Daily Devotions
Genesis
"Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; And let Your judgments help me." Psalm 119:175
Text: Genesis 37:1-36
ONE SIN AFTER ANOTHER
The anger felt against Joseph was all but gone now! Their dreamer of a brother was no more. The big problem now was how to convince their father that Joseph suffered a bad mishap!
“So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats,
and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the tunic
of many colours, and they brought it to their father and said,
‘We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic
or not?’ ” GENESIS 37:31-32
The brothers carefully stained Joseph’s many-colours coat with blood! They would pretend that they had found the coat on their way home. Could Israel identify the coat? The brothers did not dare risk telling a whopping lie concerning Joseph. All their father needed was to question them, and if their answers did not ring true, if there was any discrepancy at all, they would have been found out. The better approach seemed to be to play on their father’s emotional bond with Joseph!
WILD WITH GRIEF
The brothers had guessed right! Israel would jump to the wildest conclusion. His imagination ran wild! He did not question his other sons! His sense of grief was so great that it bewildered everybody!
“And he recognized it and said, ‘It is my son’s tunic.
A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph
is torn to pieces.’ Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth
on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him;
but he refused to be comforted, and he said,
‘For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.’
Thus his father wept for him.” GENESIS 37:33-35“Jacob tore his clothes… and mourned for his son many days”
How could anyone even guess just how much Jacob loved Joseph! None of the brothers expected that the “death” of Joseph would affect their father in this manner. Had they known how deeply Jacob would have been affected, perhaps they would have worked harder at keeping their anger in check!
“I shall go down into the grave to my son with mourning’
The words of Jacob were like that of a man suffering from depression. He was almost choosing to mourn to death! None of his sons could comfort him! This text indicates that Jacob had more than one daughter, but even they could not comfort their father!