He was, after all, the spoiled one. Special coat, always being singled out by their father–who does he think he is! That was the rumbling of the hearts of Joseph’s brothers. He had a way of getting under their skin that caused the to not only hate him, but to hate Israel as well. So, on that fateful day, as he approached–getting rid of him seemed like a great idea. The issue was how. To kill him or to sell him…fortunately, the brothers’ greed was even more powerful than their hatred. So without even a thought, they sold their little brother, “the Dreamer” to the Mideanites and faked his death to answer questions from their father.
The punishment they will have exacted upon their father would be unbearable. the journey Joseph was embarking upon, unbelievable–but, the brothers would find that this choice would shape their lives and the lives of the rest of the world. They had not seen the power of God as he uses it to shape men’s lives.
We need to be watchful and prayerful as we also seek to make choices in our lives. We should be like Joseph–who sought God and followed him despite the circumstance. The alternative is to be like the brothers that act and react to circumstance never giving a thought to how their reactions could affect the lives they touch and their own lives, as well. We are God’s chosen–we can take hope from that. That hope will transform us into the people we were called and have been created to be.
God Bless You
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.
19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. 22 “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.
23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.
28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels[b] of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
Walking With God 