Family Difficulties
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Key Verse: “Now Israel [Jacob] 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.” Selected Scripture: |
JACOB CONTINUED TO live in the land of Canaan, where his father Isaac had lived. Joseph, the next to youngest of Jacob’s twelve sons, was the firstborn of Rachel, the wife for whom Jacob served his father-in-law fourteen years. (Gen. 29:20,30) Our Key Verse explains Israel’s (Jacob’s) strong love for Joseph—more than for all his other children.
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than them, they grew unbearably jealous. Their jealousy and hatred increased when Joseph related a dream he had to them. He said: “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.” Joseph’s brothers saw in this dream the suggestion that he expected to be ruler over them.—Gen. 37:5-8
He dreamed another dream, one day and told it to his brethren, saying, “Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.” (vs. 9) After hearing this dream, his brothers envied him even more. Their hatred became so deep, they wanted to kill him.
Even his father rebuked him for relating it, asking, “Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee?” (vs. 10) But as his father thought about the matter, he sensed that God was dealing with Joseph in some special way.—vs. 11
Shortly after these events the brothers departed for Shechem to seek pasture for their flocks, while Joseph remained at home with his father. Later Jacob, wishing to know how his sons were getting along, asked Joseph to go to Shechem and bring back a report.
When Joseph arrived in Shechem, however, he learned that his brothers had moved on to Dothan; so continuing his journey, he found them there. “When they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”—Gen. 37:18-20
Reuben, the oldest, did not want to harm Joseph. He said to his brothers: “Let us not kill him… Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit … ; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.” (vss 21,22) But when he approached, they ripped off his coat of many colors and cast him into a pit. When Reuben was not with them, the others sold him to some traveling Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. When Reuben returned and discovered Joseph was gone, he tore off his clothes in sorrow.—vss 28,29
Jacob’s sons dipped Joseph’s coat in goat blood to make it appear that he had been killed by a wild beast. Later, when Jacob saw it, he concluded his beloved son was dead. His sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted and said, “I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.”—vs. 35