Bible Commentaries
Genesis 35

Verses 1-57

XXIX

JACOB, JOSEPH, AND OTHERS

Genesis 35-41

This will be a running comment commencing at the thirty-fifth chapter and extending through the forty-first. Our last discussion showed the great disturbance of mind on Jacob’s part at the cruelty of Simeon and Levi in destroying the Shechemites. At this time God told Jacob to leave that place and go to Bethel. In removing, Jacob determined to purify his household from idols; if he was to have the enmity of the people, he was determined not to have the disfavor of God. So be commanded all his household to put away their strange gods and to change their garments. They also gave up the rings in their ears and noses. It is not fashionable with us now to wear rings that way, but many do. After this purification God protected them by causing a fear to fall upon the inhabitants of the land, or else Jacob’s crowd would have been annihilated on account of what Simeon and Levi bad done.

At Bethel he builds an altar and worships God, and God reappears to him and gives him a renewed assurance of his protection. He then leaves Bethel for what is now called Bethlehem, or Ephrath. At that place occurred the death of Rachel in giving birth to Benjamin. She was not buried in the cave of Machpelah, like the rest of the family, but for hundreds of years her tomb was standing and visible; they show it to you now, but not with certainty may you accept the tradition. In Genesis 35:8, we find an account of the death of Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse. That is the only hint as to the death of Rebekah. We infer from the fact that the old nurse had come to live with Jacob that Rebekah was dead. I may have an examination question on that point. The rest of the chapter is devoted to the names of Jacob’s sons by his several wives, which I will bring out in an examination question. The chapter closes with the death of Isaac. Jacob comes to Mamre, or Hebron, now the head of the tribe. Esau and Jacob unite to bury their father. The thirty-sixth chapter gives a genealogy of the descendants of Esau. Nothing is particular in that except the generations of Seir, father of the Horites. I will give this examination question: Why in the generations of Esau, are the generations of the Horites included? The answer is that Esau’s people moved to the country occupied by the Horites and intermarried with them. You will note that the Horites, or cave dwellers, are not prehistoric men.

The thirty-seventh chapter is devoted to the youth of Joseph, a very particular section. We find here the development of the murderous envy and hate of Joseph’s brethren toward him. An examination question will be: State what caused the envy and hatred of Joseph’s brethren toward him. The answer is: Joseph brought an evil report concerning the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, and they counted that tattling. If he had been one of the sons at work, and had reported on the others, that would have been a tell-tale business. If one in college should be appointed as a representative of the faculty, he could make a report without being justly amenable to the charge of tattling. Joseph was sent by his father to make a report. Next, Israel loved Joseph above all his other sons. I think the circumstances make it certain that he loved him justly. He was the oldest son of the only woman Jacob ever loved. He was intensely lovable, more so than any of the other boys. It is a fact, however, that there never was a case where a parent loved one child more than the others that it did not cause ill will in the family. The third reason is given here: "And he made him a full length garment." King James Version, "a coat of many colours." When a parent distinguishes between his children in dress he is sure to bring on a row. There Jacob made a mistake. Fourth, Joseph dreamed a dream and told it to his brothers, and they hated him yet the more. "I dreamed that we were binding sheaves, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and your sheaves stood around and bowed down to my sheaf." If that dream originated with Joseph it shows that he was already imagining superiority over his brethren. But if it did not originate with Joseph, which it did not, as it came from God – it showed a lack of wisdom in Joseph to tell the other boys. The dream was literally fulfilled in afterlife, and so must have been from God. He dreamed another dream: "Behold, I dreamed yet again, and behold the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to me." The sun is papa, and the moon is mamma, and the stars are the eleven brothers, the whole family bowed down. He ought never to have told that dream to those boys. He told it to his father also. To show how quickly his father understood it, he said, "Shall we indeed, thy mother and thy father and thy brethren, bow down to thee?" His brothers envied him because his father kept that saying. He knew that meant something for his boy, and he was proud of the glory the boy would attain. Here are five things, and envy can get very fat on five things.

