Transcendence

Eighteen: Joseph Is Sold

Joseph, the son most loved by Israel, and most hated by his brothers, usually stayed close by his father while his brothers went out to graze their father's flocks. Israel clung to him more after his mother Rachel died. At one point though, Israel told Joseph that he wanted him to go out to Shechem where his brothers were and check on them. He instructed Joseph to see if all was going well with the flocks and everything else, and to report back.(He knew Joseph would be honest with him about how everything was, and he also may have thought it was time to, in a sense, break him away from constant protection.) Joseph set out from the Valley of Hebron, leaving behind his father's constant protecting hand, and headed to the town of Shechem where his brothers were grazing their flocks.

When Joseph arrived in Shechem he was wondering around aimlessly, not sure where to go. A man saw him and asked what he was looking for. Joseph explained he was looking for his brothers who were grazing their flocks. The man knew who he was talking about and knew that his brothers had moved on to Dothan. He sent Joseph there.

When Joseph arrived in Dothan his brothers saw him coming in the distance. Instantly they knew he was there to spy on them and tattle back to their father. Their anger fired up over the fact that he wore the special robe of splendor that their father had given him. They were angry about his special treatment and favoritism. They were also angry about his dreams, and how they implied he would be worshiped by all of them. Quickly before he reached them they began plotting a way to kill him. "Here comes that dreamer," they said to each other, "let's kill him and throw him into one of those cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then lets see what becomes of his dreams!"

When Reuben, the oldest, heard what they were saying he tried to rescue Joseph by suggesting to them that instead of killing him they should throw him into a cistern that had no water in it, and then to decide what to do. ( Reuben was angry too, but not to the point of killing his little brother. He knew what that would do to his father. In suggesting to throw him into a dry cistern, Reuben thought he could return to the dry cistern later and rescue him,  which would then earn him some much desired love and attention from their father when he returned Joseph.)

Joseph reached his brothers in happy spirits. He was excited to be out and about for the first time without his father. He had found them all on his own.  But Joseph was naïve and had no idea how they truly felt about him.  When his brothers gathered around him they didn't greet him with pleasurable smiles, instead the first thing they did was strip him of his special robe -the richly ornamented one their father had given him as a constant reminder that he was truly the most loved among them. His brothers then took him and threw him into the empty cistern as Reuben has suggested.

As they sat down to eat their meal they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites (descendants of Ishmael - the first born of Abraham) coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, headed to Egypt to sell the goods. The brothers, while apart from Reuben, put their thoughts together quickly and decided instead of killing Joseph they would sell him to the Ishmaelites, deciding this would save them the guilt of having killed their own brother.

When the Ishmaelite merchants got closer, the brothers quickly took Joseph out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty shekels of silver.

The merchants didn't want the boy for themselves, but saw the deal as a profitable business transaction. He would be worth a lot of money to the Egyptians. They loaded Joseph up and hauled him off to Egypt. Unloading the boy turned out to be a quick and easy sell just as they thought. In Egypt they sold him to Potiphar who was the captain of the guard, one of Pharaoh's officials. (The Pharaoh was the highest up - the leader in Egypt.)

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was gone, he was very upset and tore his clothes, and asked his brothers what they had done. They told him the story of selling their brother. They knew they would have to convince Reuben to go along with their story, they would have to pull together in order to cover themselves, less their father heard the truth and hated them forever. The brothers took Joseph's robe and dipped it in goat's blood then carried it back to their father. They acted as though they were very upset, and claimed to have found it and was afraid it was their brother's.