Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #32 in Genesis 37.   We will read Genesis 37:18-20:

And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

Last time we discussed the fact that mankind is afar off from God, so when Joseph, a type of Christ, was coming to His brethren, it spiritually points to the Lord Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary into the nation of Israel in 7 B. C.  And they saw Him “afar off” because that is where man stands in his sins, spiritually speaking.  He is far from God.

Then we discussed how they conspired against him to slay him.  Remember the Hebrew word translated as “conspired” is found four times, and it always carries the same idea.  It is translated “conspired” here.”  In the Psalms, it was translated as to deal “subtilly;” and in Malachi, it was the word “deceiver;” and in Numbers 25:18 it was the word “beguiled.”  So it has to do with deceitfulness and treachery, and that is exactly what Joseph’s own brothers were doing when they conspired against him to slay him.  They were plotting his murder.

We saw how this relates to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to follow up on this in a couple of other passages.  Let us turn to Mark 12:1-9:

And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.

This description of killing the son who was well-beloved of his father, being sent last, is a picture of God sending Christ.  The expectation was that they would reverence the Son, but instead, “they said among themselves,” which means they were plotting, and they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.”

And Joseph was the favoured son.  Now it is true that Joseph was not the heir at this time when he was seventeen.  Rueben was the firstborn son, and he therefore had the birthright as the firstborn, but Rueben would lose his birthright, and Joseph would obtain it.  The Bible speaks of the sons of Joseph – Ephraim and Manasseh – as receiving that birthright, but because those two tribes came of sons of Joseph, they really comprised the “tribe of Joseph.”  So it was Joseph who received the blessing.  But we will discuss that a little later because it will be important when we look at Reuben trying to deliver Joseph.  That is a bit of a mystery.  Why did all the other brothers want to kill him, but Reuben was trying his best to deliver Joseph?  They did not kill him, although Reuben did allow them to throw Joseph into a pit, but Reuben would come back later to get Joseph out of the pit, and when he returned, he was shocked to find that they had sold Joseph as a slave to the Midianite slave traders.

We can see that this vineyard is speaking of national Israel because it was Israel whose vineyard was given to other when God ended His relationship with Israel, and He started the relationship with the New Testament churches and congregations, and they became His outward representation on the earth.  The churches became the vineyard.

So these men in this parable are a picture of the nation of Israel plotting to kill Christ. 

I think we read this last time, but it says in Matthew 26:1-5:

And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,  And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.

Here, we see the leaders of Israel consulting and planning to take Him by “subtilty,” which means by deceit, or underhandedly. 

We also read in John 11:50 where this same man Caiaphas is speaking under inspiration, and it says in John 11:50-53:

Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.

They planned it out.  They discussed it.  They were going to kill Christ using the Roman authorities by putting pressure upon Pilot, the Roman governor, to crucify Him.  That was the plan.

Let us go back to Genesis 37, and we see that the brethren conspired together to kill Joseph, and how this fits perfectly with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Then it says in Genesis 37:19-20:

And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.

They were fully prepared and willing to lie and to deceive, and that is why the Lord used the word “conspired,” as they conspired against him to slay him.  They simply wanted Joseph dead, exactly like Israel wanted Christ dead, and they justified it by saying, “The Romans will come and take away our nation.”  But that did not justify it.  It was all wickedness on their part.  Of course they were acting according to “the determinate counsel  and foreknowledge of God,” but that did not justify their sin.  They were guilty of having Christ crucified.

Here, the “pit” is a picture of coming under the wrath of God.  It is a picture of “hell” or death.  This word “pit” is the same word we find in Psalm 88:3-4:

For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

Notice in verse 3 that it says, “My life draweth nigh unto the grave.”  Then we read that he is counted with them that down into the pit.  It goes on to say in Psalm 88:5-7:

Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

Here, we see the relationship between death, the grave, the pit, and the wrath of God.  It says, “thy wrath,” and it is God’s wrath that is said to “lieth hard upon me.”

And all that applies, spiritually, with Joseph who had come to his brethren like Christ had entered into the world, and Christ came under the wrath of God as He finally went to the cross to demonstrate His earlier work of atonement performed at the foundation of the world.  And in 33 A. D., He was hanging on the cross, and the wrath of God was upon Him.  He was truly in agony, as the Gospel of Luke declares: “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”  He was suffering the wrath of God.  That was no act.  That was genuine anguish upon being separated from the Father as the Father smote the Rock the “second time,” like Moses (the Law) smote the rock twice, and the water gushed out.  So it was the second time that God had smitten Jesus Christ.  The first time was at the foundation of the world, and that was the one time where there was payment for sin.  But in 33 A. D., He was smitten a second time, but it was a one-time demonstration.  So one time Christ paid for sin, and one time Christ lived out a tableau in demonstrating the fact that He had paid for sin, and the “pit” identifies with that.

Let us go to Proverbs 1:12:

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

Again, “grave” and “pit” are synonymous.

It says in Isaiah 38:18:

For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

Let us look at one more place in Ezekiel 26:20-21:

When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living; I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

It is death.  We see that it says, “be no more,” which is eternal death.  That is the fate of the ungodly sinners who go down into the pit.  They are under the wrath of God.

But historically, Joseph being thrown into the pit does deliver him from death because Reuben managed to convince his brethren not to kill him.  Let us read that in Genesis 37:20-22:

Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.

Here is the intercession of Reuben on behalf of Joseph.  Historically, we would have to say that it worked “in part.”  Of course the terrible thing was that before Reuben could deliver Joseph out of the pit, his brethren had sold him, so that was a catastrophe.  But from Reuben’s perspective, he wanted to deliver Joseph, and he did manage to deliver him from physical death even though Joseph was thrown into a pit.  He did not succeed in delivering Joseph to his father again: “Cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.”  It was his desire and plan to rescue Joseph, and to save his life and bring him to his father.

Now we have some hard questions to deal with in order to follow the spiritual understanding that is developing.  Reuben is one of the sons of Israel.  He is one of the children of Jacob.  And we know that it was the children of Israel that conspired to kill Christ when He entered into the world, and they succeeded.  They used Pilot and the Romans to carry out the death penalty to finally kill Christ.  So how does Reuben fit in spiritually?  Yes, we can understand that he was the eldest and firstborn, and he would feel a responsibility to his father.  He was the heir.  Maybe it was part of his personality or character trait to have some decency in him, unlike his brothers at this point, and he did not want this to happen.  But he was outnumbered, and he was probably fearful of his brethren, as we can see what they are capable of, and he decided a way to do it.  He was acting sort of like a politician, was he not?  He wanted to appease his brethren while accomplishing his goal of delivering Joseph.

So that is our dilemma.  This is why we need prayer when we study the Bible.  We need wisdom, and we pray that God would grant us wisdom and understanding.  Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, I think we will begin to understand how Reuben is being used of God, and how well it fits into the spiritual narrative concerning Christ at the time of his crucifixion.  It fits in perfectly, and it is an amazing spiritual picture that God paints for us in this historical parable in Genesis 37.