The Sovereign Sin: What Becomes of the Dreamer? Text: Genesis 37:18-36
Introduction: God Draws Straight with Crooked Lines
We live in a sentimental age. We want a god who is nice, a god who is manageable, a god who would never, ever interfere with our choices, particularly our bad ones. We want a god who is more of a celestial guidance counselor than the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. And when we are confronted with the raw, brutal realities of this world, the betrayals, the injustices, the sheer wickedness of the human heart, our sentimentalism collapses. We ask, "Where was God in all this?"
The story of Joseph being sold by his brothers is God's definitive answer to that question. This is not a quaint Sunday School story about sibling rivalry. This is a theological case study in the absolute, meticulous, and glorious sovereignty of God over the very worst sins of men. It is a frontal assault on the idea that God is a frantic spectator, wringing His hands in heaven, hoping things will turn out alright. No, this story teaches us that God is the author, and He writes the story of redemption using the crooked lines of human sin to draw His perfectly straight purposes.
The central conflict here is not just between Joseph and his brothers. It is between the revealed will of God, announced in Joseph's dreams, and the rebellious will of man. The brothers' cry, "let us see what will become of his dreams!" is the perennial cry of every sinner who has ever lived. It is the spirit of Babel, the spirit of Pharaoh, the spirit of the Sanhedrin. It is the futile attempt of the creature to nullify the decree of the Creator. But as this story will show, and as all of history demonstrates, God's purposes are not fragile. He does not simply react to our sin; He incorporates it. He ordains it. He weaves our treachery into the tapestry of His triumph. This is the doctrine of providence, and if you do not grasp it, you will never understand the cross of Jesus Christ.
What we are about to see is a conspiracy of envy, a compromise of the flesh, the cold commerce of sin, and a cruel cover-up. And through it all, we will see the silent, invisible, and invincible hand of God moving His beloved son from the pit to the palace, all according to plan.
The Text
And they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. Then they said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer! So now, come and let us kill him and cast him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’ Then let us see what will become of his dreams!” But Reuben heard this and delivered him out of their hands and said, “Let us not strike down his life.” Reuben further said to them, “Shed no blood. Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not put forth your hands against him”, that he might deliver him out of their hands to return him to his father. Now it happened, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; and they took him and cast him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.
And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted up their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, going to bring them down to Egypt. And Judah said to his brothers, “What gain is it that we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened. Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Then Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments. Then he returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?” So they took Joseph’s tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood; and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please recognize it, whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” So Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard.
(Genesis 37:18-36 LSB)
The Conspiracy of Envy (vv. 18-20)
The sin begins, as all sin does, in the heart. Long before Joseph arrived, the cancer of envy had been metastasizing in his brothers.
"And they saw him from a distance... they plotted against him to put him to death. Then they said to one another, 'Here comes this dreamer!... Then let us see what will become of his dreams!'" (Genesis 37:18-20)
Envy is a particularly vicious sin because it is not content to merely want what another has; it demands that the other person lose it. It is a malicious desire to tear down. The Scriptures are clear: envy is what drove the patriarchs to betray Joseph, and it is what drove the Jewish leaders to crucify Jesus. Pilate, a pagan, could see it plainly. "For he knew that for envy they had delivered him" (Matt. 27:18).
Their mockery is aimed not just at Joseph, but at the God who gave him the dreams. "Here comes this dreamer!" is dripping with contempt. Their plot to kill him is a direct assault on God's prophetic word. "Then let us see what will become of his dreams!" This is the essence of all rebellion. It is the creature shaking his fist at the Creator's plan. It is a declaration of war against providence. They thought that by throwing Joseph in a pit, they could throw God's decree in a pit. This is the height of folly. They are attempting to edit God's story, not realizing they are merely characters playing their assigned, wicked parts.
The Compromise of Reuben and the Callousness of Sin (vv. 21-25)
Into this murderous plot steps Reuben, the firstborn, with a plan of his own.
"But Reuben heard this and delivered him out of their hands... 'Shed no blood. Cast him into this pit... that he might deliver him out of their hands...'" (Genesis 37:21-22)
Reuben's intervention appears noble, but it is the epitome of weak, worldly compromise. He is not motivated by righteousness but by self-preservation. He wants to avoid the stain of fratricide, but he doesn't have the courage to stand up and say, "This is evil. We will not do it." Instead, he tries to manage the sin. He proposes a half-measure that allows him to feel better about himself while still participating in the crime. This is the way of the flesh. It never confronts evil directly; it only seeks to mitigate the consequences for itself.
