Episode Details

Genesis 37:1-11, Hatred in the House of Israel

Remsen Bible Fellowship, 05/03/2026

Introduction

They should have been excited. They should have been waiting for a kingly figure to appear. They should have remembered the promises given to their ancestors, promises of kings who would be descended from their line, of the Snake-Crushing Seed of the Woman.

But when he came, they hated him. The Beloved Son came to his own, and his own did not receive him. He was despised and rejected. A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

I’m talking, of course, about Joseph and his brothers. We’ve already read the sermon text in the service, Genesis 37:1-11. Turn there with me in your bibles.

Joseph was the 11th son of Jacob, and Jacob was the son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

Jacob’s journey had been a long and winding one. Before his birth, he struggled together with his brother Esau inside of their mother, Rebekah. When she asked why she was in such turmoil, the Lord revealed to her that she was not only carrying two sons, but two nations. And, counter to the typical pattern in the Ancient Near East, it would not be the oldest son who would become the greater nation. Rather, the older would serve the younger. Jacob was the younger son. But though he was the child of promise, who, like his father Isaac, was chosen by God before his birth to be the one through whom God’s promises came, he was not the favorite of his father. And so, he accomplished his position, not through straightforward blessing, but by trickery and deceit. He purchased his brother’s birthright and stole the blessing of their father, a set of actions which infuriated his brother Esau, and led to Jacob fleeing for his life.

And, while on the run, God appeared to Jacob. He showed him a staircase to heaven, promised to bring him back to the land he was at that moment fleeing, and promised to bless the world through Jacob and his descendants.

In the years that followed, as Jacob lived in exile (as it were), it seemed that perhaps God’s promises would come to nothing. Jacob was the victim of another man’s scheming, He was out-Jacobed by Laban, the man who became his father-in-law—twice over, as Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah, and then married her younger sister Rachel, as well (whom he had wanted to marry in the first place). But then there arises a great rivalry between the sisters, who are having a competition for Jacob’s affection, which they viewed as being tied to their fertility, and so they enlisted the aid of their servants, and Jacob ended up having children by four different women. Not exactly the picture of a godly family and home life.

Nonetheless, the Lord did continue to bless Jacob. Not because he deserved it, but because this was God’s promise to Jacob and to his fathers. Despite Laban’s schemes, despite the sins of Jacob and his wives, despite all that they tried to do to muck up God’s plan, God continued to bless Jacob. And eventually, God brought him back to the land of Canaan. That story is told in chapters 32-35, with the beginning of chapter 35 highlighting God’s renewed blessing for, and renaming of, Jacob. He now would have a second name, Israel—the one who wrestles with God.

In chapter 36, the camera pans over to Israel’s brother Esau, and we get the generations of Esau, with a genealogy that spans hundreds of years—and a common theme in Genesis is reiterated: God’s promise to bless the nations through Abraham’s seed seems to be flowing through the wrong sons. Jacob had twelve sons—which is a lot—but not nearly as many as his brother’s multitudes listed in chapter 36. The author, Moses, wants us to feel the tension. Could the promises of God fail? But then, we remember: he had brought Jacob back to the land of his father’s sojournings, the land of Canaan (v1).

Verse two begins by telling us that what we will n