We begin this morning the last toledot or division of the Book of Genesis. It is the toledot or family history of Jacob, which, as we have learned, will be an account, not of his life, but of the life of his sons. Before we read the first paragraph of the text, I want to make a few remarks in the way of introducing the entire section which, beginning here, takes us to the end of the Book at 50:26.

It is no surprise really that the toledot of Jacob should be so long. In one way or another Jacob occupies half of the book of Genesis; from 25:21 to 50:14. He is Israel after all, the direct ancestor of the nation of Israel and the first readers of the book of Genesis, of course, were Israelites. It is natural that attention is focused on their patriarch and the origins of their national history.

Most readers of the Bible and certainly I myself until recently always thought of this material as the story of Joseph. Obviously in a certain way that is true enough. But Dr. Waltke has convinced me that Joseph is not the true hero of this history. God, of course, is the true hero; but, even among the human figures, Joseph is not the primary interest. Joseph is a mostly flat character in this history. He starts out something of a brat, a brash youth and somewhat unwise. But, by and large, he is a noble character throughout. The developing character, the transformed character, the character who is reshaped powerfully and wonderfully by the grace of God is Judah, which explains not only why there is a separate chapter (38) devoted to Judah before we pick up the story of Joseph in Egypt, but also why, in chapter 49 it is to Judah that the greatest blessing is given. The King, the King of Kings, will come from Judah, because Judah -- who is at first in this history a cruel and immoral and selfish man -- became, by the grace of God, a man, the only man perhaps among the twelve sons of Jacob, worthy to be a king himself. Among all the twelve sons, it will be Judah who will bear the seed of Abraham through whom all the nations of the world will be blessed. It was in a sermon he preached in this church several years ago when I was on vacation that Dr. Waltke brilliantly and persuasively argued this point. And I felt, after hearing that sermon on tape, that I had a completely new and much more wonderful understanding of this history than ever I had before. Of course, Dr. Waltke told the entire story in a single sermon, ranging over the whole of these fourteen chapters. We will put it together more slowly, piece by piece.

But the story is not simply about the transformation of Judah. It is the story of all of Jacob's twelve sons. They begin as a dysfunctional family, riven by jealousy and hatred, but as events proceed, Joseph is used by God to reconcile them to one another. The story begins with the brothers infamous betrayal and ends with Joseph providing them the opportunity to get rid of their guilt and expunge their error. The story is about a dysfunctional family of twelve sons becoming, through divine grace and forgiveness, the kingdom of God.

Once more, of course, we have divine grace accomplishing the salvation of men and God keeping covenant with his people in spite of, in the teeth of their sin, rebellion, disobedience and ingratitude. The story begins, not now with Jacob stealing the blessing from Esau and his Father, but with the covenant family torn apart by internecine conflict -- we are back to Cain and Abel --, it continues with intermarriage with the Canaanites, Judah marries a Canaanite woman, as Esau had done, but it ends with the family reconciled, purified, and preserved safely in Egypt. We have here, as before with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and before that with Cain and Abel, the whole sordid story of sin, but we are given hope too: where sin abounded, grace much more abounded.

v. 2 "Brothers" is going to be the key word in this chapter. But its presence is an instance of dramatic irony, for though these men are brothers in an outward way, they are the farthest thing from brothers inwardly and spiritually. And right away the point is made that Joseph is a young man. He was far from the eldest son, he was the last son to be born but one, born as he was in Jacob's old age. All through this history we have seen God overruling the laws and customs of the world, and, in particular, the law of primogeniture. Jacob is preferred over Esau; Rachel over Leah; and now the son with the least claim is preferred over all the rest. This is a study in divine election. It does not depend on worldly or natural considerations, but upon the good pleasure and the election of God.

By the way, Joseph lived seventeen years with Jacob his father. We learn in 47:28 that Jacob lived the last seventeen years of his life with Joseph together in Egypt.

Joseph's bad report about his brothers reflects badly on all of them: the brothers that there were bad things to say; Joseph that he chose to say them. The literal meaning "told tales" always has a negative connotation. The suggestion may be that the tales weren't even true. We know already that the sons of Leah were not close to their father; there was a spirit of rivalry in the home from way back. It seems likely that when Joseph told his tales, his father believed him, and the brothers hated Joseph all the more. Even if Joseph's report were true, love draws a veil over the transgressions of others. You may have to rebuke your brother, but you don't have to talk about him to others. Joseph, at seventeen, was a tattle-tale. Which, really, should not surprise us. Jacob obviously spoiled him and favored him publicly over his brothers. What son would not turn into a brat under such circumstances?

v. 3 Whether the particular term used means many-colored, or richly ornamented, or, even, a long robe reaching to the ankles and wrists is uncertain. But, in any case, it was a public mark of Jacob's special affection for Joseph and, no doubt, his desire and hope that Joseph would someday receive his blessing and rule the family. He has caused all sorts of trouble already by his favoritism, but Jacob has not learned his lesson. What transpires and what he takes, for years, to be the loss of his favorite son, was, surely, in large part, his own fault. It does not surprise us that the brothers hated Joseph even more after their father so publicly preferred him to them.

