An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Genesis 37:5-8, 18-28, for Sunday, April. 28, 2024 with the title, “Dreamer.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: Pass out a slip of paper to each member with this statement: “Family can be ___________” and let each person fill in the blank for themselves, and then share the answers. I’m pretty sure in our class we are going to get some entertaining answers! 

OR, if you’d rather share a story:  In 1976, as Jimmy Carter ran for President, the press began to meet his family. “Jimmy’s colorful relatives … offered an appealing contrast to the straitlaced candidate. Billy patented a line for the press, one that he often delivered while swilling alcohol: “My mother went into the Peace Corps when she was sixty-eight, my one sister is a motorcycle freak, my other sister is a Holy Roller evangelist, and my brother is running for president. I’m the only sane one in the family.”  (Jonathan Alter, His Very Best, p. 217)

Family can be one of the greatest sources of blessing that we enjoy — but conversely, they can also be one of the greatest sources of pain that experience as well.

Someone wrote:  “It is always the one closest to you that hurts you the most.” (Davin Turney)

(You could discuss this quote at this point; OR you could use this as an alternate opening as well too)

Betrayal from someone unrelated and far off doesn’t hurt as much as from someone in your own inner circle — it often takes someone close to you to really hurt you. And unfortunately, that’s what often happens. We’d like to think of family as a blessed thing — and often it is — but family is also a “crucible” which God uses to refine us and others, and help us to really learn what grace is. 

But as we see in our passage this week, God in His sovereign providence uses the strengths and even the weaknesses of our family and other relationships, to bring His purposes to pass in our lives and in this world.

CONTEXT

We’re continuing our study of the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the “Patriarchs” or founders of the nation of Israel, whom God used to give the world His word, and also from whom He would raise up the promised Messiah to be our Savior. 

We left off with Jacob feeling “uneasy” as his sons had stirred up a conflict with the Canaanites at Shechem, so God used the occasion to command Jacob to go “back to Bethel,” and to remind him that he promised to do some things there: to make Him his God, to build a place of worship, and to tithe — and we talked about the importance of obeying God, and following through on the things we have promised to do for Him ourselves.

So now as Chapter 37 opens, :1 telling us that “Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned in the land of Canaan”

(That’s the Promised Land, the land that would become the land of Israel — you might remind them of that with a MAP).

And then :2 starts a new “chapter” if you would in the life of Israel’s history; it begins “These are the records of the generations of Joseph.” So this begins a new segment of the story, in which Jacob’s son Joseph will now be prominent. We’ll follow this story of Joseph for the rest of this unit, through May, as we finish Genesis. But today in Chapter 37 we’ll see the beginning of the family conflict, and how God providentially uses even this conflict for His kingdom purposes. 

OUTLINE

I. Ingredients of a Problem (:1-8)

II. The Problem Manifested (:18-28)

III. The Problem and Providence (:28b)

TEXT

I. Ingredients of A Problem (:1-8)

Some of this is not in the “focus passage” per se, but it’s important to really set the scene. You could do it as part of “context,” or make it “point 1” as I am here. But I would definitely cover what I’m calling the “Toxic Environment” that existed here, that was the root of the conflicts we see between Joseph and his brothers in this story.

You could either just share the following information — OR if you want to get your class involved (which I think generally is a good thing to do) you might print out these verses and distribute them (or just assign them to read out of their Bible) and then talk about how each of these things contributes to the “toxic environment” of Jacob’s family:

“Ingredients” in a family conflict:

— :2 refers to “the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives.” This is what we’d call today “mixed family” — different mothers, different family groups; that can bring complications

— At the end of :2 says “And Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.” In other words, Joseph “told on them.” This led to anger and bitterness against him.

— :3 “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons” This is partiality! When you show partiality to someone, it just plants seeds of bitterness in the others. 

:4 says “His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him …”. Of course they noticed, and it just multiplied the resentment against him. Jealousy can 

— :5 “Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.” 

