Genesis 37:29

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.

From Background Notes [BN] for Sept 13th & 14th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The compensation did not help Reuben deal with the implications of what his brothers had done. They had insulted his authority as natural firstborn and acted in his absence and against his wishes.

Genesis 37:21

When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said.

From Background Notes [BN] for Sept 13th& 14th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Soon the brothers are not alone, and Reuben's plans, well-intentioned though they were, are now foiled by the arrival of Ishmaelites, distant relatives, descendents of Abraham's "other son".

Genesis 37:19

“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other.

From Background Notes [BN] for Sept 13th & 14th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

No longer content to be angry or jealous or filled with hate, the brothers determine to make good on their ill will. This week’s text traces that determination to its penultimate conclusion. Once they allow the emotion to fill their hearts, it is difficult for them to imagine otherwise.

Genesis 37:5

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

From Background Notes [BN] for Sept 6th & 7th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

For Joseph, the challenge is to sort out the dream in light of God’s call on his life. From this point forward his road is not smooth and a grounded awareness that God is with him will come slowly, painfully, and deliberately.

Genesis 37:4

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

From Background Notes [BN] for Sept 6th & 7th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Many years ago, Alice Miller wrote a ground-breaking work on the struggles of childhood titled The Drama of the Gifted Child. The book examines the loss of the self that occurs in childhood and the subsequent process by which an adult can retrieve his or her true identity that was misplaced in earlier years.

Genesis 37:3

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him.

From Background Notes [BN] for Sept 6th & 7th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

The Joseph narrative is among the longest accounts in the Bible. In its entirety it unifies the story of Jacob's family, with Joseph as the pivotal character.  Filled with drama, intrigue, sibling rivalry, the life of Joseph also serves larger purposes by showing how God fulfilled his covenant plan made first to Abraham.

 

Genesis 37:2

This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

From Background Notes [BN] for Sept 6th & 7th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

So we say, “My father was not rich, and so the house we lived in was either rented or shabbily apportioned.”