August, 1942
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
298
The one caravan gave the brethren their idea of selling Joseph, and hav ing made their decision they sold him to the next one that happened to be passing. However, the two names might describe the same general type of trader. Midian was a son of Abra ham by Keturah, and Ishmael was his son by Hagar. 4. "Killed a kid of the goats" (v. 31). See the American Revision for a more accurate translation, “ killed a he-goat.” The Jewish rabbi and philos opher Maimonides suggests that one of the reasons that ,he-goats were used as sin offerings was to remind the Israelites of the great sin of their ancestors against Joseph. 5 . "I will go down into the grave unto my son" (v. 35). “Grave” here is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word "Sheol." This is the name of the abode of the departed spirits of the dead, not the grave. That it cannot pos sibly refer to the grave here is proved by the fact that Jacob thought his son Joseph had been “ devoured” by a wild beast, and not buried in a grave. The, soul of our Lord went to Sheol at death (cf. Psa. 16:10; Acts 2:27). Golden Text Illustration 1 C orinthians 13:4 F. B. Meyer told the following ex perience to a few personal friends: “ It was easy,” he said, “to pray for the success of G. Campbell Morgan when he was in America. But when he came back to England and took a church near to mine, it was somewhat differ ent. The old Adam in me was inclined to jealousy, but I got my heel upon his head, and whether I felt right to ward my friend, I determined to act right. My church gave a reception for him, and I acknowledged that if it was not necessary for me to preach Sunday evenings I would dearly love to go and hear him myself. Well, that made me feel right toward him; But just see how the dear Lord helped me out of my difficulty. There was Thomas Spurgeon preaching wonder fully on the other side of me. He and Mr. Morgan were so popular and drew such crowds that our church caught the overflow, and we had all we could accommodate!” — T h e Expositor, in Cyclopedia of Religious Anecdotes, by Lawson. Joseph—A Busy Boy G enesis 37 and 39 MEMORY VERSE: “Be strong . . . and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord” (Hag. 2:4). APPROACH: Have you ever heard any orie sSy, “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” ? Do you know who they mean? Jesus is the Friend who will not let us down even when the members pf our family M
For that estimated dollar and a half, each of these brothers bought twenty • five years of troubled con science, of painful memories, of the sight of a father’s grief of heart, and of the loss of. all self-respect. Sin pays bountiful dividends in distress and despair. IF. T he A ggravated S in (29-32) Reuben, e l d e s t of the brethren, See'ms to have had at least a slight sense of responsibility and perhaps' would have released Joseph and let him go. But Reuben’s lot had. been, cast with the others, and perforce he was included in the sale and its con sequences. To cover their treachery, the broth ers took the coat which had been specially made for Joseph and dipped it in the blood of a goat and sent it home to Jacob. With the utter cal lousness of those who acted a lie, they asked their father, “ K n o w n o w whether” this coat “ be thy son’s.” Their insensibility to their father’s sorrow is an indication of how sin always hardens the heart to another’s suffering. III. T he F ather ’ s S orrow (33-36) Jacob knew the coat at once and presumed Joseph had been destroyed by some wild beast. The brethren eas i l y could have given relief to the fa thers sorrow by making confession of their ifTiquity. If they had done so, agencies could have been set in mo tion to restore the son to his home. But they allowed their father to mourn “ for his son many days.” In his deep grief, Jacob’s sons and his daughters “ rose up to comfort him.” But what comfort could the sons bring when they all knew their words were mere hypocrisy? What mockery must have been their out ward attempts at comforting the old man! With what self-disgust they must have gone from day to day! A ll this was a part of what they. had bought for their money. Jacob could not be consoled; he felt he could only wait for the day when he would go to his son through death. There is an indication here that even in those early times there was knowledge of a future life, in which there would be recognition of .those who had gone before, and a reunion with the loved ones who had left this earthly scene, JYhile Jacob was mourning for his son, the Midianites resold Joseph to Potiphar, the captain of the guard pf the king, of Egypt (v. 36), in whose house he met further bitter expe riences. • We should not* let this lesson pass without reminding ourselves and our classes of some of the typical teach ings that the story of Joseph contains. He is one of the fullest types of our
Lord Jesus. More of his history is told than of any other patriarch. He was the well-beloved son of his father; he willingly went on the dan gerous journey from his father for the sake of his brethren in the flesh; his brethren mocked and refused to hear him, took counsel to slay him, sold him to their enemies and his. He was delivered to the Gentiles and brought blessing to them. He was slandered among them. Finally he was exalted among them, and married one of them. At last he was shown to be the saviour, protector, and ruler of all his brethren in fulfillment of his visions given by God. Points and Problems 1. "His coat of many colors" (Gen. 37:23). Apparently this coat was a special object of their anger, because we read that the very first act of his brethren was to strip Joseph of his coat. Why was this? Archeology sup plies the answer. - Such a coat made of many colors was not only a mark of favoritism, but an indication of rank as well. Tombs at Benihassan show pictures of ambassadors from Syria to E g y p t wearing just such coats. Compare Genesis 37:3, 4 for the same significance. 2. "Cast him ihto a pit" (v. 24). This was no ordinary pit, a mere excava tion in the ground. Notice three things about it in the record. First, it was at Dothan. Second ,5 there was no water in the pit. The writer calls this to. our attention as if it were rather unusual. Third, quite evidently the pit was of such nature that escape was impos sible, for J u d a h regarded Joseph’s death as certain if he were left there ( v . . 26.). Now archeology has found near Dothan numerous cisterns, hewn out of rock, bottle-shaped, from which no man could have escaped unaided. They were used for storing water for live stock. Here is still more evidence that Genesis is a trustworthy docu ment. 3. "Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen" (v. 28). Some critics have tried to find evidence of differ ent authors in the change of name from verse 25. But I do not think this is the same caravan. The traffic on the ancient trade road was heavy; caravans were constantly traveling.
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