1064 he was sent with the others, that he might learn the trade. While he was with them, he saw much in their con duct that was wrong and he reported it to his father, which was a perfectly proper thing for him to do. If it had been a matter of wronging Joseph, him self, then he might well have passed it over in silence, but it was a part of his duty as a loving son, to see that his father’s good name and affairs were properly cared for. There is often a false standard of honor among young men which is most dishonorable. Joseph’s conduct incurred the enmity of his brethren. Would it not have been far better, if, instead of getting angry with the one who had called attention to their wrong doing, they had realized that it was wrong and quitted it? The second incident that furnished fuel for the flame of their enmity was the mark of special favor which Jacob had bestowed upon Joseph in the gift of a coat of many colors, or ■as some Bible scholars would have us under stand it, a coat with long sleeves. In either case, it marked the lad out as being different from the others, and seemed to say that he was rather above taking his part in the every-day work in the household that they were doing. The third element that entered into their bitter feeling was the remarkable dreams of Joseph, in the first'of which he saw the sheaves of his brothers bow ing down before ‘his sheaf. Joseph told nothing but the dream. The brothers, themselves, jumped at the interpreta tion and charged him with suggesting that they were all to bow down before him. Evidently, & v e n at this early time, there was something about Joseph that suggested to them the interpretation of the dream which they put on it. Of course there was nothing wrong in the lad telling the peculiar dream, and if the brothers had loved him as they ought to have done, what a jolly time they could have had over it.
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS The second dream impressed the first more deeply; In it he saw the sun and moon and stars making obeisance to him. This time it was Jacob, himself, who ventured to interpret the dream, and he rebuked Joseph for what looked to him like presumption. Jacob kept the dream in mind, nevertheless, which would seem to suggest that he, too, felt Joseph was something more than an ordinary lad. Three things, then, made the brothers hate him, and desire to get rid of him: First, thè father’s favor; second, that he did not fall in with their evil ways; third,, they dreaded his supremacy. Of course these were not good rea sons for their hatred. Joseph could not help being his father’s favorite; it cer tainly would not have been right to become a party to their sin, even by concealing it; and his dreams— remem bering that God revealed Himself in dreams in those days-—should not have been charged to Joseph’s vanity and ambition, but should have been taken as an indication of God’s purpose for him. Had his brethren viewed these things as they ought to have done, how different would have been the story. II. How His Brethren Came to Sell Him. At this time the encampment was pitched at Hebron. The brethren with the large flocks had wandered off to Shechem, which was .about 45 miles away. Getting anxious about the brethren and the flocks, Jacob sent Joseph to find out how things were going. Joseph’s prompt obedience is worth noting. See v. 13. On his arri val at Shechem, he found that his brethren had gone to Dothan, another 12 miles away. His perseverance is as well worth noting as his promptness. When the brothers saw Joseph coming, their envy burst forth into hatred, and the hatred into what was, to all intents and purposes, murder. For the moment he was delivered out of their murderous
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