Series: Joseph: Making Life Out of Lemons (Week 1 of 3)
Dr. Woodrow Kroll
February 9, 2010

Woodrow Kroll: Joseph's brothers chose deception just like his father did before them.

Tami Weissert: So what happens when a deceiver is deceived?

Woodrow Kroll: We'll get the answer in today's study. Hi, I'm Woodrow Kroll.

Tami Weissert: I'm Tami Weissert.

Woodrow Kroll: And this is Back to the Bible.

Tami Weissert: So Wood, yesterday's study established that Joseph's brothers hated him.

Woodrow Kroll: Hated him with a vengeance! We'll see their vengeance played out today in a horrible act against Joseph.

Tami Weissert: Now there are several layers to this story and the first thing that came to my mind was "what goes around comes around."

Woodrow Kroll: Yes, that's what Galatians 6:7 says; whatever we sow, we're also going to reap. And I think this verse applies to Joseph's father, Jacob. Because when his brothers plot against Joseph, they also do something against Jacob that brings his own sin back to haunt him. They deceive "Daddy" which takes us right back to our opening question, "What happens when a deceiver is deceived?"

Tami Weissert: Great lead in, Wood, so let's go right now to our study from Genesis 37.

Woodrow Kroll: Joseph is a wonderful example or a type of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament because so much of his life parallels that of our Lord Jesus. He was hated by his brothers; and so was Jesus. He was sent to minister to his brothers by his father; so was Jesus. He was on the receiving end of a plot to kill him; and so was Jesus. He maintained his integrity, his character, his innocence throughout the entire episode; and so did Jesus.

So there is much for us to learn about Jesus by focusing on the life of Joseph. We're going to do that again today, folks. God willing, we're going to finish chapter 37 today to see what the angry brothers do to get rid of Joseph, and we're going to follow one of the subplots of the story--the sons of Jacob are about to deceive their father with a concocted story about Joseph.

That's quite a twist. Jacob is the great deceiver; he's used to deceiving other people. And we're going to see what happens when deceivers are themselves deceived.

Genesis 37:19, "Then they said to one another, 'Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, "Some wild beast has devoured him." We shall see what will become of his dreams!'" Just, can't you hear the sarcasm in their voices.

The brothers saw Joseph coming. They hated him. They ridiculed him. They decided to kill him. Now think what was happening throughout history, whenever a person has decided to kill another person.

See Cain decided to kill his brother Abel, and he became a vagabond. Adolph Eichmann decided to kill thousands of Jewish people and he was tried for war crimes. The Menendez brothers decided to kill their parents, and they've been in prison ever since.

Nothing good ever comes when we plot to kill another person. And yet the brothers are plotting to kill Joseph. They concocted a story to explain Joseph's disappearance. The brothers revealed the real reason for murdering their brother. They say, "We shall then see what will become of his dreams."

See, there's a strong warning in the Bible to those who would plot to take another person's life. If you want to read that warning, just read Proverbs, chapter 1. Especially verses 10, 11, and 15. The Bible always warns us very carefully about the quality and the value of another life.

But the brothers hate Joseph so much. They envy him so much, all they want to do is kill him. Well, Reuben, the oldest brother steps in and he attempts to save the life of Joseph.

Verses 21-22, "But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, 'Let us not kill him.' And Reuben said to them, 'Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him'—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father."

Now, those last words are the explanation of what Reuben was thinking. Reuben was the oldest. He was the firstborn. He was the decision-maker in the family. He was apparently not part of the family group that was plotting to kill Joseph. That consisted probably of sons, Dan, and Naphtali, and Gad, and Asher—the four sons against whom Joseph brought a bad report. Remember back in verse 2 of this chapter?

Reuben rescued Joseph from certain death. And then he proposed an alternative. He said, "Look, let's throw him in this pit. Keep him in the pit rather than killing him." And his full intent, according to verse 22 was, later on to come back and deliver his brother from the pit and take him back to his father.

You know, sometimes, folks, you have to make a quick dramatic decision, take some quick dramatic action to put a halt to an evil before you can correct the underlying problem. Reuben knew he had to get Joseph and save him and then he could reason with his brothers. So he suggested they simply cast Joseph into a pit, let him starve to death. This slower, more prolonged, more painful method of death apparently appealed to the darker side of Jacob's sons. So they said, "Yeah, that's what we'll do!" Reuben's clear intent was to come back and take him out of that pit.

