Two Dreams // Genesis 37:2-11

Let us ask the Holy Spirit's grace on the reading of God's word.

God our helper, by your Holy Spirit, open our minds that as the scriptures are read

and your word is proclaimed, we may be led into your truth and taught your will.

For the sake of Jesus Christ our

Amen.

A reading from Genesis 37, verses 2 through 11.

This is the account of Jacob's family line.

Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah,

his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he had been born to him in his old age, and he made an

ornate robe for him.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a

kind word to him.

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, others, they hated him all the more.

He said to them, listen to this dream I had.

We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright while your sheaves

gathered around mine and bowed down to it.

His brothers said to him, do you intend to reign over us?

Will you actually rule us?

And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers.

Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me.

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, 'What is this dream you had?

Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?'

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept this matter in his mind.

Thanks be to God for the reading of his word.

There's something that the biblical authors want to communicate from the very first chapters of the Bible, and that is this:

the Lord God keeps his promises.

He is a promise-keeping God, which should be revolutionary for every one of us living among humanity

where promises are broken left and right.

And frankly, a lot of life is about, will so-and-so be true to their word?

I love a good suspenseful action movie.

One of my favorite James Bond openings starts with a car chase where you're weaving in and out of cars,

but of course you know, you know, you know that James Bond is going win.

You know that when you rent the movie, when you, when you hit play, he's going to live to fight another day, or live to

die another day.

He's going to make it through this car chase even though the suspense and the action is full of all of these close calls.

When we drop into the story of Joseph, we are in the midst of a car chase.

The action has already moving.

We're 37 chapters deep into this big question: Is God going to keep the promises that he's made?

Genesis is such a huge book, 50 chapters, that very infrequently will we actually sit down and read the entire thing.

I took one afternoon and only read the Joseph story last week, and I had to break it up into

different sections and stretch my legs and kind of do something else.

It was just 14 chapters.

To read the entire 50 in one sitting, ah, would give us quite a scope on things, a meta perspective.

If we were to pan out and remember that in the early chapters of Genesis, humanity is created in the image of God

with a divine mandate.

Adam and Eve and all of humanity are to be kings and having dominion and wise stewardship, being fruitful and

populating the earth as the word of God is kept.

Increasing from concentric circles: the garden in the midst of Eden, and Eden in the midst of the ancient Near

East, and then having stewardship and wise dominion over the entire world.

The Hebrews, the Israelites, understood that they were Adam and Eve.

That was their commission.

And yet Adam fails.

What we see in Genesis over and over again is a return, so to speak, to that

original command from God: "Will you obey my word?

Will you rule with my wise authority?"

So indeed we see several different Adams coming up in the course of all of these chapters in Genesis.

When we get to this point in Genesis, we have to remember these recurrences.

Joseph is going to be connected to every story that went before it.

So the themes from Eden and Cain and Abel and the flood and the city of man, Babel,

and the chosen sacrifice, and the blessing.

These themes will be reiterated indeed with the same words even coming up.

A garden is planted where humanity is rested.

The word, the verb is "noah," rested, to be kings and queens in an Edenic

paradise in Eden, populating the world in God's way.

Ah, but then Cain comes.

He is going to be jealous of his younger brother.

Is that a theme we'll see again?

He murders his brother, and his guilt cries out from the very ground.

Is that a theme that we'll see again?

So Cain goes into exile.

Is that a theme that we'll see again?

And a city of man is built.

And from the offspring of the man who built the city of man comes a man whose name is rest, Noah.

I have given you a word, a command to trust me and to prepare an Edenic refuge, a little Eden

on a boat with all of the food and animals and people that will supply for a preserved offspring.

offspring.

And then after Noah crash lands on the top of a mountain, he climbs the mountain and prepares a

sacrifice.

And what does he do next?

He plants a garden.

And we see this cycle over and over again.

So what can we expect when we drop into this car chase in chapter 37?

Well, probably what we've seen in the previous 36 chapters will continue to come up.

We ought to see that cycle again.

That is to say, there will be more Adams that fail, just as Adam did, just as Abraham

did, just as Isaac did, and just as Jacob has.

We're dropped into the action here with expectations that we'll see repeated themes.

But then we read this:

"This is the account of Jacob's family line."

If indeed we're sitting down and reading all 50 chapters of Genesis, we would have read that very line, "This is the account of

family line."

9 previous times.

This is the 10th time it has occurred.

If you're reading a different translation, you might read, these are the generations of Jacob, or to be even more literal, this is

the birthing account of Jacob.

He's the family head, and here is his line.

The Greek word for that is Genesis, where we actually get title of the book.

That word doesn't occur until Genesis chapter 2.

But why do we call the book Genesis?

Because that line keeps repeating 10 times over the course of Genesis, and every time it happens, it reminds us

of something God is doing.

Every time we hear, "These are the generations of," we're going to hear God choosing one child.

and passing over the others.

