Joseph Runs Toward His Brothers as They Plotby CNSDA
37:19Genesis 37:19
And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
At Dothan the brothers recognized Joseph from a distance as he came toward them, and greeted his approach with the sneering name for the dreamer. By calling him that they contemptuously and mockingly identified him with the dreams he had told them, making the dreams themselves his name. Their mockery was the voice of envy, jealousy, hatred, revenge, and anger, directed both against Joseph himself and against his dreams.
That jealousy and resentment had been stirred by Jacob's open preference for Joseph, displayed in the distinctive coat, and the partiality and indulgence of the family had both helped provoke the brothers' deed and encouraged faults in Joseph himself. They also resented his righteousness and his reports of their wrongdoing, and his efforts to turn them from wrongdoing only intensified their hostility until it became murderous. Their words introduced a murderous plot already formed before he reached them, meeting his pleas with insulting words and intending to kill him while mockingly challenging what would become of his dreams.
By killing him they meant to prevent his dreams, his future greatness, and his rise to dominion over them, then instead abused him, cast him into a pit, and sold him into slavery, cruelly separating him from his father. God heard Joseph's cries and kept His eye upon him, and overruled the crime for good so that Joseph gained authority in Egypt, ruled over his brothers, and became a savior to his family. His goodness and strength of purpose did not spare him from being maligned, persecuted, and treated as a criminal for doing right, yet God gave him signal victories through his suffering for righteousness. The attempt to stop the dreams illustrates Christ, for jealous leaders sought to keep Jesus from gaining authority and being accepted as king, but His death made Him Redeemer and ruler of humanity, and God's overruling of these crimes for good did not lessen the guilt of those who committed them.
At Dothan the brothers recognized Joseph from a distance as he came toward them, and greeted his approach with the sneering name for the dreamer. By calling him that they contemptuously and mockingly identified him with the dreams he had told them, making the dreams themselves his name. Their mockery was the voice of envy, jealousy, hatred, revenge, and anger, directed both against Joseph himself and against his dreams.
That jealousy and resentment had been stirred by Jacob's open preference for Joseph, displayed in the distinctive coat, and the partiality and indulgence of the family had both helped provoke the brothers' deed and encouraged faults in Joseph himself. They also resented his righteousness and his reports of their wrongdoing, and his efforts to turn them from wrongdoing only intensified their hostility until it became murderous. Their words introduced a murderous plot already formed before he reached them, meeting his pleas with insulting words and intending to kill him while mockingly challenging what would become of his dreams.
By killing him they meant to prevent his dreams, his future greatness, and his rise to dominion over them, then instead abused him, cast him into a pit, and sold him into slavery, cruelly separating him from his father. God heard Joseph's cries and kept His eye upon him, and overruled the crime for good so that Joseph gained authority in Egypt, ruled over his brothers, and became a savior to his family. His goodness and strength of purpose did not spare him from being maligned, persecuted, and treated as a criminal for doing right, yet God gave him signal victories through his suffering for righteousness. The attempt to stop the dreams illustrates Christ, for jealous leaders sought to keep Jesus from gaining authority and being accepted as king, but His death made Him Redeemer and ruler of humanity, and God's overruling of these crimes for good did not lessen the guilt of those who committed them.