The Attack on Joseph
However horrible the events that were to follow, they’re not hard to
comprehend. To be in that close proximity to, and even to be related to,
someone whom you hated would inevitably lead, sooner or later, only to
trouble.
And it did.
Read Genesis 37:12–36. What does this teach us about how dangerous
and evil unregenerate hearts can be and what they can lead any
one of us to do?
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The brothers hate Joseph because they are jealous of God’s favor (Acts
7:9), a favor that will be confirmed at each step in the next course of
events. When Joseph has lost his way, a man finds him and guides him
(Gen. 37:15). When Joseph’s brothers plot to kill him, Reuben intervenes
and suggests that he be thrown into a pit instead (Gen. 37:20–22).
It’s hard to imagine the kind of hatred expressed here, especially for
someone of their own household. How could these young men have
done something so cruel? Did they not think, even for a few moments,
about how this would impact their own father? Whatever resentment
they might have had toward their father because he favored Joseph, to
do this to one of his children was, truly, despicable. What a powerful
manifestation of just how evil human beings can be.
“But some of them [the brothers] were ill at ease; they did not feel the
satisfaction they had anticipated from their revenge. Soon a company
of travelers was seen approaching. It was a caravan of Ishmaelites from
beyond Jordan, on their way to Egypt with spices and other merchan-
dise. Judah now proposed to sell their brother to these heathen traders
instead of leaving him to die. While he would be effectually put out
of their way, they would remain clear of his blood.”—Ellen G. White,
Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 211.
After they cast him into the pit, planning to kill him later, a caravan
passes, and Judah proposes to his brothers to sell Joseph to them (Gen.
37:26, 27). After Joseph is sold to the Midianites (Gen. 37:28), the
Midianites sell him to someone in Egypt (Gen. 37:36), thus anticipat-
ing his future glory.
Why is it so important to seek God’s power in order to change
bad traits of character before they can manifest themselves in
acts that, at one point in your life, you would never have imagined
yourself doing?
