Good evening, everyone, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #20 of Genesis 37, and we will read Genesis 37:13-14:

And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

In our last study, we were discussing Shechem.  We saw that it means “shoulder,” and it ties in with the Lord Jesus Christ and the authority and power of the Gospel which is upon His “shoulder.”  The key of David is upon His shoulder, and the government is upon His shoulder.

So we are not surprised when we saw in Genesis 24 that when Rebekah was fetching water at the well, she carried a water pot upon her shoulder.  Abraham’s servant had come there to look for a wife for Isaac, Abraham’s son, and he had been praying in his heart that a damsel would come and offer him and his camels water.  Rebekah did so.  First she filled the water pitcher, and then she let it down from her shoulder to give him drink.  And that makes perfect sense with the way God uses the word “shoulder” to identify with Christ and the Gospel. 

So Shechem was a place where you would bring your flock to be watered.  They could drink.  Spiritually, you would want the flock (people) to come to the Gospel, as Shechem would identify with giving spiritual drink to those who are thirsting after righteousness.

So it says in Genesis 37:13:

And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.

When we are looking for a spiritual meaning, we already understand that Jacob is a great type of Christ, so we immediately think, “Joseph is a type of Christ, and he is being sent to Shechem, the place of the authority and power of the Gospel.”  But the one sending him is Jacob, the father of Joseph, which means that Israel (Jacob) is a type and figure of God the Father because it was God the Father who sent Jesus into the world.  That is stated more than a few times.  We can see it in John 17:18:

 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Or, we read in John 6:40:

And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Then it say sin John 6:44:

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Israel (Jacob) sent his son Joseph, his most beloved son.  Again, he said, “Come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.”  It reminds us of a couple of other places in the Bible.  When the Word of God comes to the people of God, this is the response, especially when the one in view is a type and figure of Christ.  For example, when Samuel was a very young boy ministering in the temple before Eli, we read in 1Samuel 3:3-13:

And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of JEHOVAH, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; That JEHOVAH called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. And JEHOVAH called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know JEHOVAH, neither was the word of JEHOVAH yet revealed unto him. And JEHOVAH called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that JEHOVAH had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, JEHOVAH; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And JEHOVAH came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. And JEHOVAH said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.

We see several times where God came to Samuel and spoke to him, and Samuel would go to Eli because he thought Eli was calling him, and he would say, “Here am I.”  But it was actually the Word of God that was coming to Samuel, and Samuel’s response was “Here am I.” 

We also read of that kind of response in Isaiah 6:1:

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Then there appeared seraphims (God), and we read in Isaiah 6:5-8:

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, JEHOVAH of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

And that is exactly the spiritual application in Genesis 37 as Israel sends Joseph, and Joseph was a very faithful and obedient son because the Lord Jesus Christ is the faithful and obedient Son, even unto death, the death of the cross.  Again it says in Genesis 37:13:

… come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I.

 

It is the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Father that is being sent, and Christ performed the will of the Father.  Then it says in Genesis 37:14:

And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

So we see the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world by the Father, and He was to go to His brethren to see if it was well with them and well with the flocks, and to bring Him word again.  So Israel told Joseph, “Go find your brethren and assess their situation, and come back.”  It is just as the Father sent the Son: “Go into the world and carry out my will for 40 calendar years from 7 B. C. to 33 A. D.  You will demonstrate the atoning death at the foundation of the world by going to the cross.  You will resurrect and appear for 40 days, and then you will return to me and bring me word again.”  That is the wonderful spiritual picture God is painting here.

We also see something else with the use of the word “well” in Genesis 37:14:

… Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks…

The Hebrew word translated as “well” is the word “shaw-lome',” which means “peace.”  It is translated as “peace” many, many times.  As a matter of fact, if we go back again to Isaiah 9, we read in Isaiah 9:6-7:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of JEHOVAH of hosts will perform this.

This is our word “peace,” and it is also found in Leviticus 26 as Joseph, a type of Christ, is sent to his brethren, the children of Israel, just as the Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to the children of Israel.  Christ entered into the land of Israel.  We read in Leviticus 26:3-6:

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

Of course a little later in verse 14, God will give the contrary situation: “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments.”  Then there would be no peace, but all sorts of evil things would befall them. 

So Israel (Jacob) is sending Joseph, historically, to see how his brethren and flocks are doing.  Is there peace?  Keep in mind that the brethren were supposed to be in Shechem.  The last time they were in Shechem disaster happened because their sister Dinah had been taken into the tent of the prince of the land, and her brothers worked deceitfully (unbeknownst to Jacob), and they hatched a plan to have the men of Shechem killed.  They told them they could not give their sister Dinah unless they were circumcised, and the men of Shechem did so, and the third day when they were sorest, Simeon and Levi entered into the city with the sword, and they slew all the men of the city.  It frightened Jacob because he was then afraid of the surrounding people that would hear this. 

So that is another historical reason for Jacob to be concerned about what his sons were doing in Shechem.  Were they causing trouble?  Were they doing something they should not be doing?  So he wanted to see if there was “peace.”  Was it well with the brethren?  Was it well with the flocks?  So we can understand that, historically, but we also read in Ephesians 6 that it is the Father’s desire to send peace to the brethren.  We read in Ephesians 6:23:

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So in Genesis 37, here comes Joseph, a figure of Christ, and Christ is our peace.  He is the Prince of Peace, and He is going to see if there is peace.  What happened?  But the brethren He was sent to were not in peace with Him at all.  They were not in peace with God spiritually, but they were at enmity with God, and in warfare with God, and that is why they were plotting to kill the Lord Jesus Christ.  And that is exactly what the nation of Israel did when God the Father sent the Son to the land of Israel, as it says in that parable, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.”  They killed the Son.  They turned Him over to the Romans to be crucified, and when Pilot wanted to release Him, they would not allow it: “Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas.”

So we see all of this working out here, spiritually, in this historical parable that God has given us in Genesis 37.