'And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a
stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations
of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding
the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the
sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's
wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil
report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,
because he was the son of his old age: and he made him
a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that
their father loved him more than all his brethren, they
hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And
Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and
they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear,
I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold,
we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf
arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves
stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And
his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over
us? or shalt thou Indeed have dominion over us? And they
hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren,
and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold,
the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance
to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren:
and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is
this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother
and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his
father observed the saying.'--GENESIS xxxvii. 1-11.
'The generations of Jacob' are mainly occupied with the history of
Joseph, because through him mainly was the divine purpose carried on.
Jacob is now the head of the chosen family, since Isaac's death (Gen.
xxxv. 29), and therefore the narrative is continued under that new
heading. There may possibly be intended a contrast in 'dwelt' and
'sojourned' in verse 1, the former implying a more complete settling
down.
There are two principal points in this narrative,--the sad insight that
it gives into the state of the household in which so much of the
world's history and hopes was wrapped up, and the preludings of
Joseph's future in his dreams.
As to the former, the account of it is introduced by the statement that
Joseph, at seventeen years of age, was set to work, according to the
wholesome Eastern usage, and so was thrown into the company of the sons
of the two slave-women, Bilhah and Zilpah. Delitzsch understands 'lad'
in verse 2 in the sense in which we use 'boy,' as meaning an attendant.
Joseph was, then, told off to be subordinate to these two sets of his
rough brothers. The relationship was enough to rouse hatred in such
coarse souls. And, indeed, the history of Jacob's household strikingly
illustrates the miserable evils of polygamy, which makes families
within the family, and turns brothers into enemies. Bilhah's and
Zilpah's sons reflected in their hatred of Rachel's their mothers' envy
of the true wife of Jacob's heart. The sons of the bondwoman were sure
to hate the sons of the free.
If Joseph had been like his brothers, they would have forgiven him his
mother. But he was horrified at his first glimpse of unrestrained young
passions, and, in the excitement of disgust and surprise, 'told their
evil report.' No doubt, his brothers had been unwilling enough to be
embarrassed by his presence, for there is nothing that wild young men
dislike more than the constraint put on them by the presence of an
innocent youth; and when they found out that this 'milk-sop' of a
brother was a spy and a telltale, their wrath blazed up. So Joseph had
early experience of the shock which meets all young men who have been
brought up in godly households when they come into contact with sin in
fellow-clerks, servants, students, or the like. It is a sharp test of
what a young man is made of, to come forth from the shelter of a
father's care and a mother's love, and to be forced into witnessing and
hearing such things as go on wherever a number of young men are thrown
together. Be not 'partaker of other men's sins.' And the trial is
doubly great when the tempters are elder brothers, and the only way to
escape their unkindness is to do as they do. Joseph had an early
experience of the need of resistance; and, as long as the world is a
world, love to God will mean hatred from its worst elements. If we are
'sons of the day,' we cannot but rebuke the darkness.
It is an invidious office to tell other people's evil-doing, and he who
brings evil reports of others generally and deservedly gets one for
himself. But there are circumstances in which to do so is plain duty,
and only a mistaken sense of honour keeps silence. But there must be no
exaggeration, malice, or personal ends in the informer. Classmates in
school or college, fellow-servants, employees in great businesses, and
the like, have not only a duty of loyalty to one another, but of
loyalty to their superior. We are sometimes bound to be blind to, and
dumb about, our associates' evil deeds, but sometimes silence makes us
accomplices.
Jacob had a right to know, and Joseph would have been wrong if he had
not told him, the truth about his brothers. Their hatred shows that his
purity had made their doing wrong more difficult. It is a grand thing
when a young man's presence deprives the Devil of elbow-room for his
tricks. How much restraining influence such a one may exert!
Jacob's somewhat foolish love, and still more foolish way of showing
it, made matters worse. There were many excuses for him. He naturally
clung to the son of his lost but never-forgotten first love, and as
naturally found, in Joseph's freedom from the vices of his other sons,
a solace and joy. It has been suggested that the 'long garment with
sleeves,' in which he decked the lad, indicated an intention of
transferring the rights of the first-born to him, but in any case it
meant distinguishing affection; and the father or mother who is weak
enough to show partiality in the treatment of children need not wonder
if their unwise love creates bitter heart-burnings. Perhaps, if
Bilhah's and Zilpah's sons had had a little more sunshine of a father's
love, they would have borne brighter flowers and sweeter fruit. It is
fatal when a child begins to suspect that a parent is not fair.
