Genesis 37: The Spoiled Dreamer

A favored son. A loud dream. A family powder keg. Genesis 37 opens the Joseph story with a question that still hits home: what do you do when God gives you a glimpse of your future, but your present is full of tension, envy, and broken relationships? We follow Joseph at seventeen, wearing the robe that marks him as Jacob’s favorite, and we watch how that visible symbol of preference turns everyday sibling conflict into something far darker. 

We unpack Joseph’s dreams and why they aren’t the real problem, but how he shares them reveals immaturity and poor stewardship of a calling. There’s a line we don’t want to miss: God’s promises should never become weapons. From there, the story accelerates into betrayal, the cistern, and the shocking decision to sell Joseph to traders heading to Egypt. The chapter ends with Jacob crushed by grief and Joseph ripped away from everything familiar, alone in a foreign land. 

But we don’t stop at tragedy. We lean into a steady hope: chaos is not the last chapter. If it’s not good, God is not done. If you’re in a season where your home, work, or emotions feel out of control, this conversation will help you hold on and keep turning the page. Subscribe for the daily Bible breakdown, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Housekeeping And Ways To Support

Setting The Stage For Joseph

Joseph’s Favoritism And Dreams

The Plot And The Sale

Grief, Fallout, And Hope

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter 37. Today's title is The Spoiled Dreamer. The Spoiled Dreamer. I gotta tell you, when we began shooting this podcast, oh my goodness, a couple of years ago now, this was one of those stories that I was both excited about and I was not looking forward to because there's so many layers to this story. And it is one of my favorite in the entire Bible, but it's multifaceted and it's layered, and there's no way to get into this. In one way, it is the story of what God can do through someone's life. In another way, it's the story about family reconciliation. In another way, it's the story about how God many times will use our failures to prepare us for our victories. I mean, there's just there's this layer upon layer upon layer, and we're gonna be talking about the story of Joseph. Have you ever heard of the Code of Many Colors? You ever heard about uh just you know, Joseph being sold to slavery, all these different things? All of that is going to begin with today's chapter. So get your Bibles, get your popcorn, get your cup of coffee, whatever you got to get, because we're gonna get into it here in just a moment. But while you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment to like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. Make sure you leave us a review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Facebook page. There's an amazing group of people writing devotions there every single day. And you can get links to all of that at the Bible Breakdown.com. Well, once again, we are in the book of Genesis and we are really getting to the final part of it. This story, which is going to begin in today's chapter, is going to take us through the end of the book of Genesis. It's going to take a while to get there, but this is where it's going to begin. And it's going to happen with the family of Jacob. Now, to kind of catch you up, if you've you've kind of gotten away from it, you're coming back to it again. Abraham was where all of this began. God said, Abraham, through your family, I'm going to bless the world. I'm going to show myself to the world. I'm going to bless you, and through you, you're going to bless the world. And so God blessed Abraham. Then he had a son, Isaac, blessed him. Then God, then Isaac had a son named Jacob, and he said, Okay, I'm going to pass that off. Well, now Jacob has got 12 sons, and all of them are getting a little bit older. Youngest is a guy named Benjamin, second youngest, that was the youngest, second youngest is Joseph. And because Joseph was the firstborn of Jacob's favorite wife, just put it that way, uh, he was the favorite. And we are going to watch the story of his life, how he goes from being the most spoiled in the house, and you can clearly see it, to where he becomes the leader of the family and second in command of the largest empire in the entire world. But it is amazing that we don't so so many times we don't know the background of people's lives. But we'll get to all that in just a moment. First, let's just read this and just enjoy what God is doing in this situation. So if you're ready, Genesis 37, verse 1 says this. So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner. This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father's flock. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his wife of his father's wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing. Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. One day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph, a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn't say a kind word to him. One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more. Listen to this dream, he said. We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain, and suddenly my bundle stood up and your bundles gathered around and bowed low before mine. His brothers responded, So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you think you actually think you will reign over us? And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. Listen, I have had another dream, he said. The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me. This time he told the dream to his father as well as his brothers, but his father scolded him. Kind of dream is that? he asked. Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you? And while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered at what the dream meant. Soon after this, Joseph's brothers went out to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem. And while they had been gone, when they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, Your brothers are pasturing the sheep in Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them. I'm ready to go, Joseph replied. Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along, Jacob said. Then come back and bring me a report. So Jacob sent him on his way, and Joseph traveled to Shechem from their home in the valley of Hebron. And when he arrived there, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the countryside. What are you looking for? he said. I'm looking for my brothers, Joseph replied. Do you know where they're pasturing their sheep? Yes, the man told him. They have moved on from here. But I heard them say, Let's go on to Dothan. So Joseph followed his brothers to Dothan and found them there. When Joseph's brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. Here comes the dreamer, they said. Come on, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father a wild animal has eaten him. And then we'll see what becomes of his dreams. But Reuben, when he heard their scheme, came to Joseph's rescue. Let's not kill him, he said. Why should we shed any blood? Just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness. Then he'll die without our laying a hand on him. Reuben was secretly scheming to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off his beautiful robe he was wearing, and then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern, and now the cistern was empty, and there was no water in it. