So I want to do part one this week, and part two, finish it up next week, on the saga of Joseph. The saga of Joseph, because he, Joseph, was a great example for me, and I hope for you, about learning to wait, learning to wait, learning to be patient. He was raised that way. He was gifted that way. But it's something he had to develop because it would have been great for him to know at age 17 what was going to happen and how long it was going to be between these happenings. But God didn't let him know. He developed an incredible amount of patience waiting on God.

And there was one thing crystal clear in the life of Joseph, and that is, it was worth the wait. It was worth the wait. So anytime you wonder when God is going to relieve you of this pain, take care of these financial issues you have, know that it is his time, and he gets to watch us.

He gets to let us learn the patience of God. Because you have to kind of form in your mind that when we develop his kind of patience, there's no longer a need for him to see if you have that kind of patience. And I think he saw that with Joseph. And so today, let's go there. We talked the last time I was here. We had a sermon on how long the children were slaves in Egypt.

And we talked a little bit about the sons of Jacob as we went into that story. But Joseph was the last of the 12 children before Benjamin. Benjamin was born six years, six to seven years after Joseph. So Joseph would have been about six or seven years of age when his mother gave birth to Benjamin and died. So you can imagine the impact if any of you have lost a parent or someone very close to you when you're at age six to seven years of age. It would have had terrible impact.

The interesting part is that Joseph was special in his father's eyes. Probably because he was the last for quite a few years. But as you can see from the story, not only was Joseph his favorite, but there was something unique about Joseph. He was gifted like none of his brothers. He had gifts they could only wish for. Gifts at a very young age. That God obviously had blessed him with. And you know, we can get gifts from God. We can get gifts from our mother and father. And we can also learn gifts by the environment in which we live. So there's three ways. And we see that Joseph was gifted in so many different ways that I feel like he was gifted by all three.

Obviously, his father had a lot to do with it. His father was so patient that he actually worked 14 years for Joseph's mother. Worked 14 years to be able to have a marriage with a woman. Madly in love with her.

That required patience.

I'm sure his mother also had a lot to do with his raising.

There is something unique about Joseph that obviously some gifts that were not in his other brothers, but with Joseph, there is something in his heart that is different than all his brothers. There's something that he has that obviously he learned.

Maybe not only from his parents, but also from the land in which he lived. All this goes back to what it was like to grow up with Joseph.

He had 11, he had 10 brothers at that time. One sister, he had a mother who was married to his father, whose aunt was already married to his father also, and who had two other wives that were called handmaidens, that also had children that were older than he was. So you can imagine the dynamics of this family, very large, and the negotiations that were being put together from these boys growing up. And for most of you who know the story of Joseph, we all think about the story of the coat of many colors, slavery, and his brothers. So as we go to that story today, I would like for you to go back to Genesis chapter 32. I want to touch on the first part today, on the background of Joseph's gifts and his ability to wait, and how God made it worth his wait, as he will make it by Joseph worth our wait. So in chapter 32, verse 1, we see that Jacob has left his father-in-law and carried all the children and the wives and the handmaidens out, and they're starting their way back to the promised land, as it was told to Jacob. So in verse 1, it says, So Jacob went his way, and the angels of God met him. Something very unique here. The angels of God met him. His father had a very unique relationship with God. That it obviously shows later that his brothers did not pick up from him, but Joseph did. Can you imagine? You leave this, and so all of a sudden, it is thought by the commentaries that there were actually two angels there that met him. And it said in verse 2, When Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp, and he called it by the name of Mahonim. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Sir, the country of Edom, that he was coming that way. And of course, we know the story, and I won't go into all the details of it, but of course he had cheated Esau out of the birthright. He had to actually leave and go to Pandanaram because Esau was going to kill him as soon as I see God. And so his mother sent him away. And so he lived there with his soon-to-be father-in-law for 20 years. So as you can go to this story, and you will see that he was 40 years old when he first left his parents, he stayed 20 years. So he is about 60 years of age at this time. And so here he wants to make contact with Esau because last thing he knew, 20 years, was Esau said, I'm going to kill you. And so now he is very concerned. He's met with the angels, so he wanted to make peace.