I once delivered an address on that subject before the Wake Forest College, entitled the "Ambitious Dreams of Youth." There do come into bright minds forecasts of future greatness, great elation and swelling of the heart in thinking about it, that cannot be doubted. Sometimes these ambitious dreams do not come from God but from the heart of the student. I told those Wake Forest boys of a young fellow out in the mountains. When he started off to school a dream ran through his mind: "I will go to Wake Forest and make the brightest record ever made in that school. I will get through the four years’ course in three. I will get up my recitations so that the faculty will be talking about the most brilliant student in the institution. I will get the class honors. When I shall have delivered the valedictory and go home, all along the way people will say, ’There is the boy who delivered the valedictory address.’ When I get home the family and all the servants will come out in a double row, and a band will play, ’See the conquering hero come.’ " Then I turned to the president and said, "Mr. President, what are you going to do with these ambitious boys who see the other boys bow down and their parents bowing down before them? Those boys think they have the world in a sling." But one thing ’is sure, no one ever became really great who did not aspire to be great.– There is an honest ambition to excel, but where the faculty of imagination is wanting – and it takes that to be a dreamer – that man can be successful in a matter-of-fact way, but he certainly can never be successful as an artist, sculptor, painter, or as an orator or statesman. There is a creative power in the imagination. Woe to the one who expects to be great and has it not. It is characteristic of the Spirit’s day, as foretold by Joel and expounded by Peter, "Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." Sometimes men who have not the Spirit, and who find it easier to win in fancy than in fact, indulge in air castles which need to be ridiculed. There is a story in the old "Blue Back Speller" of a maiden who, walking alone with a pail of milk upon her head, fell into the following train of reflections: "The money for which I shall sell this milk will enable me to increase my stock of eggs to three hundred. These eggs, allowing for what may prove addle, and what may be destroyed by vermin, will produce at least two hundred and fifty chickens. The chickens will be fit to carry to market about Christmas, when poultry always brings a good price; so that by May Day I cannot fail of having enough money to purchase a new gown. Green! Ò, let me consider, yes, green becomes my complexion best, and green it shall be. In this dress I will go to the fair, where all the young fellows will strive to have me for a partner; but I shall perhaps refuse every one of them, and, with an air of disdain, toss from them." Transported with this triumphant thought she could not forbear acting with her head what thus passed in her imagination, when down came the pail of milk, and with it all her imaginary happiness. Dr. Wayland, one of the greatest educators in the United States, has a lecture on the "Evils of the Imagination," that every schoolboy ought to read. Even barefoot boys, fishing in the creek, will weave stories of companies of which they are captains, and they will kill 1,000 buffaloes and 1,500 Indians. When I was canvassing for the Education Commission in Northeast Texas, I had to go about eleven miles out into the country. A lad of about twelve asked the privilege of taking me. I wondered why, but when we got out of town he turned around and said, "Dr. Carroll, I asked the privilege of taking you to this place because I wanted to talk to you. I heard your address on education, and do you know, I am going to be governor of Texas someday?" I smiled and said, "Tell me about it," and he unfolded himself. That boy had already drawn out his own horoscope and filled out all the details of his future. He was brilliant. He had stood at the head of his classes. Instead of rebuking him I simply cautioned him and at the same time encouraged him because he had this record. He did not tell lies. He was never absent from his classes. He was never guilty of what you call schoolboy follies. He was intense in his application, and up to that time he had accomplished all that he had ever undertaken. So it would not surprise me if that boy yet becomes governor. I am waiting to see, however. One of the most instructive parts of the Bible is this that relates to the early life of Joseph and his premonitions of future greatness. Not long ago I read an account of a brilliant girl about thirteen years old. Her parents, uncles, and aunts were all trying to restrain her from following a certain line of education. She met it all by saying, "It is in me to do that. I know I can win on it. I dream about it. It fills my vision. I am irresistibly drawn to it." And she did win on it, a country girl that became famous before the great audiences in European capitals.

