Bitter Hearts and a Bloody Robe

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 37 and hold your place at verse 12.
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The plan today will be to read verses 12 to 36.
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Before we read, I want to just give a few words of introduction.
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Have you ever been bitter? Okay, I'm the only one.
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Alright.
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Someone in your life creates a sore spot and every time you're around them, they just seem to rub that spot.
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Sometimes bitterness turns into hostility.
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Hostility can lead to hatred.
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And every time you see that person, you just seethe.
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Your heart is turned.
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And you know, Jesus tells us that's actually the source of murder.
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Matthew chapter 5 verse 21 says, You've heard it said of those of old, you shall not murder.
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And whoever murders will be liable to judgment.
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But I say to you that everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.
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Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.
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And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
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First John 3 15.
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Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.
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In today's text, we're going to see that come to life.
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Joseph's brothers hate him.
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The text makes no uncertain claim.
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Three times in the first 11 verses of chapter 37, it says, And they hated him.
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Hate, hate, hate.
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Three-fold hate.
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And some people might say, I understand why they hated him.
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I mean, we read last week, Joseph from their perspective was a tattletale.
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Joseph from their perspective was a spoiled child.
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And from their perspective, he was an arrogant little monster.
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You think you're going to rule over us.
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So from their perspective, they thought they had every reason to hate their brother.
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So they became bitter.
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Their hatred intensified.
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And a day is coming where they will have the opportunity to allow that murderous rage to be satisfied.
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But what we shouldn't miss, as we read today's text, is the providential hand of God is always in operation.
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While the events of this story show the depths of the brother's depravity, there is also a sense in which this event is a necessary step in the plan of God.
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God is using this terrible moment in the life of Joseph to bring about his providential salvation of his people.
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A famine is coming, and no one knows it.
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But God knows it.
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And God is raising up a savior through the hatred and bitterness of his brothers.
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And what will happen is at the end of this story, one of the most amazing verses, and by the way, between now and chapter 50, you're going to hear this a few times, so if it becomes repetitious, just remember repetition is the key to learning.
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But Genesis chapter 50 is one of the most precious verses in the Bible.
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50 verse 20, where Joseph looks at his brothers at the end of all of this, and he says, what you meant for evil, God meant for good.
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You see, Joseph will keep an eternal perspective even in the midst of his terrible mistreatment by his brothers.
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But don't let for a second that make you think that his brothers are not guilty.
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Because he did say, what you meant for evil.
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Just stop right there.
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They didn't mean it for good.
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Everything we're going to see from verse 12 to verse 36, they mean for evil.
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From the casting of their brother into a sister, and to the selling him into slavery, to the taking home of a bloody robe to their father, and fooling him into believing that he had lost his favorite son.
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Everything they did, they meant for evil.
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But God meant it for good.
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And Joseph wouldn't lose that perspective.
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So let us now read the text.
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We've already gone through the story, I guess, but let's read it as it comes to us.
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And we do stand for the reading of God's word to give honor and reverence to the text, which is, of course, the very words of the living God.
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Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.
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And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.
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And he said to him, Here I am.
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So he said to him, Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.
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So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
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And a man found him wandering in the fields.
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And the man asked him, What are you seeking? I am seeking my brothers.
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He said, Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.
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And the man said, They have gone away.
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For I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan.
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So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
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They saw him from afar.
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And before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.
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They said to one another, Here comes the dreamer.
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Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.
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Then they will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.
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But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life.
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And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood.
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Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him, that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
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So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit.
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The pit was empty.
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There was no water in it.
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Then they sat down to eat.
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And looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
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Then Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.
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And his brothers listened to him.
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Then Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver.
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They took Joseph to Egypt.
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When Reuben returned to the pit and saw Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go? Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
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They sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, This we have found.
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Please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.
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And he identified it and said, It is my son's robe.
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A fierce animal has devoured him.
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Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.
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Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.
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And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son mourning.
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Thus his father wept for him.
