Keep sharing good news without ads.
Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 37:1-11
Well, this morning we begin chapter 37, which is really Joseph's, I have a dream, speech. And we also consider the jealousy of his brothers. In these first 11 verses, it's tempting not to go further into the chapter where the jealousy and the hatred of Joseph's brothers actually flashes in the pan, as it were, and leads to the events that will set the course for the next 14 or 15 chapters.
In Genesis 37, verse 1, we read that Jacob was living in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. And then in verse 2, we have the formula, this is the account of Jacob's family line.
It could be translated genealogy or generations. This is the toledot of Jacob. And as we said last week, the toledot always goes with the son of whoever's toledot is in view. So when we consider the toledot of Isaac, we were actually in the Jacob cycle.
Now we're considering the toledot of Jacob when we're actually looking at the Joseph.
Cycle.
So the primary focus is going to be on Joseph. Of course, in chapter 38, we'll have an interlude with Tamar and Judah. And it's interesting to see the emphasis that is laid on Judah, especially as we give some consideration to the progeny that will follow from Judah, specifically the lion that will come from his tribe.
So within Genesis, again, we have this very Christ-centered presentation that even this morning, even in these first 11 verses, we'll have opportunity to consider together. Joseph was born in Haran. He was born under the shadow of Laban's treachery.
He grew up as a little boy watching his father mutter and grumble out in the fields as Laban threw another curveball, found another way to cheat or take advantage of Jacob. Of course, Joseph was at that point in time, the youngest son among all of his brothers.
It was not until the events of chapter 35 that his infant brother Benjamin was born when his mother died. And so Joseph was vulnerable in all sorts of ways that his brothers were not, as we'll see. He of course was the youngest son for much of this time.
Now Benjamin has come along, but he was now the eldest son, the first son of Jacob's beloved wife Rachel. And we think back to Rachel's barrenness in that long, long stretch of years when her brother and her sister had their own rivalry, their own hatred and jealousy for each other.
And when Joseph finally came along, we can only think of the train of prayers that had accompanied that moment. How many times had Rachel prayed to the Lord and beseeched the Lord that he might show favor to her and that she might bear a son.
And when that son came, she named him Joseph. May he add another. And of course, when he did add another, it was at the expense of Rachel's own life. Joseph would have been five, maybe six years old when they finally fled from Haran, being hotly pursued by dear old great uncle Laban.
He would have trembled by his father's legs when he saw his father approaching that encounter with Esau. He would have been struck by just how anxious his father seemed and perhaps even the fear that was getting through the camps when they were being divided in two places and defensive positions were being taken place.
As a young five or six year old, he was just old enough to realize something's not right. Something dangerous is coming toward us. But you can imagine the awe he would have felt, perhaps rubbing his weary eyes.
It was in the middle of the night when all his brothers and all of the servants and retinue were on the other side of the Jabbok. And then through the dark shadows of the night in the piercing sunlight of that early morning comes his father, his face perhaps shining like that of Moses.
He had just striven with God at Peniel and the fearful wreck that was at Mahanaim was now resolute. And he would have watched as his siblings were gathered and sent ahead of him in wave after wave. But he stuck by the waist of his mother, Rachel, and his father, Jacob, said, no, you stay.
By me.
You'll stand by me when we go before Esau, my brother. Joseph's already had a pretty fascinating life when we consider what he's seen. The age of five, the age of six, when we find him in verse two, he's 17 years old.
They're living in the land of Canaan. He's there with his father, and he's there with his brothers. He no longer has his mother. And this whole life is now being set in motion, a life that has the providence of God resting upon it.
And that is the theme for the Joseph cycle, as we'll see in the months ahead, the providence.
Of God.
Now, we want to look at these first 11 verses in four parts. And we'll look at that, really, with what Joseph has, four things that Joseph has. First, Joseph has a robe. Second, Joseph has a dream. Third, Joseph has another dream.
And then last, Joseph has an antitype. And we'll get to that and explain that when we get there. So first, Joseph has a robe. We read in verse two, Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives.
And he brought their father a bad report about them. So the narrative picks up, Joseph is that awkward teenage age of 17. I miss my younger years. I don't know if I miss the year of 17. Tending to the flocks, we find him shepherding alongside his brothers, not all of his brothers, but specifically the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah.
Now, it's interesting to note that distinction. He's not with all of the other brethren, but he's with specifically the four sons between Bilhah and Zilpah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. They don't share the same mother with Joseph.
Neither do they share the same mother with the sons of Leah. And of course, we're reminded that there's already this click between whose mother are you? That's really your brother. Everyone else is a half-brother, but who's your blood brothers?
And so the handmaidens' wives, they have sort of a click, and Joseph seems to gravitate toward them. The sons of Leah at this point are out of the picture. And so we want to keep sensitive attention to the clicks that have formed in the families of Jacob.
They don't share the same mothers. They don't share the same affinity for each other. We're going to see that next week in the events that lead toward Joseph's time in the pit. We're going to see that even when Joseph is reunited with Benjamin and that special feeling he has toward his bosom brother, Benjamin.
Leah's sons perhaps are the ones that don't have the interest to hang around with these four boys and Joseph. Leah's sons seem to think that they are the most entitled. They are the ones that have prestige and force.
We've already seen that with Reuben's attempted takeover. He went into Bilhah for a reason, to defile her and to take ownership of the family. So we see the sons of Leah jockeying position and power. No wonder that they're enraged at the events that will follow.
And the sense is that these four sons of Bilhah and Zilpah are sort of on the margins of the sons of Leah. They don't quite fit in. They're just trying to get by. They're not as well favored as the sons of Leah, and they don't have the authority within.
The family.
And Joseph gravitates toward them as the young hanger on. The amazing thing, as we'll see more next week, is that though this clique has formed between the sons of the maidens and the sons of Leah, they're all united in their hatred of Joseph eventually.
And it's kind of like the Lord Jesus, how he had this effect on the Pharisees and the Herodians. People who were erstwhile enemies all of a sudden became friends, and it was because they were united in their hatred and opposition of the Lord Jesus.
Joseph has that effect on his siblings. Now we read in verse 2 this report. There's sin in the camp of these four brothers. We read in verse 2, he brought their father a bad report about them. Now what's going on here?
We don't know what the report contains. We don't have any details. We only know that it was a bad report, and it was a bad report about these four men. It showed that these brothers were up to no good.
Gil mentions some of the rabbinical writings, and he says they practice uncleanness out in the fields, eating flesh torn from the living lamb's tails. And it's like, or not, we just don't know. Where do you get that?
That's not hiding behind some Hebrew consonant. I don't know sometimes where these rabbis get their views. We really don't know what the bad report is about, but it's something that David feels compelled to tell Jacob.
Now some interpreters portray, did I say David? That was a Freudian slip, Joseph. Some interpreters portray Joseph as a tattletale. And the argument goes something like this. Even if Joseph's report were entirely fair, this was not the right thing for him to do.
