(Genesis) Genesis 37:1-3 — J. Vernon McGee

Jacob Dwells in Canaan as Genesis 37 Begins

And I begin reading at chapter 37, verse 1. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. Now, he's moved down apparently south of Bethlehem, and he's come down to Hebron.

That's where you'll recall that Abraham had made his home. And so he comes to this place of fellowship, communion with God. And verse 2, these are the generations of Jacob. Now, we had the generations of Esau.

Joseph's Youth and His Evil Report

These are the generations of Jacob. But we only have this boy Joseph mentioned. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilah, and with the son of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

Joseph's Role in the Family Story

And I want to tell you, that bunch of boys that Jacob had, they were problem children. Every one of them, with the exception of Joseph and Benjamin. And it took these men a long time to really learn anything at all.

And the emphasis now, you see, is going to be switched from actually Jacob to Joseph. We'll follow him down to the land of Egypt. He was 17 years old when this incident took place that's recorded here.

Just a teenage boy who was one of the youngest, you see, out there feeding the flock. Benjamin is too young to be out there. And this boy, he came home and told his father their evil report. And the boys didn't like it.

Jacob's Favoritism Toward Joseph

Of course they didn't like it. They, I'm sure, called him a tattletale. Verse 3, Now, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors.

The Family Damage Caused by Playing Favorites

Now, Jacob should have learned the lesson in his own home that to play a favorite will cause trouble in a family. His own father had favored the elder brother, and this boy knew what it was to be discriminated against.

And now he practices the very same thing. And, of course, we begin to excuse him because we say, well, after all, it was Rachel who really was his wife, who really was the one he loved, one fine thing in his life.

The Coat of Many Colors and Its Possible Translation

And this boy is a fine boy, as well as Benjamin, and he loved this boy. Well, that's all true, by the way. But he shouldn't have bought him that coat of many colors. Now, the coat of many colors, that may not be the accurate translation.

There are those that translate this, a coat with sleeves in it. You see, in that day, putting sleeves in coats just wasn't the popular thing to do. It wasn't the latest style. Hartshafner and Marx were not making coats like that then with sleeves in them.

And it was difficult. After all, the thing they did was to take a long strip of goods and the middleways in it, they'd take about 12 feet or maybe 10 feet, and they would put a hole right in the middle of it, stick their head through it, half of it dropped down in front and half in the back, then they'd just tie it together or they'd sew it together.

And that was the clothes of the day. They didn't have sleeves. Apparently, this was a garment that had sleeves in it. That, of course, set them apart, but maybe not quite as much as if they'd had many colors.