John 5:39 - “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me…”

Genesis 37:3 - “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.”

The Scriptures teach us that Jesus is “the Word.”  He is the Word of God; the entire Bible points us to Jesus, even the Old Testament.  Jesus challenged the religious leaders of his day for their mistaken emphasis on the letter of the Scripture, from which they would try to extract principles and precepts for life. 

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Genesis 37:3 - “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons” 

Joseph was the favorite son of his father; Jesus received repeated affirmations from His Heavenly Father, in a voice from above saying, “This is my Son whom I love; listen to him.”  In the stories about Joseph, we see three reasons that Jacob, his father, loved him more than his brothers.  The first was that Joseph was “Born to him in his old age.”  Applied to Jesus, the term “old age” or “many years” speaks of Eternity.  The Father is older than time – He is eternal, and Jesus is also eternal.  The Father’s love for Jesus starts with the fact that Jesus and the Father are one – from Eternity past. 

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Genesis 37:5-9 - Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.  He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”  His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. 

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“As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”  - Genesis 37:13

Jacob sent all of Joseph’s brothers to Shechem to pasture his flock.  Shechem was a city in the hill country of Ephraim where Jacob’s sheep would be well-nourished and cared-for.  This is the place where Jacob wanted them.

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Genesis 37:31-35 – Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.  They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”  He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”  Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him. 

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Genesis 37:28 - ”So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.”

Thirty silver pieces was the price for which Judas betrayed Jesus; it was the official redemption price of a slave in Israel (Exodus 21:32), and was the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy (Zechariah 11:12-13) – that God’s people would value him the same as a slave, for thirty pieces of silver.  From then on, the pieces of silver became a symbol for us of the blood of Jesus that redeems the Faithful Church (see also Psalm 68:13). 

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Genesis 39:5-6 - From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

We see here two important lessons about the Lord Jesus.  First, the Heavenly Father has put all things under his control and authority, entrusting to the Son the complete project of salvation.  Jesus is not just someone to worship or believe; we must understand that the many tasks of Father’s great plan have been put in his care, and Jesus is carrying out that work with diligence.  This is the Work in which we want to be included.

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Genesis 40:8 - “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.”   Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

When Joseph was in prison in Egypt, two men were under his care (probably along with others): the king’s cupbearer and the king’s chief baker.  Both of them had somehow offended the king (Pharaoh, King of Egypt) and found themselves in prison as a result.  One night they each had vivid dreams they could not understand, and they told them to Joseph.  Their dreams were symbolic, and they had a double meaning or double fulfillment.  First, each dream had an immediate fulfillment in the life of the man involved.  Second, each dream had a prophetic aspect that points to the Lord Jesus and his work of salvation.

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There are three sets of dreams in the Joseph stories from Genesis 37-42.  Each set has two dreams that have related meanings. 

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Genesis 41:15-24  -  Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”   

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