Doesn't love cover a multitude of offenses? Joseph should have covered that bad report in love. Or even if it was something so provocative and so shameful, he should have gone out to his brothers first, and we don't have any record that he did that.
It seems like he saw something and he ran straight to daddy, and he tattled on them. He was a snitch.
He ratted on them.
However you put it, people say this was actually something that we can fault Joseph for doing. It showed that he was more concerned about himself. He was looking at himself in terms of his father's approval.
Won't my father think more of me? Won't I be seen to be the righteous son if I go and tell daddy this, less concerned about the hearts of his brethren? Well, that may be the case. I don't think the narrative tilts in either direction.
I can't say that that's the intent of Moses recording this, but neither can I deny that there may have been some fleshly component of tattling in the way that Joseph deals with.
This bad report.
However, as we will see, Jacob, obviously spoiling Jacob, must have had an impact on this 17-year-old's psyche and self-estimation, but on the other hand, the entirety of the story of Joseph really comes across as wisdom literature, and so the emphasis is not so much on finding a few little faults in Joseph.
The narrative almost has no interest in that from here all the way through chapter 50. Joseph is presented constantly in a very good light, and so if we follow that sort of thematic presentation of Joseph in contrast to the other patriarchs where we've seen them, warts and all, it might be wise to say perhaps there's no charge that can hold up in the court of law that he's tattling.
And perhaps, being charitable to Joseph, we could say he's being faithful to his father even in the little things, no matter what it costs him. He's being faithful to his father even when it will cost him the approval and the comfort of relationships with his brother.
He's being faithful in the small things, and God will make him faithful over great things. It shows perhaps that even at the age of 17, and this is a rarity in our world, Joseph has a very sensitive conscience.
Oh, 17-year-olds in our midst, those perhaps just past or those heading toward it especially. Take great effort to defend the sensitivity of your conscience. Once it calcifies, once it's worn with calluses, it is very hard to resensitize your conscience.
And a sensitive conscience is a terrible thing to lose. You've been given, so many of you, gifts in that you've not had to be sanctified as heavily and as painfully as others in this church body to try to get to the place where your conscience is sensitive to the things of the Lord.
From your youth, you've been raised up in a way that your conscience is constantly producing red flags for you to show you in the way that you ought to go. Don't take that for granted. Don't take that for granted.
Should also say, it's an opportunity to say it, we should beware of tattling. Whether or not Joseph did it here, who's to say? But for us, we ought to be very careful. Backbiting, tattling is a sin. And it all comes down to the way that we're viewing ourselves and the reason we have to share the things that we've seen or we know.
Silence, when we are witnessing sin or seeing sin, silence can actually be a sin. It can be sinful for us not to rebuke, not to exhort. I think we could charge Jacob, being sinfully silent and passive in many ways, that he should have exhorted and rebuked his sons.
We'll see that, I think, more clearly as we move forward. But silence for the Christian can be sin, but when you're choosing not to be silent, you must be sure that your motives are pure. Is this something I can, I'm called to, I ought to cover in love?
Is this something I am to be charitable toward, my brother or my sister who's caught in this sin? If I have a reason to tell it, who am I telling it to and why am I telling it to them? What am I looking to get out of telling it?
Am I expressing it under the camouflage of concern, but really I just want to vent and did you really know this? And very quickly, something that the angel that masquerades as light, he says, oh no, this is good, this is kosher, you have concerns, you're seeing this, you want to garner help and allies to deal with this situation.
Pretty quickly he's tangled you up in a web of gossip and tattling, and it's despicable in the eyes of the Lord, and it's destructive in the life of the church. So we ought to take that to heart. Do we have pure motives?
We're being charitable to Joseph here. It seems inconsonant with the presentation of Joseph to assume he's tattling. At the same time, we're reading history and we're reading about a 17-year-old man who's been sprinkled and showered with his father's favor, and that has to have a certain effect.
And perhaps that is glowing through the narrative in some ways. Wait till you hear my dream, brothers, in ways like that. Now perhaps the fact that we go from this report right to verse 3 is further evidence.
Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age, and he made an ornate robe for him. Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons. Maybe at some level we can't fault Jacob for that.
You know, Joseph I have loved, my other sons not so much. Maybe he has that sort of Malachi moment in the way he looks at his sons, but the problem is that his other sons knew it, as we'll see. His other sons knew it.
They didn't have to imagine, do you think Daddy cares for us as much as the others?
They knew it.
Jacob seems to have no interest to hide it, and so he makes this ornate robe for him. He almost feels like, I don't need to defend this. I'm a 90-year-old man. My wife, the only woman I ever loved, this was her firstborn son to me.
I don't have to defend that. Of course this is my favorite son. Of course this is the son that I love. But his other sons knew it, and in that way, Jacob brought so much of the disaster of his family life upon himself.
He created conditions for sin to flourish. And we ought to be very careful in our homes, brothers and sisters, that our children know that we love them, and we're not creating conditions for sin to flourish.
Where envy is beginning to sprout, we nip it, we pluck it out when it's that little alfalfa sprout before it becomes this rather thick, you know, gorge that we have to saw an axe and chainsaw through.
That's what sin is like. The statement connects Jacob's love for Joseph to the fact that he had been born in his old.
Age.
There's a number of ways. This could be an idiom. It could be a matter-of-fact way of saying he was the one that was actually with Jacob, taking care of Jacob since he was in his old age. In the Hebrew, it's literally he was the son of his old age.
And it might be more than just saying he had him when he was really old. It might be talking about the way that Joseph related to Jacob and caring for Jacob at this point in his life, and sort of being close at home and not necessarily going out to the full extent of the other brothers.
He kept him close. Remember, this is the miracle child. This is the child that barren Rachel brought to Jacob, the child that they thought would never come, the child that was prayed over for month after month and year after year.
And in God's providence, God gave Joseph this special place in his father's affection. Whether he took sinful advantage of that remains to be seen. But we can fault Jacob here for not caring that his other sons were being made jealous and inviting disaster on his own family.
He makes this ornate robe. We almost can't help but think of this as the coat of many colors. It goes to show the power of translation. I actually very much appreciate the restraint of our translation here, ornate robe.
I think that's a very wise translation. Better to think of it as an ornate robe than what's just taken for granted as the coat of many colors. We just take that for various reasons. It seems dependent on not so much the original Hebrew as cognates, and especially the way that Greek renders the Hebrew term for this ornate robe.
King James, of course, says coat of many colors. Other more modern translations, a very colored tunic, and that's kind of, I don't know, doesn't really have that same buzz, a very colored tunic. That's Nazby.
A full-length robe, a richly ornamented robe, a robe of many colors. The significance here is that it's something very ornate, very detailed. It was tailored. It was costly. There would have been long pieces of fabric that had assembled.
