Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #33 in Genesis 37.   We will read 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.

Joseph had come, and they conspired against him to kill him.  Reuben, the firstborn son of Jacob, interceded on Joseph’s behalf, and he said to his brethren, “Let us not kill him.”  And that is exactly what they wanted to do.  He said, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him."  He said this that he “might rid him out of their hands.”

The word “rid” is also translated as “delivered,” so that is a strong emphasis here.  Reuben wanted to deliver Joseph out of their hands, which would certainly be the hands of the wicked.  In Psalm 82  this word “rid” is translated as the same English word (from the same Hebrew word), and we read in Psalm 82:2-4:

How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

That is what Reuben was attempting to do in ridding Joseph out of their hands, which were “wicked hands.”  I do not know who among these sons of Israel were truly saved, aside from Joseph.   Maybe one or two of them would become saved later, but at this time they were giving every indication that they were not saved.

Reuben was the only one that was acting decently, although he was not saying what he should have said: “What is wrong with you, brethren?  We are not going to kill him.  That is murder.  We should not kill anyone, let alone our own brother.”  But Reuben did not say that.  The tension was high, and they were very angry and hateful toward Joseph, so Reuben may have thought that alternate line of reasoning would not have worked, although that would have been a more proper way of doing it.  But he developed a plan, and he is also using deceit to counter their deceitful conspiracy.  He was trying to deceive them by saying, “Let us just cast him into a pit,” and he did not tell them that his intention was to come back later and deliver Joseph out of the pit, and deliver him back to his father.

Despite all of Reuben’s efforts, it went wrong.  While he did succeed in preventing them from killing him, something terrible did happen because Joseph was sold as a slave to the Midianite slave traders, and they in turn sold him as a slave in Egypt where Joseph began to serve Potiphar, the Egyptian.

Historically, we have a good idea of what is going on, but what is the spiritual picture?  Why was Reuben the only one trying to deliver him?  Yet he failed to deliver him.  In order to understand the spiritual picture God is painting of Reuben, we are going to have to think about what we know of Reuben himself.  We know that Reuben was the first born, and we read of Reuben in Genesis 49:3-4:

Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

This refers to Reuben laying with one of the concubine wives of Jacob.  It was not Reuben’s mother Leah, nor was it Rachel, but it was one of the concubine wives.  This is further elaborated on in 1Chronicles 5:1:

Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.

His birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh.  We know that Joseph was sold into Egypt, and he had an Egyptian wife, and they had two sons.  And Jacob blessed them with the blessing of the firstborn.  It was really Joseph, as Ephraim and Manasseh would become two tribes of Israel, but they are the tribe of Joseph.  When they received the right of the firstborn, that means Joseph had received the blessing of the birthright of the firstborn.  He received a “double portion.” 

So we can understand the spiritual picture because Joseph is a type of Christ, but notice that the language indicates that the birthright is given unto the sons of Joseph.  That is, it became the inheritance of Ephraim and Manasseh.  It was exactly as the Lord Jesus Christ was the “seed,” singular.  He was the promised seed (heir), as God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:8:

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

In Galatians 3, the Lord informs us that the word “seed” is singular.  The blessing of the inheritance for land of Canaan, which spiritually represents the kingdom of God in the new heaven and new earth, is given to the seed (singular), who is Christ.  Galatians 3 explains that to us, and later in the same chapter we are told that the elect, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, are Abraham’s seed in Christ and heirs.  The elect are the children of the promise, and counted for the seed.  Christ is the seed, but we are counted as the seed in Him.

So Joseph received the blessing of the firstborn son, but it works itself out in the children of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh.  They received the blessing, the inheritance, and that fits perfectly with God’s salvation program as Galatians 3 clearly explains.

How does it help us to know that Reuben was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed he lost the birthright and blessing of the firstborn, which became Joseph’s?  We can see that Reuben was in a similar standing as Adam, the first man, who was given the blessing of God.  He had the birthright.  He was God’s son, if you read the genealogy in Luke 3, which says, “which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.”  But Adam lost the blessing of the firstborn son. 

By the way, it is also important to note that Adam was under the Law when he was created.  God gave the Law concerning the fruit of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  He was not to eat it, but he did eat, and he lost the birthright.  He fell from that lofty position from being the heir of God who would inherit the earth.  It was his earth.  God had given him dominion over the whole world, and then he lost it.  However, there would be a “second Adam,” and Romans 5 and 1Corinthians 15 tell us that Adam was a figure of He that was to come.  Christ was the “second Adam,” and it was the Lord Jesus who received the inheritance.  He was the promised seed concerning the land of Canaan, which points to the new earth.  Originally, Adam was the heir of this earth, and the “second Adam” is the heir of the second earth that we will inherit: “The meek shall inherit the earth.”  We inherit it through Christ.  That is important for us to keep in mind.  Adam was under the Law, and lost the birthright.

There is a second instance where God goes into detail concerning a man who had the birthright and blessing of the firstborn son, and lost it, and that man is Esau.  Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, was the firstborn, and he had the blessing.  His father Isaac was about to bestow the blessing upon him when Jacob, with his mother’s help, deceived his father by pretending to be Esau, and he did receive the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn son, and that is how it remained despite Esau’s tears and his plea: “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also…”  But he received only an earthly, temporal blessing, but not the blessing reserved for the firstborn because that points to the eternal inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, eternal life, and so forth.

Keep in mind that Esau also came under the Law.  He sinned and lost the birthright.  We know that Esau, who is also known as Edom, is used by God as a figure of the Law.  We studied that back in Genesis 33.  Remember that after forty years, Esau with his four hundred men were coming to meet with Jacob and his family and flocks as Jacob came from Haran.  Jacob was sore afraid because the last time he had seen his brother, Esau was planning on killing him over the deception of Jacob having received his blessing.   Esau was coming with four hundred men, and he had the power to kill him, but Jacob sent ahead all kinds of gifts and “offerings,” before Esau could reach him, and we read that Esau was “appeased.”  And that word “appeased” is the same word as “atonement.” 

So we could say, the Law was coming to kill Jacob, who in this case was a type and figure of the elect.  The Law was coming to smite him.  It had long intended to smite him, as Esau had desired to do forty years earlier, and now he was coming to carry it out.  But the offering of atonement was received, and that points to the atonement of Christ that is applied to elect sinners.  As a result, Esau embraced his brother.  Not only does he not kill him, but he has no ill will toward him, and there was a restoration of their relationship, just as was the case after the Lord saved us, and then when the Law comes for us, it can no longer condemn us: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”  We can now embrace the Law because the Lord has ordained for us to walk in “good works,” which is defined as obedience to the Law of God. 

So we are seeing again that Esau, in losing the birthright and being someone under the Law, is also used by God to represent the Law.  And that is what we are going to find concerning Reuben.  Reuben is being used as a type and figure of the Law of God that seeks to deliver the Lord Jesus Christ when Christ was going to the cross to demonstrate the death He had died at the foundation of the world, and there was the Law declaring that He was not guilty.  He should not be killed.  We will see how that works out, and we will see some definite proof.  It certainly was the case with Christ, historically, and we will see how Reuben illustrates this as the Lord uses his intercession on behalf of Joseph.  The Law was trying to deliver him, or the Law of God is not condemning him to death, indicating that he does not deserve to die.  He should not die, and that was what Reuben was trying to do: “Let us not kill him.”  He was trying to rid his brother out of the hands of his brethren.