Genesis 37:19-36
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels[b] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 30 He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”
31 Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 They took the ornate robeback to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”
33 He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”
34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him.
36 Meanwhile, the Midianites[c] sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Joseph’s brothers responded to his dreams with violence and hate. Notice the end of verse 20, ‘we’ll see what comes of his dreams.’ It seems that they believe the dreams but hate that God would raise their brother above them. They hate the way that they have been treated by their father. They hate his favourtism and they hate that God’s hand may be on his life. They are jealous and hurt so they decide to kill him. However, Reuben tries to rescue him. He intervenes on his behalf and they agree to throw him into a well, rather than kill him. He is then sold to some Midianites as a slave and sent to Israel.
When God calls us or gives us dreams it is so easy to have an idealistic idea of what that will look like. We imagine that it will be highlight after highlight and success following success. However, we rarely know how God will choose to fulfil his plans through us. Joseph’s challenges will get worse before they get better. There was no way that he would know that God was using these events to position him for success and impact.
God uses all things for good it tells us in Romans 8. However, this does not mean that we will see it immediately. So many people blame God when their life does not go smoothly. Why did you allow this to happen? Why did you not intervene and rescue me from this? Faith is hard in the moments of pain and rejection. However, God is bigger than his brothers and he is bigger than our challenges. So often the attacks that come upon our lives are the very things that God uses to bring us closer to him. There is no pain or challenge that does not have the ability to bring you more joy, more presence and more goodness. Trusting in the dark is hard.
No one can stop the plans of God from happening in your life. He uses all things for his glory.