That's most likely the idea of many colors. This wouldn't have been something that was dyed, but so much as compiled. It would have been long and flowing, long sleeves. The idea is sort of a full gown that goes down to the wrist, down to the ankles.
And the emphasis is not so much on the color, but the complexity. So better to say ornate robe than coat of many colors. Now even here we can see perhaps a failure of Jacob. At least in part, he chooses when Joseph's only 17 years old to mark out Joseph in this way among his brethren.
He didn't wait till his sword is on his deathbed and pull out the wooden chest and say, I have something very special for you. We're going to talk about the significance of what this may be. But already here we see Jacob's not helping Joseph spiritually in the way that he's treating Joseph in relation to his brothers.
He's not saying in private, you know how much I love you. You are to me like I look at your face and you're like Rachel to me. I see the wife that I buried in your face.
I love you.
You're precious to me. But this is how you need to be toward your brothers. I notice the way they look at you and the way they regard you and I've been praying about it. He's not helping his son spiritually.
If anything, he's only further spoiling, further complicating the way that Joseph is living his life. He really does feel like the center of the universe. William Gouge in his Domestical Duties, at one point he talks about pampering, the effect of pampering children.
And I think an ornate robe is a way of pampering a child. And he quotes Proverbs 27, verse 7, the full soul, that is the mature soul, loathes a honeycomb. And Gouge says, you know, too much food, fancy clothing, pampering, excessive play, it weakens the body and the mind and it will trap your child in immaturity, you see.
And so he's using that wisdom from the Proverbs, a mature soul loathes a honeycomb. It's not craving and seeking after every dainty and every little, you know, treat and every little expense in a way that they can go to the spa, you know, and have all these.
That is immaturity in the life of a believer and in the life of a child that can trap them in immaturity. They're not able to be wise and mature and strident. In some ways, more interested in the long-term vision of what God is doing rather than in the immediate things that can be had and enjoyed.
And I think Gouge is right to point that out. Jacob would be well to keep the honeycombs away from his immature 17-year-old son. Now archaeology suggests that in tribal life during this period among Semitic tribes, some garment would have been used to note the leader of the family, the leader of the clan.
It was a status symbol. There would be insignia upon it. And it may well be that already at the age of 17, Jacob's affection for Joseph is so full that he can't help but say, you are going to be the heir.
You are going to be the leader of the family. You know, what Reuben tried to do to me, the way that Simeon and Levi are, you know, these are not alternatives for me. And I want even them to know that my heart has chosen you.
You are the tribal chief after my own heart, dear Joseph. That seems to be at least implicitly understood in the way that the brothers treat him. They're not concerned about the robe as fashion police so much as the significance of the robe as it's just a matter of time.
Our father is going to put Joseph over us and our inheritance is vulnerable now to this pest of a younger brother. And we have the fulfillment of that, by the way, in 1 Chronicles 5. We read, the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, he was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright.
And Judah prevailed over his brothers and from him came a ruler, although the birthright belonged to Joseph.
Do you see?
First Chronicles 5 says Jacob gave the birthright over to Joseph. Now that double portion ended up resting upon the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, but as far as the chronicler is concerned, the birthright was given to Joseph.
And so perhaps this ornate robe is the beginning of this plan, this design, for Jacob upon.
Joseph.
He will be the leader of the family. He will be the heir. And when his brothers saw, verse 4, that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and they could not speak a kind word to him.
So now there's this tension in the home. We've seen it throughout Genesis, haven't we? The destructiveness of sin for family life, family life diseased by sin, needing to be.
Redeemed.
The state of Joseph's brothers here is sad. We almost feel bad for them at the beginning of verse 4, they don't feel loved by their.
Father.
They're looking at the kind of love they could experience whenever they look to Joseph. And really, that misstep, that miscalculation by Jacob, it fuels their hatred toward their younger brother. They can't even speak a kind word to him.
They can't even say please or thank you. Family life is toxic here in Genesis 37. It's sad on the one hand, it gets downright tragic as we keep reading. Remember that they had grown up in Haran also. These boys, their whole development, their whole lives were lived out among sibling rivalries.
The rivalry between their mothers, Rachel and Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah. The rivalry between their father, Jacob, and their uncle, Esau. It's this rivalry and tension at every turn. Now they've inherited that amongst themselves.
Now they are carrying on that family trait of squabbling and having jealous rage between brethren. And this is especially sad when we consider Jacob, because he personally knew what it was like to have a father that didn't show him affection.
He grew up very close to Rebekah, but he knew what it was like when he could see his father's smile and delight and enjoyment of Esau whenever he came back to the field. There's my boy, there's the son of my strength, that's my Esau.
Jacob, go get your brother a nice cold iced coffee. He deserves it. Jacob, what have you done all day in the kitchen with mom? No, I wish you were like my boy, Esau. Jacob grew up under that. He should have known how poisonous that was to his own walk with the Lord, how destructive that was for his own relationships.
He should have known the valley that was so deep and the mountain that was so high just to be reconciled to Esau. But he recreates the conditions for that among his own sons. It's tragic. Isaac's favorite son had been Esau, and that rivalry tore their family apart.
And Jacob walks Joseph right into the same situation. Every one of his brothers knows Joseph is the favorite. Would it be too late at this point for there to be some repentance and some turning around?
We talked about how it's these formative years that they grew up and they saw this sibling rivalry and jealousy as normal. Would it have been too late for Jacob to call the family together and begin to walk out in repentance?
As long as that took, it would not have been too late. The world wants you to think, well, if this is how they grew up, if this is 17 years of Joseph's life, even more into the 20s, two decades' worth of this kind of toxicity and tension and jealousy and rage, that can't be overdone.
They're going to have to go to a secular counselor. This is going to take eight years. This can't turn around. And we as Christians go, if there's genuine repentance, the Lord can turn this around.
Real quick. Real quick.
Things that have been built and encrusted in sin for decades, where there's genuine repentance, the physician comes and he heals that disease to everyone's amazement. And I think as families, we need to hear that in our relationships.
Parents are worried about the influence they've had on their grown children.
I blew it.
They wish they had a Joseph they could start over with. This will be the one that I get right. And it's like where there's repentance, the Lord can turn things around really quick.
Really quick.
So we look at this and we look at it soberly. We know that there were deep impressions on the life of Jacob and he made deep impressions on the life of Joseph. And we want to take that soberly. We want to look at that and say, am I training up my children in the way they should go so that when they're older, they won't depart from it?
That's God's word. That's God's warning to parents. If you read that opposite, as we ought to do sometimes with wisdom literature, if you do not train up a child in the way they should go when they are older, they will depart from.
It.
So we take that as a sober warning. But then we look to the grace of God and we say, where there's genuine repentance, the Lord will bless it.
He will honor it.
We also need to keep our eye on the word brothers here. It's going to be infused throughout this whole chapter. It occurs over 20 times when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any.