You might share the content of the dream here: 

— :7 he says “behold, we were binding sheaves in the field and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.”

(You can see how this is going to go over well, right?)

— Then in :9 the sun, moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to him (:10 = the brothers interpreted that as all of them bowing down to him)  

How would you take those dreams? You’d take it as proud, and insulting — all of us are going to bow before you?!

It was one thing for Joseph to HAVE those dreams — and undoubtedly it was God who gave those dreams to Joseph — but it was another thing for him to SHARE them with his brothers! It may have revealed an element of pride — and it was certainly insensitive as to how it would make his brothers feel. 

So if you take all these things together: the mixed family, the offense, the favoritism, the pride, the insensitivity, etc., you see how it all contributed to this “toxic environment” that led to the conflicts we see played out in this family.

We always want to remember, our Bible study is not just a “history lesson.” We want to apply it. Is there some application for us today from this? I think so. It’s good to keep in mind the “ingredients” of the situation you are in. 

This applies to our families, like it did to Jacob’s family here. You can see how all these “ingredients” that they brought into the led to conflicts. You would have been surprised if there hadn’t been any!  So some of us need to look at our families: why are we having some problems:  well maybe we can see some of the sam “mix” of ingredients — or some other ingredients — that are contributing to our conflicts. 

This also applies to marriages; very much so. Any time you bring two people together, you are bringing a “mix” of ingredients that has the potential for conflict.

I’ll mention again Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages, a great book. In it he talks about how the two people in a marriage are raised with different ideas about marriage, and family, and have different traditions and preferences, and different “love languages” — some express love by touch, some never do by touch; some express love with words, but others never do with words, and so on. So it should not be surprising to us that we have conflicts in our marriages. So this study can help us to see some of the “ingredients” or factors that can lead to conflict.

Cheryl loves to point out how when we got married (in 1982!) we were from the same home town, went to the same church, had the same standards for a LOT of things, we had both our parent’s blessings, and we were very confident that it was God’s will for us to be married — but still yet, there was a LOT of adjustments that we had to make when we got married. You’d think it would be “smooth sailing” with no problems — but two days after we were married, we had this big blowup when she got the car stuck in the mud in mom’s yard. We had all kinds of adjustments to make to each other, because any time you bring two people together, there is a new “mix” that is going to result in conflicts.  

So how much MORE when people come together from more diverse backgrounds and experiences? There IS going to be conflict and adjustment. We need to understand that going in to marriages, and not think “oh this must not be the right one” just because we have conflicts.  

Another application you can make is that this applies to CHURCHES too. If there are conflicts in a marriage (with two people) or conflicts in a family (with a few people) — then how much more possibility for conflict is there in a church, when SO many people, with all these different backgrounds and preferences, all come together to make up this church — even in a church of 30-50 people, that is still a LOT of different backgrounds and experiences mixed together, bringing the potential of a lot of “ingredients” for conflict. It’s literally a miracle of God that every church is not a “powder keg” of conflict! 

Just like Joseph had pride, and thoughtlessness, and his brothers were jealous — these same “ingredients” can be present in churches, causing problems too.  Same thing with workplaces, same thing with school. There are a lot of areas of life in which a “mix” of people and toxic ingredients can lead to areas of conflict. 

II. The Problem Manifested (:18-28)

Moving down to :18 in our focus passage, Jacob/Israel has sent Joseph out to see his brothers who were pasturing the flocks in Shechem (of all places, interesting; that is where they had gotten into trouble before, and where Jacob was troubled, worrying that the people of the land would kill them.) But now he was sending Joseph out to “see about their welfare … and bring back word to me” (:14). So Joseph went.

Verse 18 says “When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. (:19) They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer!’

(:20) Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’”

One way to treat this part of this lesson, would be to read :18-28, asking your class, let’s see how many sins we can see in this passage that these brothers committed. 

— :18 “they plotted against him to put him to death”

(A lot of us have had some family problems, but I don’t know how many of us were tempted to seriously put them to death for it!)

