Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #2 in Genesis 37, and we will read Genesis 37:1-4:

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. 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. 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.

I will stop reading there.  Our verse starts out by saying, “These are the generations of Jacob,” and then we immediately read of Joseph and his brothers, and a historical narrative begins, and it really goes right to the end of the book of Genesis. 

You know, we have been reading Genesis and the history of the world from the days of Adam, and then we had the genealogies that brought us to Noah.  Then after Noah, we read of additional descendants and genealogies that led us to Abram, and then we followed the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and now Joseph.  From Genesis 37 through Genesis 50, it will deal with the lives of Jacob and his sons.  This is how God will finish the book of Genesis.

Given that this is a historical narrative that flows through many chapters, we wonder why verse 2 says, “These are the generations of Jacob.”  What I mean is that in other places where God speaks of generations, what often follows are genealogical records.  For example, let us go back to Genesis 5:1:

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

Then what follows in Genesis 5:3-6:

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:

And the genealogy continues.  One man begats a son, and that son begats another son, and in this case God gives us the number of years they lived, the ages at which they died, and so forth.

We read in Genesis 10:1-3:

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood. The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.

And it continues with the genealogy. 

Then it says in Genesis 11:10-11:

These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.

And the genealogy continues.  This is very typical in the Bible when we read a statement like, “These are the generations of…”  We just went through Genesis 36, and that chapter started by saying, “Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.”   Then God gave us a genealogy, as He told us of the wives of Esau, and of the sons of those wives, as well as later descendants that would become dukes and kings.  It was a fairly typical genealogy, although there were some oddities.  Of course Esau was not of the line of the people of God, so God did not give us precise date details like He gives in other genealogies.

Again, we wonder why Genesis 37 starts with, “These are the generations of Jacob,” but no genealogy follows.  Now there is a genealogy, but it comes much later in Genesis 46 when they were about to enter into Egypt, and we read in Genesis 46:8-9:

And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn. And the sons of Reuben…

And the list continues.  So there will finally be a genealogy, but not for a long while, so we wonder if we should look at this another way.  And the answer is that God is looking at Jacob as a type and figure of the elect.  This would apply to Christ in the first instance, and Jesus is called “elect” in the Bible.  So He is in view, but so is the body of Christ, and we are also typified as Jacob.  We know that from Romans 9:11:

(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Notice that it says that it is the purpose of God according to election, and that is the point God is going to make as it goes on to say in Romans 9:12-13:

It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Before they were born, and before they had done good or evil, God loved Jacob, and He hated Esau.  This was according to His election.  God made choice.  That is predestination, or predetermination, and it was done before man was created, and before time unfolded, and before anything happened in this world.  God made the decision.  As Jesus said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you…”  God elected certain ones to obtain salvation.  That is the election program of God, and Jacob is, as it were, a figurehead for that election program.  We read in Isaiah 44:1-2:

Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus saith JEHOVAH that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.

The word “elect” is also translated as “chosen” in the Old Testament and New Testament, so that is what is in view concerning the statement, “These are the generations of Jacob.”  It means that these are the generations of the elect.  That is the spiritual truth and understanding we can gather from this declaration, and God is going to tell us things concerning the generations of the elect. 

And what would the generations of the elect have to do with?  It would point to His overall salvation program, and we would expect to find information having to do with the firstfruits saved during the church age, and the great multitude saved during the Great Tribulation after the end of the church age.  And that is what we will find as we continue on in our study.  God is especially going to highlight the salvation of the great multitude at the time of the Great Tribulation.  He will go into that in a lot of detail in several chapters that remain in Genesis.