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Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
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Father in heaven, I pray, Lord, that you would open this text up to us, that you would show us your truth.
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Lord, that you would keep me from error, as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.
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Lord, that you would keep me from that.
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And God, that every person here would have their heart open to the truth and that your spirit would be the teacher.
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Lord, that I would become very small.
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And Lord, that Christ would become very great.
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I must decrease and he must increase, as John said.
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Lord, give us this moment of study in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Last week, we saw the introduction of Joseph and this section which deals with him being sold into slavery.
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And this whole chapter, I think, can be broken down into two parts.
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And I had them on the screen.
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The first part would be the root.
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If you'll pull the screen up, please.
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The root of bitterness, and that's verses 1 to 11.
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The root of bitterness would be the reporting of the brothers, the receiving of the robe and the recounting of the dreams.
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That's what we talked about last week.
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That was our sermon.
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And then out of that root of bitterness grows the fruit of bitterness.
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Now, I don't know how good your eyes are, so you may have trouble seeing all of those words.
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But basically what I have done is I've outlined the rest of the chapter.
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We see the sending, the scheming, the saving, the stripping, the supping, the selling, the surprise, the swindling, and the sorrow.
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It takes a lot of work to put together those alliterations, so I appreciate your appreciation.
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Sometimes it can be fun.
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Pulling out a thesaurus is always a good day.
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But this is the story, and it begins with the sending of Joseph to his brothers.
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And I must say, from a perspective of just a reader of a narrative, this is the part I have the hardest time with.
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Because I don't understand why Jacob feels comfortable sending his single son 50 miles away to his brothers who hate him.
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And really that is the part that sort of just kind of blows my mind when I think about this.
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Because it tells us in verse 12, it says, Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.
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Now, if you don't remember, Shechem is the place where they slaughtered everybody.
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If you remember just a few chapters ago, Shechem was the place where Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, had been ravished.
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And so the brothers went with a sword and killed every man, and then took the women and the children as a spoil of war.
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So Shechem is a place of desolation, and that's where they went to pasture the flock.
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Perhaps they had sort of taken somewhat of an ownership of this place, having gone in and destroyed everything.
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Now they're taking a somewhat of a possessional approach.
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It's mine now.
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So they're there pasturing the flock.
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And where we learn in just a few verses later is that they are at Hebron, which is about 50 miles from Shechem.
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So no small walk.
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So they had gone 50 miles away to pasture the flock.
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In verse 13, it says, Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.
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Now why is he sending Jacob to them? Well, Joseph, we talked about last week that the receiving of the coat, the receiving of that ornate long-sleeved garment, was an indication that he had been placed in a position of authority, been given a promotion among the brothers.
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So there's a good chance that he's sending him out there to make sure that they're doing what's right, because he knows one thing about Joseph, and that's this.
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Joseph will tell on them if they're not.
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Joseph will bring back a bad report if the men are not doing what they're supposed to do.
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So he sends him, rather, sends Joseph.
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And it doesn't say he sends him with an entourage.
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It doesn't even say he sends him with like a guard.
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He sends his single son 50 miles away to check on the brothers.
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I mean, I don't let my kid go to the mailbox.
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Now, granted, my kids are really small at this point.
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But think about just sending your child away.
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This is what he does.
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He sends them on his way.
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Verse 14.
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So he said to him, Go now, see if it is well with your brothers in the flock, and bring me word.
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Again, I'm not trying to read into the text, but I really do think that in that he's saying, go and make sure they're doing right, and let me know.
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Go and see if it's well with them, and bring me word.
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So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
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And a man...
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This is another interesting part.
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Verse 15.
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And a man found him wandering in the fields.
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All right.
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So he got lost.
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He's just walking around Shechem.
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And some guy...
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By the way, this guy, we are told nothing about this man, except that for some reason, he knows who the brothers are, and he's able to send Joseph to Dothan, which is another, I think, 15 or so miles.