And then he hears the story in verse 6 that Esau knew you were coming and he's headed your way and he has 400 men with him. What would you think?

And so here Jacob has his family, right? Two wives, two handmaidens, 12 children. And he also has cattle, lamb, goats, donkeys, all this stuff because he's become very wealthy. And he also has men that take care of them. So he has a pretty good company, as he calls it. Company of people around him, but nothing like 400 men on horses coming to meet you.

And there's nothing he could do. But Jacob does one interesting thing I'd like you to see in verse 10 as he's talking to God. And look at this incredible example because Jacob is a dichotomy. At times he will, you see this incredible man close to God and he has this unique humility and knows where everything comes from. And then he will do something that's just like out of box and you would almost say stupid or faithless.

But aren't we the same way? Aren't we the same way? We could look at details in our life and know, boy, we could have just walked out into the Atlantic Ocean and walked on water at times. We had so much faith. And other times we go, where was my faith? No faith. That's how Jacob was. But he said something here in verse 10 and I read from the New King James. He tells God, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. When's the last time you used some of those words in your prayer? Pretty good example.

You have, for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff. When he first left 20 years ago, he left with the clothes on his back and a staff and nothing else. And now I have become two companies, quite a few people, a lot of stuff. He's been pretty wealthy.

He said, Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. For I fear him lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For you said, I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as a sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for the multitude. So he knew it was given to Abraham, the same promises, handed down to Isaac, and now it's Jacob. And he understands, I'm going to give you such descendants that down the road a hundred years, a thousand years, three thousand years from now, they're going to be as a sand of the sea.

And we saw just two weeks ago how those seventy that came into Egypt over two hundred years became over six hundred thousand men. Just men alone. So, after that, in chapter 32, verse 24, he makes a decision to split the property and the people and some servants over here and his family over here in two different companies. So that if something happens, at least it won't be totally devastated. And then he sent this incredible amount of animals to his brother Esau as a gift. But we see in chapter 32 and verse 24 that he was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Now, when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go for the day breaks. But he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, which means prince with God.

For you have struggled with God because that's who he was wrestling with. It was actually God.

And with men, because he had wrestled for 20 years with Laban and he prevailed.

And Jacob asked him, saying, tell me your name, I pray. And he said, why is it that you ask about my name? And he said, then he blessed him right there. So God gave a special blessing. Now, could he have gotten away from you? Of course. So why did he wrestle with Jacob?

A lot of people have asked me that. Why did God come down here and wrestle with Jacob?

Because there was a dynasty being laid out here.

And even though he had wrestled with men for 20 years, he had not wrestled with God that much. Because God had blessed him. Everything had happened the way he could have hoped it would. And there's one thing that we see, not only 3000 years ago, not only a thousand years ago, but today. God loves a tenacious fighter. God loves someone that will fight with him. Someone who will fight with him as they overcome this world in which we live in. Because we do. Not that we fight against God, but it's our job to fight with God against the powers, the evil powers of this world. And he helps us. He wanted to see if Jacob had perseverance. He wanted to see if he would really hang in there. Even when he had a bad hip. And I'm sure it's put in the story for us. Because you can imagine if you've ever had your hip go out or you ever had something that just really threw you off. And instead of letting go and saying, ah, ah, he held on. He held on to God. He held on to God through pain. He held on to God through hours and hours and hours. Well, we do the same. Does God see that in us? He saw it in Jacob and he blessed him. So I wonder if some of those genes in Jacob were passed down to Joseph. Because he was patient enough to hold on and wait all night and wrestle with God.

But then Jacob goes after he's blessed and he gets up and hobbling back to the family.

And then he shows this other side because one of Jacob's problems is showing favoritism. His mother, Rebecca, showed favoritism towards him. Remember? His father, Isaac, showed favoritism towards Esau.

