Joseph and His Brothers Reformed Sermons and Sunday Schools at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Petaluma, CA

Sermon preached on Genesis 37 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/07/2024 in Petaluma, CA.















Sermon Manuscript







Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.







We begin the final section of Genesis, starting here with the words of, “These are the generations of Jacob.” Here, we will learn more about the lives of Jacob’s twelve sons, with a big focus on Joseph. Indeed, this section of Genesis arguably has the most vivid and gripping narrative of the whole book. We’ve been watching the family of Abraham growing. We’ve seen God starting to fulfill the covenant promises that he gave to Abraham. But in this final section of Genesis, the very existence of this family of God’s people will become threatened. Yet, we will witness God’s saving work through this section to preserve God’s people. Let us remember why this is significant. At this time, this family represents the visible church on earth. And it would be through this family that God’s saving work through Jesus would come about. So, the hope of the world literally relies on this family’s survival. But God would preserve them. This final section will show us how God does it. Today’s chapter is just the beginning of the setup, however, as we see the sibling rivalry between the sons of Jacob, specifically the animosity that develops between Joseph and his brothers.Let’s begin in our first point for today to consider the brothers’ growing hatred of Joseph. There were several factors that built upon each other that resulted in how greatly they hated Joseph. We see the first reason for their hatred in verse 2. Joseph was out pasturing the flock with some of his brothers and he came out and gave a bad report of them to their father. Now, presumably the report he brought back was accurate. There is nothing here to suggest that it was a false report of them. But the language here to describe Josephs report is one of whispering, similar to how gossip might also be described. So, the text subtly casts his report in a negative light. Basically, Joseph here becomes a tattle-teller. And so this is the first reason our passage gives us of why the brothers would have hated Joseph – no one likes a tattle-teller. In a section of Scripture that paints Joseph fairly commendably, it is important to see right off the bat that he is not perfect.Next, we see that their father Jacob AKA Israel favored Joseph over all of them. Verse 3 says that Jacob literally loved Joseph more than all his other sons. The reason given is that he was the son of his old age, but we can also remember that he was the firstborn son of Rachel, the clear favorite wife of Jacob. What makes matters worse for Joseph in terms of his relationship with his brothers is that his father publicly displays his favoritism through this coat. Jacob makes this coat of many colors for Jacob, clearly distinguishing him from the rest of the sons. At this, verse 4 clearly notes that this caused his brothers to hate him, when they saw how their father favored him. Already by this point they had so much hatred for him that they couldn’t even speak peacefully to him. They envied Joseph for how much their father loved him, so they hated him for it. This would be an example of what’s forbidden by the tenth commandment of “You shall not covet.”Their hatred is further escalated by these two dreams that Joseph has. Maybe if Joseph had enough sense to not tell the dreams to his family, things might have been different. But, verses 5-8 records his first dream of sheaves and how he shared it with his brothers. The interpretation the brothers conclude is that it foretold the brothers would one day bow down before Joseph. This part about the dream starts and finishes by noting how it caused the brothers to hate him all the more. Then the second dream is there in verses 9-13,