So let us go back and read Genesis 37:2:

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren…

Joseph was 17 at this time.  I do not want to go into all the background information, but we know (and it can be proven from the Bible) that Joseph has born when Jacob was 91 because we know that when Jacob appeared before Pharaoh, and Pharoah asked him old he was, Jacob said he was 130.  We also know that this was after two years of the famine had passed, and there would be five years remaining.  Given that Joseph was age 30 when he came out of prison, and there immediately followed seven years of plenty, plus two years of famine, that would make Joseph 39 at the time when Jacob was standing before Pharaoh at the age of 130.  So all we have to do is subtract 39 from 130, and we get Jacob’s age at 91 when Joseph was 17.  And that can be confirmed when we work out the whole history of Jacob’s time in Haran where he stayed for 40 years, and Joseph was born very near the very end of that time, and it was after he was weaned that Jacob worked the final deal with Laban for six more years.  So it all fits that Jacob was 91 when Joseph was born, which means that we can date what is happening here in Genesis 37 as 1899 B. C.  That is when Joseph was 17.  Joseph was born in 1916 B. C., and 17 years later would be 1899 B. C.   And at this time, Jacob was 108 (91 + 17 = 108).  Curiously, 22 actual years from this point would be when he entered into Egypt, or we could say 23 inclusive years.  I am not sure if that is significant, or not. 

You see, there is a much different understanding than in the previous chapter (about Esau’s lineage).  We were not given enough information.  But right from the start of Genesis 37, we are given ages, and we are given much more time information of the people in view, like Joseph and Jacob, and that provides us the year, which we know is 1899 B. C.

And that was the time when Joseph was feeding the flock with his brethren.  And the word “feeding” does identify with being a shepherd, and it is actually translated as “shepherd” twice in Isaiah 40:11:

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd…

Who will feed his flock like a shepherd?  The previous verse tells us.  It says in Isaiah 40:10:

Behold, the Lord JEHOVAH will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

Again, it says in Isaiah 40:11:

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

These verses are amazing because they are speaking of Christ coming in judgment.  The statement, “the Lord JEHOVAH will come,” is similar to Zechariah 14:5:

…and JEHOVAH my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

But in Isaiah 40, it says that the Lord JEHOVAH will come, and He will feed His flock like a shepherd.  I cannot just read that and not comment, given our present time period and the things we have learned from the Bible.  This Scripture has been fulfilled, as Christ did come on May 21, 2011.  And what command very quickly was opened up to the understanding of the people of God?  It is Judgment Day, and the people of God are to feed His sheep, according to John 21.  Three times Christ said this, indicating the purpose of God.  “Feed my sheep.”  So Christ has come to judge, and He is simultaneously feeding His sheep, His people.

Again, this word “feed,” as well as the word “shepherd” is the word translated as “feeding” in our verse in Genesis 37:2.  It is also the word used several times in Ezekiel 34, where it is again pointing to JEHOVAH God.  It says in Ezekiel 34:15-16:

I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord JEHOVAH. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

Then it says in Ezekiel 34:30-31:

Thus shall they know that I JEHOVAH their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord JEHOVAH. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

So these are two passages (and we could turn to other passages) where the one doing the feeding is eternal God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Of course we are not surprised by that because we know he is the Good Shepherd, and He speaks of His sheep in John 10.

So in our verse in Genesis 37, we see Joseph, a great type of Christ, and he was feeding his flock with his brethren.  And that is what we would expect the Lord Jesus to be doing, and we also have to keep in mind that Christ is able to feed the flock without personally doing it.  That is, He does not have to be physically present.  He moves in His people to will and to do of His good pleasure, and we carry out His command.  And as we feed the sheep, He is feeding the sheep.  Again, we can see that worked out in the life of Joseph, who is a type of Christ, but in a secondary way he is a picture of the people of God who form the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we read in Genesis 37:2:

…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…

Just to remind you, the sons of Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali, and the sons of Zilpah were Gad and Asher.  So he was with four of these other sons.  Then it says in Genesis 37:2:

… and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

We will get into this more in our next study, but it is understandable that these particular sons might have had trouble with Joseph.  It is not surprising because God has laid out in His Word that there is to be “one man with one woman” in the marriage.  But in Jacob’s case, he had two main wives, and two concubines (handmaids) that were also his wives, Bilhah and Zilpah.  So it would almost naturally come about that these children of the concubines would feel a “little less” important than the sons of Leah, and especially they might feel a little less loved and inferior to the sons of Rachel.  Also, it says that Jacob loved Joseph and favored him above all his sons.  That is speculation, but it certainly could have contributed, and I would say it was very likely why resentment began to build among the other sons of Jacob.