Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #23 in Genesis 37, and we will read Genesis 37:16-18:

And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

We have been taking a careful look at the spiritual meaning of this passage, and we saw that the “certain man” that found Joseph wandering in the field is a type of God Himself.  And the man asked him in verse 15: “What seekest thou?”  Then in response, Joseph said in Genesis 37:16: “I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.”   The man told him that they had gone to Dothan.  We will look at Dothan because it is an interesting word.

Bur first, let us look at the question, “What seekest thou?”  Let us look at Luke 19:10:

 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

This would also fit in with Ezekiel 34 which is pertinent to our verse because there are shepherds of Israel that God tells us about early on this chapter, in Ezekiel 34:2-10:

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of JEHOVAH; As I live, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of JEHOVAH; Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

I wanted to read that passage because the historical setting in Genesis 37 is that the children of Israel had left the flock, and that is who the Lord is faulting in Ezekiel 34.  And Joseph’s brethren were all shepherds, were they not?  They were shepherding the flock, and his father Israel had sent Joseph to find out if there was peace with the brethren and peace with the flock.  So Joseph came to Shechem (which identifies with the true Gospel), but his brethren were not there.  And we will see that Dothan does not identify with the true Gospel, but it identifies very well with what it says in Ezekiel 34 of the shepherds that did not do their duty; they did not feed the flock, but they fed themselves of the flock.  They were negligent and unfaithful shepherds in every way, according to the Lord’s condemnation.

And Joseph is coming, and he is a type of Christ, the good and faithful shepherd.  He was coming to see if there was peace.  But what did these shepherds of Israel, the brethren of Joseph, do when they saw him approaching?  They conspired against him to slay him.  They were planning to kill him because they were not worthy to feed the flock.  It is pointing to those in Israel of old when Christ came into the world the first time, and the shepherds of Israel, the spiritual leaders, were the ones that conspired against Him, exactly what we read of Joseph’s own brothers.  They are painting a picture of what the chief priest, scribes, and Pharisees did to the Lord Jesus Christ.  They tried to trap Him in His Word so they could accuse him, and they could turn Him over to the Romans for some fault, which they were unable to find.  And they counseled together about how they might kill Him.  And this matches the historical parable here in Genesis 37.

I want to point out that in Ezekiel 34, it said in Ezekiel 34:9:

Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of JEHOVAH; Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

Then the Lord revealed His intention to feed the flock Himself.  It says in Ezekiel 34:16:

I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 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.

God will cause the shepherds of Israel to cease from feeding the flock, and He would take it over to make sure His sheep are fed.  That was the case when the Lord cursed the fig tree and brought judgment upon national Israel.  The veil of the temple was rent in twain.  No more would they be God’s representative on the earth.  No more would they have the responsibility to feed the flock.  They had proven themselves unworthy of that task, and God ended His relationship with them.  He took away that task, and no longer were the shepherds in national Israel to feed (provide the spiritual nourishment of the Word of God, the Bible) to God’s sheep, the elect of God.  God completely abandoned them in judgment, and He turned His attention to the New Testament churches and congregations, and then it was the task of the pastors and elders to take over that duty and feed the sheep over the course of the church age.  Then history repeated itself as the leaders in the churches and congregations followed in the steps of the leaders of Israel, and they did the very same thing as far as not teaching the truths of the Bible, which is how you spiritually feed the sheep.  They taught lies, and the lies destroyed the flock.  It did not provide nourishment.  They did not seek the lost sheep, and that is what the Gospel was designed to do.  That was Christ’s purpose in coming, as He said in Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

We read in Matthew 15 of the Lord Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Canaan.  She cried unto Him in Matthew 15:22-24:

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Christ was sent by the Father exclusively to find “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  That was His sole purpose.  But this woman was not an Israelite.  She was a woman of Canaan.  But she responded in Matthew 15:25-26:

Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.

