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When bad things happen to good people

Joseph checks on his brothers—Genesis 37:12-17

Jacob had entrusted the flocks to Joseph’s older brothers, but now he sends him to check on their welfare. Joseph had been shepherding with some of his brothers before (37:2), work that could start at far younger than his seventeen years (37:2), and perhaps had been kept home because of conflicts (37:4-11). In any case, Joseph inquiring about their welfare (literally “peace”) offers a stark contrast with the treatment that Joseph will receive at his brothers’ hands.

Concerned about his sons’ welfare, Jacob thus sends Joseph to find out how his brothers are doing near Shechem. Here is what seems a remarkable point in the story, because the ruins of Shechem remind us immediately of his brothers’ violence there in ch. 34—a violence that may foreshadow what awaits Joseph. Figuring out why Jacob feels free to let his older sons pasture there (37:12) and to send Joseph there by himself (37:13-14) is harder to determine. The family knew well the pasturage near Shechem (33:18). Perhaps trouble in the neighborhood of Shechem must have now quieted down (cf. 35:5). Alternatively, perhaps this narrative chronologically precedes Gen 34 (and perhaps Joseph’s dream that includes his mother in 37:9-10 even precedes her death in 35:19). Genesis might choose to keep the Joseph narrative together at the expense of chronology. The information needed to decide on such a matter historically is no longer available to us, but the narrative in its current form presumes that matters had become more quiet. (Joseph was probably six when they entered Canaan, and Dinah only a little older; see 30:25-26; 31:41. If he is seventeen in 37:2, this is eleven years later; still, Dinah was probably only a little older than Joseph, 30:21, so the terrible events in Shechem may have remained more recent.)

But while this was a fairly peaceful period in Canaan, wild beasts remained a possibility, and Jacob’s sending of Joseph in what will become Joseph’s disappearance will haunt Jacob for years to come. That will be why he will fear to leave Benjamin out of his sight (42:38). Any of us who worry about our children’s safety can identify with Jacob, but this is especially true for someone who has endured great loss.

Joseph’s response to his father’s commission, literally, “Behold, I [am here]” (37:13) is the appropriate response for an obedient son to a father’s summons (27:1, 18), just as it is for a human obedient to the Lord’s command (22:1, 11; 31:11). That a man had overheard the brothers discussing their move to Dothan, and found Joseph looking for them (37:15-17), seems providential: God planned Joseph’s difficult encounter with his brothers and made it happen even despite some natural circumstances that could have worked against it. The narrator would hardly have expended such detail on how Joseph learned of his brother’s whereabouts were it not significant. (As for why the man was in the vicinity and had had contact with his brothers, it is not unlikely that some people had resettled, or were at least making use of, the remains of Shechem. Had fugitives simply returned, they would probably have been less than hospitable to Joseph’s brothers, but it is possible that other rural people once oppressed by Shechem have now found a place there. Whether by returned fugitives or by new residents, sites of previous habitation were usually quickly resettled.)

In the same way, the circumstances of our lives are not accidental. Theologians debate whether God plans the details (such as, here, Joseph’s brothers having moved on), but God certainly does arrange matters to bring about his purposes (such as Joseph’s encounter with his brothers, ultimately to save many lives, 45:5, 7). We cannot second guess ourselves, with, “What would have happened if …” We can instead recognize that God has a plan and purpose in our lives and entrust ourselves to him from here forward.

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It wasn’t Joseph’s fault—Genesis 37:2-11

Blaming the victim

Sometimes I hear preachers blame Joseph for his brothers’ enmity. As a father of teenagers, however (and a retired teenager myself), I think this is being too hard on Joseph. Joseph’s brothers later admit their wrongdoing; Joseph does not need to do so. Whatever Joseph’s imperfections, he did not merit what his brothers did to him. In family counseling, it is always helpful to see what each of us can do to make things better. But it is also wrong to blame the victim for something that was not the victim’s fault. Nothing justifies selling another human being into slavery.

Granted, there was likely some dismay about Joseph’s bad report (37:2) against some of his brothers (sons of Zilpah and Bilhah). Yet this report may have reflected his honest appraisal and loyalty to his father’s challenged interests. Moreover, Joseph’s brothers already hated him (37:3-4) well before he revealed his dreams to them. Can we blame a seventeen-year-old, possibly taunted by his older brothers, for sharing his dream (37:5-7), even though it did predictably increase their hatred (37:5, 8)? And again, even if one wants to suggest that he was wrong for sharing his dreams (I think we are expecting too much from a bullied seventeen-year-old on this point), it cannot come close to justifying what his brothers put him through afterward. (That would be something like slashing off someone’s arm because they forgot to say, “Thank you.”)

The source of the conflict was there before Joseph had any say in the matter. Like each of his own parents, Joseph’s father Jacob showed favoritism in a way that sowed conflict among his children (37:3-4; cf. 32:7-8; 33:1-2). Indeed, the brothers subsequently most named in the Joseph story are not the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah (noted in 37:2) but the sons of Leah, who herself felt “hated” (or “unloved,” the same term, in 29:31, 33).

Jealousy and the question of familial peace or conflict play key roles in the narrative. Joseph’s brothers could not speak to him “in peace” (37:4). Nevertheless, ironically, years later, Joseph speaks peace to them (43:23; cf. 44:17); likewise, they attack Joseph when Jacob sends Joseph to check their welfare (the same Hebrew term as “peace”; 37:14); Joseph later also asked about their and their father’s welfare (“peace”; 43:27).

Joseph’s brothers are jealous of him (37:11) as Rachel (Joseph’s mother, Jacobs favorite wife) had been jealous of Leah because Leah had so many children (30:1). These cases of jealousy fit other examples of youthful sibling rivalry in Genesis: Cain versus Abel and Joseph’s father Jacob versus Esau. (Happily these brothers, like Jacob and Esau and like Ishmael and Isaac before them, were on better terms in their later days.)

Joseph’s brothers hate him still more because of his dreams (37:5, 8, 11), yet in Genesis dreams are very important. God had spoken to Abimelech in a dream to protect Rebekah (Gen 20:3, 6) and to Laban to protect Jacob (31:24); he likewise spoke to Jacob in dreams at key moments to ensure his return to the land (28:12; 31:10-11). Joseph’s ability to understand the divine message in dreams would lead to the fulfillment of his own dream (40:8; 41:25, 38).

In Joseph’s dreams, his brothers, depicted as sheaves and stars, would bow to him—something that God eventually would bring to pass, while accomplishing their own survival. (The “stars” in 37:9 might suggest a foretaste of the promise of seed like the stars of heaven in 15:5, 22:17 and 26:4; the sheaves in 37:7 might suggest the subsequent dependence of Joseph’s brothers on him for grain. But these connections could also be simply coincidental, given the limited repertoire of images available.) The dream that includes both his parents (37:9-10) may have taken place before Rachel’s death (35:19), narrated here because it belongs to the larger Joseph narrative; or it may simply reflect the looseness sometimes found in prophetic symbolism, which Genesis’ ancient Israelite audience may have taken for granted.

In any case, it sets the stage for much of the rest of the story. By selling Joseph into slavery, Joseph’s brothers may think that they have thwarted the dreams (37:20); in reality, they have merely set the plan in motion. If we trust that our lives are ultimately guided by God’s calling, it is less important whether others meant something for evil than the purpose that God has at work in us (50:20).