So they strip Joseph of his tunic, a symbolic act of stripping him of his favored status and identity, and cast him into a pit, a type of the grave. And what do they do next? "And they sat down to eat a meal." Let the weight of that sink in. Their brother, their own flesh and blood, is in a hole in the ground, likely pleading for his life, and they are having a picnic. This is what sin does. It sears the conscience. It turns men into monsters who can chew their food while their brother starves. The fellowship of sinners is always a fellowship of callousness.
The Commerce of Judah and the Price of Betrayal (vv. 26-28)
As they eat, God's providence appears on the horizon in the form of a camel caravan. And Judah, the namesake of the royal tribe, sees an opportunity.
"And Judah said to his brothers, 'What gain is it that we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come and let us sell him...' And his brothers listened... and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver." (Genesis 37:26-28)
Judah's logic is not one of mercy, but of wicked pragmatism. He is not saying, "Let's not do this evil thing." He is saying, "Let's make this evil thing profitable." This is the logic of the marketplace applied to a human soul. The sin is not repented of; it is monetized. And so, for twenty shekels of silver, the price of a young slave, the beloved son is sold by his brothers into the hands of Gentiles.
The foreshadowing here is so potent it should take our breath away. Joseph is a type of Christ. He is the beloved son, sent by the father to his brothers. They hate him, conspire against him, strip him of his robe, and sell him for pieces of silver. Another Judah, Judas Iscariot, would later sell the true and better Joseph for a similar price. God is writing the gospel in advance, showing us the pattern of rejection and betrayal that His own Son would endure.
The Deception of Jacob and the "Meanwhile" of God (vv. 29-36)
The final act of this tragedy is the cruel and elaborate cover-up.
"So they took Joseph’s tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood... And he recognized it and said, 'It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him...'" (Genesis 37:31, 33)
There is a terrible irony here. Jacob, who once deceived his own father Isaac using the skins of a goat to steal a blessing, is now himself deceived by his sons using the blood of a goat. The deceiver is deceived. What a man sows, he shall also reap. They take the symbol of his favoritism, the tunic, and turn it into an instrument of torture. Jacob's grief is absolute because he believes the lie. He refuses to be comforted, determined to go to his grave in mourning.
On the human level, the story ends here in utter darkness. The brothers are murderers and liars. Jacob is inconsolable. Joseph is a slave. The dreams are dead. But the Holy Spirit adds one final, glorious word that changes everything: "Meanwhile."
"Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard." (Genesis 37:36)
This is the hinge of the entire narrative. While the brothers congratulate themselves on their wicked ingenuity, while Jacob weeps, while all appears lost, "meanwhile", God's sovereign plan is proceeding without the slightest interruption. Their sin did not derail God's plan; it was the railway car He used to get Joseph exactly where He wanted him. The pit was not a detour; it was a shortcut to the throne. The brothers thought they were writing the final chapter, but they were only writing the preface to Joseph's exaltation and their own salvation.
Conclusion: The Pit and the Cross
This entire chapter is a profound lesson in the doctrine of providence. God is not the author of sin in the sense that He is morally culpable for it, but He is most certainly the author of the story in which that sin occurs. He ordains whatsoever comes to pass, yet in such a way that the responsibility for the evil lies entirely with the creature. As Joseph will later say to his terrified brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20).
This is the logic of the cross. The worst event in human history was the murder of the Son of God. The betrayal of Judas, the envy of the priests, the cowardice of Pilate, the cruelty of the soldiers, these were all wicked, damnable sins. And yet, the apostles preach that Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel did only "whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur" (Acts 4:28). God drew the straightest line of salvation through the crookedest lines of human sin.
Joseph is a picture of Jesus. The beloved son, hated without a cause, betrayed for silver, stripped, cast into the pit of death, and delivered to the Gentiles. But just as Joseph's descent into the pit was the path to his exaltation as the savior of his people, so Christ's descent into the grave was the path to His resurrection and His enthronement as the Savior of the world. He now offers the bread of life to the very ones who betrayed Him.
Therefore, we can look at the pits in our own lives, the betrayals, the sorrows, the injustices, and know this. The "meanwhile" of God is always at work. What men mean for evil, our sovereign God is always, always meaning for good. He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him, for those who are called according to His purpose. And that purpose can never be thwarted.