And we're going to keep seeing this word brother. It's used in a very powerful, dramatic way. The brothers that are not like brothers at all. The brothers that relate more like enemies to Joseph, as we'll see next week.
And so again, we see the spread of sin in family discord, wrath, outbursts of jealousy,.
Hatred.
We recognize the spread of sin as it's recorded in Genesis is primarily the spread of sin in family life. That's how Genesis presents and displays sin. It's the second table of the law sins on full display.
And that disorder has come about because of the failure of the first table of the law in failing to acknowledge God and failing to relate to God rightly, all of the relationships among human beings are poisoned.
And yet we also see that God's grace is going to intervene despite the curse because he has a promised plan of redemption. And so that brings us to secondly, Joseph having a dream. So we began, Joseph has a robe, now second, Joseph has a dream.
We read beginning in verse five, Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more, I don't know what he was expecting. He said to them, listen to this dream I had. We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.
And his brothers said to him, do you intend to reign over us?
Will you actually rule us?
And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Remember, he's coming to them in this ornate robe. If you couldn't tell from this, let me tell you from my dream what you're going to do to me, the guy that you can't even say a kind word to.
The Lord begins to intervene in the life of Joseph through this dream. And the whole world is bound up in the movement of God at this particular night based on God's revelation of a dream to Joseph. Whatever else is going on in the world, the equivalent of headlines today that were going on in and around the land of Canaan at this point in time, none of that is consequential in the ultimate sense for the history of God's redemption in the world so much as the dream that Joseph has that night.
And none of his family know that. No one else in the world knows that. He intervenes in Joseph's life by bringing a dream. Now, let's talk about that really quick. Dreams were, and I use that decidedly, were a mode of the revelation of God's word.
Dreams were, please note past tense, a mode of the revelation of God's word, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament times. Of course, we have to be careful how we understand the significance of dreams still.
I wouldn't be surprised if a missionary had a dream, something like Paul had a dream of the Macedonian man wearing the Phrygian cap saying, come over and help us. I wouldn't be surprised at all. I would be concerned if they took that as somehow authoritative.
But I do believe that God can work personally in the lives of his people. The question is, what is the standard of authority? What is the revelation of God? And what are things that he allows providentially in our lives that impact us in significant.
Ways?
And so I almost wish I didn't even say that much, but I just want to allow there to be something to be said about the way that God still works dynamically today. And the way that he works dynamically today is through his word, which is no longer revealed in the mode of dreams to his people.
So we ought not to say, the Lord said to me last night in my dream. As soon as you start hearing that, it's like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, you know, alarm bells. And what you do instinctively as a Christian is you say, let's chapter and verse that.
And if you've ever been in the awkward situation I have where you're like, well, the Lord didn't say that because that's against his word here, it's kind of like, but I, and it's like that just doesn't matter.
We've got the word, right? And if he wanted to reveal to you something that wasn't in the word, you have to question the wisdom of why it was necessary for you to receive that revelation. We would say that God has spoken fully and finally in his word.
So I'm trying to protect the mode of the revelation of God's word by also acknowledging the fact that people have strange dreams sometimes. And even, I think, among reformed Christians, we ought to be able to appreciate sometimes the providence of God.
So let's talk about dreams really, really briefly. First of all, we want to, of course, paraphrase, not quote, but paraphrase Hebrews 1, God at various times and in various ways spoke in the past to the fathers.
So various times and at various ways, not constantly as we have access to his word today, and not in the same modality as we have a normative way to understand the revelation of God today. But God spoke in various times and in various ways to the fathers.
Now he's spoken fully and finally to us in the word, that is his son. Now generally speaking, dreams are the product of our own busyness, our own anxiety, it's what we've given our minds over to during the day, it's what we're fearful about or anxious about perhaps.
It's what we're occupying our time and our attention, our energy with. These are the things that tend to creep into our dreams in some sort of reflective, distorted perhaps way. I'm actually, I'm curious at Lunch Fellowship today to hear how people dream among us here at GRBC.
I rarely have any memory of dreams. For whatever reason, I don't ever really recall dreaming much at all. So it would actually surprise me if I had a very vivid dream that I remembered. I of course have had very odd moments in dreams when you're kind of half awake, and usually my dreams are ridiculous, and so they're thankfully not even worth remembering.
But some people have very vivid dreams, and sometimes those dreams have an effect on the way that people are looking at their lives, or saying, I had this dream and it stayed with me ever since I had it.
And they won't do certain things, or they will do certain things as the effect of that.
Dream.
Now we have to be careful again about what we're viewing as the authority or the interpretive grid by which we understand God's will and God's way in this world. And I would say that dreams are the very least, if they have any foothold at all within the way that we understand God's will and God's way in this world.
But I want to protect again the providence of how God can move dynamically in the experience He allows us to have, not just in terms of dreams, but in any experience we may have in our lives where we can see the providence and purpose of God within it.
I'm really just protecting missionary biographies, that's all I'm trying to do. In the Old Testament, certain visions, certain dreams become part of God's revelatory process. We're seeing that with Joseph, we've already seen that with Jacob, we will see it with Pharaoh, we'll see it again with Solomon, the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel very significantly.
This is a mode of the revelation of God's Word. But wherever we have that, we're also reminded of the dangers and limitations upon it. When we get to the New Testament, there are still dreams, but they seem to be very different in case and in scope.
Probably the most we see them is in connection to Christ's birth. The announcement of His birth, specifically in Matthew 1, where dreams and visions are given to those that will attend to it. You think of Joseph being warned by a dream, Mary being warned or at least told in the.
Vision.
Others, of course, other instances relate to Paul. I already mentioned Acts 16 and the Macedonian man. We can think of visions, whatever that may have looked like, John at Patmos, Paul caught.
Up to the third heaven.
How is that relating to Joel and the prophecy that is fulfilled in this New Covenant era that they shall dream dreams? It's things that have to be worked out. What's the significance of this at this point in redemptive history?
We never find an instruction or an exhortation to seek after dreams or to even act upon the dreams that are received. Authentic visions that are later verified in Scripture that are seen to be coming from God enter into the revelatory corpus as the Word of God and therefore they are authoritative.
To us.
But we don't have that same function, that same process for anything extra revelatory.
Today.
Anything outside of the Word of God is not the Word of God. It is rather subject to the Word of God. In Numbers 12, we already see the logic, right, of God saying this is how I'm revealing my Word to you but you are not to depend upon these experiences which come at different times and in different ways.
In Numbers 12, the Word of God is spoken directly to Moses as a more authoritative Word than the vision of a prophet. It's the Word that carries the authority. Deuteronomy 13, it is the knowledge that is derived from the law of God that carries authority, nothing coming forth from dreams.
In Jeremiah 23, the Word of God superior to dreams and visions just as grain is superior to chaff. So the chaff of dreams and visions is in contrast to the weighty, green, the nutritious grain of the Word of God.