So they stripped Jacob of his prized tunic, the symbol of his power, his father's favoritism, they took his coat of many colors away from him. Sadistic people, you know, often need a trophy of their victory. You see that in verse 23.

And then in verse 24 it says, "Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it." Now, the pit in which they threw Joseph probably was a dry cistern, it had no water in it.

But there was also no means of escape. The intent here, clearly, was to get rid of their brother, even though Reuben's intent was clearly to save him.

Now what you see happening in the next several verses, 25‑28, what you see happening in this story, friends, is dramatic evidence of the darkness of the human heart. Let me read the verses to you first of all.

"And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt.

"So Judah said to his brothers, 'What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.'

"And his brothers listened. Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt."

Tami Weissert: You're listening to a study on the life of Joseph with Bible teacher, Woodrow Kroll, here on Back to the Bible.

Woodrow Kroll: Now I want you to see the darkness of the human heart here. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" There are a lot of people who trust their own hearts.

But you know what? The Bible says those people are very foolish. Left to ourselves, the Bible says that sin resides in our sinful heart. And that sin will destroy us every time.

David said, "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God" (Ps. 53:1). Moses said that God looked down from heaven in the days of Noah, and He "saw that the wickedness of a man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5).

Now, if you look in the Bible, folks, you see a very definite pattern that the Bible paints the heart as dark. It paints the heart as evil. Paul accused his kinsmen of having a hard and an impenitent heart (Rom. 2:5). And again the apostle said that the foolish hearts of men and women were darkened to the point that they professed themselves to be wise, but they became fools (Romans, chapter 1).

In fact, the wisest man who ever lived—Solomon—said, "He who trusts in his own heart, is a fool" (Prov. 28:26). See, the whole picture of the Bible is, you cannot trust your own heart. Why? Because the heart is a sinful heart. It's characterized by the sin that's a part of this world.

Jesus said, "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man" (Matt. 15:19‑20).

Now here in our story today, we get an extremely accurate view of what our hearts are really like. The brothers place Joseph in a pit. They put him there to die of thirst. And what do they do immediately? Verse 25 says, "They sat down to eat a meal." How corrupt is the human heart when it's left to itself.

But then, suddenly, the brothers spot a camel caravan coming, Ishmaelites coming from Gilead on their way to Egypt. They're coming with spices and balm, and myrrh, and lots of precious things (verse 25).

So Judah, always the businessman, Judah suggests a way to make some money from their disgraceful treatment of Joseph. He says, "Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites."

Interestingly, a man by the name of Judas had the same idea about Jesus. Don't just kill him; let's make some money off the transaction.

So the proposal was based on their knowledge that these Arabian merchants, they're called Ishmaelites, also called Midianites, it's exactly the same. These Arabian merchants traded in slaves.

There's the clearest evidence on monuments in Egypt today that such traders were in the habit of bringing slaves from all the countries through which they passed. The brothers said, "This is a good deal. We will sell Joseph for 20 pieces of silver.

Now, there's a renowned archaeologist by the name of Kenneth Kitchen. He's dead now. But, Kenneth Kitchen says that the price paid for Joseph represents the correct average price for a slave in the eighteenth century B.C.—twenty pieces of silver.

Now, if that rings a bell to you, it's because Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Judah suggests they sell Joseph. Judas suggests they sell Jesus. They sell Joseph for 20 pieces of silver. Judas sells Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. I don't think those correspondences are happenstance. I think Joseph's life is designed to point to the life of the Lord Jesus.

And you know what? If we miss the type that Joseph is for Jesus, if we miss the symbolism of Joseph in this story and how he points to Jesus, I think we miss the whole point of the story.

This is not just another historical character in the Book of Genesis. This is a way for you to see Jesus in the Book of Genesis. This is how Jesus, when He's on the road to Emmaus and he encounters Cleopas and friend, this is how Jesus could open the Book of the Law, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expound in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.

This is how you see Jesus as the center of all the books of the Bible. All you have to do is look for Him, friends. He's there. And in the story of Joseph you see all these correspondences designed to teach us something about Jesus.

Tami Weissert: Wood, the parallels between Joseph and Jesus are pretty amazing but I know there are other Old Testament characters who foreshadow Jesus. Right now, I'm thinking of Melchizedek, but are there others?

