Scripture
Joseph’s Dreams
1So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner.
2This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.
3Jacob[1] loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.[2] 4But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.
5One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6“Listen to this dream,” he said. 7“We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”
8His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.
9Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”
10This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” 11But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.
12Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. 13When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them.”
“I’m ready to go,” Joseph replied.
14“Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along,” Jacob said. “Then come back and bring me a report.” So Jacob sent him on his way, and Joseph traveled to Shechem from their home in the valley of Hebron.
15When he arrived there, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the countryside. “What are you looking for?” he asked.
16“I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Do you know where they are pasturing their sheep?”
17“Yes,” the man told him. “They have moved on from here, but I heard them say, ‘Let’s go on to Dothan.’” So Joseph followed his brothers to Dothan and found them there.
Joseph Sold into Slavery
18When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19“Here comes the dreamer!” they said. 20“Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”
21But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22“Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness. Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him.” Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father.
23So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. 24Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it. 25Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt.
26Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime.[3] 27Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. 28So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces[4] of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.
29Some time later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern. When he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief. 30Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, “The boy is gone! What will I do now?”
31Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph’s robe in its blood. 32They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”
33Their father recognized it immediately. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces!” 34Then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap. He mourned deeply for his son for a long time. 35His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave[5] mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.
36Meanwhile, the Midianite traders[6] arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard.
Translation notes (6)
- 37:3a Hebrew Israel; also in 37:13. See note on 35:21.
- 37:3b Traditionally rendered a coat of many colors. The exact meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
- 37:26 Hebrew cover his blood.
- 37:28 Hebrew 20 [shekels], about 8 ounces or 228 grams in weight.
- 37:35 Hebrew go down to Sheol.
- 37:36 Hebrew the Medanites. The relationship between the Midianites and Medanites is unclear; compare 37:28. See also 25:2.
5One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.
Whose voices are you listening to? In our world today, we have so many voices speaking to us. We have messages from the music we are listening to, social media, the news, podcasts, movies or television shows, audiobooks, and more. The truth is, we have too many voices speaking to us, often at once. While these voices might not necessarily be bad, they may not always be helpful, and they may also distract us or steer us away from the one voice we need to follow the most.
This week as we continue our study of faith and people who lived a life of faith, we are looking at Joseph. As we study his faithfulness, one thing that becomes apparent is that he was sensitive to God’s voice in his life. In Genesis 37, we see that Joseph had several dreams. He knew that these dreams were significant. They were from God. In one of these dreams, Joseph dreamed that he and all of his brothers were gathering grain when suddenly his grain stood up and all of his 11 brothers’ bundles of grain bowed down to his bundle of grain. In the second dream, he dreamed that the sun, moon, and 11 stars in his dream bowed down to him. He could have brushed off these dreams, but he knew they were significant. Now, when he had these dreams, he did do something that may not have been the wisest thing: he told his brothers about them. Of course, they became jealous. Although Joseph may not have handled the situation well by sharing all of the details of this dream with his brothers, it is clear that Joseph was sensitive to God’s voice and knew that God was speaking to him through these dreams. These are not the only dreams Joseph experienced, if you continue reading through the book of Genesis, you will find Joseph interpreting other people’s dreams and helping them prepare for and plan for the future. All the while he gave God credit for these interpretations.
Joseph’s life is a reminder that living faithfully requires listening for and recognizing God’s presence and voice in our lives. We may not hear it audibly, but God still speaks to us through other people, through Scripture reading, or even inaudibly in our spirits. The question is, will we slow down and tune out other voices so that we can listen to Him?
Moving Toward Action
Let’s take time today to tune out the voices around us other than God’s. What other voices are competing for your time and attention? Whatever they may be, turn off those voices today as you are able to. Choose quiet over all of the noise surrounding you and choose to focus on God's voice. Take note of the things He may be showing you and revealing to you as you drown out the surrounding voices so you can listen to Him.
Going Deeper
Read Genesis 37:1-36 (NLT)
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