So again, even in the Old Testament, we have the primacy of the Word being revealed to the people of God. One thing that's striking to me is, perhaps this is a way to think about it, when that Word was not yet fully concretized and the revelation that had been given was subject to misunderstanding, it seems in that period of the New Testament history, God is interested to give these revelatory experiences to the apostles, for example.
So I think of Peter and the vision he has, rise Peter, kill and eat. Now he goes to the Word and what does he have? He has Levitical restrictions on diet. Surely not, Lord. And God is saying, no, Peter, rise, kill, and eat.
Don't call common what I have now made clean. And so he uses that vision, that experience, to help Peter understand that a new revelation from God has come because God has now brought about the fullness of his purpose.
Back to Joseph. I hope I gave some people some breathing room about some significant dream they may have.
Had.
I hope I gave no one quarter to think that God reveals his Word via dreams. If that's all you get, mission accomplished. Joseph dreamed a dream. Joseph dreamed a dream. God is the initiator. Joseph doesn't stumble by his own efforts into the plan and purpose of God.
As we've always seen with all of the patriarchs, God initiates his work in the life of Joseph. And he does it, at this point, by way of dream. This is initial contact with Joseph. He takes Joseph, who perhaps is just beginning to understand that God is now resting his favor upon him, to this primary place in this stage of the drama of redemption.
And the first dream he has is his brother's sheaves gathering around his own and bowing.
Down.
His brothers understand exactly what that dream means. They say, do you intend to reign over us? This is ironic, right? When Pharaoh has a dream, no one in the kingdom can be found to interpret it but Joseph.
When Joseph has this dream, his brothers are like, oh, we know exactly what that signifies. You intend to rule over us? You intend for us to bow down to you? So they know the interpretation right off the bat.
Not even the dullest among the brothers misses out on what this vision is explaining in detail. Joseph is going to have the favor of God and the charge of the family, and they will be brought to a place where they bend their knees to the brother that they have despised.
Most likely, the brothers are hating him even more because they're not treating this as a revelation of God that ought to humble them, but they're viewing it as just a manifestation of Joseph's craving for power over them, for prestige among them.
Oh, you got your little fancy robe now, and you just think you're God's gift to the family, and now you're even dreaming about how we're going to bow down to you. It all adds up. They should have had a Gamaliel moment, you know, from Acts 5.
Okay, Joseph had this vision, this dream. It seems to be genuine. He's not making this up. If this is of God, we cannot stop it, so we better not do anything against him. They should have had that Gamaliel wisdom among them, but they lacked it.
Now even for Joseph, this vision that shows this position of exaltation, his brothers bowing down before him, he doesn't understand the cost at which that position will come. And so the same grace that is intervening in his life by way of this vision is a grace that's going to have to prepare him to walk by faith as he suffers on his way to that place of exaltation.
So the same grace that reveals you will be exalted is a grace that prepares him to endure the suffering that is coming his way in order for him to be exalted among his brethren. And that's a very important thing to note.
I think of Paul when he was called on the road to Damascus, and of course he didn't have a vision of an exalted place, but he was to be accepted among the brethren. And you remember, Ananias was like, no, Lord, not him.
And what did the Lord say? I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. That's almost the subtext here. The brothers are like, surely not, Joseph, this past, he can't be exalted among us and it's like the Lord is saying, I will show him how many things he must suffer for my.
Name's sake.
And we see in the brothers' rejection their spiritual state. If they really believed that Joseph wouldn't make something up like this, right? You wouldn't invoke the name of God and claim to have received a vision.
You wouldn't take that kind of risk. This is a genuine visionary experience he has had. This is a genuine revelation from God. And it shows in their spiritual state, they're so fueled by hatred that the revelation of God only makes them further angry.
They hate Joseph and they hate the revelation of God about Joseph. They hate what God intends to do with Joseph. In short, they hate God. They don't want God to be sovereign. I deserve to be first. I deserve to be exalted.
I'm the mover and the shaker. I'm the one rushing into the tent to lay with Bilhah. I'm the one that's going to be exalted. And God, if you intend to take the weakest and the least among us, I hate your sovereignty.
I hate your providence. I hate your calling. I hate your revelation. All throughout history, we've seen God overruling the laws and the customs of the ancient Near East, right? Primogeniture. The oldest gets the barn, as it were, the double portion.
Isaac preferred to Ishmael. Jacob preferred to Esau. And now we have the youngest among the eleven, right, with the exception of Benjamin. We have him now preferred over all of his elder brothers. And you can see the sort of anti-God rhetoric hiding behind verse 8.
Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated him more because of his dream. But who gave that dream? Who had the right to give that dream? Who has the right to exalt whom he chooses to exalt?
To lay and turn aside whom he chooses to turn aside? Do you intend to reign over us? It's not so much their charge against Joseph as their charge against God. Do you intend to reign over us? To overrule our desires, our plans for our lives?
You see, in these brethren, the natural man hates the sovereignty of God. The natural man hates the revelation of God. Though he lives and moves and has his being in the person of God, though he bears the image of the God who made him, he resents and loathes the power and purpose of God when it interrupts his life.
Do you intend to reign over us? Is as much a statement, the Lord will not rule over me. But Joseph has another dream. He told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had another dream. This time the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
And this time he told his father as well as his brothers. His father rebuked him and said, what is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?
Most likely mother here, of course, Rachel's buried in Ephrathah. So perhaps one of the other wives became a surrogate to Joseph. Now not only are the relationships among the sons upturned, but even among parents and.
Children.
Now the mother and the father are coming to bow down to Joseph, replicated by the sun.
And the moon.
It's interesting in the Hebrew here, what Jacob says is coming. It's emphatic. It's repeated. Coming, will we come? I and your mothers and your brothers to bow down to you on the ground? And it says Jacob is saying, you don't really think this is going to happen, do you?
Like there's no way this is going to happen. Have you forgotten who you are and who I am? Jacob's not, of course, angered like his sons, but he's perplexed.
How could this be?
His brothers, however, verse 11, they're jealous of him. But notice Jacob, he kept the matter in mind. Literally in Hebrew, it's just he kept the word. He seems to understand, oh, God is doing something in all of this.
And so he keeps the word. Remember when we read Luke chapter 2, when they had seen him, these are the shepherds, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning the child and all those who heard it marveled at the things that were explained by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and she pondered them in her heart. So just like Mary kept the word and she pondered it, Jacob keeps the word of Joseph's dream and he ponders this.
How could it be?
These prophetic dreams are God-given, but how is this going to come about? Why would this come about? We're not really given any insight into how Joseph told it, but if you know your brothers won't even say a kind word to you, as a matter of practical wisdom, you probably don't want to go share the dreams that they're going to be worshiping you someday.
His brothers are already jealous of him, but Jacob keeps the word. And many times in the years that follow, Joseph is the one that's going to have to keep the.
Word.