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So he goes a little further distance.
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Now, the rabbis, when they interpret this text, remember when I say rabbis, I'm usually referring to non-Christian Jewish rabbis who are interpreting this from a Jewish perspective.
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The Jewish rabbis interpret this as a mystical account on behalf of the life of Joseph, and they actually believe that this man is actually not a man, but actually is an angel, and that this angel was put there to protect Joseph and to ensure that he got to his brothers.
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Now, the text doesn't say that.
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In fact, some of them even go as far as to say this is Gabriel.
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Like the man is Gabriel.
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It's interesting sometimes to read some of these commentaries because it's like, where do they get this stuff? It's not in the text, but it's interesting.
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Here's what I do know.
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It may not be a divine figure, but it's certainly a divine appointment because if he hadn't have met this guy, he might still be wandering around Shechem because he didn't know where he was going.
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So this guy, God puts this man in his path to say, look, your brothers have gone on to Dothan, and you need to go.
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I will say this.
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Bruce Walkie does point out something in his commentary that I do find interesting.
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He said however long it took, however long Joseph was wandering around, was just the perfect amount of time needed because what we're going to find out in just a few moments is when his brothers do find him, cast him in the cistern, and they sit down to eat, it's just that time that the Ishmaelite traitors come by.
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So God is working this out.
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God is orchestrating this.
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And however long he wandered around Shechem, looking around, was just the right amount of time to get him where he needed to be at the right time.
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So this divine appointment, this person, whoever this person is, is used by God to get him on the way and get him to where he needs to be.
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Now, we come to verse 18, and this is the scheming.
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It says, they saw him from afar.
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These are the brothers.
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And before he came near him, they conspired against him to kill him.
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Now again, keep in mind, their desire was murderous rage.
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They desired to murder their brother.
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They said to one another, and I know I said it a little weird.
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Here comes the dreamer.
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I just imagine the hatred, the absolute loathing.
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Here comes that dreamer.
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And you've got to know they knew it was him from a distance because he's wearing that robe.
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And so they see him coming.
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They see him in that ornate robe, and they say, here comes that dreamer.
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And by the way, I keep referencing that because remember it was the dream that really drove them over the top.
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You know, he had told on them.
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They hated that.
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He had received the robe.
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They hated that.
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But when he told them that I had two dreams and in both dreams you all bowed down to me, their response to that was absolute hatred.
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Will we bow down to you? Even his father rebuked him.
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You think we're going to bow down to you? So this dream has sent them seething.
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Verse 20, come now, let us kill him and throw him into the pit.
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By the way, that pit is a cistern.
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It's basically a hole in the ground that was used for capturing and holding water.
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They ranged anywhere from 6 feet to 20 feet.
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And in a moment, he's going to be thrown down that pit.
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I don't know if you've ever taken a 6 foot fall.
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That's a pretty hard fall.
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But a 20 foot fall is potentially deadly.
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So even though they don't kill him, they throw him in a hole.
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That is very dangerous.
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Verse 21, Reuben, the oldest brother, firstborn son of Leah, he chooses to try to rescue young Joseph.
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It says, but when Reuben heard it, he rescued them.
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Actually, it says he did rescue them because they were going to kill him.
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The intention was murder.
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But it says he rescued him out of their hands saying, let us not take his life.
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And Reuben said, shed no blood, throw him into the pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.
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Now why does Reuben have this authority? Well, he's the firstborn.
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He's essentially at this point, he has got a position of authority among his brothers.
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But why is he doing this? Well, just a couple of chapters earlier, we learned that Reuben had tried to exercise authority in his father's home by sleeping with his father's concubine.
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He was trying to usurp and receive authority.
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And what we find out later in Genesis is that created an interruption in the relationship with his father.
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I mean, probably the nicest way anybody ever said that, created an eruption in the relationship.
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It was a bad moment.
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And there is a good chance that Reuben's attempt to save Joseph's life is an attempt to try to reclaim his position with his father that he had lost because he knows his father loves Joseph.
