Genesis 37:10
And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Joseph's second dream showed the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowing down to him, repeating the meaning of his first dream of the sheaves with still greater force. The heavenly lights meant his father and mother and brothers would come to bow to the earth before him, pointing to his future elevation above them and their submission to him. Jacob rebuked him for the saying, yet he understood that God was revealing the future to Joseph and he kept the saying in mind with strengthened hope in God's promises. The brothers grasped the same meaning and sold Joseph into Egypt to make its fulfillment impossible, but the Lord directed their very opposition to exalt him to dominion over them until they bowed before him as ruler in Egypt seeking food. In this God overruled human hatred to accomplish His purpose of making Joseph a saviour to his father's family, without lessening the guilt of the wrongdoers, foreshadowing how Christ's murderers brought about His exaltation as Redeemer and ruler of the world.
The Dream and Rebuke
Joseph told to his father and to his brothers the second dream given to him, in which the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to him. It carried the same meaning as his first dream of his own sheaf standing upright while the other sheaves bowed to it, but with more striking significance. The sun, moon, and stars pictured his father and his mother and his brothers coming to bow down themselves to him to the earth, a meaning discerned at once, pointing to his future elevation and his family's submission to him.
His father rebuked him by asking what this dream was that he had dreamed, whether he and Joseph's mother and his brothers would indeed come to bow down themselves to him to the earth. The words sounded severe, yet affection for Joseph remained evident, even in his trembling voice. Jacob understood that God was revealing the future to Joseph and believed the Lord was instructing Joseph through dreams, as the Lord had instructed Jacob himself in dreams. He recalled God's promises to Abraham and to Isaac and to himself, kept the saying in mind, and his hope was strengthened that God would bless Joseph, the eldest son of Rachel.
Jacob reproved Joseph to appear indifferent and to keep his true feelings from his envious brothers. The telling of the dreams aroused envy and hatred and malicious feeling against Joseph, and his brothers envied him because of them. They also saw Jacob's favor toward him, shown by the richly colored coat, as grounds for jealousy and hatred.
Fulfillment and Wider Meaning
The dream meant that Joseph would become greater than his brothers, have dominion over them, and that his father and mother and brothers would come before him in submission with their faces to the earth. The brothers understood the dream in this way and were troubled by it, envying and despising the dreams. To prevent fulfillment they treated Joseph cruelly, purposing to kill him but then being content to sell him as a slave into Egypt, thinking they had placed him where fulfillment would be impossible.
The Lord controlled and directed events so that the very course the brothers pursued brought about what they designed never should take place. Their own cruel actions helped bring the dreams to pass, exalting Joseph to dominion over them and making him a saviour to his father's family. The dreams were fulfilled when Jacob's sons came with the crowd of buyers to purchase corn and food from Joseph as ruler in Egypt and repeatedly bowed down before him with obeisance according to his dream. At that sight Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed of them, including the part about his father when he asked after their father.
When the brothers recognized the fulfillment and when Joseph revealed himself as their brother, all their ill treatment rushed painfully before them, especially the despised dreams. They stood before him condemned, troubled, astonished, and amazed at how their own actions had fulfilled what they had once rejected. The story illustrates how God can overrule human intentions to accomplish His purposes, without lessening or removing the guilt of those who do wrong. The experience foreshadows Christ, who came to His own and was rejected because His righteous life rebuked sin. The chief priests and elders condemned Him and cried out to crucify Him to prevent His drawing the people and becoming king of the Jews, yet by murdering the Son of God they brought about the very thing they sought to prevent, His exaltation as Redeemer, Saviour of the fallen race, and ruler over the whole world. The account belongs to Joseph, whom God chose while he was young to do a special work for His people.