Joseph's going to have to remember what that revelation of God said would happen to him when he's in the pit, when he's in the dungeon, when he's being persecuted, when he's suffering. He has to remember what did God reveal to me?
And I look and say, how could that possibly be? My neck is practically on the execution block. How am I going to be exalted and worshiped? If Joseph was only looking at his circumstances, he would have despaired.
But as we'll see, the same grace that revealed the dream is the grace that prepares Joseph to walk by faith and not by sight. And so, in summary, before we get to the last point here, we're beginning the cycle of Joseph.
This is very much an introduction to the cycle of Joseph. God has providentially that's a key word, providence in the life of Joseph God has providentially allowed Joseph to be the object of hatred and jealousy and rejection among his brethren.
He's providentially allowed his father, rightly or wrongly, to set a unique love upon Joseph that allows Joseph to be separate from his brethren. God has allowed, whether rightly or wrongly, through human weakness and human sin, he's allowed this providence to unfold primarily in two distinct ways.
First, he's given Joseph a father that loves him and adores him and sees him as something special and separate from all of his other sons. And second, he gives Joseph a dream, a vision of his own exaltation.
And so that revelation of God, along with that human relational component, combine together for the purpose of the narrative that's about to unfold. Now lastly, and most importantly, and I hope we'll be tracking this in the months ahead, we said Joseph has a robe, Joseph has a dream, Joseph has another dream, lastly, Joseph has an antitype.
You've heard of this word typology or type of Christ. Is this a, is Melchizedek a type of Christ? When we say type, we mean a representation, a symbolic manifestation, something that helps us understand something of the mystery of God pertaining to the revelation of his son and the salvation that his son will bring.
So this is typology. Now when we use the word antitype, we're saying that's what every type is pointing forward to, right? So if the typology you're looking at is images or expressions or manifestations that point us toward Jesus, Jesus is the antitype and Melchizedek is the type, or King David is the type, or the Passover lamb is the type, right?
These are the types that point to the antitype. Joseph has an antitype. Listen to what A .W. Pink says, Arthur W. Pink. This is, this is somewhat long, but I feel like, I feel like it gives us a good, a good grasp of what we need to pay attention to.
Joseph is the last of the saints which occupies a prominent position in Genesis. There have been seven, Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. More space is devoted to Joseph than any of these others, right?
The Joseph cycle is about half the book of Genesis. There are several reasons for this which appear on the surface. In the first place, the history of Joseph is the chief link which connects Exodus to Genesis, right?
You can't really begin Israel in Exodus if you don't have this historical record of what took place among Joseph and the tribe leaders of Israel at that time in Egypt. So there's this historical link to get us to the narrative of Exodus.
That's the first thing to say. But no doubt the chief reason why the life of Joseph is described with such fullness of detail is because almost everything in it typified something of Christ. As we read thoughtfully the books of the Old Testament, our study of them is but superficial if they fail to show us the diverse ways and the various means God was preparing for the coming of His Son.
The central purpose in the divine incarnation, the great outstanding object in the life and the death of the Lord Jesus, was always prefigured beforehand and ought to have been familiar to the minds of men.
Are you a teacher in Israel and you don't understand these things? Oh, how our hearts burned within us when He went through the Scriptures and showed us all the things pertaining to Himself. Thus Adam represented His headship, Abel His righteous death, Noah His work as a refuge for His people, Melchizedek as His priesthood, Moses as the prophet, David as to his kingship.
But this is pink but the fullest and the most striking of all of these types is.
Now, if that doesn't whet your appetite for what lies ahead, I don't know what will. We're only 11 verses deep into Genesis 37, and I hope you've already heard the echoes of typology. If not, let me spell out just a few.
In Joseph's bad report, we have something of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to sinful man and giving the bad report. And so he can say in John 7, 7, the world he says this to his disciples the world cannot hate you, it hates me, because I am the one testifying that its works are.
Evil.
Just like Joseph ran to Jacob to testify that the works that were being done in the field were evil. The wickedness of these brothers could not tolerate, could not operate harmoniously with the purity of Joseph.
Now again, we want to leave room to say Joseph wasn't sinless. There may have been some flesh in the way that Joseph handled this, but we're speaking now typologically. The darkness among these brethren out in the field, it couldn't co-mingle, it couldn't operate in harmony with the light that Joseph represented.
He spoke the truth to what was done in evil. The Holy Son of God cannot co-mingle as light with darkness. He exposes that which is evil. He testifies that the works of man are evil. And what's the result of that testimony from the Lord Jesus?
The hatred, the rejection of man. And so in Joseph's rejection and the hatred of his siblings, we see fallen man's hatred and rejection for the Lord Jesus. We also see the love of a father for his son.
How Jacob loved Joseph. It's emphasized just in these verses. And typologically that speaks to the father's love for the beloved son. When the Son of God became incarnate and the heavens began to shine and they opened up and a voice was heard, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And that contrast between the father's love, but the hatred of his brothers, his half-brothers significantly also, right? Not of them in that way, not sharing their blood, but they hated him. In some ways, their envy was the fruit of their own sin.
In other ways, we've seen that Joseph may be partly to blame. Jacob definitely was to blame. But it reminds us how Jesus was envied by his opponents. See how Mark 15, the whole world goes out to him, Mark 15.
Envy, jealousy, hatred, rejection, let us be rid of him. They were seeking, the scribes, they were seeking how they might kill him. We're going to start to hear the echoes of some of these moments of intrigue in the Gospels as we recount the remainder of chapter 37.
We'll see in many ways as the chapter continues to unfold, they hate Joseph without a cause. Psalm 69, they've hated me without a cause. I spoke the truth. I lived as God called me to live before them.
I am the Father's beloved one. And they hated me without a cause. And yet my Father's love has upholded me. Why did Joseph run back to Jacob from the field? That was the only love he had. He didn't have, you know, Dan and Gad and Asher.
He didn't have the sons of Leah. He didn't have these little cliques he was a part of. The only close affinity he had was an infant little brother. It was the love that he had with his father. In many ways, Joseph was a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief.
He was a teenager when he buried his mother. He didn't have brothers that were taking the charge for him, watching out for him, teaching him how to throw the football and how to fly fish. He had brothers that hated him.
The only refuge he had in this world of sorrow was the love of his father. And so he sought to please his father in everything that he did. If that is not a type of the Lord Jesus, I don't know what is.
Other refuge have I none. Jesus depended daily, hourly upon the love of his father. I delight to do thy will, O God. And if what is said concerning me is true, that it is your delight to crush me, then so be it, Lord.
Thy will be done. I may ask for the cup to be taken from me, but what I ask above all is that your will be done, that your pleasure be found, that your will be fulfilled. And we have that in Joseph. The testimony that Jacob gives according to Deuteronomy 33 is this.
