Genesis 37:23 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the carrying out of their plan against Joseph. They stripped him, each one trying to seize the coat of many colors, the sign of his father’s special favor (Genesis 37:23). In their minds, they were taking away his honor and lowering him from the place they thought he claimed. They mocked him, shamed their father, and amused themselves by insulting him. In the same way, our Lord Jesus was stripped of his seamless robe, and his suffering people have often first been robbed of their rights and honors, then treated as worthless.

Next, they tried to starve him by throwing him into a dry pit, where he would die from hunger and cold, and this was the height of their cruel mercy (Genesis 37:24). Where envy rules, pity disappears, and simple human kindness is forgotten (Proverbs 27:4). Malice is so full of deadly poison that the more brutal the act, the more pleasing it seems to the evil heart. Joseph begged for his life in deep distress (Genesis 42:21). He pleaded with every appeal he could make, asking them to be satisfied with the coat and spare his life. He argued innocence, brotherhood, affection, and obedience. He cried and begged, but it did no good. Only Reuben, one of Joseph’s older brothers, felt some pity and spoke up for him (Genesis 42:22). Even so, he could not keep Joseph from the terrible pit, where they meant for him to die slowly and be buried alive. Was this the brother before whom they were all to bow? God’s plans often seem to clash with his providences, even when those providences are helping his plans and moving them forward from a distance.

They also hardened their hearts when Joseph was in trouble, and they were not moved by his suffering. While he was wasting away in the pit, crying out to them for mercy, they sat down to eat bread (Genesis 37:25). They felt no guilt for what they had done, and if they had, it would have spoiled their meal. When conscience is pressed hard by sin, it often becomes numb for a time and seems to lose both feeling and voice. Bold sinners are usually secure sinners. Yet Joseph’s brothers would wake up to their guilt much later (Genesis 42:21). They were also pleased to think they had escaped the fear of Joseph ruling over them. Instead, they imagined they had turned the tables on him. They made themselves merry over him, like the persecutors of the two witnesses who rejoiced at their trouble (Revelation 11:10). Those who resist God’s purposes may get far enough to think they have won, while still being badly mistaken.

Then they sold him. Just then a caravan of merchants passed by, and God’s providence arranged it that way. Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, suggested that they sell Joseph to them and send him far away to Egypt, where he would likely vanish and never be heard from again. Judah spoke as if this were more merciful than killing him. He said, in effect, that it would be less guilt and more profit to sell him (Genesis 37:26). When we are tempted to sin, we should remember how empty and unprofitable sin is. There is nothing truly gained by it.

The brothers agreed because they thought that if Joseph were sold as a slave, he could never become their lord. If he were sent to Egypt, they thought, he would never rule over them. Yet all of this was still moving toward that very end. The wrath of man will praise God, and what remains of that wrath he will restrain (Psalm 76:10). Joseph’s brothers were wonderfully kept back from killing him, and even their selling him became a way to honor God. Just as Joseph was sold through Judah’s scheme for twenty pieces of silver, so our Lord Jesus was sold for thirty pieces, and by a man with the same name, Judas.

Reuben, Joseph’s oldest brother, had apparently gone away when the sale happened. He seems to have meant to return by another way, rescue Joseph from the pit, and take him safely back to his father. This was a kind plan, but if it had succeeded, what would have become of God’s purpose to raise Joseph up in Egypt? There are many plans in a person’s heart, and many plans among the enemies of God’s people to destroy them, and among their friends to help them. Yet both kinds of plans can be brought to nothing, as these were. The counsel of the Lord will stand.

Reuben thought he was ruined because the child was gone. He said, “Where can I go?” (Genesis 37:30). As the oldest son, his father would expect an account of Joseph from him. But in the end, if Joseph had not been sold, they would all have been ruined.