“Genesis 37:29-36”

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

“Now Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments. 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 examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.' Then he examined 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.”

---End of Scripture verses---

“Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments.” (verse 29) The text does not reveal where Reuben had departed to, but when he returned to the scene of the crime to secret his little brother away to safety, behold the lad was gone. When he saw that “Joseph was not in the pit,” his plan to deliver him safely to his father had been suddenly and shockingly upended, so he “tore his garments.” This was an expression of anguish and grief, but it is hard to say if he grieved more for the brother he likely presumed to be dead, or the prospects of having to answer to his father for the whereabouts his favorite son.

“The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?' (verse 30) Reuben was in a state of sheer panic and at a total loss, not knowing what to do or where to go—“To find the child or flee from his father's face, which he could not think of seeing any more; whom he had highly offended already in the case of Bilhah, and now he would be yet more incensed against him for his neglect of Joseph, who, he might have expected, would have taken particular care of him, being the eldest son: he speaks like one in the utmost perplexity, not knowing what to do, what course to steer, being almost distracted and at his wits' end.” (Gill''s Exposition of the Entire Bible)

“So they took Joseph’s tunic, and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood.” (verse 31) The brothers had stripped Joseph of his special coat before throwing him into the pit, either out of sheer spite or to keep as some sort of perverse trophy. Now, the prized tunic would be used as a piece of false forensic evidence suggesting a wild beast had destroyed and devoured him. This was their plan from the start when their scheme was to kill him with their own hands (verse 20). “The commission of one sin necessarily leads to another to conceal it; and the scheme of deception which the sons of Jacob planned and practised on their aged father was a necessary consequence of the atrocious crime they had perpetrated.” (Jamieson- Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

“We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” (verse 32) The spite-filled wannabe murders, recently turned human traffickers, couldn't even refer to Joseph as their brother, but as “your son” when they feigned concern to their father. “What a wonder that their cruel sneer, 'thy son's coat,' and their forced efforts to comfort him, did not awaken suspicion! But extreme grief, like every other passion, is blind, and Jacob, great as his affliction was, did allow himself to indulge his sorrow more than became one who believed in the government of a supreme and all-wise Disposer.” (Jamieson- Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

“It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” (verse 33) Their sinister strategy worked to absolute perfection. “The full horror of the situation penetrates Jacob's consciousness only in stages. First he recognizes the tunic; then its bloody and tattered state leads to the inference that a wild beast had devoured his son; then he has a vivid mental image of his beloved Joseph actually being torn to pieces. Jacob has been trapped into uttering the very words the brothers had originally planned to say (v. 20).” (Nahum Sarna)

“So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.” (verse 34) This is the first instance recorded in the Bible of this ritualized expression of mourning and the deep grief of loss, but for Jacob, this was no mere ritual. The coarse, grating sackcloth symbolized the agony of his tormented soul, and the torn garments reflected the forlorn condition of his lacerated heart. “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.” (verse 35) The pain the poor patriarch felt amounted to inconsolable grief. His sons and their wives endeavored to “comfort” him, but it was no use. Some pain exists that even a hundred years and a million hugs cannot alleviate, and I know that some of you know that feeling all too well. Only the comfort that the Lord provides can carry you through that long, dark valley of shadows.

“Meanwhile, the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard.” (verse 36) But that is a story for another today and a different chapter. After an interlude in chapter 38 we will pick up on Joseph in the land of Egypt in chapter 39.

Please read Genesis 38:1-5 for tomorrow.

Have a great day!

-Louie Taylor

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