Genesis 37:12 Commentary and Bible Study

This is a very strange place for them to go. Following the massacre brought about by the brothers in Shechem over Dinah, the whole family had fled from Shechem. They were in danger from the inhabitants of the land, the Hittites and the Canaanites, and it was only because God put his terror upon the people that they were able to flee the land and get out of it without being attacked and possibly destroyed (Genesis 35:5). So what are they doing with their sheep going back into dangerous territory? The only answer one can think of is that there was a localised drought in the area of Hebron, and so they had to go back down into Shechem where there was grassland. This explains why they were fifty miles north of Hebron in Shechem, and then further north still in the Dothan area, where they find this pit into which they can drop Joseph, and the pit is dry. It all suggests that there has been a scarcity of water and they are roaming round to save their flocks. Perhaps that is what is behind it. But they are going into dangerous territory, and that's the point. And so Israel – his official name is now used in verse 13 – is worried about them. So he commissions the 17-year-old Joseph to follow them and to bring word of their safety. Joseph is happy to go, though he is hated by them. Whether he is aware that his life could be in danger is not clear, and yet both the father and the son ought to be aware that there is danger in this. But it is a mission of care; the brothers ought to be grateful. The younger brother whom they despise has been sent by their father to make sure they are all right, to take back word to see if anything is needed. It is a mission of kindness, a mission of care, and the way Jacob speaks, he is worried about their safety. Joseph is pleased to do all that his father asks him to do. He could have said, ‘But father, they will tear me limb from limb’, but no he was ready to go, if his father told him. Even though this is a potentially dangerous mission, he immediately shows willing: ‘Here am I’ – similar to the words of Isaiah when commissioned by the Lord: ‘Here am I! Send me.’ No wonder his father loved him: this son with such a willing obedient spirit. But these were to be the last words that Jacob heard Joseph speak for more than twenty years and his heart was going to be broken.