v. 4 The alienation was now so deep that Joseph's brothers couldn't speak civilly to him.

v. 8 The brothers had no difficulty interpreting the dream! Of course, it doesn't speak well of Joseph that he rushed to tell his brothers his dream.

v. 9 The repetition of the dream in a different form is a sign of its certainty (41:32). But it also adds the idea that father and mother will bow down as well.

v. 10 This is too much even for his doting father. He who himself years before overthrew primogeniture by deceit and theft, now doesn't like the idea that his young son will rule over him as well as his brothers. But, to his credit, he didn't dismiss the dream as the brothers did. He knew revelation when he saw and heard it. And kept the matter in his mind.

Now the entire story of the twelve sons and their animosity and eventual reconciliation begins with God himself making a clear distinction between Joseph and the other brothers. That is the significance of the dream. As you know, this entire history from chapter 37 is perhaps the Bible's greatest illustration of the fact and nature of divine providence. The statement that summarizes this whole history in 50:20 -- "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" -- is the Bible's locus classicus, or chief text on the subject of divine providence, his governing all the affairs of men to bring about his intended purposes.

All of what is to transpire, the kidnapping of Joseph, his being sold as a slave into Egypt, his rise to power there, his deliverance of his family from famine, their eventual reconciliation and settlement in Egypt -- all of this is God's doing, however much God uses the passions, even sinful passions, the choices, even sinful choices, the acts, even sinful acts of these men, to bring his will to pass. Divine sovereignty is writ large over this entire history, but God uses providential means to bring his purposes to pass.

The two dreams given to Joseph here at the outset tell us that God already knows how the story is going to turn out. Indeed, if the dream was from God, and Joseph's brothers have no particular reason to doubt that it was -- Jacob didn't -- then, in rejecting Joseph, the brothers are also rejecting God's rule. But reject it as they may, they cannot escape it. God's will will be done; his purposes will be carried out. We know that because we know how the story ends. But we know it here at the outset because God tells Joseph what is to come. His brothers will bow down to him.

Election, both small and great, is everywhere in this story. And here we have it small. Here is God making individual distinctions, even between his own children. It is Joseph who will become the grand vizier of Egypt, not Reuben, not Judah.

And here is a fact of life, and one that we all struggle with in one way or another as the brothers struggled with it. God does not treat us all the same. He does not give us all the same things. He does not favor us all with the same blessings. Some Christians are smarter than others, better looking, more athletic, more successful financially, married to lovelier wives or more impressive husbands, some have better jobs than others, some higher achieving children, some have better health or live longer lives. Some people seem to step from one triumph to another, and others seem never to be able to escape the long reach of trouble. And, even among Christians, some people seem to find certain virtues so natural, so easy to put on and to practice. Some have so much more self-discipline than others, so much more sweet-spiritedness, so much more ease and skill at spiritual speech or some other Christian work. We stumble along trying to do even the simplest thing at least poorly, and here is a brother or sister whom God seems to have made so much more naturally a Christian.

Samuel Eliot Morison, the American historian and essayist, put it this way. Life is like a card game. God deals the deck. He gives to some a very good hand, he gives to others a very bad hand, but everyone is required to play by the same rules. It is a hard truth, but truth it is and we can observe it not only in the Bible but everywhere we look in life. A man can squander a good hand, of course. And a man can sometimes play a poor hand very well and make more of it than one would have thought possible. But if a great hand is played very well, it is unbeatable. And Joseph was dealt a great hand. He will play it well, as we will see, but God dealt him a great hand. And it was a better hand than the others were dealt in many ways. They never rose to prominence, power, and luxury in the Egyptian court. But God took Joseph there.

But you know and I know how hard it can be to take when we see others holding better hands than have been dealt to us. I remember a friend of mine, happy in the service of the church, a very committed Christian, who was just eaten alive by jealousy when men came to his church who were more gifted than he and came gradually to displace him as a Sunday School teacher. Just as Jacob preferred Joseph and that fact infuriated his brothers, so the congregation preferred these other men and that infuriated him. The fact is the new men were better teachers and people naturally flocked to their classes. But, like Joseph's brothers, he could barely disguise his animosity, his resentment, and finally left the church as a result. But, as here, it was God that made that distinction. It was God who, in that particular way, set those other men above him.

There are three antidotes, all found in this short piece of history we read this morning, with which to counter this resentment we feel at what seems to us to be God's preference for others, his favoring others above us.

First is the recognition of its futility. As we read in this history, for all their anger, for all their hatred, for all their resentment of Joseph, even for their terrible crime against him, Joseph's brothers did not succeed in frustrating God's plan to give to Joseph a supreme position in the family. It is never wise to argue with God; never wise to imagine that we can undo what he has done. It is a simple point, but much of biblical wisdom is a case of accepting the obvious and not struggling against what God has done. The struggle did the brothers no good whatsoever. It never does. They thought they would sell Joseph into slavery – we bow down to him! – And God made him Prime Minister of Egypt and they would eventually bow down to him in the most abject way.

