Genesis 37:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 37:2

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Now there is a distinct change of style in the narrative. Joseph is 17; his mother has been dead about two years. Joseph is presented as a type of Christ and of the believer in the chapters that follow, and our purpose is to get an overview of this, and to learn lessons from Joseph as a model believer. Up to hundred analogous elements have been identified; that may be going too far, but we can clearly establish fourteen or fifteen. The whole of Joseph’s life is a parallel, unlike that of Jacob. He is the 2nd to youngest. The youngest of the family, his brother, Benjamin, is still only a baby, and so Joseph is effectively the youngster of the family: all his brothers are much older than he is. The narrative opens with Joseph feeding the flock with some of his brethren. The lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah: the two maids who were assumed as wives to Jacob – not Jacob’s true wives, but the maid servants. So these are the four lowliest of the sons: Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher, and they are the ones with the least status. This is significant because they are the sons to whom Joseph was sent in order to learn how to be a shepherd. He wasn't assigned to the oldest sons, to the sons of Leah, but to the sons of the servants, so it is nonsense to say that Jacob was spoiling Joseph. When he puts him out to apprenticeship or to training, he puts him with the lowest ranking sons in the society of those days. There is no fast passage to supremacy or anything of that sort for Joseph. At the end of verse two, ‘Joseph brought onto his father their evil report.’ The way the Hebrew is constructed, it looks as though this evil report may have been put together by somebody else, or it was the result of their awful reputation in the neighbourhood, in the region, and Joseph simply relates it to his father. Immediately some writers pounce: ‘Here is this spoilt boy. We see how greatly loved he was by his father, and given more attention than all the other older brothers, and here he is telling tales, very unwisely; he is the goody-goody, and making himself thoroughly unpopular.’ Please do not see Joseph like that; that is all superficial observation. We are talking here about the church. This is not just the family of Abraham; this is the church of ancient times. What they were doing – whatever it was isn't mentioned – was evidently evil; it was shocking; it was awful, and it was discrediting the family and the witness and the word of God, and it had to be reported.

Application

We may sincerely hope that if any of us who are church members know of anything scandalous being perpetrated by another church member, we would remonstrate with them, and we would make it known. It would be our absolute biblical duty to do so. We are the church of Jesus Christ, and so we shouldn't look at Joseph as though he is acting out of line and talking behind the backs of his brothers. He is certainly not doing that. He is reporting their bad reputation and their conduct and all the trouble they are bringing upon the family, and how they are ruining the entire testimony, and spiritual and religious stand of the family in the region. He has a duty to make it known, and he knows perfectly well that he is going to suffer for doing this, because when Jacob is obliged to take them to task and to chastise them, as he surely will, it is Joseph who will be hated for it. So he is doing something very costly and very courageous, and something which it is his absolute duty to do. But sometimes interpreters can be so silly. They can assume that this is just some minor prank which one of the brothers has carried out, and so a too goody-goody lad is reporting everything in order to gain favour for himself. That is a quite ridiculous analysis of what is happening. We need to look at Joseph as a pious young man, he is closest to Jacob because he alone shares his faith.

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Genesis 37:2 Commentary and Bible Study