†. Gen 37:9-11 . . He dreamed another dream and told it to his
brothers, saying; Look, I have had another dream: And this time, the
sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
. . . And when he told it to his father and brothers, his father berated
him. What; he said to him; is this dream you have dreamed? Are we
to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you
to the ground? So his brothers were wrought up at him, and his
father kept the matter in mind.
As the family's prophet, Jacob's inspired intuition instantly caught the
dream's message; though he was a bit indignant. However, Jacob didn't
brush the dream off because his prophetic insight told him there just might
be something to it.
Jacob interpreted the "moon" in the dream sequence to be Rachel. One
might ask: How could she be subject to Joseph? she's dead. Well apparently
Jacob perceived the dream to indicate a status that Joseph would occupy in
the distant future; after they were all resurrected to live in the land of
Canaan under very different circumstances.
†. Heb 11:8-10 . . By faith Abraham abode in the land of promise as in a
foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose
builder and maker is God.
Jacob's dying words recorded in Gen 49:22-26 seem to bear out the distant
future aspects of Joseph's dream. Very intriguing.
†. Gen 37:12-14a . . One time, when his brothers had gone to
pasture their father's flock at Shechem, Israel said to Joseph: Your
brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.
He answered: I am ready. And he said to him: Go and see how your
brothers are and how the flocks are faring, and bring me back word.
So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
A guy like Joseph is every supervisor's dream. When asked to do something,
his response was; "I am ready."
Hebron (a.k.a. Hevron, a.k.a. Al Khalil) is still on the map. It's about 18½
miles west of the Dead Sea, as the crow flies, and about 20½ miles south of
Jerusalem.
Shechem (a.k.a. Nablus) is still on the map too. It's about 48 miles north of
Jerusalem; ergo: 68½ miles north of Hebron.
So Joseph had a long ways to go. It's amazing that people pastured their
herds so far from home in those days; but then it wasn't unusual for out
west cattle barons during America's 1800's to pasture cows that far; and
even farther.
The Prairie Cattle Company once ranged 156,000 cows on five million acres
of land. At 640 acres per square mile; that factors out to something like
7,812 square miles; viz: an 88.37 mile square; which really isn't all that big
when you think about it. It's a lot of area; but eighty-eight miles is really not
all that great a distance for an automobile.
Personally, I would have been concerned about Joseph's safety more than
anything else; but apparently nobody interfered with Jacob's family in those
days (Gen 35:5) so they pretty much had carte blanche to graze wherever
they liked in those parts.
†. Gen 37:14b-17 . .When he reached Shechem, a man came upon
him wandering in the fields. The man asked him: What are you
looking for? He answered: I am looking for my brothers. Could you
tell me where they are pasturing? The man said: They have gone
from here, for I heard them say "Let us go to Dothan". So Joseph
followed his brothers and found them at Dothan.
It's interesting that the man isn't on record asking Joseph who he was nor
who his brothers might be. Probably everybody around Shechem knew
Jacob's family personally because they had all lived around there for some
time before moving south. In America's olde West, people knew each other
for miles around because, quite simply, there just wasn't all that many
people to know.
Dothan has yet to be precisely located. Some say it was about 12 miles
north of Shechem; but that's really only an educated guess. Years later,
Dothan became the stage for a pretty exciting event. (2Kgs 6:8-23)
†. Gen 37:18a . .They saw him from afar,
Just how far isn't said; though it was probably the youngest among Joseph's
brothers who saw and recognized him first. A few of the men were getting
up in years at this time and were well past young adulthood.
Optical science is relatively recent. For millennia, people got by on just their
natural eyesight without the aid of spectacles. Prior to the invention of
eyeglasses, Solomon rued that one of the curses of old age is failing
eyesight. (Ecc 12:1-2)
The first recorded use of a "corrective" lens was by the emperor Nero (ce
37-68) who was known to watch the gladiatorial games through an emerald,
presumably to correct for myopia. The gem probably wasn't ground to any
specific prescription, nor even any particular shape. Nero probably
discovered, like any kid does with a water glass, that the shape of the stone
somehow modified light; and as luck would have it, Nero's emerald worked
pretty well for him.
The Arabs had some understanding of lenses sometime around ce 1200, and
eyeglasses began to come into common use in Italy around ce 1300.
Practically all advances in the science of optics have taken place within just
the last thousand years, so when the Bible says people like Isaac had "dim"
eyes, it probably just means they could have used a pair of glasses.
†. Gen 37:18b-20 . . and before he came close to them they
conspired to kill him. They said to one another: Here comes that
dreamer! Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the
pits; and we can say a savage beast devoured him. We shall see
what comes of his dreams!
The brothers' display of intended cruelty to their own kid brother Joseph is
shocking coming from the sacred patriarchs of the people of Israel.
I seriously doubt the brothers were intent upon ending Joseph's life only so
his dreams wouldn't come true. That was just bombastic rhetoric. Truth is:
they just hated him; simple as that.
Isn't it odd that when people hate someone they want them dead? How
about maybe a beating instead? Why not throw hot coffee or scalding water
in their face, or maybe singe their back with a hot steam iron while they're
sleeping? Why death? Because death is the only thing that will truly satisfy the
the human heart's hatred. Maybe nobody reading this will ever actually murder
anybody; but that doesn't mean you aren't a murder. Wishing somebody
would die, is the wish of a murderer's heart; and that's the plain truth of it.
†. 1John 3:15 . .Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer
Cont.
