Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #9 in Genesis 37, and we will read Genesis 37:5-8:

And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

We had begun to discuss Joseph’s dream, and in our last study we saw in Deuteronomy 13 that God drew an equivalency between a “prophet” and a “dreamer of dreams.”  For example, it said in Deuteronomy 13:1:

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder…

And it said in Deuteronomy 13:3:

Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for JEHOVAH your God proveth you, to know whether ye love JEHOVAH your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And then it said in Deuteronomy 13:5:

And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from JEHOVAH your God…

So three times the Lord relates the idea of the words of a prophet or a dreamer of dreams.  We were discussing how God came to prophets in olden days, which was often through a dream.  That is, for a true prophet God could bring divine revelation to him through a dream, or through a vision, and He could also personally speak to him, as He did with Moses.

But this was a legitimate way that God brought divine revelation.  He impressed it upon a man by giving him a dream.  There is the example of Jacob in Genesis 28:12:

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Then it says in Genesis 28:16:

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely JEHOVAH is in this place; and I knew it not.

God gave him a dream, and we know God gave him the dream because it is recorded in the Bible.  It was divine revelation in the form of a dream, and Jacob was made aware of it.  Even though the dream was given to Jacob, the Lord moved Moses to write it down, and that revelation was given in a different way, but this dream given to Jacob would have been passed down verbally through the generations until the time of Moses.  Then Moses received it directly from God, and he recorded it.

But the idea is that God would speak to a man (a true man in whom was no guile), and that man would share the dream with others, and in sharing that dream, he was prophesying.  The Lord tells us something in the book of Joel that is also recorded in the book of Acts regarding  the time the Holy Spirit was being poured out at Pentecost.  It says in Joel 2:28:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

Each of these references to prophesying, dreams, and visions has to do with God’ s divine revelation.  They are all synonymous, indicating that in the New Testament era the sons and daughters of God would prophesy.  It also said the “old men shall dream dreams,” or prophesy, and the “young men shall see visions,” or prophesy, because “to prophesy” means to declare the Word of God.  The old men dreaming dreams, and the young men seeing visions all has to do with the Bible.  For example, there was the vision of Isaiah the prophet, and some of the prophets of old were given dreams, and they were recorded in the Bible. 

Once the Bible was completed, the people of God refer to these things recorded in the Bible, including dreams, visions, and all manner of divine revelation from God, and we proclaim these things.  In so doing, we are prophesying.  We are speaking forth the Word of God, “dreaming dreams,” and “seeing visions,” as it were.

In Jeremiah 23, we find similar language to what we found in Deuteronomy 13.  It says in Jeremiah 23:25:

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

Here, it is basically revealing how they would prophesy falsely.  A false prophet would tell others of his dream.  Did the man have a dream?  Maybe, but let us give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he did have a dream.  That dream may have been very striking and memorable, and, perhaps, he even fooled himself (as mankind has a tendency to do) by thinking, “This was from God.”  But it was not from God.  It could even have been from Satan, if you remember what the Lord said in 2Chronicles 18 regarding the account when Jehoshaphat and Ahab had joined together, and the prophets of Baal prophesied falsely to them.  But Micaiah was the only true prophet, and in the context of Micaiah’s prophecy, we read in 2Chronicles 18:12:

And the messenger that went to call Micaiah spake to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one assent; let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good.

Can you imagine the audacity of trying to apply “peer pressure” to a prophet that he might conform?  Then it says in 2Chronicles 18:13-22:

And Micaiah said, As JEHOVAH liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak. And when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And he said, Go ye up, and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your hand. And the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of JEHOVAH? Then he said, I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and JEHOVAH said, These have no master; let them return therefore every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good unto me, but evil? Again he said, Therefore hear the word of JEHOVAH; I saw JEHOVAH sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And JEHOVAH said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner. And JEHOVAH said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner. Then there came out a spirit, and stood before JEHOVAH, and said, I will entice him. And JEHOVAH said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And JEHOVAH said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so. Now therefore, behold, JEHOVAH hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and JEHOVAH hath spoken evil against thee.

