In our study of Genesis chapter thirty seven, we see how the brothers of Yosef did not accept the revelation that God had given to him and how that rejection is going to lead to the fulfillment of those dreams.
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Ya'akov continued living in the land where his father had lived as a foreigner, the land of Kena'an.
We see that Ya'akov was carrying on the heritage of his father Yitz'chak as he was living in the promised land of Canaan.
Here is the history of Ya'akov. When Yosef was seventeen years old he used to pasture the flock with his brothers, even though he was still a boy. Once when he was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, he brought a bad report about them to their father.
The Hebrew word "toldot" is translated here as "history" but it actually speaks of descendants and, even though Ya'akov had twelve sons, this genealogy is only going to be concerned with Yosef. This is very unusual and it speaks to the fact that it is going to be Yosef that carries on the family heritage. We also see that Yosef was seventeen and that number is associated with complete holiness. Next, we see that he was taking care of the flocks with the sons of the maid servants which is a lowly position and shows his humility. Then, we see that, while they were tending the flock, those sons did something that was unrighteous and Yosef went to tell his father. This brings up the question of lashon hara or the evil tongue (gossip) and was that what Yosef was doing? The simple answer is no because his father, Ya'akov was the head of the family and he was to be the judge in the matter. Therefore, Yosef was bringing the issue to the judge to get a just ruling in the matter.
Now Isra'el loved Yosef the most of all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long-sleeved robe. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they began to hate him and reached the point where they couldn't even talk with him in a civil manner.
We see that, in verse 1, the name used was Ya'akov but now Isra'el is used and that tells us that there is going to be a transition. It seems wrong to us when it says that he "loved Yosef the most" but this love speaks of giving and we see that Isra'el gave Yosef a striped tunic which would have been much more valuable than an ordinary shirt. We are told that the reason was that Yosef was born when Isra'el was older and the rest of the sons were old enough to be out tending to things while Isra'el did not have to anymore. This gave Isra'el the opportunity to teach Yosef more about God and their heritage. Giving him this tunic was a sign that Yosef was going to be the head of the family. We see that Yosef's brothers did not approve of this and, in fact, they hated Yosef because of it.
Yosef had a dream which he told his brothers, and that made them hate him all the more. He said to them, "Listen while I tell you about this dream of mine. We were tying up bundles of wheat in the field when suddenly my bundle got up by itself and stood upright; then your bundles came, gathered around mine and prostrated themselves before it." His brothers retorted, "Yes, you will certainly be our king. You'll do a great job of bossing us around!" And they hated him still more for his dreams and for what he said.
Now, we see that God revealed His will in the matter through a dream that Yosef was given. We see that, when he told his brothers, they recognized what it meant but they did not like it and so they hated him even more. This is also a shadow of the coming rejection of Yeshua as the Messiah.
He had another dream which he told his brothers: "Here, I had another dream, and there were the sun, the moon and eleven stars prostrating themselves before me." He told his father too, as well as his brothers, but his father rebuked him: "What is this dream you have had? Do you really expect me, your mother and your brothers to come and prostrate ourselves before you on the ground?" His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
In the next dream, God showed Yosef that not only would his brothers submit to his ruling but his mother and father would too. When he told the dream to his brothers and his father, the brothers became jealous and his father was not pleased but he knew that the dream was significant. This dream is a shadow of how the Father is going to turn the kingdom over to Yeshua at the end of days.
After this, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's sheep in Sh'khem, Isra'el asked Yosef, "Aren't your brothers pasturing the sheep in Sh'khem? Come, I will send you to them." He answered, "Here I am." He said to him, "Go now, see whether things are going well with your brothers and with the sheep, and bring word back to me." So he sent him away from the Hevron Valley, and he went to Sh'khem, where a man found him wandering around in the countryside. The man asked him, "What are you looking for?" "I'm looking for my brothers," he answered. "Tell me, please, where are they pasturing the sheep?" The man said, "They've left here; because I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dotan.'"Yosef went after his brothers and found them in Dotan.