This envy that had five roots, after awhile will come to a head when opportunity presents itself. A great many people carry envy and hate in their hearts and it eats like a cancer and burns like a hidden fire and no opportunity ever comes to gratify it, and the world knows nothing about it. "Gray’s Elegy" tells, in referring to the lowly graves, about "some mute, inglorious Milton" that never had a chance to follow the promptings of his muse. Not only that, but the lowly graves hold many a heart which had burned with hatred and envy and petulance that never had an opportunity to express itself in "Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country’s blood." They say that everything comes to him who waits, and so this crowd waited, and here is their chance. Joseph’s brethren left Hebron, and went to Shechem, where they had massacred the Shechemites. They were looking for territory to pasture their immense herds. The father tells Joseph to go and see if it is well with the brothers and their flocks. It is a long way from home. When the boys see him coming they say, "Behold the dreamer cometh; let us slay him and cast him into a pit." There were ten brothers in the meeting; eight were of one mind, but two had dissenting views. Reuben, the oldest, said, "Let us not kill him. Let us cast him into the pit." The record says that Reuben intended to carry him back to Jacob. So he stands guiltless. The other one is Judah. We find when they bind him and strip off his coat that he pleads with them, ten great strong men, binding a boy, their own brother, and he weeping. Later they saw a caravan coming called Ishmaelites in one place and Midianites in another. Midian was a descendant of Esau, whose territory bordered on Ishmael’s, and the two tribes intermingled. Now Judah said, "Let us not kill him, but sell him to this caravan to take to Egypt." In a speech I once delivered in the chapel of Baylor University, I told of a proposition about selling a man that would scorch the paper it was written on. The high court of state plotted it, the leading preacher instigated it, and the man they proposed to sell was one of the most illustrious on the roll of fame in the United States. So they sold Joseph. Then they took his coat and dipped it in the blood of a kid, and carried it to the father to make the impression that Joseph bad been torn to pieces by wild beasts. That was the heaviest stroke that Jacob ever received. He rent his garments, put on sackcloth, mourned many days and refused to be comforted. "I am going down to my son mourning to the underworld." We will leave him there and look at one or two other matters.

The thirty-eighth chapter is devoted entirely to some rather scaly incidents in the life of Judah. The chapter is of such a character that it forbids discussion in a public address. Read it and gather your own lessons. It commences with Judah’s sin in marrying a Canaanite woman. Two of the sons born of this marriage God killed for their wickedness. This wife became an ancestress of our Lord. He derives his descent from four women not Jewesses. Rahab, the harlot; Tamar, the Canaanite; Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, whom David took; Ruth, the Moabitess.

