Threads of Redemption: Seeing God's Design in Life's Messiest Moments

Introduction

A few years ago, I had the privilege of visiting Italy. While touring one of the ancient cathedrals, I found myself standing before an enormous medieval tapestry that covered an entire wall. The front displayed a breathtaking biblical scene with vivid colors, intricate patterns, and meticulous detail. It was truly awe-inspiring. But what struck me most was when the guide invited us behind a small partition to see the reverse side of this masterpiece. There, instead of beauty and order, I saw a chaotic tangle of threads—knots, loose ends, and seemingly random connections. It was hard to believe both sides belonged to the same tapestry.

I've often thought about that tapestry when considering the story of Joseph we're examining today. From Joseph's perspective—from the underside of life's tapestry—everything appeared messy and without purpose. His father's favoritism, his brothers' jealousy, his own dreams that sparked such resentment... all these threads seemed to create nothing but pain as he found himself thrown into a pit and sold into slavery. Yet what Joseph couldn't see in that moment was that God was weaving each thread—even the darkest ones—into a beautiful design of redemption.

Today, as we explore Genesis 37, we'll discover how God works even through family dysfunction, favoritism, envy, and betrayal to accomplish His sovereign purposes. And just like Joseph, we might not understand the pattern until we can finally step back and see the finished side of the tapestry.

If you are willing and able, would you stand with me as I read our text this morning. We will be in Genesis 37. It is 36 verses for the whole chapter. I will read the first 10 and then v.14, 18-36.

Catching Up

To catch you up:

Genesis 32: Where we left off with angel wrestling Jacob (name is changed to Israel) Genesis 33: Jacob encounters Esau (rather uneventful encounter) Genesis 34: Tragically Jacob’s daughter is raped by man of Schechem. The man sought to marry Jacob’s daughter, Dinah but the stipulation was every male of their city was to be circumcised. All the men of the city went through the ritual of circumcision and two of Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi took their swords and killed every man. This act put them at odds with the Canaanites and Perizzites in the land. Genesis 35: The family moves from Shechem in Canaan to Bethel and God reiterates his promise, exhortation to cleanse their homes from idols, Jacob’s new name is affirmed; They moved again to Mamre. Rachel died on the way giving birth to Benjamin and Isaac died after living 180yrs. Genesis 36: We get a list of Esau’s descendants which is prophetically important. They become the nation/land of Edom who will eventually be rebuked by the prophet Obadiah for not assisting Judah at the time of the Babylonian invasion. Instead they raided Judah, handing people over to Babylon, and possessed the lands in the South.

Genesis 37 is where we pick it up this morning. Jospeh has a couple dreams that offend everyone in his family. They plot to kill him, they instead sell him to make a buck, and then lie to their dad about him being mauled by an animal. And it leaves us by setting up Joseph’s time in Potiphar’s house.

The Genesis narrative shifts from Jacob/Israel to now we’ll follow the story of Joseph, one of Israel’s children.

Favorite vs Chosen

We are told right away that Joseph is favored over his brothers. His dad gave him an ornate coat. Throughout my life I have heard of this being a coat of many colors. The Hebrew word is not that descriptive where many today interpret it as ornate as opposed to the KJV which has it as colors (same with ESV or HCSB). It’s a word that used only 6 times in the OT. Honestly, if you like the coat of many colors, take it and run with it. If you would rather think of it as embellished with sleeves and ornate markings, you wouldn’t be wrong. When ever this word is used (and there’s many words that describe other types of garments), it’s pretty consistent amongst interpreters whether it’s ornate or colorful. This doesn’t have bearing on our story only in that it was a constant reminder to everyone in the family that Joseph was the favorite. The oldest of Rachel.

Like Isaac and Jacob before him, Joseph is introduced as a specially chosen member of his family. This divine election is one of the themes of Genesis (cf. Rom. 9:11ff.), and God’s design is seen to be no more thwarted by the indiscretion of its allies (here Israel and Joseph) than by the malice of its opponents. The account of the dreams, coming at the outset, makes God, not Joseph, the ‘hero’ of the story: it is not a tale of human success but of divine sovereignty. Kidner, D. (1967). Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 192). InterVarsity Press.

One might charge God with favoritism. After all through out scripture we see that God has His chosen instruments to bring about His will, His plan, and His purposes. However we have to be careful not to conflate favoritism with chosenness.

