Genesis 37:28 Then there passed by Midianites merchants; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit… 1. The narrative shows one of the not uncommon ways which God takes to prepare men for usefulness and blessing. The pathway to any eminence in usefulness, virtue, or joy, is commonly rugged. Muscular strength comes of abundant toil, mental vigour of hard study, moral force of temptation and discipline. It is by fire that gold is separated from its dross, and iron hardened into steel. Even the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering. One cannot guess of how many noble lives the secret, if disclosed, would be found in some great trial. An Arab once bemoaned his fate thus: "Alas, I fear that God doth not remember me. I have no trials, nothing but ease and enjoyment." You cannot make a great life out of sunshine alone. Nor need one lose heart if his whole earthly course seems to be under a cloud. As the discipline of youth may be for riper years, so that of one's whole earthly career is for the ages beyond. 2. Again, the narrative shows how responsible parents are for the conduct and welfare of their children. One of the gravest errors in family training is that favouritism of which Jacob was guilty. On the one hand it engenders weak and offensive pride; on the other, angry and bitter resentment. Dissension is inevitable. 3. Here, again, we are impressed with the danger of sin in thought and feeling. Apparently, the criminal deed of Joseph's brethren was wholly unpremeditated. It was an unhappy moment's impulse. It has been said that "with one bound a soul sometimes overleaps all blessed restraints; we flee into crime as if the dogs of sinful desire were upon us." We rush to deeds of which at other moments we thought ourselves incapable. The petted feeling grows to be so completely master, that we obey it when obedience has ceased to be a pleasure. Some of the world's greatest criminals were not only sweet in childhood, but apparently amiable in youth. Let us never forget the tendency of sin to grow, and that as imperceptibly as does the plant or tree. It is also to be remembered that the guilt centres in the disposition rather than in the act. "God sees hearts as we do faces." "The powder that is explosive and the powder that explodes do not differ." "He that hateth his brother is a murderer." 4. Yet again, we here learn something of the unmixed wickedness of the particular sin of envy. It is the opposite of that "charity out of a pure heart," which, while it rejoices over a brother's or sister's good fortune, is itself thereby enriched; of that spirit which makes all another's gains its own, which is the richer for its neighbour's riches, the gladder for its brother's gladness. As love is of heaven, envy is of hell. 5. Briefly, at least, we must notice the illustration we here have of the bitter outcome of sin. (1) One part of this is a sort of necessity for more sin. No sooner is the heartless deed of Joseph's brethren done than they begin to add other sins for its concealment. (2) But the full outcome of sin in-eludes also much sorrrow. Witness the entreaties and tears of the lad Joseph; the distress of Reuben; the perplexity and fears of all. The comfortless, bereaved father is overwhelmed. 6. For God's children, the culminating lesson of this fragment of history is one of patience and trust in life's darkest hours. (H. M. Grout, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
    |