Now, we see that Isra'el sent Yosef to check on his brothers who were keeping the sheep. It is significant to see that Yosef's answer to his father was "Here I am" which is the same thing that Avrahm, Yitz'chak, and Ya'akov had each said when it was their time to take their place as the leader of the covenant. We also see that Yosef left from the Hevron Valley which is the place of the patriarchs. When Yosef went looking for them, he was met by an angel who told him where he could find them.
They spotted him in the distance, and before he had arrived where they were, they had already plotted to kill him. They said to each other, "Look, this dreamer is coming! So come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these water cisterns here. Then we'll say some wild animal devoured him. We'll see then what becomes of his dreams!" But when Re'uven heard this, he saved him from being destroyed by them. He said, "We shouldn't take his life. Don't shed blood," Re'uven added. "Throw him into this cistern here in the wilds, but don't lay hands on him yourselves." He intended to rescue him from them later and restore him to his father.
We see that, when his brothers saw him coming, they planned to kill him but Re'uven stepped in and, as the firstborn son, he had authority when the father was not present. He planned to have them throw Yosef in a hole and then he would come back later to get him and take him home. In this, we see that Re'uven saved the life of Yosef but he still did not do what was right and join with Yosef and the revelation that god had given to him.
So it was that when Yosef arrived to be with his brothers, they stripped off his robe, the long-sleeved robe he was wearing, and took him and threw him into the cistern (the cistern was empty; without any water in it).
So, they took the advice of Re'uven and, when Yosef arrived they took his striped tunic and threw him into the dry hole.
Then they sat down to eat their meal; but as they looked up, they saw in front of them a caravan of Yishma'elim coming from Gil'ad, their camels loaded with aromatic gum, healing resin and opium, on their way down to Egypt.
After that, they sat down to eat which speaks of the fact that they were happy with their choice and while they were eating they saw a caravan of Yishma'elites headed to Egypt. We are reminded that Egypt speaks of the world.
Y'hudah said to his brothers, "What advantage is it to us if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Yishma'elim, instead of putting him to death with our own hands. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh." His brothers paid attention to him.
Now, another brother, Y'hudah, spoke up and tried to save Yosef by selling him to the Yishma'elites but still getting rid of him.
So when the Midyanim, merchants, passed by, they drew and lifted Yosef up out of the cistern and sold him for half a pound of silver shekels to the Yishma'elim, who took Yosef on to Egypt. Re'uven returned to the cistern, and, upon seeing that Yosef wasn't in it, tore his clothes in mourning.
Midyanim merchants found Yosef, pulled him from the hole, and sold him to the Yishma'elites who took him to Egypt. Then, Re'uven returned and found that Yosef was gone and he mourned.
He returned to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I go now?" They took Yosef's robe, killed a male goat and dipped the robe in the blood. Then they sent the long-sleeved robe and brought it to their father, saying, "We found this. Do you know if it's your son's robe or not?"
Here, we see that Re'uven recognized his responsibility in this matter and did not know what to do. The brothers decided to hide what they had done so they slaughtered a goat and dipped the striped tunic in it and this goat and its blood speaks of the day of atonement.
He recognized it and cried, "It's my son's robe! Some wild animal has torn Yosef in pieces and eaten him!" Ya'akov tore his clothes and, putting sackcloth around his waist, mourned his son for many days. Though all his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, he refused all consolation, saying, "No, I will go down to the grave, to my son, mourning." And his father wept for him.
We see that the brothers had no thought of what would happen to their father when they did this and, when Ya'akov saw the tunic, he mourned the loss of Yosef and could not be consoled. Throughout the Torah, the normal mourning period is 30 days but there was no end to the mourning of Isra'el.
In Egypt the Midyanim sold Yosef to Potifar, one of Pharaoh's officials, a captain of the guard.
Here, we see that Yosef was sold again but this time it was to one of the closest of Pharaoh's officials. We see that the efforts of Yosef's brothers to kill the dreamer is being used by God to fulfill the events of the very same dream. In this, we are reminded that ultimately God's will is going to be done. We can be a part of fulfilling that will and be blessed or we can be opposed and watch it happen anyway and miss out on the blessings.