Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #13 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 were looking at the word “sheaves” last time, and we saw that this word is found five times in the Old Testament.  It is Strong’s #485, and four out of the five times it is right here in verse 7.  The word “sheaf” and the word “sheaves” are each used twice here.  This word is found only one other place, and that is in Psalm 126:5-6:

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

Notice in verse 5 that is plural, referring to “they” that sow in tears reaping in joy.  Then in verse 6 it is singular: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”   So in verse 5 it is a reference to the elect of God that would bring the Gospel to the world, and in verse 6 it is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who would bring the Gospel to the world.  Of course this matches perfectly with a couple of wonderful verses that tell us of the beauty of those that bring the Gospel.  First, it says in Romans 10:15:

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

Here, it is plural, and that is because it is referring to the people of God.  But when we go back to the Old Testament, it says in Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

We have the same idea, but here in Isaiah 52 there is a singular reference, and there is a plural reference in Romans 10, and that is because the Lord moves in His people to accomplish His purposes, to will and to do of His good pleasure.  And He directs His people to go into the world, and He moves in their souls to carry it out, and it is a wonderful and beautiful thing.  But as we go forth, it is actually Christ who is going because the Spirit of Christ is within us, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is doing everything to make sure it happens, and He, of course, gets all the glory.

So we see that here in Psalm 126:5-6:

They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed…

I think we can understand that to be the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the sending forth of the Gospel in the New Testament era, including the Latter Rain period.  Again it says in Psalm 126:6:

 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

And this would be a reference to the second coming of Christ when Christ would come to gather together His elect from the four winds, and so forth.  So Jesus is the One who is the sower.  He is the One that goeth forth weeping.  We know that in the parable of the sower in Mark 4, Christ said in Mark 4:3-4:

Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Then we read of the various types of ground the seed fell upon, and then the explanation of the parable is given in Mark 4:14:

The sower soweth the word.

It is very clear that the seed that is sown identifies with the Word of God, and that is further clarified in Isaiah 55:10:

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

We see that the rain comes down from above (from heaven), and it waters the earth which causes it to bring forth and bud, and it produces seed that the Sower can then sow to bring forth His harvest.  And the Lord makes sure we understand that the rain identifies with His Word, as He goes on to say in Isaiah 55:11:

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

We can see that Psalm 126:5-6 that refers to the sower sowing in tears identifies with the day of salvation.  And then He comes again, bringing the sheaves, and the sheaves are those He has saved, the “fruit.”  So it is basically declaring that Christ will come with all He has saved, all the elect.  And that goes hand in hand with the idea of the Lord coming with His kingdom, and as King of His kingdom.  It fits with the verse we find in Jude 1:14:

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

That is, Christ is now the Reaper.  He was also the Sower.  But now He is coming with His saints.  So the language of “sheaves” that is being used heavily in Genesis 37 fully identifies with the fruit, or the crop, that comes in as a result of the rain: “For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose…”  I referred to this last time in Leviticus 23, regarding the fact that there is the initial “sheaf,” the wave offering, that is called the sheaf of the firstfruits, as it says in Leviticus 23:10-11:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before JEHOVAH, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

Then following that there would be the feast of weeks, leading up to the Day of Pentecost.   So there was the “early righteous rain,” and we will not turn there, but you can go to Joel 2:20-23, and it mentions three rains: the early righteous rain; the early rain, and the latter rain.  Each of these rains produced fruit.  The early righteous rain produced the wave offering, who is Christ Himself.

So Jacob, a great type of Christ, said in Genesis 37:7:

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.

They were bowing down to him.  They were in submission to Joseph’s sheaf, and that is why they responded to him in Genesis 37:8:

And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?

They got the idea.  If Joseph’s sheaf arises, and they make obeisance to that sheaf, then that was a definite sign of submission, of being humbled and brought low before him, and that is how one would approach a king who as reign over you.  That was greatly offensive to them, and verse 8 closes by saying, “…And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.”

Not only was he favored more than they, but now he was indicating that he would be their ruler.  He would be, as it were, their king.  These were his older brothers, and if we just look at it in a family kind of way, an older brother would not like it at all if a younger brother began to usurp his authority as an older brother.

So, yes, this is definitely pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ who would arise over His brethren.  This word that is translated as “arose,” in verse 7 is used over 600 times in the Old Testament.  It can be translated as “established,” or “raise up,” and other various ways.  But I just want to go to one place in the Old Testament because it is significant in that it also mentions “brethren.”  It says in Deuteronomy 18:15:

JEHOVAH thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

The Lord moved Moses to write this down, and Moses was a prophet that the Lord does relate to the Lord Jesus at times.  We read in Hebrews 3:1-6:

… consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

The Lord compares Moses and his faithfulness in all his house to Christ and His faithfulness over His spiritual house consisting of all those who become saved. 

The word “raise up” in Deuteronomy 18:15 is the same Hebrew word as “arose” in our verse in Genesis 37.  Again, it says in Deuteronomy 18:15, “JEHOVAH thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren...”  And this is referring to the Messiah, and that is why this word “Prophet” was capitalized by the King James translators as they recognized it was speaking of Christ.  God said He would raise up the Messiah, this Prophet, from the midst of Moses’ brethren, and Moses’ brethren were the children of Israel.  Back in Genesis 37, it was also the brethren, the children of Israel, whose sheaves made obeisance to Joseph’s sheaf which arose above them.  It goes on to say in Deuteronomy 18:18:

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

That is the Word that was hated or despised by Joseph’s brethren: “And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.”  The Lord Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary into a tribe of Israel, the tribe of Judah, and He walked among His brethren, and He spoke the words of God.  Christ, the very essence and embodiment of the Word, declared His Word to His brethren. 

Did they love Him for it?  After all, He was the Law of Moses in bodily form.  But they did not love Him for His Word.  They hated him for His dreams, and for His words.  And the dreams were equivalent to His prophesying, or the things He was declaring from God.  The Jews hated him so much that they sought to entrap and to kill Him.  They brought counsel against Him, and they turned Him over to Pilot for the very purpose of having Him crucified because they did not have that authority under Roman rule.  This is the spiritual fulfillment of Joseph’s dream of his sheaf arising. 

We could also go to John 2:19-21:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.

Also, it says in Acts 2:29-32:

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

He was raised up to sit upon the throne, the throne of David.  Again, Joseph said, “My sheaf arose,” and in the dream the sheaves of his brethren made obeisance to his sheaf.  The brethren said, “Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?”  And the answer is, “Yes.” 

Being raised up, Christ was declared to be King of Israel.  He entered into the world as King of Israel, or King of the Jews.  The wise men said, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”  Jesus was already called King of Jews because He had died at the foundation of the world, bearing the sins of His people.  And He rose up, or resurrected, at the foundation of the world, declared to be the Son of God.  And He was certainly worthy of the title “King of the Jews,” the King over spiritual Israel.  Pilot said to the people, “Shall I crucify your King?”  The Jews responded, “We have no King but Caesar.”  Christ also said, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight…”   He was King over spiritual Israel at that time.  But when He returned to Judge the World (during this present time), t He took Satan’s kingdom to Himself, and He is King over all the earth during this Judgment Day period.