Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #38 in Genesis 37.   We will read Genesis 37:25-28:

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.

The first thing we want to do is to try to understand why this caravan of merchantmen was passing by at this time, and we discussed how this was all due to the determinate counsel of God.  If no caravan were going by, we would have a very different historical record.  In all likelihood, the brothers would not have sold Joseph into Egypt because there would have been no opportunity, but God had “set the ball in motion” with this caravan that came from Gilead.  They had been traveling for some time, stopping here and there, and if they had not made a certain stop, they would have passed by before this incident took place.  Everything that was required regarding their journey and the stops they made, and how long they had stayed in a certain place, and how far the caravan went each day, was perfectly controlled by God so there would be this meeting at this specific point in time. 

Or if Joseph had wandered a little longer before arriving at Dothan, or if he had difficulty finding the place, it would have delayed him a few hours, and the caravan would have passed by before he encountered his brethren, and there would have been a different outcome.  But everything happened the way God intended it to happen.  Joseph came to realize that, and probably all his brethren would realize it later in time, as well as all of us reading this account thousands of years later.

At some point, Joseph began to take a different view of his life because after his father’s death, his brethren came to him asking for his forgiveness, in Genesis 50:15-21:

And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

He said, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it unto good.”  That is why the Lord made sure that these merchantmen came along as they did, even though they too had a wicked motivation.  They were there at the right time, and Judah had the thought, “Let us not kill our brother but sell him so that our hands are not involved with shedding his blood.”  From time to time in the Bible God does reveal in the narrative of the historical situation where it works out in such a way that it cannot be missed that God has entered into the affairs of men, and His hand (will) is controlling circumstances and orchestrating events so that they unfold precisely as we read of them in the Bible. 

A good example would be the time when Haman, the enemy of the Jews, was planning to come before King Ahasuerus to request that Mordecai the Jew be killed; he was going to ask permission to hang him on the gallows that he had built.  He was waiting out in the court, but it so happened that the king had not slept that night, and he had called for his servants to read some of the chronicles of things that had happened in his kingdom.  And in the reading, it was revealed that Mordecai the Jew had revealed a plan wherein two of the king’s servants had planned to kill the king.  So the king asked, “What honor has been done for Mordecai for saving my life?”  They said, “Nothing, O, King.”  Then the king called and asked, “Who is in the court?”  And there was Haman.  The king was calling out for someone to do honor to Mordecai, while at the exact same time Haman was in the court waiting to come in to request to kill Mordecai. 

It is incredible how God worked this out.  If the king had quickly fallen asleep, and if he had no insomnia that night, then he would have been awakened, and there would have been Haman in the court requesting that Mordecai to be hanged, and the king would have known nothing about Mordecai; and he would have thought him to be some kind of evil doer, and he would have given permission.  There would have been a drastically different outcome, but God caused the king not to be able to sleep, and God arranged for the servants to read the chronicles, and of the thousands of places they could have turned to, they turned to this one newsworthy event that involved Mordecai.  Mordecai had warned the king about this conspiracy to kill him, and it changed everything.  Through that, it ultimately brought deliverance to all the Jews because that was the point when Haman began to fall before the king.

So we can definitely see God’s hand at work with these Ishmeelites that came by.  But the question is, “Were they Ishmeelites?”  You may say, “Of course they were because it says they were.”  It says it twice.  We read in verse 25 about a company of Ishmeelites, and in verse 27, it says, “Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites.”  It seems very clear, but look at Genesis 37:28:

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 was reading some theologians’ comments on this, and they did a lot of speculation and conjecture as they tried to understand why the Bible is calling them both “Midianites” and “Ishmeelites.”  Some said there were Ishmeelites, but there were Midianites who came before the Ishmeelites and lifted Joseph up out of the pit, and then they sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver.  But that will not work.  The way that scenario would have played out is that the Midianites had him first, and they sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites, and the Ishmeelites took Joseph into Egypt.  But look at Genesis 37:36:

And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.

But where are the Ishmeelites if they were the last ones to have Joseph?  It just does not fit all the biblical information.  Basically, here is how we can understand it.  The Ishmeelites and the Midianites were in the same caravan.  They were two peoples, but they had a good deal in common.  One major thing they had in common was that Abraham was their father.  Turn to Genesis 16:15-16:

And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

So Ishmael was a son of Abraham, and these Ishmeelites are his descendants, and they can trace their lineage back to Abraham.  You know, this was not too far apart in history.  Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born, and we know the year was 2081 B. C.  We also know what year this was in our account in Genesis 37 when Joseph was in the pit because we were told at the beginning of chapter 37 that Joseph was 17 years old, and Joseph was born in 1916 B. C., and he turned 17 in 1899 B. C.  So Ishmael was born in 2081 and this was about 181 or 182 years later when his descendants are encountering children of Israel.  And Israel too can trace their lineage back to Abraham. 

Where did the Midianites come from?  Again, we learn that Abraham was their father, as we read in Genesis 25 which took place after the death of Sarah, who died at age 127 when Abraham was 137 years old.  He was 10 years older.  He did not remarry right away, and we are not told of his age upon his remarriage, but we do know that Abraham died at age 175.  So this was probably a few years after Sarah’s death, and Abraham remarried, and it says in Genesis 25:1-2:

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

And Midian was the father of the Midianites.  I have to point out that in Genesis 37 the Midianites are mentioned twice.  It says in verse 28: “Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen.”  Then it says in verse 36: “And the Midianites sold him into Egypt…”

The name “Midian” is Strong’s #4080, and the word “Midianites” in verse 36 is Strong’s #4084.  They are related words.  And there was another son born unto Keturah and Abraham whose name was “Medan.”  The name “Medan” is a very similar sounding name, and it has similar letters to the name “Midian.”  The word “Medan” is Strong’s #4091, and the name “Midianites” in Genesis 37:36 is Strong’s #4092, so it probably should have been translated as the Medanites, rather than the Midianites.  They seem to be descendants of the other brother.  We can gather that in this caravan were Ishmeelites, descendants of Ishmael; and there were Midianites, the descendants of Midian; and there were Medanites, the descendants of Medan.  The two brothers grew up together, and their families merged, and they worked together.  They were traders and they went on these journeys together.  I think that is how we can understand this.

There is another passage in the Bible that joins the Midianites and Ishmeelites together in Judges 7 in the account of Gideon.  He did battle with the Midianites.  It says in Judges 7:7-8:

And JEHOVAH said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place. So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

Very clearly they are Midianites.  That was the army that Gideon had to deal with, and yet in the next chapter of Judges after the victory over the Midianites, we read in Judges 8:22-24:

Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: JEHOVAH shall rule over you. And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

They were Ishmaelites.  Hold it!  These were Midianites.  We were told that in the previous chapter, and I think this is the only place where they were referred to in this historical account in Judges 6, Judges 7, and Judges 8.  Yet God calls them Ishmaelites.  It is possible that there could have been some intermarriage between the Midianites and the Ishmaelites, and maybe that would help to explain it.  But it is very likely that the two peoples were simply mixed together in the caravan, as well as in later generations.  The time of Gideon was hundreds of years after the things we are reading about Joseph, and yet these people are still traveling together and fighting together.  So for spiritual purposes, they are interchangeable.  That helps us to understand why there is this back-and-forth reference in our passage regarding Ishmeelites and Midianites.

Lord willing, in our next study we are going to look at the sale and the twenty pieces of silver that were paid for Joseph.  We will try to understand that a little bit better.