How did the Lord put a lying spirit in the mouths of all those prophets?  It is very possibly that He simply allowed Satan to come in some way to these false prophets, as Satan is a spirit being.  And they believed it.  They were totally deceived, but the information they received would not have harmonized with the rest of Scripture, but they did not have ears to perceive, or to understand that, so they were encouraged by their prophets. 

It may seem a beautiful thing to have prophets of Baal prophesying good concerning you because they were prophesying their dreams, or their visions, and now they are declaring, “This is what I received from God.  Go up to Ramothgilead, and prosper,”  but the one prophet of the Lord, Micaiah, said otherwise.

You know, nothing has changed all through the history of the world.  The false prophets are many, and the true prophets of God are few.  And by “true prophets,” I mean the true people of God that declare the Word of God.  They are always few.  But most people take comfort and encouragement from their great numbers of (false) prophets, and they get security from the great number of prophets that prophesy falsely: “Look at all the churches who teach what we teach!  There are hundreds of millions who believe in a free will gospel.  And there are 500 million that believe in the charismatic movement, and they think that speaking in tongues is from God and is a sign of the Spirit.  So who agrees with you few heretics that dare to say the church age is over, and that we have driven you out?  We are done with you!  We do not listen to you.  You proclaimed a false date of May 21, 2011.  You are false prophets!”  They point their fingers at the children of God.   They say we are false prophets, but everything they teach and uphold doctrinally is false, for the most part, and their very existence as a church is all false, and yet they are positive they have the truth of God, and it is a lie, while those that uphold the truths of God are said to be false prophets.  Then they exalt and hold up their lies as the truth. 

And we know that “good is evil,” and “evil is good” for those unregenerate people of the world, and masses of unregenerate souls entered into the churches and congregations, but that does not transform a soul.  It does not make a soul born-again; they kept the darkness.  They kept the same spiritual condition, and when one is dead in the soul, one is dead to the truth, and that is what the Lord Jesus said in John 8.  It is a fascinating verse that really says a lot about why about two billion people (in the so-called Christian churches) can be deceived.  The Lord is speaking in John 8:43-44:

Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil…

He was not talking to the nations of the world, in this case.  He was speaking to the Jews, the children of Israel (Joseph’s brethren).  He was speaking also to the merely professed Christians that would populate the churches and congregations of the world.   Again, He said in John 8:43:

Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

They did not understand His Word, and what is His Word?  It is the Bible.  And it was because they could not hear His Word.  “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”   The only way to get “ears” to hear is to become saved.  The Bible also says, “For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  God had not blessed them with ears to hear.  Therefore they remained in their sins, and in their sins they will remain, whether that man is an atheist, a Muslim, or a professed Christian.  Then Christ said in John 8:44-45:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

Instead of belief, what was the response to the truth that Christ spoke?  It was hatred.  They hated Him for His Word.  Why did the Pharisees and scribes and chief priests and the leaders of Israel want to put Him to death?  It was because of His words. 

They despised Him for His words, and that is the spiritual picture the Lord is painting for us in Genesis 37.  Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look at the word “hated,” and how the Bible uses this word.  And in our passage, it was the brethren that hated Joseph, and we know that Joseph was a great type of Christ.  Also, Jesus tells us in the Bible that if they hated Him (and they did) for the truth of His Word, then they will hate His people as well.  That is very troubling to hear, and it can be disturbing to hear as we come to realize it, but it is also needful.  It is a very necessary thing for us to understand as we live and work in this world, and as we try to get along in the world while we continue to sojourn here.  We need to know why we are not being “embraced” like we were before the Word entered into our lives.  Again, it can be very disturbing and troubling to us as the world cuts us off and isolates us, in a sense.  Of course the child of God always has God, but we still wonder, “Why are my family members, my friends, or my neighbors treating me this way?”  The Bible gets into that issue, and we will have an answer we need to hear.