Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #35 in Genesis 37.   We will read Genesis 37:23-28:

And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?  Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt. 

I will stop reading there.  We find in verse 23 that Joseph had come to his brethren.  We spent a few studies discussing how Joseph coming to Dothan to meet with his brethren is a picture of Christ coming into the world.  And they conspired against him to kill him. 

Reuben had at least convinced them not to shed any blood, but to throw him into a pit.  And they did so, as it says in Genesis 37:23-24:

And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

The first thing we want to look at is where God tells us that they stripped Joseph out of his coat of many colours.  We find that this word translated as “stript” is also used in Job 19:6-11:

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

This is Job who was being moved by God to say these things.  Job who suffered tremendously, suffering calamity after calamity, and he is expressing it as God having overthrown him.  God has fenced up his way that he cannot pass, and He set darkness in his path.  God has stripped him of his glory, and taken the crown from his head.  God has destroyed him on every side, and God has kindled His wrath against him. 

And this is because Job was a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know that Christ was smitten by God; Christ came under the wrath of God.  Christ had to empty Himself of His glory when He entered into the human race, but even more so when He began His journey to the cross, experiencing horrible humiliation.  He was struck on the cheek.  He was spit upon.  He was whipped, and He wore a crown of thorns.  He was stripped naked as He hung on the cross.  The glory of God had been taken from Him, and it was God who was doing it, spiritually, and Christ was demonstrating in 33 A. D. how He had paid for the sins of His people at the foundation of the world.  That is actually when Christ was stripped of His glory as He made payment for sin.  The Bible records for us in the Gospel accounts how Jesus went to the cross, and that was Christ being stripped of His glory to demonstrate the payment He previously made.  This fits in with Philippians 2:5-8:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

So we read in Genesis 37 that Joseph was stripped of his coat, and that is pointing to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ being stripped from Him.   Christ’s glory is a magnificent glory that He possesses as Almighty God.  It is significant that this glory was taken from Him as He suffered and died a shameful death in paying for the sins of His people.  We can see this more clearly in Numbers 20 where the word “strip” is used in an interesting way regarding Aaron, the high priest of Israel.  It says in Numbers 20:25-28:

Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as JEHOVAH commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

This was a change of high priest because Aaron, the high priest, was going to die.  That is why it is interesting.   Yes, it was some kind of ceremony, a “changing of the guard,” so to speak, from one man to the next.  But the Lord is stripping Aaron of his garments, which were priestly garments.  Look at Exodus 29:4-8:

And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod: And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre. Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.  And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them.

Aaron was to put on the coat of the high priest, and the robe of the ephod.  He would also put the mitre upon his head, and the holy crown upon the mitre.  Remember what it said in the verse we read in Job 19:9:

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.

So Aaron had his priestly attire, and upon his death he was stripped of his garments, and they were put on Eleazar his son.  One of his garments was a “coat,” and it is the same word we find in Genesis 37 regarding Joseph’s coat of many colours.  Aaron was stripped of his coat at the point of his death.  That was the important timing.  The high priest of Israel, a type of Christ, was stripped of his coat, as well as his holy crown.  Job supplied that additional element, which we do not see in our chapter in Genesis 37, but that was also instructing us concerning Christ’s death as He made payment for the sins of His people.  We know that He was the High Priest that offered Himself up.  Nonetheless, the death of Aaron is pointing to the death of Christ, and the stripping away of His garment.

Concerning this word coat, let us turn to Isaiah 22:20-22:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

(Eliakim means “God of rising,” or “God of raising.”)  Eliakim is a type of Christ, and he was clothed with a “robe,” or “coat.”  And that was what was taken off of Joseph.

Joseph’s coat was a coat of many colours.   That is what makes it stand out.  We are not told that Aaron had a coat of many colours, so how can we understand this?  There is one place in particular that really identifies with this “coat of many colours,” and that is in 2Samuel 13 regarding Tamar, a daughter of David and sister of Absalom.  She had a half-brother named Amnon who was fixated on her.  He thought he loved her, so Amnon’s deceitful friend Jonadab instructed him on how he could cause Tamar to come to him by feigning to be sick.  He did so, and his father David sent Tamar to minister to him, and when she came to him, Amnon raped her.  Afterwards, he wanted nothing to do with her, and we read in 2Samuel 13:15-19:

Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone. And she said unto him, There is no cause: this evil in sending me away is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would not hearken unto her. Then he called his servant that ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her. And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king's daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her. And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.

We see here that the garment of divers colours.  The word “colours” is the same word as used for Joseph’s coat, and the word “garment” is the same word for “coat” used in Genesis 37, so there is a definite link.  We wonder what that link could be.  Tamar was a daughter of the king, and Joseph was the son of his father, and we find some definition for this garment of divers colours, as it says in 2Samuel 13:18:

And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king's daughters that were virgins apparelled…

This is very helpful because we know that in the Bible “virgins” point to “purity.”  The elect are typified by “virgins.”  God identifies all Christians as “ten virgins” in Matthew 5, five of whom were wise, and five of whom were foolish.  The idea of being a virgin is to indicate being pure in  a sexual sense, not having sexual relations until marriage.  And Tamar was a virgin waiting for marriage, and now her evil half-brother had violated her, and she was no longer a virgin, and yet he would not even marry her.  That is the idea behind his telling her to “be gone,” and bolting the door.  That was a greater act of evil toward her, as she said, than what he had already done to her.

But we can take this idea of the coat of many colours and apply it to Joseph.  Does that mean Joseph was a virgin?  He probably was because he was a faithful man, and not married, and he was only 17.  But that is not the point.  The point is the “purity” of who Joseph represents, the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is another way of saying that Jesus was the “spotless Lamb.”  He was without sin of His own.

As Joseph came to his brethren, “they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him.”  This is pointing, spiritually, to the foundation of the world because at that point in eternity past Christ was laden with the sins of His people.  All of the sins of the elect were cast upon Him, so the “coat of many colours,” or his purity and righteousness, was no longer.  He was impure, unrighteous, and defiled with the sins of His people.  That is what this is pointing to, so it is fitting, just as when Christ was stripped and went to the cross naked in 33 A. D.  That was a fitting illustration regarding the sins that He died for being exposed, although payment for sin was not being made at the cross in 33 A. D.

I know that some people may get a little tired of me constantly pointing this out and making this distinction, but we have to do so, or else there could be confusion.   Christ was laden with our sins at the foundation of the world, and He paid for those sins.  He was not laden with sins at the cross in 33 A. D.  There was no need to pay twice because that was all settled, but He was demonstrating what He had done.  That is why He was naked on the cross.  It was not due to any sins that were still remaining on His people – they were all paid for, but He had to show what had happened, and that was the reason.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will pick this up in verse 24 where they took Joseph and cast him into a pit.