Below are notes to a sermon preached Sunday morning, October 26, 2003, at Gospel Light Baptist Church, Albany, Georgia.
JESUS AND JOSEPH SEEKING THE BRETHREN
Michael D. O’Neal Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church Albany, Georgia
Scripture Reading: Genesis 37:1-17
Text: Genesis 37:16
Genesis 37:16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
Introduction: The Bible is full of types, pictures, and prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ. Probably the individual whose life pointed to the coming Lord more than any other was the man called Joseph. Last Sunday I showed you how that Joseph was a SPECIAL son of his father, even as the Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. I want to show you another striking comparison in the same passage:
The father sent the son to seek his brethren.
He was sent, and he was to return:
Genesis 37:14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
Likewise, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent on a mission, and He was to return to the Father.
Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
I believe that if you read the last 14 chapters of the book of Genesis, you can’t HELP but find Jesus in the life of Joseph, even as Jesus said of this book:
John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
and again in that chapter:
John 5:46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
The Lord taught from Genesis when He met with two of His disciples after the resurrection,
Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
This morning I want us to see how that Joseph’s mission to seek out his brethren points to the Lord Jesus Christ’s mission to come into this world and save the Jews — as well as us Gentiles, but especially the Jews — from their sins.
First notice,
I. HIS BRETHREN WERE BAD
Genesis 37:2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
Romans 3:9-10 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
A. Their attitude was bad – envious
B. Their affections were bad – unnatural
1. Not natural to not love your own brother
2. Abortion, sodomy today
C. Their actions were bad
1. They planned a murder
2. They changed their minds for profit
3. They lied to their father
II. HIS BRETHREN WERE BLINDED
Genesis 37:6-8 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: 7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. 8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2 Corinthians 3:13-14 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
They were blinded
A. To their faults
B. To their foolishness
C. To their future – they were their own worst enemy
III. HIS BRETHREN WERE BITTER
Genesis 37:4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Genesis 37:11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
Matthew 27:18 For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.
Luke 19:14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
They were bitter:
A. About Joseph’s privilege – the favored son
B. About Joseph’s power – ability to dream the future and interpret dreams
C. About Joseph’s purity
IV. HIS BRETHREN WERE BELOVED
Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.
Romans 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
Likewise, the Jews are beloved by God, as evidenced by
A. The starting of the nation
B. The sending of the Son of God
C. The scriptures
D. The safety and preservation of the nation
E. The scourging and supremacy of the nature in the future