Of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord is his hand with the precious things of heaven, with the dew and the deep lying beneath, with the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months, with the best things of ancient mountains, with the precious things of everlasting hills, with the precious things of the earth and all of its fullness, and the favor of him who dwells by the bush.
Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, the crown upon the head of him who was separate from his brothers. That's the prophecy that Jacob gives to Joseph. Jesus was different from his brothers, as Joseph was different.
The difference was one of righteousness and integrity and love for the Father, and the cost was rejection and hatred of men, seeking to kill, seeking to destroy that whom the Father loved. Joseph was separate from his brothers and so was Jesus.
We look at Joseph and as he's screaming out from the pit, perhaps at first bewildered like, is this a joke? When are they going to let the ropes down? Surely there's a search party that's coming. When he began to scream out,.
Brothers, brothers, help.
You hear the echo of that.
Why have you forsaken me? Why did they hate him?
It's something beyond the relationship. It has to be typological. It's something beyond how we can conceive of what a sibling could do to another sibling.
They hated him without cause. Why did they hate him?
Why did the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees, why did the priests and the men who devoted their lives to studying the Word and the will and the laws of God, who recited in the joy of song what he had done as a testimony, calling upon his name day by day, looking for the consolation and hope of Israel,.
And when he came, why did they hate him?
They hated him and they sought to kill him. Will you reign over us? Will you be exalted over us? And yet the vision that had been given to the son, the vision that the beloved son relied upon, was true even in the moments of their most egregious hatred, when the Roman cattail whips with those shards of pottery were clawing chunks of flesh from his back.
It was no less true as Joseph being in the pit wondering,.
How will I be exalted?
I must rely on the vision I've seen, and Jesus relying on the Word of his Father, the government will be upon your shoulders.
Every tongue, every knee will bow before you.
The whole world will confess that you are Lord. So let the blessing come, and let the crown come upon the head of him who is separate from his brothers. We're not here speaking of Joseph, but we're speaking of Jesus.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for Your Word, Lord. We look forward to seeing more and more and more of the images and ways and expressions of Your Son and the fullness of Your plan of redemption in the life of Joseph.
Prepare our minds and hearts, Lord, as we consider these things. Let us also take the lessons that we've learned, both positively and negatively, Lord. Let us look at our own hearts. The Word that we're relying upon as trustworthy and true.
Not looking for experiences to validate our sense of guidance, but looking to Your Word which is settled forever in the heavens. Let us look at our families, Lord. Being aware of the dangers that we see in the families of the patriarchs.
Let us examine our own hearts before You, Lord. See if we're creating conditions for sin to thrive and flourish in our very own homes. But ultimately, Lord, as we discover these things and as we're convicted by the ways that we fall short, may we look to Joseph and beyond him to our Savior, the exalted Lord.
May we find in Him, Lord, who we are and who we are meant to be and who by Your grace we will be like when we see Him. These things we ask in Your Son's name.
Amen.
Now's our time for interaction or sharing dreams that you've had recently.
Thank you for a brilliant exposition on that. Joseph has always been my favorite narrative in the Word and you just really opened up a few more things for me. The thing that really gets me is like you say, the bad report and it's parallel to Jesus' bad report and specifically to the Pharisees.
And you can almost see the devil behind the scenes creating this jealousy like the brothers were all threatened because they felt like he was threatening. They probably all wanted to be the head of the household and he was threatening that.
And the Pharisees were upset because he was threatening their authority over the people, you know. It's amazing. And the suffering, like you say, the suffering that Joseph went through, the parallel to the suffering that the Lord went through is just, every time I hear this narrative it just, it's more and more my, remains my favorite.
And I just thank you that you really opened up a few more things about it that you just got a few more nuggets of gold out of it for me this morning. I appreciate that.
Amen. Amen.
Well, thank you, Ross. I just kind of get some clarification. I've listened to things where people would tell their stories and they had a dream.
Yeah.
And the dream didn't contradict God's word but they felt God was speaking to them through their dream. Now, are you saying that those are valid or do you think no dreams are valid?
I think everything has to be brought into subjection.
To God's word.
And what we rely upon is God's word. But I wouldn't deny, like, I give the example of Paul feeling called to go to Macedonia because of this vision he had. And I look at that and I say, if that were to happen for some of the missionaries that went to remote parts of Southeast Asia, and it was just as simple as that, kind of like I just, I don't know, I've been thinking about it, praying about it, and I had just this dream, you know, of this villager saying, come help me.
And, you know, I just feel like I need to go. I feel like that was kind of the Lord. How would I view that? Well, I mean, the first thing is to say, like, are you relying upon that rather than, you know, God's word?
Are you expecting now that you need more of that to try to understand what God would have you do? I'm not going down that road at all, but I'm saying I wouldn't discount the Lord moving among his people in ways like that.
I'm conservative on the way that Joel 2 is used by certain charismatics to say this will be ongoing. You know, your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams.
And they say, like, this is to be normative and expected. I'm on the side where it says, no, I think there was something that the Lord did in establishing the church and bringing forth the apostles as the foundation of the church being built that these dreams and visions were more operative and functional for them because of the word being inscribed during this time.
And in Ephesians 2, you have the image of the apostles being the foundation of the church and not necessarily what is being built generation after generation on top of that foundation. So I don't want to say this is normative nor functionally operative.
In the life of the church. We have God's word.
But I also want to realize that we are human beings, and one of the experiences that human beings have.
Are dreams,.
And nothing in this life is outside of God's control or providence. And so there may be something that the Lord is doing through the dreams you're having. There may be something you need to repent of.
Through the dreams you're having.
But I want to say there's something of our human experience of dreams.
That we have to work out in light of Scripture. Does that help at all?
I realize I'm being vague.
Well, I mean, I know there's... You can talk about talking in tongues, and the word says that it's a language people can understand. Some people say it's gone. Some people say if it's a language somebody can understand.
It's not. I've heard the thing about healing. I haven't paid attention to the dreams, but what you said today, I mean, I kind of come from... If it doesn't contradict Scripture and it fills in the gaps for you and you've prayed on it and whatnot, the Lord can do anything.
We could have a virgin birth if the Lord so willed it. And I know that that's probably a crazy thing to say, but I'm not going to put any limits on God because I don't know. But I'm just trying to get clarification.
I have heard, and we probably all have heard the stories of people, whether they go to the Middle East or whether they're somewhere else, but they felt that God, He clarified things in a vision that they, like you said, have been praying for.
Yeah, and it might have been just something that no part of the Bible is going to address that because it's something so unique and so specific to that person at that time. And it may be that God moves in that kind of way.
And I think if He does do it, He'll do it in a way that people will understand that. What I've seen are the people that I maybe have genuinely had these kinds of encounters with God showing them or putting something on their heart.
Through a dream.
Is that I know that they're not then turning to that as, oh, now I don't even need the Bible. I just have this. Or like, this is like a dream Bible for me. And they don't go down that road at all, which makes me be like, okay, good.