Woodrow Kroll: Well, in some respects, I think David points us to his great, great descendant. I mean, let's make a distinction between a person who looks like Jesus and a person who is actually designed to show us Jesus. There are others like Isaiah who frequently presents the Gospel in his Old Testament prophecy. We can understand that from reading the Book of Isaiah. But it's Joseph who most lived the way Christ lived. I think it's Joseph who most clearly shows us who Jesus is from the Old Testament.

Tami Weissert: You're listening to Dr. Kroll's series on the life of Joseph here on Back to the Bible. Hi, this is Tami.

So what do you think of this man named Joseph? He was pretty amazing. But when you look at our lives in the light of God's grace and faithfulness, well, they are pretty amazing too, aren't they? That's why I love this series so much--so much that I've listened to it multiple times.

You can do the same when you order the Joseph series on CD. It's a 15-part study series. That's over seven hours of Dr. Kroll's teaching and it's available as a great addition to your CD library. And right now, we're also including Dr. Kroll's booklet, Jesus Cares, with each Joseph CD series. Again, when you order the full, three-week, 15-part Joseph CD series, we're also including Jesus Cares as a special bonus.

So give us a call. Our number is 1-800-759-2425.

Woodrow Kroll: Well, let's wrap this up today by thinking about the plot that these brothers come to, to deceive their own father. Remember I said a few minutes ago that the deceiver is being deceived? Jacob is the great deceiver. He made a whole life out of deceiving other people. And now his sons who have learned well, now his sons are going to deceive him.

Verse 29 tells us that Reuben returns. He finds that Joseph is gone. Reuben tears his clothes because it was never his intent for the brothers ever to hurt their brother Joseph. So, Reuben takes personal responsibility for Joseph's fate.

Look at verse 30: "And he returned to his brothers and said, 'The lad is no more; and I, where shall I go?'" See, it's evident that the oldest brother has no place to hide from his responsibility as being the oldest brother.

But the next two verses show us that the brother's dark heart doesn't get any brighter. Verses 31‑33: "So they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, 'We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?'

"And he recognized it and said, 'It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.'"

Pretty clever of these brothers to deceive their father. They take the coat that everybody knows belongs to Joseph. They take it back to their father, and rather than say, "You know, Dad, we found this. I think somebody's killed your son, Joseph," they say to the father, "Do you know if this is your son's coat?"

Now, what a stupid question. There is only one coat of many colors. Jacob gave it to Joseph. It has to belong to Joseph. Jacob's the man who sent Joseph to find the brothers. The brothers come back with no Joseph, but a coat. Their heart is as dark as it can possibly be. And their questions betray not only the darkness of their heart, I think they also betray the disrespect they have for their own father.

Father Jacob reacts to this deception. "Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, 'For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.' Thus his father wept for him" (verses 34‑35).

This is really a sad story, friends. It's a story of betrayal. It's a story of darkness of the human heart. It's a story of a deceiver who is being deceived by the very people that his own life has taught how to deceive. It's a story of betrayal, of a man of integrity.

And the last verse of this chapter says, verse 36, "Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard."

This verse simply sets up our story for tomorrow. It's the story of Joseph in the house of Potiphar. And it's a really unique story.

But I don't want you to lose the point of our story today—why was Genesis 37 included in the Bible? What can you and I take home today? What lessons can we learn from the story of Joseph? And the darkness of the human heart?

Well, let me suggest three to you.

First of all, sin has a way of coming back to haunt us.

Maybe you've already noticed that. Jacob never in his lifetime ever hesitated to be a deceiver. And now he's being deceived by his own sons. You always reap what you sow.

My counsel to you, my friend, would be, be very careful of how you conduct your life in front of your children because one day those children are going to be in charge of your life. Sin has a way of coming back to haunt us. Don't allow it to happen to you.

Secondly, our children learn bad from us as well as learning good from us.

They undoubtedly knew how their father deceived their grandfather, and their uncle—and, you know, "like father, like son." If you and I want to be successes in life, we have to teach our children carefully by our lifestyle what integrity is. And they have to see it in us and want it to be in them as well. Jacob didn't do that. And now he's paying dearly because he failed his family.

And finally, number three. God is never defeated by our deceit.

