Scripture Daily

Context No. 2120 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 37:14-20: in context

14He said to him, “Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again.” So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15A certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?” 16He said, “I am looking for my brothers. Tell me, please, where they are feeding the flock.” 17The man said, “They have left here, for I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in Dothan. 18They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19They said to one another, “Behold, this dreamer comes. 20Come now therefore, and let’s kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”

Jacob sends his beloved son Joseph on an errand of care: go, see whether it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word. Joseph obeys, going out to seek his brothers, even wandering in a field until a stranger points him toward Dothan. But when his brothers see him coming, they do not welcome the one sent to seek their welfare. Here comes the dreamer, they say to one another; come, let us kill him. The beloved son, sent by his father to his brothers, is met with murderous hatred.

There is a pattern in this scene that Scripture invites us to see. A father sends his beloved son to his brothers, to seek their good, to inquire after their welfare. The son goes obediently, even at some effort, searching them out. And the brothers, rather than receiving the one sent to them in love, conspire to kill him. Joseph, the beloved son sent by his father to his own, is met not with welcome but with hatred and a plot against his life. It is hard not to see here a foreshadowing of a greater Son. For the Father sent his beloved Son to his own people, to seek their good, to bring them life. And he came, as John says, to his own, and his own did not receive him. Like Joseph's brothers, they conspired against the one sent to them in love. Jesus himself told a parable of a landowner who sent his beloved son to the tenants, only for them to say, this is the heir; come, let us kill him, the very words of Joseph's brothers. The beloved son sent to his own, and rejected, and killed, is Joseph's story and, in its fullness, Christ's. This foreshadowing deepens our understanding of what Christ did and how he was received. He was sent by the Father in love, to seek our good, to bring us life; and he came to a world, and a people, that largely did not receive him, that conspired against him, that put him to death. The beloved Son came to his own, and his own rejected him. This searches how we ourselves receive the Son the Father sent. It is possible to be like Joseph's brothers, to reject the beloved Son sent to us in love, to resist and turn against the one who comes seeking our good. And it is possible to receive him, to welcome the Son the Father sent rather than joining those who turned against him. The Father sent his beloved Son to seek our good; and the question the pattern presses is whether we receive him or reject him, welcome the one sent to us in love or turn against him as Joseph's brothers turned against the one their father sent. He came to his own; and to all who receive him, John says, he gives the right to become children of God.

As I see in Joseph, the beloved son sent by his father to his brothers and met with hatred, a foreshadowing of Christ, the beloved Son sent by the Father to his own who rejected him, do I receive the Son sent to me in love, welcoming the one who came seeking my good, or do I resist and turn against him as Joseph's brothers turned against the one their father sent, and can this move me to receive the beloved Son rather than reject him?

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