Joseph's story is introduced
in Genesis 37 and runs all the way through chapter 50, the last chapter of
Genesis. From a certain point of view, this section of Scripture can be seen
as the most important part of Genesis, since it provides the climax that the
earlier chapters are all moving towards. In our Tsiyon Torah course, I teach
all of this in depth. Here I merely want to share a few observations
revolving around Joseph's coat of many colors. The coat is introduced at the
start of Joseph's story with these words:
"Now Israel loved
Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age,
and he made him a coat of many colors. His brothers saw that their
father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and
couldn't speak peaceably to him." (Genesis 37:3-4)
That the coat of many colors
is introduced at the start of Joseph's story is not an accident. It is
really a prophetic clue, standing as a metaphor for the entire story of
Joseph - and beyond. Before I get into that, though, I need to clear up a
few things.
The first has to do with
Israel (a/k/a Jacob) loving Joseph more than his brothers. Today it is
commonly believed that everyone should be loved equally. Because of that,
modern readers might very well blame Israel for the hatred the other sons
had toward Joseph. Yet, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that it is
not only Israel who is loving Joseph above his brothers - it is YHWH as
well. We see that from the two dreams YHWH favored Joseph with, each of
which foretells Joseph's future, in which he would be lifted up above his
brothers. The most relevant of these dreams to this discussion is the second
one, and goes like this:
"He dreamed yet another
dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed yet
another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed
down to me. He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father
rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed?
Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves
down to you to the earth? His brothers envied him, but his father kept
this saying in mind." (Genesis 37:9-11)
Joseph merely reported the
dream, while making no interpretation of it. Yet, his brothers and father
all knew what it meant, and they saw it as being shockingly audacious. They
saw the meaning of the dream as sun and moon symbolizing Joseph's father
Israel and his mother Rachel, and the stars symbolizing Israel's sons - all
bowing to Joseph. The reality of this symbolism actually comes true later
when Joseph's brothers bow to Joseph in Egypt, showing this to be a true
prophecy from YHWH, and thus a true indication of YHWH's favor toward
Joseph.
The coat of many colors gifted
by Jacob to Joseph was a tangible sign of this same message of favor for
Joseph that YHWH sent through Joseph's dream. From this we see that the
special love of Israel for Joseph was justified, in that it mirrored YHWH's
own special favor toward Joseph.
As we get into the narrative
it becomes obvious that the problem was not with Joseph, or with his father.
It was the brothers who behaved shockingly evil at the beginning of the
story, even plotting the murder of Joseph. They ended up selling him into
slavery. This eventually brought Joseph into servitude in Egypt. As if all
that was not bad enough, the brothers devised an evil deception:
"They took Josephs
coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped the coat in the blood. They
took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and
said, We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your sons coat
or not. He recognized it, and said, It is my sons coat. An evil animal
has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces. Jacob tore his
clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many
days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he
refused to be comforted. He said, For I will go down to the grave to my son
mourning. His father wept for him." (Genesis 37:31-35)
An interesting element regarding garments is
brought in here. Joseph's coat had been a sign of Joseph's righteous
standing and now was being used as an ugly tool of deception against him. A
similar thing happens later in the story with another of Joseph's garments
when Potiphar's wife used Joseph's
garment (in this context a visible sign of his righteousness) in her twisted
lie against him. The righteous Yeshua's garment was divided up as spoil as
if from a criminal. Garments are often used in Scripture as a symbol of
righteousness. It is not unusual for the wicked to deceive others, tearing
away the virtuous deeds of the righteous and misrepresenting them as
evidence that the righteous are not righteous after all. Beware of such
lies.
Back to the brothers: The cruelty of the
suffering the sons brought down upon their father's head through their sin
against their brother Joseph, and the deception they created to falsely
confirm his death, reveal a sharp contrast between the evil of the brothers
compared with the righteousness of Joseph. Also revealed is the fact that
the love of the sons toward their father was not true, as was the love of
Joseph.
Many people say that
YHWH loves everyone the same, but Scripture does not agree. In another
example of this YHWH said "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Jacob valued
the things of God while Esau was profane. When you are talking about love
you are talking about relationship. The person who values the relationship
through heart-felt actions, in this case Joseph toward his father Jacob,
offers far greater opportunity to be loved than those who behave otherwise.
Thus, the concept of loving everyone equally is shown to be neither Biblical
or possible. It is simply unrealistic.
(Romans 9:13)
As for Joseph, he had
learned the ways of YHWH from his father, and had taken them to heart, and
he behaved accordingly in Egypt. As the account goes, over a period of years
Joseph was raised up by Providence from slavery to glory, second only to the
Pharaoh. Through this, the entire household of Jacob was saved from a
devastating famine, being relocated to Egypt by Joseph, where they were
provided with all they could possibly need. In the process his brothers were
humbled and their stony hearts were broken in repentance for the evil they
had done. Thus the sons of Israel were transformed from criminals into the
righteous men they were meant to be, men ready to become the heads of the
tribes of Israel.
The story of Joseph serves as
a living parable pointing forward to the then-coming story of Yeshua. Like Joseph, Yeshua suffered and then was glorified
to bring restoration and salvation to the House of YHWH. He is the favored
only begotten Son who has been raised up far above all, and His brothers are
pleased to bow before Him, because He alone is worthy!