You know, Jacob deceived. Jacob was deceived. The brothers hated. They envied. They plotted. They lied. And when you get to the end of the chapter, God has placed Joseph exactly where he needed to be to accomplish God's purposes.

Now look, friends, when you and I go against the will of God, when we do stupid things in our lives, when we don't act in integrity but we let the darkness of our human heart cause us to act a certain way, we don't hurt God. We don't thwart the purpose of God. We hurt ourselves.

Even if those around us do not display character, do not display integrity or honesty or godliness, we're still to do so. Because it's only when we have clean hands and a pure heart, folks, it's only when we are useable to God that we can have a positive impact on those around us.

Our job is not to work out the details. Joseph didn't. Our job is to remain pure and useable. God will work out the details. He did in the case of Joseph. My friend, He'll do it for you, too.

Tami Weissert: So Wood, your point about sins coming back to haunt us through our own children, that's pretty chilling. As I sit here, I don't have any children, but I still have influence on plenty of young people in my life.

Woodrow Kroll: Yes, we all do and here's the thing, Tami: We really don't know who it is we're influencing. They generally don't tell us. And we often don't know what kind of influence we have. That's why it's important for us every day to live our lives in such a way that whatever that influence is, the Lord God is going to be pretty proud of us.

Tami Weissert: Here's the thing: We're all human which means we mess up. Then when we're influencing, whether it's our own children or someone else, those people it can mess them up too. So what happens when we do mess up? How do we take care of that?

Woodrow Kroll: First of all, I think we have to admit it. Our job is not to appear to be without fault. Our job is to show by the way that we live our lives that we are forgiven people, forgiven by the One who does live without fault, the One who is without fault.

I am not able to live a life that is sinless, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, I can live a life in which I "sin less." And when I make a mistake, my job is to admit it, confess it, repent of it, ask God to forgive it, and to go on and not try to sweep it under the rug or pretend that nothing happened. None of us are in a position to have nothing happen in our lives that's evil. What we need to do is make sure the way we deal with it is righteous.

Tami Weissert: That may be humbling for us but a great lesson for all the people we are having influence over.

You're listening to Dr. Kroll's series on the life of Joseph here on Back to the Bible.

Even though Joseph was tested over and over again, he still lived faithfully and he acted graciously. What a character model! So you want to learn more about Joseph? Well, we'll make it easy for you to do that. Just stay tuned to our program today and ask us for a free copy of Meet with God, our monthly devotional.

This month's copy focuses on the ups and the downs of Joseph's life from beginning to end. But it's not just Joseph's life that you will be looking at. Meet with God will help you see God's work in your life as well through daily readings, questions, and some great application points.

You'll also find a special kid's section to help you introduce Joseph's story to your children.

So give us a call and order your free copy of Meet with God. Here's the number: It's 1-800-759-2425.

We covered Joseph's life in Genesis 37 today and tomorrow we go on to chapter 38. Not so much about Joseph though tomorrow. It's kind of an odd little detour.

Woodrow Kroll: It is a detour but I think it's a detour with a purpose. Tomorrow, we're going to get what you might call a sidebar story of Joseph's older brother, Judah. Remember, Judah was the brother who persuaded his other brothers not to just get rid of Joseph but to make some money by selling him to slave traders.

I can't read Judah's mind. I can't know what his motivation was. Maybe it was to save his brother's life or maybe it was to make a quick shekel. I don't know that. But what I do know is that it was evidence that Judah was no Joseph. And tomorrow, we're going to see that when Judah demands justice, he hasn't been just himself. And this is just another example of life coming back to haunt us. Whatever we're sowing, I think we're going to reap that.

So we're going to see how that plays out in our story tomorrow. Tomorrow, a sidebar story of the sin of Joseph's older brother, Judah. It's not an enjoyable day tomorrow. This is a pretty difficult passage, but I think it's one that helps us understand just how deeply sin can find its way into a family like Joseph's family, the family of Jacob.

Well, maybe you'll have an opportunity to read chapter 38 before our study tomorrow. Let me encourage you to do that. That way you'll be all set when you hear Back to the Bible again.

Thanks so much for being here today. God bless you. I'm Woodrow Kroll. Have a good and godly day, for of what lasting value is a good day if it's not also a godly day?

Scripture used in today's program was taken from the New King James Version of the Bible.