/
brothers, saying; Look, I have had another dream: And this time, the
sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
. . . And when he told it to his father and brothers, his father berated
him. What; he said to him; is this dream you have dreamed? Are we
to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you
to the ground? So his brothers were wrought up at him, and his
father kept the matter in mind.
As the family's prophet, Jacob's inspired intuition instantly caught the
dream's message; though he was a bit indignant. However, Jacob didn't
brush the dream off because his prophetic insight told him there just might
be something to it.
Jacob interpreted the "moon" in the dream sequence to be Rachel. One
might ask: How could she be subject to Joseph? she's dead. Well apparently
Jacob perceived the dream to indicate a status that Joseph would occupy in
the distant future; after they were all resurrected to live in the land of
Canaan under very different circumstances.
†. Heb 11:8-10 . . By faith Abraham abode in the land of promise as in a
foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of
the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose
builder and maker is God.
Jacob's dying words recorded in Gen 49:22-26 seem to bear out the distant
future aspects of Joseph's dream. Very intriguing.
†. Gen 37:12-14a . . One time, when his brothers had gone to
pasture their father's flock at Shechem, Israel said to Joseph: Your
brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.
He answered: I am ready. And he said to him: Go and see how your
brothers are and how the flocks are faring, and bring me back word.
So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.
A guy like Joseph is every supervisor's dream. When asked to do something,
his response was; "I am ready."
Hebron (a.k.a. Hevron, a.k.a. Al Khalil) is still on the map. It's about 18½
miles west of the Dead Sea, as the crow flies, and about 20½ miles south of
Jerusalem.
Shechem (a.k.a. Nablus) is still on the map too. It's about 48 miles north of
Jerusalem; ergo: 68½ miles north of Hebron.
So Joseph had a long ways to go. It's amazing that people pastured their
herds so far from home in those days; but then it wasn't unusual for out
west cattle barons during America's 1800's to pasture cows that far; and
even farther.
The Prairie Cattle Company once ranged 156,000 cows on five million acres
of land. At 640 acres per square mile; that factors out to something like
7,812 square miles; viz: an 88.37 mile square; which really isn't all that big
when you think about it. It's a lot of area; but eighty-eight miles is really not
all that great a distance for an automobile.
Personally, I would have been concerned about Joseph's safety more than
anything else; but apparently nobody interfered with Jacob's family in those
days (Gen 35:5) so they pretty much had carte blanche to graze wherever
they liked in those parts.
†. Gen 37:14b-17 . .When he reached Shechem, a man came upon
him wandering in the fields. The man asked him: What are you
looking for? He answered: I am looking for my brothers. Could you
tell me where they are pasturing? The man said: They have gone
from here, for I heard them say "Let us go to Dothan". So Joseph
followed his brothers and found them at Dothan.
It's interesting that the man isn't on record asking Joseph who he was nor
who his brothers might be. Probably everybody around Shechem knew
Jacob's family personally because they had all lived around there for some
time before moving south. In America's olde West, people knew each other
for miles around because, quite simply, there just wasn't all that many
people to know.
Dothan has yet to be precisely located. Some say it was about 12 miles
north of Shechem; but that's really only an educated guess. Years later,
Dothan became the stage for a pretty exciting event. (2Kgs 6:8-23)
†. Gen 37:18a . .They saw him from afar,
Just how far isn't said; though it was probably the youngest among Joseph's
brothers who saw and recognized him first. A few of the men were getting
up in years at this time and were well past young adulthood.
Optical science is relatively recent. For millennia, people got by on just their
natural eyesight without the aid of spectacles. Prior to the invention of
eyeglasses, Solomon rued that one of the curses of old age is failing
eyesight. (Ecc 12:1-2)
The first recorded use of a "corrective" lens was by the emperor Nero (ce
37-68) who was known to watch the gladiatorial games through an emerald,
presumably to correct for myopia. The gem probably wasn't ground to any
specific prescription, nor even any particular shape. Nero probably
discovered, like any kid does with a water glass, that the shape of the stone
somehow modified light; and as luck would have it, Nero's emerald worked
pretty well for him.
The Arabs had some understanding of lenses sometime around ce 1200, and
eyeglasses began to come into common use in Italy around ce 1300.
Practically all advances in the science of optics have taken place within just
the last thousand years, so when the Bible says people like Isaac had "dim"
eyes, it probably just means they could have used a pair of glasses.
†. Gen 37:18b-20 . . and before he came close to them they
conspired to kill him. They said to one another: Here comes that
dreamer! Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the
pits; and we can say a savage beast devoured him. We shall see
what comes of his dreams!
The brothers' display of intended cruelty to their own kid brother Joseph is
shocking coming from the sacred patriarchs of the people of Israel.
I seriously doubt the brothers were intent upon ending Joseph's life only so
his dreams wouldn't come true. That was just bombastic rhetoric. Truth is:
they just hated him; simple as that.
Isn't it odd that when people hate someone they want them dead? How
about maybe a beating instead? Why not throw hot coffee or scalding water
in their face, or maybe singe their back with a hot steam iron while they're
sleeping? Why death? Because death is the only thing that will truly satisfy the
the human heart's hatred. Maybe nobody reading this will ever actually murder
anybody; but that doesn't mean you aren't a murder. Wishing somebody
would die, is the wish of a murderer's heart; and that's the plain truth of it.
†. 1John 3:15 . .Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer
Cont.
/