— :19 “here comes this dreamer” — slandering/name calling

— :20 “let us kill him” (conspiracy to murder); 

“We will say ‘ a wild beast devoured him’” — lying!

“Then let us see what will become of his dreams” — spite/revenge/ultimately fighting against God.

— :23 “stripped him of his tunic” stealing

— :24 “took him and threw him into the pit” kidnapping

— :25 “they sat down to eat a meal” — the insensitivity and heartless attitude: here they had just thrown their brother into a pit, but they were going to sit down and eat!

— :26 “Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? (:27) Come and let us SELL him to the Ishmaelites …”.  GREED! We won’t get anything if we kill him, but we can make money if we sell him! 

— :28 says that’s what they did: “so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.”  

So these brothers just piled sin upon sin here: from slander to planned murder. But as always, don’t just focus on OTHER people’s sins; think about YOURS. How have YOU “piled sin upon sin”? Just take some time to think over yesterday: if someone were to look over your life, what all thoughts, words, deeds, lack of deeds, can you identify your life that are sinful? 

(Really, we should do this every day in the confession segment of our prayer time with the Lord; review the day, and identify and confess your sins to the Lord, and ask Him to forgive you, and also to help you CHANGE them and live differently today. 

III. The Problem and Providence (:28b)

Notice that :28 ended with these words: “Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt.” 

That statement may seem very plain at surface reading, but to me it’s also very pregnant with meaning: God’s saying, This is how Joseph came into Egypt — which was a very significant development in the history of Israel. As we shall see, Joseph’s going to Egypt is what would lead to the salvation and preservation of Israel as a nation. Without that, the whole race may have died out before the scriptures or the Messiah ever came.  So, all this that unfolded, was in the providence of God and His plan for redemption. 

But with all these problems, the “toxic relationships,’ and so on, it just makes you shake your head to think: THIS IS THE FAMILY GOD USED TO BRING US THE SCRIPTURES AND THE MESSIAH! This is Israel! This is “God’s chosen people”! 

But there are several lessons here/applications we can make:

— A. The Nature of Man. When God shows us people in His word, He shows them the way they really are. This is not “hagiography.” HAGIOGRAPHY: (definition: “biography that idealizes its subjects.” From the Greek “hagios” or “holy.”)

For example, there were old biographies of presidents like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in which they were portrayed as “larger than life,” “perfect role models.” There was the old story of Washington saying, “I cannot tell a lie, I chopped down the cherry tree” (which most historians do not believe really happened), etc. 

But God doesn’t do that in His word. He shows us people as they really ARE — even some of the most foundational people in His word, people like:

— Abraham, who was afraid, and lied about his wife to Pharaoah 

— Jacob, the man Israel would be named after, who was a “heel snatcher” and stole the birthright and the blessing from Isaac.

— Moses, who killed a man

— Peter, even post-Resurrection Galatians tells us was hypocritical towards the Gentiles.

God gives us in His word real pictures of  real, flawed people.

And is there a lesson for us here as well? That we don’t have to present ourselves as “perfect people.” There was a tendency — maybe it was more common a generation ago than it is now, but it’s still there to some extent — to try to portray ourselves as better than we really are; to act as if we have no problems, as if we have it all together; as though we hated for anyone to think that we had any failures or problems. And we know that’s not true. I John 1:8 says “If we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” “Have no sin” is present tense. If you say you don’t have any sin in your life, you are deceiving yourself. We ALL sin.  Not a single one of us is a “saint on a statue;” we all have flaws — so we should stop trying to present ourselves as if we didn’t. It’s really proud and hypocritical. There were some men in scripture who acted that way: they were the Pharisees, and Jesus’ harshest words in all the Bible were towards those men. No, we should be humble, and willing to admit our sin. Don’t put on a false front. God doesn’t portray people in His word that way, and we shouldn’t try to portray ourselves that way either. (Now, that doesn’t mean we have to “air all our dirty laundry” either — keep that balance we’ve talked about, but be real, and be humble.