And so Jacob showed this same thing with his wives.

It said he really loved Rachel. That's who he worked for 14 years. Leah was just from the scratch and dip rack thrown in as a bargain. Here's an extra one.

And then the two handmaidens. Not a lot said about his relationship with them other than he had children with them. But it gives us an example that we can learn from in chapter 33 that perhaps you've never thought about before. We must learn to never have favorites. See, God loves us. But because he has godly love, he also loves the world. He just, he's just working with us now and giving them a chance later. Why? Because he loves them so much and he knows them that he knows when's the right time to call them and when's their best time to live forever in his kingdom. But it says in chapter 33 verse 1, He said, Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants. And he put the maidservants and their children... Okay, why don't you get this? Where? In front. In front. Leah, who had the most children, where did she go? Behind them. And then who's in the very back? And why is this? Because if he's about to attack... If Esau's about to attack, my favorite's going to be in the back. Now, do you not think that made an impression? Do you not think that even those little children, which the oldest would have been Reuben, and then you would have had Levi, Simon, Judah... Reuben would have been about thirteen at this time. Okay. And I said, he's put not up front with Dan and Asher and various other... Naphtali. You're right. I wanted to say Adelai, but it's Naphtali. So here you had these...here you had something so obvious that you couldn't miss it. The only thing was, they did not get attacked. They did not get killed. But you can't tell me that didn't stick in their minds. Who the favorite was? Not only the mother, but the child. About all the children. Where was Dinah? Where was a girl? Up there. Joseph was in the back. That's a little kid of five or six years old. So can you begin to see a little bit of resentment from the family dynamics that come into play? So with that, with what little time I have left today, I want to go into, and I'd like you to turn to Genesis 37. And let's go into the story of Joseph in chapter 37 and verse 1, as we will take it to a certain point today and stop and pick it up next week so we can learn a different lesson next week. This lesson this week is about worth the wait. Learning to have patience and waiting. So in chapter 37 verse 1, I said, Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. And this is a genealogy, which is actually a wrong interpretation there. This is just basically the story of Jacob, is what the original Hebrew is. This is the story of Jacob. And it said, Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers, half-brothers, that is. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report to them to his father.

So there's Dan, there's Naphtali, there's Gad, and there's Asher, four half-brothers there. And they're out feeding the sheep and taking care of the sheep, or the stock. And Joseph sent out there with them. And he brings a bad report, which means what, if you're the other brothers? We've got a tattletale in our midst. Right? Oh, he's going to go tell Daddy. Well, why don't you go tell Daddy? And so you can begin to see that here are these four boys, because you remember where they were ten years ago? These four boys were at the front, ready to be slaughtered.

And if they didn't remember it, I'm sure that Reuben and the other brothers let them know that, well, we were just right behind you.

But we also see that Joseph is an overseer at age 17. He's the youngest, we get this time, next to Benjamin, who is only a child at times, five, six years old at this time. So he is sent to, at 17, look over and be the boss of his brothers, who are older and some at least six or seven years older than him. Can you imagine at 22 or 23 having a 17-year-old brat cattletail, Daddy's favorite, hanging around you? Now, in verse 3, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. Listen, don't ever do that.

Any of you grew up and the family thought you were the favorite? Anybody? Yep. Namath did. Mama's boy. Yes? Okay, that one right there. He's a favorite right there, right? Neil, he's your favorite? He said he was.

You see, it's common. It's envy. It's that green-eyed monster that shows up, and it will show up in every family. My older sister thought I was that child growing up until my mother, 12 years after me, had another child or two, and then they became. So I got that shifted off of me. But here, Joseph didn't, because it's clear that he loved him more than all his children because he was a son of his old age, which happens.

Also, he made him a tunic of many colors. That's what I may have known, if it was. It's been almost three years ago since I explained that. But that tunic was actually a very nice cover. Let's take, for example, his jacket, because they would just have covering here. But anyone that wore this jacket, except this tunic that he made, the sleeves were out to here. Now, at the bottom of this nice thing was, it went almost to the ankles. That's what this tunic was. So it was like a coat.