So these surly brothers, who could not even say 'Peace be to thee!'
(the common salutation) when they came across Joseph, had a good deal
to say for themselves. It is a sad picture of the internal feuds of the
house from which all nations were to be blessed. The Bible does not
idealise its characters, but lets us see the seamy side of the
tapestry, that we may the more plainly recognise the Mercy which
forgives, and the mighty Providence which works through, such imperfect
men. But the great lesson for all young people from the picture of
Joseph's early days, when his whiteness rebuked the soiled lives of his
brothers, as new-fallen snow the grimy cake, hardened and soiled on the
streets, is, 'My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.' Never
mind a world's hatred, if you have a father's love. There is one Father
who can draw His obedient children into the deepest secrets of His
heart without withholding their portion from the most prodigal.
Joseph's dreams are the other principal point in the narrative. The
chief incidents of his life turn on dreams,--his own, his
fellow-prisoners', Pharaoh's. The narrative recognises them as divinely
sent, and no higher form of divine communication appears to have been
made to Joseph, He received no new revelations of religious truth. His
mission was, not to bring fresh messages from heaven, but to effect the
transference of the nation to Egypt. Hence the lower form of the
communications made to him.
The meaning of both dreams is the same, but the second goes beyond the
first in the grandeur of the emblems, and in the inclusion of the
parents in the act of obeisance. Both sets of symbols were drawn from
familiar sights. The homeliness of the 'sheaves' is in striking
contrast with the grandeur of the 'sun, moon, and stars.' The
interpretation of the first is ready to hand, because the sheaves were
'your sheaves' and 'my sheaf.' There was no similar key included in the
second, and his brothers do not appear to have caught its meaning. It
was Jacob who read it. Probably Rachel was dead when the dream came,
but that need not make a difficulty.
Note that Joseph did not tell his dreams with elation, or with a notion
that they meant anything particular. It is plainly the singularity of
them that makes him repeat them, as is clearly indicated by the
repeated 'behold' in his two reports. With perfect innocence of
intention, and as he would have told any other strange dream, the lad
repeats them. The commentary was the work of his brothers, who were
ready to find proofs of his being put above them, and of his wish to
humiliate them, in anything he said or did. They were wiser than he
was. Perhaps they suspected that Jacob meant to set him at the head of
the clan on his decease, and that the dreams were trumped up and told
to them to prepare them for the decision which the special costume may
have already hinted.
At all events, hatred is very suspicious, and ready to prick up its
ears at every syllable that seems to speak of the advancement of its
object.
There is a world of contempt, rage, and fear in the questions, 'Shalt
thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?'
The conviction that Joseph was marked out by God for a high position
seems to have entered these rough souls, and to have been fuel to fire.
Hatred and envy make a perilous mixture. Any sin can come from a heart
drenched with these. Jacob seems to have been wise enough to make light
of the dreams to the lad, though much of them in his heart. Youthful
visions of coming greatness are often best discouraged. The surest way
to secure their fulfilment is to fill the present with strenuous,
humble work. 'Do the duty that is nearest thee.' 'The true
apprenticeship for a ruler is to serve.' 'Act, act, in the living
present.' The sheaves may come to bow down some day, but 'my sheaf' has
to be cut and bound first, and the sooner the sickle is among the corn,
the better.
But yet, on the other hand, let young hearts be true to their early
visions, whether they say much about them or not. Probably it will be
wisest to keep silence. But there shine out to many young men and
women, at their start in life, bright possibilities of no ignoble sort,
and rising higher than personal ambition, which it is the misery and
sin of many to see 'fade away into the light of common day,' or into
the darkness of night. Be not 'disobedient to the heavenly vision'; for
the dreams of youth are often the prophecies of what God means and
makes it possible for the dreamer to be, if he wakes to work towards
that fair thing which shone on him from afar.