— B. The Grace of God. This also reminds us that God’s dealings with us are by GRACE and not by works. Was the family of Israel chosen because they were so “deserving”? Absolutely not! All of God’s dealings with the people of Israel were by grace. The word “lovingkindness,” the Hebrew word “chesed,” is used throughout the Old Testament as the attitude that God has towards His people. Martin Luther said he believed that the best translation of “chesed” is  that its’ an Old Testament word that conveys New Testament grace; God’s undeserved goodness and favor. God didn’t deal with Abraham, Isaac, or certainly Jacob, on the basis of their works, but by grace.  

And thankfully God’s dealings with US are by grace too, and not by our works. As Psalm 130 says, “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” The answer of course, is NO ONE!

But that Psalm goes on to say: “But there is forgiveness with You, that You might be feared.” Thank God for His grace. “It by grace that you are saved …” as Ephesians 2 famously teaches. 

We are all sinners; NONE of us would stand before Him by our works. But we can be saved by grace, through faith in Jesus, and what HE did on the cross for us. (This is a place where you can share the Gospel in this lesson. There may be a lost person in your class who needs to hear the Gospel, but the truth is, we ALL need to constantly be reminded that God’s grace is the only way we can stand before Him. So share the Gospel here Sunday.)

— C. God’s Sovereign Providence. 

We see here an example of how God uses even the failures and shortcomings of His people, in His ultimate plan. We’ve talked before about how God causes everything to work together for good in His plan. 

We might look at some things in our lives and say, I don’t know how THIS would work out for good — but somehow it does. HE does!

This story shows us that. Even all this “family mess”: Jacob’s favoritism; Joseph tattling on his brothers; the brothers being jealous of Joseph and hating him; Joseph mouthing off — and the resulting evil that came from it all: Joseph’s kidnapping and selling into slavery — it ALL worked together for good, in God’s ultimate plan, as we will see when we get to the end of Genesis.

So we can (and should) look at some of things that have happened in our lives, and see God can use even some of THOSE things, in His ultimate plan for good. 

Your members don’t have to answer this out loud, but you might ask:  ??? Can you see how some good things came out of even some of the worst episodes of your life???

I think most of us can probably say “yes” to that. 

One thing this lesson helps us to see, is that despite all the “ingredients” that can lead to conflict, God can still use these people, and even the conflicts, for His purposes. God can still use Joseph; He can still use what the brothers did — and He can still bless and use OUR family, our marriage, and our church! With His help, we can overcome all these negative “ingredients” and His kingdom and will can still move forward.

(This may be an encouraging or needed word for your church today! Or for your marriage or family!) 

It’s poignant that in :20 the brothers said: “Then let us see what will become of his dreams!”  But those dreams were from God, and you can’t stop God’s purposes!  Even with all the evil they planned, God’s purpose still moved forward. How often does God do that: with Joseph’s situation — especially with Jesus on the cross! — and in our situations today. None of our sins can stop His ultimate Kingdom purposes. 

Now, someone may say, “Well, then is our sin really that ‘bad,’ if God uses it for good?” YES it is. That God can make things work together, doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility.

This is one of the Doctrinal elements we see in this passage, as we do all through scripture, THE BALANCE OF MAN’S RESPONSIBILITY AND GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY:

— Was it wrong for the brothers to do all the things we read that they did in this passage? Absolutely! Were they responsible to Him for what the did? Yes they were, and they paid for it in many ways — as we shall see!

— But even as they piled sin upon sin, as we saw, God in His sovereign providence was causing it all work together in His ultimate plan for good to save the whole family from being extinguished.  

So was what they did sin? Yes. But was God somehow making it all work together for good? Yes He was.

And we need to know that He still is! The same thing is true for our lives today as it was for them. “Our God causes all things to work together for good …”. There are good things that come, even from some of our worst failures. So we should be thankful for His grace, and trust His sovereign purposes and providence that we see exemplified here in Genesis 37.   

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