Much more important, however, in the second place, we must see our resentment of the favor God seems to show others as a lack of faith in God's goodness and faithfulness. The fact is, all of this that so offended the brothers at first, turned out to everyone's satisfaction and blessing at the end. The family was saved from famine, the brothers were reconciled and came at last to have a true brotherhood that had always escaped them before. And that is not all. The fact is, the brilliantly luminous fact of this history is that for all of Joseph's eventual preeminence over his brothers, for all the ways in which these early dreams of his brothers bowing down to him were to come true, it is not Joseph finally who is the hero of this history. The one whom God favors above all, is the one who finally, first among all the brothers, who though he had been a terrible failure, morally and spiritually, confesses his sin and his guilt and acknowledges his need for God's mercy. It is Judah, who was just as angry at Joseph's preferment as any other brother. It wasn't Judah who tried to rescue Joseph from his brothers' hands -- that was Reuben. Judah, in fact, in chapter 38, is going to be painted in truly disgusting colors. Genesis 38 is one of the most sordid chapters in the Bible and it is all about Judah and what he did in defiance of his place in the covenant family of God.

But, at the end, it is to Judah that Jacob will make the promise of the seed and the king. Jacob, who so preferred Joseph to his other sons, and who wanted him to rule over the family, will, with his own mouth, give his greatest blessing to Judah. Jesus Christ himself, our Redeemer, will be forever known as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah!

Here too, the first are last and the last are first. How foolish his anger at Joseph must have seemed to Judah later, when he was in his right mind; how shameful; how inexcusable. And how much pain and sorrow Judah caused because he did not trust God to be as faithful to him as he would be to Joseph. He would know better later.

Then, finally, in the third place, our trouble accepting the distinctions the Lord makes between us, the way in which he seems to give to others what he has not given to us, needs to be turned into an opportunity to show that we have learned the principle of grace. "What do you have that you have not received?" Paul would later ask. If God wishes to give to one of his children something he has not given to others, what is that to you? Everything he gives you he gives you in defiance of the fact that you do not deserve anything from him accept punishment. And who are you to tell the Almighty and your Heavenly Father how to run his own family?

No, you have the advantage of Judah's experience. You know that Judah will finally be worthy to be thought of as a king and the ancestor of the king of kings precisely when he finally understands that he has no claim at all on the goodness of the Lord, that he deserves nothing but wrath from God, and that the fact that God should forgive him and receive him and grant him a share forever in his family is a blessing so indescribably immense as to make a high place in the Egyptian court a mere bagatelle by comparison.

And, when he understands that to make sacrifices for others, to give yourself for others, as Christ did for us, is the way to the heart and blessing of God. Or, in other words, when Judah learned that giving way to a Sunday School teacher with greater gifts, cheerfully acknowledging God’s greater gifts to him, is a far greater thing than teaching a popular, even a very helpful, Sunday school class.

And, we can go one step further. If, in fact, the supreme virtue of life in covenant with God is this true humility of faith that looks to God's merciful hand for all we need and acknowledges from the bottom of the heart that we are utterly dependent upon God's grace and have no claim whatsoever to his goodness, then it is not obvious that Joseph, for all his success in life and for the ways in which he was favored over his brothers, really had the better life or the easier go. If true humility before God is what God loves and loves to reward, is it not inevitably true that those with less have the advantage over those with more? Did not Christ himself say that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle? And God made Joseph very rich. He did well, Joseph did, but not as well as Judah, as Genesis 49 makes clear. It was Judah who was chosen to bear the seed, Judah whose name became the most important name of the twelve sons by far.

So learn the lesson that it cost Judah so much pain and shame to learn. Put on humility before God and man. And if others have been given more than you, rejoice that God has made the way to that humility somewhat easier for you. And hear the wisest men of the ages tell you the same thing:

"Desire to be unknown." Thomas a Kempis

"O teach me to love to be concealed." Jeremy Taylor

"Be ambitious to be unknown." Archbishop Leighton

"If you ask me what is the first thing in religion, I should reply: the first, second, and third thing therein is humility." Augustine

"There is not a humble heart in all the world that the high God is not dwelling in." Alexander Moody Stuart

"Without humility, all our other virtues are but vices." Pascal

If God wishes to exalt Joseph, that is God's doing and it is right and our duty to acknowledge that it is right and adore the wisdom and sovereignty of God. Let us worry rather only about whether we ourselves have taken the gospel as truly to heart as we should, as we must. And let us remember what we are here to be taught: that it is only the man or the woman who does take the gospel to heart, and who lives and breathes, who eats and drinks, the grace and mercy and forgiveness of God, who takes away the prize at the end of the day!

[Home]