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And if I can save him out of this, perhaps I will be restored to the position that I've lost.
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And there's another possibility.
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Because again, that's just a possibility.
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The text doesn't say it.
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We're just assuming some things.
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The other possibility is maybe he really did love Joseph.
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Maybe he was thinking, I want to save him because he is my brother.
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Ultimately, though, it does tell us he wanted to rescue him and restore him to his father.
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He did not want his father to be bereaved.
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Now, this takes us to verse 23.
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Verse 23, I call the stripping because it says, So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe.
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Now, that is reminiscent of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, when he was taken to be laid on the cross, was stripped of his clothing, beaten and crucified.
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Joseph was stripped of his robe.
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Of course, you can imagine the hatred that was in their hearts and their desire to tear it off of him because, of course, this robe represented their father's love and their father's favoritism.
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And I'm sure they relished the moment when they heard the seams of that particular garment tear against the flesh of their young brother.
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And they took him and threw him into the pit.
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The pit was empty.
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There was no water, nothing to break his fall.
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So whether it was 6 or 20 feet, he fell down into it.
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And then we see verse 25.
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I call this the supping because verse 25 is the coldest, most devious, most heart-wrenching part because it says in verse 25, then they sat down to eat.
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Because you've got to imagine just a few feet away, there was...
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Brothers, don't do this.
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Why are you doing this to me? Kent Hughes made a point in his commentary.
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He said there's a good chance that they were eating the very food Joseph may have even brought with him because he may have in his traveling had food to bring to them as a way to bless them.
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They sit down to eat while their brother cries.
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Then the rest of verse 25, it says, and looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum and myrrh and balm that they're carrying down to Egypt.
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Then Judah, this is an important distinction, not Reuben.
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Reuben is actually absent at this moment.
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We don't know why, but Reuben is not present in this conversation.
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We know that because later he's going to go look in the pit and say, where'd he go? So he's not present in this conversation.
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Judah said to his brothers, What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.
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Now understand this.
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Judah is here playing an integral role in keeping Joseph alive.
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He does not seem to be motivated out of love for Joseph, even though he does mention their familial relationship.
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He seems to be motivated more so out of not wanting to get his hands dirty, not wanting to get blood on his hands, and by his desire to, hey, if we're going to do this, let's make some money on it.
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Make a profit.
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And he says he is our brother.
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And Bruce Walkie makes the point, he said that terrible irony is lost on him.
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If you really cared about him being your brother, you'd lift him up out of the pit and take him home.
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If he really is the brother that you care about, you should never consider to do such a thing.
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Now there will be a restoration of Judah later, but this is not an indication of his righteousness, just to be clear.
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And so the Ishmaelites are seen, and by the way, I do want to make an apologetic point at this point.
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It says at one point they were Ishmaelites.
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It says at another point they are Midianites.
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And if you've ever read any arguments on errors in the Bible, if you ever hear anybody arguing about contradictions in Scripture, this is one of the small ones that they'll point to.
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And they'll say, see here it says they're Ishmaelites, and then over here it says they're Midianites, and they're not the same.
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And that's true.
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The Ishmaelites are the sons of Ishmael, who's the son of Abraham.
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And the Midianites are the sons of Midian, who was a descendant of Ketorah, who was Abraham's wife after Sarah had died.
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So these are two different groups.
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So why are both groups mentioned? Well, there's a lot of different ways why both groups could be mentioned.
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It could be a group of both groups.
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It could be basically what we would say Arab traitors.
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And among the Arab traitors there could be Ishmaelites and Midianites within the group.
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Another, Kiel and Galich, which is a pretty standard Old Testament commentary, says this.
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It says the different names given to the traitors do not show that the account has been drawn from different legends, because that's the argument, right? This means it's not true.
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No.
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He says, but that the tribes were often confounded or mixed with people from different groups.