That is, dogs were “unclean animals,” and the Gentiles were likened to “unclean animals.”  The Law that God gave concerning the eating of various animals had to do with the Gentiles.  We know that because of what happened with Peter when he was bidden to go to the house of Cornelius, a Roman.  Then it says in Matthew 15:27-28:

And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

The daughter would have been a Canaanite as well, so why did Jesus say He was not sent but unto “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Is that not saying that there was no salvation except for the Jews?”  Yes, that is exactly what it is saying, but after saying that, Jesus heals her daughter, and he said, “O woman, great is thy faith,” and that indicates that He had saved her, and her child was made whole.  Did God contradict His own Word that He was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel?  No, but it does mean that this woman was one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  She was one that Christ came to save, and the “house of Israel” is not speaking of the physical Jews exclusively, although there would be some Jews counted among the true “house of Israel.”  Both Jews and Gentiles make up the spiritual house of Israel, and that is why God says in Romans 2:28-29:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart…

That is, in being born again, we have our sins “cut off,” which is akin to being spiritually circumcised, and this woman had her sins “cut off.”  She was a spiritual Jew, and she was part of the promise to Abraham of a seed.  Christ is the “seed.”  And who is counted for the seed?  It says in Galatians 3:28-29:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

So Jesus did not contradict His Word.  He fulfilled His Word.  He had found a lost sheep of the house of Israel when He encountered this woman, and, perhaps, even her daughter.  (I do not know.)  But certainly this woman whose faith He commended was one of the elect, and that is what Christ came to do.  He was seeking His brethren, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, just as Joseph was seeking his brethren, as we saw in our passage in Genesis 37:16:

And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.

You see, this “certain man,” if you remember, represents the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God directs Christ, the Word, and directs the path of the Word.  His Spirit guides the Word of God to the brethren of Christ, the firstborn of many brethren, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  “Where are my brethren?  They are not where they should be?  Where are the flocks they should be looking after?  They are not where they should be.”  Then the man told him in Genesis 37:17:

And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.

Now we will discuss Dothan.  What is this place?  Actually, Dothan is only mentioned three times in the Old Testament.  It is a city of some kind, and two of the three times it is mentioned are right here in Genesis 37:17.  There is a third place in 2Kings 6, which we will probably look at in our next study. 

But the brethren had left Shechem and gone to Dothan.  Strong’s Concordance tells us that the word for “Dothan” is of “uncertain derivation.”  That is, Strong’s does not know where its root came from, although when we look into the concordance we see that “Dothan,” Strong’s #1886, has the identical consonants as the name “Dathan.”  Remember the account of those that rebelled against Moses?  Dathan and Abiram were brothers that rebelled against Moses.  The word “Dathan” is Strong’s #1885, and we read in Strong’s that this word is also of “uncertain derivation.”  The root of the word is not known, and if you do not know the root word, you cannot learn the meaning of the name or word. 

But as you look in the concordance…and I hope you are doing so.  I often give the Strong’s numbers, and I am not doing it just for the sake of doing it, but I hope you are checking out what is being taught by EBible Fellowship.  It is my duty to search the Scriptures and to make sure that what I am teaching is faithful, but it is the listener’s duty to check out what is being said to confirm that it is faithful.  That is how God has set things up.  We are to “try the Spirit,” and not just take it as Gospel truth immediately upon hearing it.

While you are checking out the words “Dothan” and “Dathan,” remember they have the same consonants, so for all intents and purposes, they are the same word.  And while checking that out, also check out the Strong’s #1881 and #1882 in the concordance.  These two words would be pronounced “dāṯ,” and then there is the “ān” with the vowel points to help us to pronounce the word “Dathan,” and likewise with “Dothan.”   One of these words is translated as “commandment,” “decree,” and “law,” and the other is translated as “decree,” or “law.”  So I think that Dothan identifies with this word that identifies with “commandment,” “decree,” and “law.”  Of course all of that would identify further with the Bible, the Word of God, or the Law of God, or the commandment of God. 

So the brethren were not in Shechem, but they had gone to Dothan.   And we know that they are wicked brethren at this point.  Maybe later God would save one or two of these other sons of Israel, and we do read some good things about them at times.  But in moving from Shechem, the place of the true Gospel, to Dothan, or to that which identifies with the Law, it would in turn point to going from the Gospel of grace to a gospel of works.