Favoritism is destructive and harmful. It usually means that one person is favored at the expense of someone else. Jacob/Israel favored Rachel over Leah. Jacob/Israel favored Joseph over all of his other sons. If you have been the unfortunate recipient of not being the favorite, you know how difficult and hard things are when they don’t have to be. Even if you are the favored one, and you have a sense of compassion and justice, it can be hard to be favored while those who suffer because of your good fortune struggle knowing they don’t have to. There are reasons as to why favoritism exists but it is rooted in considering one person greater than another and can lead to a whole host of dysfunctions as we will see in our text. We saw it with Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, and then again with Issac and Ishmael as they grew up. This isn’t new.

Chosenness on the other hand is different than favoritism. The chosen as we have seen throughout all of scripture are not given preferential treatment. Rather their status as chosen often times, many times infers that they will suffer more. As Scholar and professor Tremper Longman III puts it, “No ornate coats for God’s chosen, but rather famine, conflict, barrenness, and struggles of all sorts.” Here’s the thing about God as well, even the non-chosen are taken care of and seen by God as demonstrated by Ishmael and Hagar. What seems consistent throughout is that the people God has chosen are those that bring spiritual benefit for all people, culminating of course in Jesus Christ… John 3:16-17… who would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

I think personally this is helpful when we think about the New Testament conversation when we read about election.

Ephesians 1:4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love.” Ephesians 1:11 “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,”

It seems to me that when we see being chosen means bearing responsibility and not favorite the whole narrative of scripture seems to fit more cohesively than those who might advocate for an election that focuses more on who’s in and who’s out, who’s saved and who is not saved from their sin. Especially as we have already pointed out, that God still cares for and sees those who are outside of those He’s chosen to reveal Himself through (Abraham… Hagar).

Joseph has these dreams and in both the dreams we see that they represent the family kneeling and bowing before him. In the first one it is just his brothers. In the second it is even his father and most likely his step-mother.

As you can imagine if you have siblings, a younger sibling, and then think if maybe that sibling is more favored by dad than you… then the little guy comes up to you and says that I had a dream and all ya’ll were bowing to me.

The sheaves of grain could possibly speak to how Jacob would provide for them in the future as they would have to go down to Egypt to get grain during a future famine. They would have to kneel before Jacob to receive that grain that would allow them to live.

Then the celestial dream could just speak to his authority that he would have over them as he will eventually ascend to be a high ranking official in Egypt as our story plays out. Celestial imagery tends to speak to divinity and power in the Ancient Near East. Either way Joseph will have power over them.

His brothers criticized Joseph for things they didn’t understand… the unknown and imperceivable can cause us to get defensive and make poor choices. More on this in a moment.

Israel tells Joseph to go check on his brothers as they are grazing the flocks in an area that is about 50 miles away. Joseph takes about 4 or 5 days to find his brother. The journey from the base of the valley of Hebron to Shechem is 50 miles. He then runs into a stranger that tells Joseph that they have moved on from Shechem to Dothan which is further about 14 miles further down the road.

Minimizing Humanity

They see him coming and they said to each other, “Here comes the dreamer!”

It’s not quite on the surface for me, because I wouldn’t see this name as a pejorative. But because we know they don’t like him already, and the following statements tell us they plot to kill Joseph, I think it’s safe to assume this is a descriptor that makes Joseph “less than”.

Why would they want to kill their brother:

They are far enough away that no one in their family would know about it. There’s no accountability.

They see Joseph as less than equal. There is no limitation to the human mind and the evil that we can do to another image bearer of God (another human) when we see them as less than human. Not only does our text bear this out, but history bears this out as well.

In the United States, there is the Three-Fifths Compromise: This compromise in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the original United States Constitution, stipulated that for purposes of representation in Congress and taxation, enslaved people would be counted as three-fifths of a person. When the constitution was written, it wasn’t then people started thinking that black men and women were less than human, it only solidified what many thought in that day. This allowed humans to do unspeakable things to other humans because they thought they were less than human. All humans are created in the image of God, in the image of God He created them male and female. Repealed by the 14th Amendment in 1868

Nazi policies labeled those who were not ethnic Germans such as Jews, Romanians, Polish, Serbians, Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, and most non-Europeans as inferior non-Aryan subhumans. They placed themselves in a racial hierarchy that placed the “master race” at the top, the Germans themselves (called the People’s Community). They thought blonde hair, blue-eyed, athletic, and tall people were the ideal “Aryan” race. Anyone with a disease, disability, or malformity were often killed because they saw them as less than and polluted the race.

Today in wars between Sunni and Shia, Israelis and Palestinians, Russians towards Ukrainians, there are many examples.