Very nice coat. Now, the reason that was given to him, and not his brothers, was his job was different. Most of the others were given work clothes that went from here to mid-die, because they're going to be working. They're going to be loading. They're going to be doing all this stuff. They're going to be working hard.

They were work clothes. Joseph was management. See a resentment? That's what happened. And not only was it a garment that was full length, it was also of many colors. Now, I always thought, like the old Dolly Pardon song, Coat of Many Colors, or you've seen these, everything. I've seen Technicolor Dreamcoat, if you've seen the Broadway play, and had all these various colors. Well, that wasn't really true. The fact of the matter was, it was white, because it's very hot there.

But the colors had a band around the sleeves and a band around the bottom that were different colors. So it would have some very bright colors, but it wasn't just this odd looking thing that you would say, what's that striped animal coming down? That's not it.

But that's the way it was laid out. But anyone that had that was a person known for his wealth. So there was prestige, and not only wearing that. But why did Joseph have that over his brothers? Because he was responsible. Even at a very young age, he was responsible. You remember his brothers, Simon and Levi? They went into a whole nation, they went into a whole city, and wiped them out in Shechem. And then they took everything, because of Dinah. They raped Dinah and Haver. They made a covenant with the people, and then they made all the men get circumcised. And while they were laying around for a few days, they went in and killed them all.

And then they took everything! They took everything! And you can also see here from Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher, they're older. They should have been responsible enough, but he had to send a 17-year-old kid out to keep an eye on them. And you can also, it's well known that Daniel was a mathematical genius. We'll go through a little bit of that probably next week. And he was gifted and talented in keeping up with things, because here we're talking goats, lamb, beef, donkeys, sheep.

Jacob had a large estate. We're talking thousands and thousands of these animals. Enough to keep 10 boys, 10 men looking after them, plus the help. And so it was Joseph that had the talent and the gift and the honesty to make sure that everything was going right. Okay, so let's go down then in verse 4. He said, 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.

That's tremendous bitterness there. Can you imagine growing up in that family? Can you imagine what Joseph felt when they couldn't even say anything to him? Can you imagine how smart they were towards him? How cutting? How they probably offered to just take you out there and beat the daylights out of you? Knowing boys, right? And knowing carnality, as these men were very carnal. Yes, trying to make him look bad.

But something happened in verse 5. Now, Joseph dreamed a dream and he told it to his brothers. Probably not the smartest thing he did, but I think God wanted him to do that. I think that's why he was doing it. And they hated him even more. They couldn't hate him enough.

He said, There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheave arose and also stood upright. Indeed, your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheave. And his brothers said to him, You indeed have dominion over us. So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed still another dream. Who was giving him these dreams? God bless. God was working with him at 17 years of age. God was probably working with him years before. So how old are you, Brandon? Okay. It's not hard to believe that Joseph was even being worked with at 13, 14. Because by 17, he was definitely the man put in charge of an estate of his father. Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me. So he told it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him and said, And what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you? And his brothers envied him, which probably putting it very lightly. But his father kept the matter in his mind. Why? Because there was something gifted about this young man. There's something unique. And he just, you know, it wasn't something obviously that he was used to just bragging. And then we come to verse 12. Then his brothers went to feed their father's flock and check him. And Israel said to, you know, Israel's name was changed, you know, Jacob. Said to Joseph, Are not your brothers feeding the flock and...where? Check him. Come, I will send you to them. So he said, Here I am. Then he said to him, Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks and bring back word to me. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebrew and he went to check him. Why did he want to go send him to check him? See, check him is the place where the Dinah incident happened. That's the place they were going back to feed sheep where just a year or two earlier, maybe even three or four years earlier, Simon, Simon and Levi came in and slaughtered all the people, all the men of check him. So they were going back to that same territory that you can read in the scriptures that Jacob said, We got to get out of here because now everybody will turn against us and they'll know what we've done because of this act that you've done. But here, they're always there. They thinking anything about it? No. We'll go back that area. No, we'll just feed the sheep down there. No problem. If you had knew, those boys are going to be in trouble. I just know it because if they're confronted, what are they going to do? Good all. That's right. Killing wasn't nothing to them by this time, right? They'd already slaughtered a whole city before. Verse 15, Now a certain man found found Joseph, and there he was wandering in the field. And the man asked him, What are you seeking? So he said, I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flock. And the man said, They have departed from here, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan, which is about 10 to 12 miles away. So they told their father they were going to go and stay around Shechem.