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And so they're Midianites and they're Ishmaelites.
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And they sometimes will be difficult to distinguish.
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And so they would go by the two names.
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And it's possibly, as I said, it's just a mixed band.
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But this is who's coming.
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They see them coming and they say, here is this group of Arab traitors and we're going to sell him into slavery.
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Verse 28, it says, the Midianite traitors passed by and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and they sold him to the Ishmaelites.
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Interesting.
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It was the Midianites, now it's the Ishmaelites.
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Same sentence.
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And they sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver.
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Again, pointing forward again to the Lord Jesus Christ who would be sold for 30 pieces of silver.
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And they took Joseph to Egypt.
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Now we see the surprise.
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Verse 29, it says, when Reuben returned to the pit, again, to me this is proof Reuben was not part of the previous conversation because he didn't know that he'd been picked up and sold.
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It says, when Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, the boy is gone.
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Where shall I go? Now what's he saying there? It's actually kind of an interesting way that the ESV translates that.
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How does the King James translate that, Mike? The boy is gone.
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The child is not, and whither shall I go? Yeah, okay, basically the same thing.
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Where shall I go? Whither shall I go? Whither sounds so nice.
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Whither shall I go? But the idea here is, what am I going to do now? Because I had a plan, and my plan was, I was going to leave him here until dark, and I was going to come in when my brothers aren't looking, I'm going to pick him up, and we're going to hightail it to the house, and I'm going to restore him to my father.
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I'm going to save his life.
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I'm going to be a hero.
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But now he's gone.
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What am I going to do now? Well, as we will see, he goes along with his brother's ruse because what can he do? He could tell on them.
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He could try to be a hero that way, but look how that turned out for Joseph.
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Joseph demonstrated his willingness to tell on them, and he is now sold into slavery.
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So Reuben, likely in an attempt to sort of save his own skin, says, well, I'll just keep my mouth shut.
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We get to verse 31.
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Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
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They sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, this we have found.
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Please identify whether this is your son's robe or not.
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What cold? How cold? We found this.
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Can you tell us if this is your son's? And he identified it.
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He says it is my son's robe.
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A fierce animal has devoured him.
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Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.
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For a moment.
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I think it's important to try to capture the thoughts that are going through the mind of Jacob, because he is in this moment coming to a realization that's actually not true, but he doesn't know that it's not true, that he's coming to the same natural realization that any one of us would come to.
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He's dead.
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And you have to think of the gravity of that on his own soul, because Jacob was the one who sent him out by himself.
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Jacob was the one who sent him without a guide or a helper or a bodyguard.
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Two chapters earlier, his daughter went off by herself and got raped.
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Now his son, he sent him off by himself and he has been mauled by a vicious animal.
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Now we all know that's not true, but stop knowing that for a minute.
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You know, there's a certain omniscience that comes when you're the reader, you know everything.
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But Jacob didn't know everything.
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All he knows is there's a bloody robe that used to be upon the back of his son.
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And now the blood stained robe is in his hand.
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So we see the sorrow.
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Jacob tore his garments, put sackcloth on his loins.
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These were symbolic of mourning.
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And he mourned for his son many days.
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Verse 35, all his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, no, I shall go down to Sheol to my son mourning.
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By the way, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this.
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This is the first time the word Sheol is used in the Bible.
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Sheol will become a very important word regarding the grave, but also indicates at least an understanding of life hereafter, that it's more than just the grave.
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In fact, as one commentator said, there is a physical aspect to Sheol, which means going down into the grave, but there's also a metaphysical, which means going to your ancestors or going into the life hereafter.
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And so this is indicating likely a higher understanding of what God is doing in the afterlife.
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So we see this word come up now and it will begin to be used throughout the Old Testament in various contexts, in various ways, but the word Sheol is important.
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Likely, this is the place Jesus was talking about in Luke 16, when he talked about the rich man in Lazarus who died and went to that place that was separated by a chasm.