We're going to hear about God choosing one offspring and exalting that one and laying low the others.

It's God's election, his divine election happening 10 times.

So when we read it here, the 10th and final time it'll happen in the book of Genesis, what do we expect?

Well, we expect that one of Jacob's sons is going to be chosen over the others.

So already we're in the midst of the action.

We have expectations that we're going to see some

Second Adam happening here, and we've got the expectations that one of these sons is going to be elevated above the rest.

Humanity is chosen over the firstborn of the beast of the field, the snake.

Seth is chosen over Cain, even though Cain is the firstborn.

Shem is chosen over his brothers Japheth and Ham.

Abram is chosen over his brothers Nahor and Haran.

Isaac is chosen over Ishmael, even though Ishmael is older.

Jacob is chosen over Esau.

And Judah is going to be chosen over the other 11.

See, from the very first First words, we expect the recurring themes of Genesis and that one of the sons of Jacob will be exalted

over the other.

All right, this is a little technical.

Why doesn't the author of Genesis just kind of tell it to us straight?

Why do the biblical authors communicate in this way?

Well, first of all, remember that this is not our culture, this is not our language.

Children's language and only spiritually is this our people.

So when we read this, the biblical authors are insisting on this point to communicate something to every reader,

and that is God is faithful to keep his promise.

So what is the car chase about?

What is held in suspense?

promised that a male offspring will be born to reign as King and Priest,

as a new Adam, forever and ever.

Those are the promises that we've come to expect earlier in Genesis.

And though all of the other new Adams fail, this one will succeed.

But how will God preserve that seed, that offspring, that male descendant.

And what this does is it takes all of our hopes into this car chase.

And indeed, every prayer that we pray where we expect God will be true has something to do with his power.

Can God actually pull this off?

Can he bring the car chase to a safe ending?

And so when we read texts like like this.

I encourage you, bring your hopes, bring your suspenses into this and say, God,

if I can see you as faithful in the midst of these dramatic events,

I believe that you'll be faithful in my life.

God's car chase scene is beginning.

Here's where we see the suspense in the very first 3 3 verses: verse 2, verse 3, and verse 4.

We're going to hear 3 different perspectives.

Take a look at verse 2.

We hear about a young man named Joseph, only 17 years old.

We're going to hear his perspective.

And then in verse 3, ah, we hear about his father's perspective about the events, Jacob.

And then in And then in verse 4, we hear about his brothers' opinions.

And all 3 of these verses are tightening the suspense.

The car chase is speeding up.

All of this is going to set the suspense in one— on one tone.

We are going to expect fraternal conflict, brothers at odds with other brothers.

Look at verse 2.

Joseph, a young man of 17, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons

of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his brothers, his father's wives,

and he brought their father a bad report about them.

Now the first thing is this: He was tending the flocks with his brothers.

This is a shepherding family.

Now, I know you are thinking, oh, shepherds, no big deal, their last name, Shephardson, great.

Now, to us, we do not know a shepherd from Adam, but the Israelites, ah, when they read this, a Hebrew reader, shepherd would have a

connotation.

In fact, shepherd is spelled exactly the same way you spell the word Enoch.

Evil, just with different vowels, ro'ah and ra'ah.

And shepherds were nomadic compared to stable.

So when the Old Testament talks about two identities of people, one being

unreliable,

the versus stable, they would speak in terms of shepherds versus farmers.

Farmers stayed in the land.

They built cities.

This, remember, was Abel's job, but Cain was the shepherd.

Already there's some thoughts about who are the shepherds we saw before this family.

Abel, his animal sacrifice, his sacrifice became the source of strife between him and his brother.

You think of Abram and Lot, both shepherds, and their abundant flocks became the source

of conflict.

Already we're expecting, oh, brother shepherds, there's going to be some drama here.

And then immediately we hear mentioned Jacob's other wives, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah,

certainly caused for lots of tension in the previous chapters.

Another source of strife.

And then, of course, we hear that— what has Joseph done to make a name for himself here?

Well, he's a tattletale.

He's brought a bad report to his father about his brothers.

And that's where you see the word A'ah, shepherd, just spelled differently.

Jacob's brothers, or Jacob's sons, are no fans of their younger brother Joseph because he's told on them one too many times.

Now let's look at Jacob's perspective, the father.

In verse 3, now Israel, otherwise known as Jacob, loved Joseph more

than any of his other other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an

ornate robe for him.

Favoritism has already shown up several times throughout the book of Genesis.

Interestingly, just a couple of chapters before this, when all of Jacob's sons are listed, 12 of them, rather than being

listed in birth order.

They're listed according to Jacob's wives, and that sets Joseph in a particular spot in the lineup.

Now, when you know baseball and you go see the batter's lineup at Petco Park, you're looking for who's in the 4th

slot in the lineup, because you know the best batter doesn't bat first.

The best batter bats cleanup.

You want 3 there's 3 bases loaded before that 4th batter comes up.