Wasn't much happening in Shechem. Let's go see what's happening in Dothan. I hear they got a really good nightclub and everything like that, and good bars, and we can just be hanging. Trade some of these sheep and goats for some women, as we find out later that Judah is fond of doing. Okay. And said, So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. Now, when they saw him afar off, even before he came near to them, they conspired against to kill him. Okay, they saw him far, they saw this coat. And what are they saying? Here comes Mr. Tattletail again. Here comes that dreamer. What's he going to do now? Give us some of these dreams. And I'm sure one of them said, I'm tired of looking at him. Hey, I second that motion. I'm sick of looking at him too. Let's do something about it.

They conspired to kill him. Then they said to one another, Look, this dreamer, our master of dreams, is coming. 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 then.

But Reuben heard it. Who is Reuben? The oldest son. You're kind of supposed to be the oldest. You're supposed to be responsible. You're supposed to be the one calling the shots. Obviously, he wasn't too responsible because then if Reuben had done his job, there wouldn't be any need for Joseph to do his job, right? But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands. So let us not kill him. So Reuben had a little bit of heart there, and Saul really don't want to do this. And it makes you wonder, is it because Reuben was the oldest? And typically it was the oldest son that here he was six or seven years. So when Joseph was born at the end of everything, it was maybe Reuben who helped even look after the little child and take care of him and nurture him a little bit. I don't know. It makes it because there's something different about Reuben. And Reuben said to them, shed no blood, but cast him into the pit, which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him. And he did that because he said that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him back to his father. So he said, don't kill him. Put him in this pit. Let's leave him. And then he would come back himself and pull him out of this pit. That pit happened to be what they called a water hole. And it was a place that held water, and it was very deep. They would dig it like eight foot deep, and it would be like six foot in diameter. And the edges of this pit were actually angled. So you couldn't climb up. You couldn't get out of that pit. It was used for water, but it was also used at that time for an animal. If you had a mad animal, you had something that you wanted to put away from the other ones. And even slaughter and throw in that hole so that the buzzards or vultures wouldn't come around you or any of the rest of the animal. You could come there, this pit that you could leave. So they left him in there, and said, so it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. Then they took him and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty. There was no water in it. And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with the camels, bearing spices and balm and myrrh. They were merchants. They were bringing this to Egypt to sell. They were in for the money. Egypt was the place where everything was happening, especially with myrrh.

So can you imagine Joseph here? Joseph came up to them, and they just stripped him of the coat right off. And they threw him in, and then they sat down for a meal and talked about killing. They ate lunch. Now that, in this world, is called a cold-blooded killer. Where it is, you know, man, I can't eat, I'm going to kill my brother. Ah! I thinked! I thinked!

What do you think Joseph was thinking? Can you imagine? You're 17 years old. You probably thought when he came up and they stripped him of a coat, I'm sure they had a few pops in him. They wanted to get one in there. When they, I'm sure they didn't lower him in the pit. They kicked him in that pit. Stripped him down to probably nothing, just a little loincloth.

And so here their brother is in this pit, thinking he's going to die. He's crying. You think he's crying? Do you think he's pleading with them? Please, please, brothers. Turn over to Genesis 42. Genesis 42. Genesis 42 and verse 21, as we'll get into the story later, but here it's years down the road. And this is what happened that day at the pit. And his brothers are saying, then they said to one another, we are truly guilty concerning our brother. For we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear. Therefore, the distress has come upon them.