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Remember, one was paradise, Abraham's bosom.
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The other was Hades or Hades, where the man wanted water for his tongue, but it's the place of the dead.
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And Jacob says, I will mourn until the day I die.
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I will not be comforted.
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And you got to think, it says here, it says all his sons and all his daughters tried to comfort him.
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But you got to know that the brothers was a fake attempt because they knew how comfort could really come.
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Honesty and a willingness to accept whatever they deserved.
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They would not be honest.
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They would not tell what happened.
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And therefore, the pain of Jacob is palpable.
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And this chapter ends with Joseph in the house of Potiphar.
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And we will talk about him again in chapter 39.
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But next week, we're going to look at chapter 38, which is a narrative about Judah and it focuses on Judah.
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But as we begin to draw to a close, I want to just make a few points.
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This is a terrible story.
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It's a terrible story of jealousy, rage, envy.
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They were willing to watch their brother being taken, thrown into a pit.
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Talk about murdering him and when they decided not to murder him, to sell him to slavery.
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Hearing his cries of mercy.
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And by the way, it doesn't say that he cried for mercy in this text, but later on, when the brothers are recounting the story to themselves, they say to each other in chapter 41, did we not hear his cries? Did we not hear his cries? So don't think for a moment Joseph is not begging as they pull him out of that pit and they place him in the hands of those traitors that he's not saying, brothers, why are you doing this? He came to them in love.
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He came to them with no malice.
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And all the while, they bring back this blood stained jacket to their father who cries in despair day to day, will not be comforted.
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They have the power to repent and come clean.
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But they are steeped in bitterness and unwilling to see their father comforted.
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So for a moment, I want to interject this thought.
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If you are harboring bitterness today, I want you to take note of these brothers.
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And how their bitterness became murderous rage.
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Because as I said earlier, bitterness is a short step from hatred.
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And hatred is the root of a murderous heart.
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The Bible says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
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And against such there is no law.
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Notice what's missing.
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Not bitterness.
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Bitterness is not a fruit of the spirit.
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Bitterness is fruit of the flesh.
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Consider these texts.
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Ephesians 4, verse 31.
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Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice.
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Hebrews 12.15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.
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And by it, many become defiled.
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Hear that.
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By the root of bitterness, many become defiled.
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Galatians 5.19 Now the works of the flesh are evident.
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Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
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I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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Recently I was in a conversation with a man.
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And I could tell that he was very angry because he had been wronged.
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And we were discussing how he had been wronged.
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And at a point in the conversation I said to him, I said, brother, it's very obvious to me that you are angry.
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And he said, anger is not a sin.
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I said, you're right.
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But bitterness is.
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And you are very close to be harboring bitterness.
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The Bible says be angry and sin not.
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Brothers and sisters, if there was ever a biblical story that shines a light on the dangers of a bitter heart, this is it.
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But this is also why we have the gospel.
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It reminds us that God loves us.
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That he has forgiven us.
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And through that we can find solace for our bitterness.
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Do you understand how much God has loved you? Do you understand how much God has given to you? Beloved, we have and are so easily offended.
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We're so easily angered.
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We walk around with chips on our shoulder just waiting for people to knock them off.
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And then we stew in our bitterness with those sore spots that we just wait for them to touch so that we can get angry all over again.
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The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
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Against such things there is no law.
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May we practice that and may we repent of our bitterness.
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Let us pray.
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Father, I thank you.
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And Lord, I know that maybe above anyone else in this room, I need this message.
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So I pray, Lord, that even now as we come around the table, that if any one of us is harboring a bitter heart, Lord, that you would give us a spirit of repentance.
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And Lord God, that it would not just be a repentance that is short-lived, but God, give us repentance that is true.
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Give us repentance that is lasting.
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Lord, keep us from the root of bitterness, that as your word tells us in Hebrews, by many, or by it, many have become defiled.
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Lord, by your mercy, give us your grace today.
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In Jesus' name, amen.