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Bible Studies
By Adam Bartlett
Sold into Slavery
Genesis 37: 28-36
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.
29: And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.
30: And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
31: And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
32: And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.
33: And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34: And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35: And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
36: And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard.
Vs.28 - Joseph was sold into slavery and the price was 20 pieces of silver, the same price that was given to Judas for Jesus (Matt. 26:15). We are born into slavery to this sinful nature and are bound as slaves until we accept the price that Christ paid to set us free. We are living in Egypt (which is always a representation of sin) until we give the Lord control of our lives.
Vs. 29-30 - Was Reuben sincere in his sorrow? We don't know but could it be that he realized that as the oldest son he would be the one to give an account of why he failed to watch over his younger brother? This much we do know, he could have stepped in at anytime and stopped the whole thing, but he kept silent and allowed it to happen.
In our Christian lives we should never sit back and allow evil to parade in front of us without exposing it as we are commanded in Ephesians 5:11. I believe that this also applies in the churches today, we should not allow ministers to teach heresy in our midst without speaking up.
Vs. 31 - There is a striking similarity here as to what satan wants to do to every Christian. Our robe of righteousness which the Father puts around us when we accept Christ and join the family is represented in our witness each day as His ambassador. The enemy wants to destroy our witness in any way he can and cause a reproach upon the name of Christ.
Vs. 32-35 - The pain that sin and deception can bring upon us can be so hard that we feel it cannot be comforted. It shows what it does to others when we knowingly deceive someone and the pain it causes. Lying always leads to other lies to cover the previous one. That is why it is said that satan is the father of lies and that liars are not going to be allowed in heaven.
Vs. 36 - God is always working ahead in our lives even when we don't see it or think that anything good could possibly come of it. Because Joseph did not compromise nor back down from his heavenly vision, God was working and even the evil intentions of his brother were for the good. Even when the enemy tries to stop us and cause harm to us and our witness, if we stand by our faith and convictions God will be there with us. The end will ultimately be better than we could ever imagine.
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