It's bad enough what they did and their thoughts. But when this young kid pleaded with them, asked them, please, brother, remind you of Cain and Abel, green-eyed monsters, old as the beginning of man. And so Joseph said to his brothers, what prophet is there? Verse 26 of 37. If we kill our brother and conceal his blood, come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our flesh. And the brothers listened. So somebody had a little reasoning there. Then the Midianite traders passed by, so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt. Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit, and he tore his clothes. So obviously Reuben wasn't there when they sold him. He was just there when they put him in the pit. And what he thought, they killed him.

And he said, the lad is no more, and I, where shall I go? Why did he say that? You aren't kidding. I go? Here was Reuben the screw-up. Had been for a very long time. Down through the years, he was the oldest son, he's twenty-three. He was sent to know better. He was the one that the birthright was supposed to go to. Okay. Where shall I go? Because you remember, they kind of had it laid out, even at that time, all the nations, a life for a life. If he could have saved the life, he should have saved it. And his life could be required of him. And so he was ready to leave. What use am I now? You know.

So they took Joseph's tunic, killed the kid of the, tell the kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their fathers, saying, We found this. Do you know whether is your son's tunic or not? And he recognized it, and he said, It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt, Joseph is torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned with his son for many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. Can you imagine doing this to your father? Can you see him just crying, this old man who's crying out? And all you've done is put a hoax, put a hoax on him.

So then we go over to chapter 39 as we, a few more minutes. How much patience do you think it took in the pit? What do you think Joseph was doing in the pit? Do you think besides pleading to his brothers, he was pleading somewhere else too?

And then do you think he felt some bit of relief when they pulled him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites? He was a slave, but he was alive. Do you think those dreams came back in his head while he was in the pit, or maybe that long trek, which would have taken three or four days to get from there to Egypt? With the Ishmaelite traders, who were, he was a slave? Do you think the dreams came back? Wait a minute, God! Where's, where's everybody bowing down to me? Where's, where's my shoes?

And what was God saying? Wait, just wait. It's going to be worth it. It's going to be worth the wait. Chapter 39 verse 1. Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt, and Potiphar, the officer of the Pharaoh, Captain Vigard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. They had, at that time, they actually had a slave auction. And so, not only did they want to sell their myrrh, they want to sell these, the bomb and so forth, but here they could take him to a slave auction, and then these rich Egyptians, because they were pretty wealthy at that time, majority, had the opportunity to buy him. And so, you can imagine he was stripped down to just a loincloth. 17 years old. Sold to men that he couldn't even understand their language. Didn't understand their gods, which they had many, at least 400 different gods at that time in Egypt. Here he was totally alone by himself. The Lord was with Joseph, though, and he was a successful man. And he was in the house of the master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all he did prosper in his hand. So, Joseph found favor in his sight and served him. Because he was very prosperous, because he had already knew about taking care of lambs, taking care of cute, good goats, or whatever. And he knew about facts and figures, and he could do all this stuff probably in his head. He could keep up with things, and he knew about breeding different animals. So, everything he did, God blessed it. And then he made him the overseer of his house, and all that he had, he put in his hand. And from that time, from the time that he had made him the overseer of his house, and all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake, and in the blessing of the Lord was all that he had in his house and in his field. Have you asked, brethren, God, to bless your master or your boss because of you?

Because he'd like to do it. He obviously did it here.

Verse 6, so he left all that he had in Joseph's hands, and he did not know what he had except for the bread, which he ate. And Joseph was handsome, in form and appearance. He was a good-looking guy. By this time, a few years went by. He was 20, 21, 22, and he filled out. I mean, this was a man that would make Brad Pitt look like Danny DeVito. Okay, this was a good-looking guy who had it all.

Verse 7, Now I came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, Next week.