The next three chapters give an account of Joseph in Egypt. When the caravan reached Egypt they sold him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Potiphar finds his trustworthiness, purity and truthfulness and attention to business, and promotes this slave to the head of the house. When sold into slavery the brave heart ought not to despair. But the beauty of his person, great personality, evident kindly manhood, attracted Potiphar’s wife, and she fell in love with him, as some married women do. Joseph refused to Join her in this unlawful love. Whereupon, as "love unrequited and scorned turns to hate," she accused him of the very offense which he refused to consider. So Potiphar puts him in prison. Now, though a prisoner, this man begins to work his way to the front. He is faithful to every duty. Finally he is put at the head of all the criminals in the jail. How can you put down a good man, true to God and himself? This position brings him into contact with other dreams besides his own. There are two that the birds snatched the bread of Pharaoh’s table out of fellow prisoners, the chief baker and butler of Pharaoh. Both are troubled. God sent those dreams. For a man to dream the basket on his head is a very singular thing. Joseph interpreted that to mean that he would gain his liberty but that Pharaoh would put him to death. It happened just that way. The butler dreamed about a cluster of grapes, well formed, sweet flavored, and luscious, and that he squeezed it into a goblet and handed the new wine to Pharaoh. Joseph tells him that means that he shall be restored and promoted to his old place, and says, "When you are promoted, remember me." The butler promised well enough, but forgot. It is easy to forget the unfortunate. But after awhile God sends more dreams. This time Pharaoh has a double dream. He dreams that he sees seven stalks of grain come up in the Nile Valley, full eared and heavy headed. Right after them come up seven thin) shrivelled, parched stalks and they devour the others. He dreamed he saw seven fat beef cattle, and seven lean, ill favored, gaunt, starved specimens that ate the fat ones up. Nobody could tell Pharaoh what the dream meant. But finally the butler remembered Joseph and said, "When I was in prison there was a Hebrew lad who told us our dreams and they came out just like he said." Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and we see him step out of the prison to stand before the monarch to explain dreams, as Daniel did later. He says each dream means the same thing, that there were going to be seven years of great plenty in which the earth would be burdened with its crops. It reminds me of what a man on the Brazos River said. Leaving out part of his language, which was very emphatic, I quote the other: "I tell you, I will have to build a wall around my field and call it a crib: there is so much corn in it." He did make eighty bushels to the acre, and showed me a number of stalks with three full cars, standing only a foot apart and twenty feet high. Joseph said, "These seven years will be followed by seven years of drought and famine in which nothing will be made. God sent me here to provide. You ought to husband the resources of these fruitful years so that they can be spread out over the famine years." Pharaoh was wonderfully impressed, and instantly promoted Joseph to the position of prime minister and made him next to himself. Just exactly as Joseph predicted, the thing happened. Great storage places, perfect reservoirs for holding wheat, and treasure houses were built. At the end of the first year people wanted bread to eat. Under advice of Pharaoh Joseph sold to them, taking their money, jewels, stock, land, then themselves. At the end of the seven years Pharaoh had the whole country, and Egypt was the granary of the world. "And all countries come into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn."

That is the history of Joseph up to the time we come in touch with Jacob again.

QUESTIONS
1. Where did God tell Jacob to go from Shechem?

2. What important step did he take before going, and why?

3. How did God intervene to save Jacob from the inhabitants of the land?

4. What events happened at Bethel?

5. When did Rebekah die and what is the evidence?

6. Where did Jacob go from Bethel and what the events by the way?

7. Name the sons of Jacob by each of his wives and handmaids.

8. Where were they born?

9. Where does Jacob go from Ephrath, or Bethlehem, and what important event occurred there?

10. To what is the thirty-sixth chapter devoted, and why the genealogy of the Horites in this connection?

11. Whose is the most flawless character in history i Ana.: Joseph’s.

12. As a child, what could he say of his father and mother?

13. State in order the several causes or occasions of the hatred of his brothers.

14. What mistake did Joseph make in this?

15. What is the importance of dreams of greatness? Illustrate.

16. What is the difference between dreams of true greatness and building air castles? Illustrate.

17. What is the nature of ungratified envy and hate?

18. Cite passages from "Gray’s Elegy" to illustrate this point.

19. What was the culmination of the hatred of Joseph’s brothers? Can you find a parallel to this in the New Testament?

20. How was Reuben’s attitude toward the hostility against Joseph distinguished from that of his brothers?

21. How was Judah’s?

22. Who took Joseph out of the pit and sold him? (Genesis 37:27-28.)

23. Explain the confusion of the names of the Midianites and the Ishmaelites.

24. Compare the dejection of Jacob with that of Elijah, and show wherein both were mistaken.

25. To what is the thirty-eighth chapter devoted?

26. What was Judah’s beginning in this downward course of sin?

27. What four Gentile women became ancestress of our Lord?

28. Who became Joseph’s master in Egypt, what of his promotion and misfortune in this house?

29. How did he get out of prison and what six dreams touched his life?

30. Who was the author of those dreams?

31. To what position was he promoted in the kingdom?

32. What of Egypt at the close of the seven years of famine?