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, bomb, and aromatic resin from Gal Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to just cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood, and the brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were the Midianite traders, came by, Joseph's brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver, and the traitors took him to Egypt. Sometime later Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the cistern, and when he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in grief, and then he went back to his brothers and lamented. The boy is gone. What will I do now? Then the brothers killed a young goat and dipped Joseph's blood, uh robe in its blood. They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message. Look at what we have found. Doesn't this robe belong to your son? And the father recognized it immediately. Yes, he said, That's my son's robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces. And then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap, and he mourned deeply for his son a long time. His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. I will go down to my grave, mourning for my son, he would say, and then he would weep. Meanwhile, the Midianite traders arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and Potiphar was the captain of the palace guard. Wow. Oh my goodness. Think about this. So let's recap. So Jacob, he settles and he has these herds and these things, and it looks like eleven of his twelve sons, even though Benjamin probably didn't. Let's go ten of his twelve sons, they were shepherding. And then comes Joseph. Joseph, 17 years old, and he looks like he is a tattletale. He would go back and tell on his brothers. And Joseph was good at this, apparently. And Jacob loved him. He loved him because he says was a son of his old age. And he was he was Rachel's, you know, firstborn. So he he loved Rachel. And he he loved Joseph and he spoiled him. He was spoiled. He got a fresh robe like nobody else got. He all this stuff. And he obviously was hated. Joseph was hated by his brothers because he was a tattletale. And and he was he was clearly the affection they wanted from their father, they didn't get. It was all get given to uh Jacob, or excuse me, given to Joseph. And then he does like what doesn't help his case at being kind of a spoiled brat is he has this dream. And and basically what this dream meant was is everybody in the family bowed down to him. In other words, even though he was the second youngest, he was putting himself at the head of the family. And what that would mean is, because what would happen is the head of the family was in charge of making sure everybody else in the family was taken care of. And what he was saying is one day I'm gonna be in charge of all you guys. All that you have is gonna be because of me. And they were like, that can't happen. They were completely upset by this because, I mean, if you think about it, he's a he is an immature, spoiled brat. We can't put you at head of the house. Like, this is not gonna happen. You you wouldn't take care of us. And so that's why they're so angry, is they're angry at the fact that he assumes because of his dream, he's gonna be in charge one day. And can we just go ahead and say this is not the point of the of the text today? But if you get a dream from the Lord, maybe you don't tell people who don't like you your dream. Maybe you don't go broadcast it everywhere because it is nothing wrong that God gave Joseph this dream. The problem is he used what God's calling as a weapon against other people. That's a whole different scripture right there. You know what I'm saying? That's a whole different message right there. But we should never use God's promises as weapons to shame other people. Okay? Selah, think on that. But then they just decide one day when they see him, we're gonna kill him. But Reuben, wanting to help Joseph, says, hey, let's just put him in this cistern because he was going to go escape, uh, you know, get him out later, and they sell him into slavery. And then instead of lying to their their dad, they go, Ah, you know, there's blood on his robe, looks like his robe. What do you think, dad? To which also a half truth is a whole lie. And they allow Jose Jacob to believe that his son has died. And while that's going on, Joseph is sold into slavery, he gets there, and can you imagine how terrifying he has left his family? I mean, as far as he knows, he's never gonna see them again. He doesn't know anything about Egypt, most likely. He's probably never been there, so he doesn't know the language, he knows nothing. He he is he is completely, utterly alone. And that's where we leave Joseph. Because tomorrow we're gonna take a break and go somewhere else in chapter 38. But we leave this family in a disaster. The brothers have to now live with the issue that and you we'll find out later, spoiler alert, that they have to live with the issue that they have now destroyed their father. They have absolutely destroyed him. Jacob thinks his son has died. Now, whether or not he should have had a favorite, he did. And he thinks his favorite son has died. But then you have Joseph, who has lost everything. We're leaving this family in tragedy, in chaos. But here's the great thing that's not where the story ends. And that's my encouragement for you today. Maybe you're in a season right now of just chaos. You've your kids are going crazy, if you're married, your spouse has gone crazy, you feel like you've gone a little bit crazy, your boss has gone crazy, the government's gone crazy, the economy's gone crazy. It is chaos. Can I tell you? This story does not end in chaos. Many times, things look like chaos because it's not over. It's just the turning of a page. I love a phrase I heard one time that said, If God, if if it is not good, God is not done. And that's because God's Word says He works all things to good. Not always what we want, not always how we want it. Spoiler alert, God does an amazing work in Joseph's life. I guarantee you, he would have rather not had to go to Egypt to find it to find out what that plan was, right? God doesn't always do what we want, but he always does something amazing. Don't give up. Chaos is in chapter 37, but chapter 50 is coming. It just may take a while, but it's gonna happen for you too. Don't give up. Just turn the page. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you're with us and you're for us. God, I don't know, but I think that it's entirely possible that there's people that are listening or watching this podcast right now, and their life is in a challenging season. Holy Spirit, I pray you will open their eyes to see the little moments where you are moving. You'll give them the grace to not give up and be with them in all things today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's Word says in Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If that verse is possible, then anything is possible. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter 38.