It's the people that want to interpret every other night's dream as being a revelation from God that it's kind of like, I don't think that's the way.
That God is going to move.
So I'm very conservative about the way that I would give confirmation, if you could even do that, that, oh yeah, God clearly wanted you to see this. But I think there are people that experience these things, and we hear about them a lot, as you're saying, in the Middle East, especially among missionaries to Muslims or just God reaching Muslims and converting them over to Christ, that that happens often a lot where there's a complete rejection of Christian witness, and then there'll be a Muslim leader that will come back with their eyes wide with terror and just teach me everything you can.
About the gospel.
It's like, well, what happened? And it's like they almost don't even want to say, I had a classmate like this, and he just said, I'm sorry, I really can't share it. It was so personal, so powerful in his life that he didn't want to go share it.
And even when people would ask him, he would tear up, and he'd just say, I can't. But the Lord had given him a vision, and he repented of his Islam and became a Christian. And so I want to leave room for the Lord to do whatever the Lord does, and not try to put it in the box of what I think is normative, but we can say what is authoritative and what regulates everything,.
And that is.
One last thing. I said, I don't know, maybe a month ago, that there's a lot of bad examples of fathers, and Tony sent me a text with all these fathers, but I have to say that a lot of them only had one child.
So it just seems like, unfortunately, it's really, I mean, God uses, and Joseph says later on, what you meant for evil, God used for good. But it does seem, there's just so many examples in the Bible of parenting gone wrong.
I mean, I guess in that respect, we need so much prayer and guidance, and I mean, you know, I wasn't a Christian, but I'm sure you can ask my kids. I probably messed up early, but it's just, it's unfortunate.
It just seems like it's something so hard to do, and you do it for such a long period of time that in there, it's so easy to develop sinful, bad habits, and you know, but I just thought I'd throw that out, because I re-looked at your list, and except for one of them, they were all one kid, but anyway.
Yeah, not against the fathers thing, but yeah, I mean, I think we have to, dreams are our own experiences coming from, very possibly coming from, I mean, some of us have some pretty wacky dreams, like how do you determine which dream, right?
You know, these are experiences, and anything that's experiential, we have to take to God's word. I'll give you examples. I mean, I've come across, you know, people more, you know, Pentecostal, who really rely on dreams more, and I remember hearing of one guy who was, you know, he had this very dream that he needed to go be a missionary someplace, but in the same time, he was having really difficulty with his wife, and he wanted to leave his wife and his kids, and it's one of these where, okay, yes, wanting to go share the gospel in a foreign land, that's a great thing.
We can point to the scriptures and say, wow, that's a great thing, but should you leave your family to go do it because a dream tells you to, right? The point is, is take that dream and bring it to God's word, as you were saying, Ross.
In any experience, you know, Jen has some dreams sometimes, and I don't really. I'm like you, Ross, in that way, but I have certain experiences. You know, I've had some experiences, like one is at the Grand Canyon, and God really used that in my life to bring me to his word to really explain it and what happened, but I would never, you know, use that experience as this is God's word.
We need to be really, really careful and special in these times because we know. I mean, I come across a lot of many people in Gardner who they live by their dreams. They don't live by the word, and their dreams sound pretty cool, pretty good, you know, pretty spiritual in some ways, but they don't really live by, it's not hemmed in by God's word, and we are fleshly people.
Like, because you're a Christian, it doesn't mean your flesh is straight and right and holy, right? Your flesh can lead you astray very, very easily, right?
God gave his word for a reason.
Well, real quick, on the first part of the sermon on this favoritism, we really need to be careful with that. You know, I have, like, in my home, I have a brother and a sister, right? My sister Nancy, my brother's Leo, and I have to say, looking back, my brother and I were shown much favoritism over my sister,.
And I don't know,.
From my dad, from my dad, and I see the effect in her life. I mean, she's still suffering from the effect. Now, God, as you said, God's word can change that. I don't believe she's a Christian, but she's now 50 years old, and the same things over and over again, and it's not my dad's fault, but certainly that experience from your father, and the one that's supposed to love you, right, like God loves you, certainly has an effect on you, and I've seen that, and I see it in my own life.
Now, I have the other example of moms here, and Doug and Carol, whereas I remember being in their home, and they would make it clear not to show favoritism. We joke about it, that Brian was the favorite child.
And everything,.
But they would make it clear not to show favoritism in that way, and it really has a positive effect because it's wisdom from the Lord. It's wisdom from the Lord, and so we have to be careful of that, and within siblings in homes, and we have seven kids, and it's not just parents showing favoritism, right?
You have to be careful.
Of your children.
Because your children can easily either take their relationship with their siblings lightly, and it'd be all about joking and teasing or whatever, or they can, you know, I'm not saying that happens, or they could show favoritism, which could have the same effect that parents do, and we need to be careful to explain, you know, the Lord in this way of loving people, loving one another, right?
Whether you have things in common with them or you don't, or whether there's things about them that you don't, you know, don't speak to as well as what others do or the way they live. We need to love them.
We need to love them without partiality, and we gotta love them, right?
Not cause little ones to stumble. New member, here we go.
So I was trying to read it like with fresh eyes, almost like trying to forget the rest of the story. It just seems like super bold almost, like only child confidence to like, I get it, like he was a favorite and whatnot, but he has like these dreams, and it doesn't say that like he knew that they were from God, and I don't know, like there's no precedent before this of anyone like having dreams from God,.
Right? Jacob.
Jacob, all right.
Jacob's ladder.
All right, so, but that was, all right. So maybe he's just like trying to relive his father's experience, but the fact that he went to the brothers first before like his dad to like check it out, and like it seems just super bold to like, like if you had a dream that like your siblings are bowing down, like the last people I would talk to about that would be the siblings.
You know, like I would maybe talk to my dad, maybe some maidservants or something, like trying to run it by people, but it just seems like crazy bold.
And so I don't know if it's faith, like was he stepping out in faith or was it?
Yeah, the one thing I'd say is if it was just that first dream just among his brothers, we'd almost have warrant to say this was just, you know, his revenge.
You know, you're not going.
To be kind to me and you hate me? Well, guess what dream I had, you know? But then he goes and tells the second dream.
To his father,.
And we know that he doesn't have any ill will.
Or malice toward his father. He loves his father. His father loves him.
And yet he tells his father,.
Like, you know,.
You're going to bow down to me too, you know? And so there I think we have to say he, you know, he may have just been so struck by I had this vision and I have to tell it now. Like I can't keep it to myself.
And he was almost reckless in the way he shared it because he was more concerned about reporting this amazing vision that he had from God rather than the effect it would have upon his brothers. So I think that second dream being told to the father,.
It makes us think,.
Huh, you know, what was the dynamic here? And so that's just something.
To wrestle with.
The narrative really doesn't say either way. We don't know how he said it. We're not given a motive.
As to why he said it.
We just know that he said it.