You know that the order of the lineup matters.

And in Hebrew literature, the 7th in the order is the favored one.

It's already embedded in the genealogy in chapter 35.

We got 12 sons listed, and who's in the 7th position?

Joseph.

Already he's rising to the surface as the cream on the milk.

Ah, and he's called the son of Jacob's old age, which denotes a

chosenness.

This doesn't just have to do with Jacob's— or excuse me, this doesn't have to do with Joseph's, uh, actually being the youngest, because he wasn't the youngest.

Benjamin, his younger brother, would have had the chosen position in that case.

Instead, what we find is this term is only used twice in the Old Testament, both referring to Isaac.

He is the child that has a covenantal connection to what has gone before it.

Joseph will be the one who has the dynastic expectations connected to his name.

Who will carry on all of the promises from Abram and Isaac and Jacob?

It's going to be the son of Jacob's old age.

It's going to be Joseph.

Ah, so we see the favoritism of Jacob toward Joseph.

And one day, for a birthday gift, he gives him an ornate robe.

This is one of those famously confusing words.

It only appears here and one other passage in the Bible.

And if you compare translations, sometimes it is called the many-colored robe, the long-sleeved robe, the

ornate the glamorous robe.

It doesn't really matter, but what we see reading the story of Joseph is that the robe and the dreams

go together.

The robe and the dreams symbolize the same thing.

Who wears a robe?

The only other time we see it in Scripture is the daughters of King David.

It's a regal vestment.

Joseph is Joseph gets a robe from his dad and it has symbolic significance: "You are going to rule someday."

And Jacob may not even know this, but Joseph's going to have some dreams that show that very thing.

So he's got a robe, he's in the privileged position, he's the son of his father's old age, and we're reminded

of the earlier love that Jacob had toward one of his wives, Rachel.

wives and not toward his other.

He loved Rachel, and yet Leah he hated.

Favoritism has not worked out well in Jacob's family, and yet he continues this.

Joseph he loved more than any of his other sons.

So in the midst of the car chase, we're expecting fraternal conflict, conflict between the brothers.

We're seeing a favored son already elevated.

Elevated before the action even starts.

And then we hear verse 4, what about his brothers?

His brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, and they hated him and could not speak a

kind word to him.

They had nothing peaceful to say.

The word is shalom.

They had nothing of peace to say of their brothers.

And then one day Joseph had two dreams.

The first is this: as he was binding his sheaves with his brothers, his sheaf stood up surrounded by the

sheaves of all of his brothers, and they bowed down to his.

And Joseph, we can question his judgment, thinks it's a good idea to tell this to his brothers.

And the text tells us they only hated him even more.

Ah, but he's not done yet.

He has another dream.

He dreams that the sun and the moon and the 11 stars were bowing down to him.

And both the brothers and Jacob interpret these dreams to be about them bowing down to Joseph.

They say it 3 times, "Are we in "Are you indeed to bow down to you?

Are you indeed to reign over us?

Are you really going to rule over us?"

And many commentators say that that threefold way of emphasizing, "Yes, indeed.

Yes, indeed.

Yes, indeed, Joseph will be elevated above his brothers," is going to be shown later in the narrative when his brothers bow down to

Joseph 3 different times over the course of the story, showing that God has God is bringing

about the promises that he had brought earlier.

But there's a different reaction that his father has in verse 11.

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

There was something about his father's impression that made him I believe that things may come about in this way.

Without spoiling the story, that thought in Jacob's mind is going to be tested

in the moment that he believes that he's lost his son forever.

Will these dreams come true?

David is leading us— excuse me, Joseph is leading us to an even more perfect second Adam that eventually

we will see.

And the promises about him are this we see in Psalm 2, that he will be elevated and given the

reign over all nations below him, and everyone will come and kiss the Son, Psalm 2 tells us.

In other words, all the world will pay him respect.

The Lord said to my Lord, I will make a throne for all of your— or a footstool for all of your enemies.

When we look at the New Testament, we see that this is realized in one person, one person

who is declared to be the Son of God by

2 Corinthians 5 tells us that God has brought us Christ, and Christ will be the one who not only

rules and reigns over his brothers but also brings peace for all of his brothers and sisters.

Christ has reconciled us to himself and given us then the ministry of peace and reconciliation with one another.

Christ will be the King who reigns and obliterates peace and enmity between brothers, so that we would no longer

have any bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander among us, the brothers and sisters of

Christ.

And because of that, we will be led to be kind to one another, to be tenderhearted, to be forgiving of one another, as God in

Christ has forgiven us.

us.

These themes will be shown throughout the rest of the narrative of Genesis, but the car chase is only starting.

Let's pray.

Thank you, Lord, that you are true to your promises, that what you've declared you've brought about.

In the greater Joseph Joseph, Jesus Christ.

Fix our eyes upon him as over the next few weeks we read this story of Joseph.

In Christ's name,