Genesis 37:29 Commentary and Bible Study

For some reason not explained by the passage, after Reuben had persuaded the brothers not to kill Joseph but to cast him into a pit, he had needed to leave them temporarily. When he came back he found the pit empty. He had not been there when the Midianite caravan came by, and so did not know about the selling of Joseph to these traders. It came out now that he had been intending all along to save the boy and bring him home, but his act of deception had gone wrong, and although Joseph was still alive he was gone, and Reuben could not return him to his father. He rent his clothes, not so much out of concern for Joseph as at the prospect of having to tell Jacob. In expressing himself he is forced to admit what he could not admit in the midst of their cruelty: that Joseph is a mere child. He knew how much Jacob loved Joseph and what this was likely to do to the father.Now that it was impossible to bring Joseph to his father, they soon concocted another false story to relate to his father. They certainly were not going to tell Jacob what they had really done; he would have cursed them once and for all, and they knew it. Better to lie and say that he had been killed by a wild animal than to tell the truth and admit that they have sold him, even though that would preserve hope in the father’s heart because the boy was still alive. If Jacob had known Joseph was still alive he would almost certainly have told the brothers to go and look for him. So with one lie after another, they cover their tracks. They have his coat because they stripped him of it, and that coat of many colours is going to be the finishing touch to their fabrication. Jacob who gave it to Joseph as a token of his love and favour to the boy, can have it back covered in blood as a way of quenching his love. In the eyes of the brothers that will be a fitting answer to their envy. They take the coat and kill an animal and dip it in the blood, and let its blood substitute for Joseph’s. So much for their love for their father! When did love ever act so callously? Reuben soon went along with the story, even though he knew that their father would be distraught. Although he isn't mentioned, we can be sure that Isaac – who was still alive – would have been distraught also. Poor old man! He hears about Joseph, the godly one among the brothers, destroyed. The brothers didn't care about that either. They didn’t care about losing Joseph; they didn't care about bringing misery and distress upon Jacob and upon Isaac. Joseph hasn't been mourning many days, before all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort Jacob. What did they say to him? Whatever it was, Jacob would not be comforted. How cynical they are! How quickly they could have eased his sorrow if they had told him the truth – Joseph is still alive. This sorrow was to live with him continually until the day he heard that Joseph was still alive. The measure of his sorrow is Jacob’s reaction when he is finally told that Joseph was alive and was governor over all the land of Egypt: ‘[his] heart fainted, for he believed them not. ²⁷ And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: ²⁸ And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die’ (Genesis 45:26-28). What hypocrites they were!They are skilful enough to present Jacob with the false evidence and not themselves to say what has happened, but to let their father come to his own mistaken conclusion, and there they let is rest and do nothing to correct it. This suited their purpose perfectly; their father had fallen into their trap. Perhaps some even saw this as a suitable recompense for his favouritism of Joseph. Why was Jacob’s grief so great? Was it made worse by the knowledge that Joseph had the oracles of God, and Jacob had not reproved the brothers and protected the oracles? To Jacob’s mind, the impossible seemed to have come to pass: the word of God appeared to have failed. But God’s oracles can never fail, and in spite of the lies of men and the strategies of the devil, not one word will fail to come to pass.