We as followers of Jesus are to be different. We are called to see the image of God in every person. We are created in the image of God, in His image He has created us, male and female. We must fight the urge to see people as less then no matter how much we disagree with them. Republican, Democrat, Vegan, Vegetarian, Meat Eater, Gun owner, pacifist, 49er fans, Dodgers fans… everyone is created in the image of God and worthy of love, respect, and dignity. It seems now a days we have to fight for that. The prejudice can run deep in our own hearts, it’s against that I warn us to be mindful of and bring that to the Lord if we have it in our hearts.

If we are encountering something we don’t understand, we can be defensive and even offended. We have take that to the Lord and pray for His heart for people. God give me eyes to see others as you see them. God, lead me in scripture to know and see people as you see them.

Matthew 5:43–48 ““You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

In an analysis of the Cain and Abel story, Miroslav Volf notes the pattern that we see in the story of Joseph and his brothers: “First came envy … then came anger, that ‘passionate againstness,’ directed both at God and Abel.” Longman, T., III. (2016). Genesis (T. Longman III, Ed.; p. 464). Zondervan.

They plot to kill him, but we see that for some reason that Reuben tries to step in that he might save his brothers life. So they toss him in a cistern. As the eldest, Reuben should have protected his young brother right from the start. Rather than devising a plot to subtly rescue him (which will backfire on him), he should have immediately quelled his brothers’ plot. Longman, T., III. (2016). Genesis (T. Longman III, Ed.; pp. 460–461). Zondervan.

Cisterns were either hollowed out of limestone bedrock or dug in the ground and lined with plaster. Since most of Israel’s rainfall is confined to three or four months of the year, these cisterns collected the rainwater and made it available during the dry period. It was not unusual that during part of the year they were dry Walton, J. H. (2001). Genesis (p. 665). Zondervan.

Judah has the brilliant idea that instead of killing him where they don’t get any benefit other than relief of their annoying brother, sell him for some cash. There was caravan approaching, he got the idea, and they capitalized on the opportunity selling Jospeh to these traders. 20 pieces of silver… what seemed to be the going rate for a male slave.

The With-ness of God

They take his goat, sacrifice a goat, dip his coat in the blood and bring it back to Israel so that he “might identify it” and their diabolical plan would be complete and none the wiser.

For now we can already see that God was not at all absent when Joseph was thrown into the cistern and sold to the Ishmaelite traders, he was using the sinful motives and actions of the brothers to begin a process that would lead to the rescue of the family of God from the effects of a devastating famine.

Readers today should take encouragement from this story. Is life a mess? Does God seem absent? Remember that God can use the difficulties and pain of life to accomplish his purposes through you and for you.

Again, touching on a point to be developed at much further length later, Joseph here anticipates an even greater rescue. Jesus, like Joseph, suffered at the hands of others who just wanted to harm him. Indeed, as Peter told the crowd on Pentecost, “you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” but this was all according to “God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23). The evil perpetrated against Jesus resulted in a far greater salvation, one from sin and death, than the salvation that resulted from Joseph’s actions. Longman, T., III. (2016). Genesis (T. Longman III, Ed.; p. 463). Zondervan.

The brothers, though, did act on their hate-filled envy by selling Joseph into slavery, faking his death, and reporting the fact to his father. By doing this, did they get what they wanted? After Joseph was gone from the scene, did Jacob love the other brothers more? Did the family move from dysfunction to happiness? Of course, the answer to both questions is no. “This is the irony of these dark desires: they actually destroy what we want.”

In the Old Testament period, God made his special presence known, and often the righteous realized that God was with them (Psalm 73) and that the prosperity of the wicked was only apparent and short lived, not real.

Psalm 73:2–5 “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.”

Those of us who live in the twenty-first century encounter many things that can evoke our envy. We are exposed to the lives of the rich and powerful on television shows; constant advertisements play on our desires for more and better luxury items. No matter how much money and how many possessions we have, there is always an appetite for more. The biggest lie of the 20th and 21st century is when politicians and leaders get up and point at others saying, they are the problem. Those people are who we need to get rid of and life will be like what we imagine.

Like the psalmist we need to go into the presence of God and have our priorities corrected. Here is the true reality, if we have a vibrant, intimate relationship with God what else do we need? Longman, T., III. (2016). Genesis (T. Longman III, Ed.; p. 465). Zondervan.

Psalm 73:13–17 “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments. If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.”

Conclusion

The story of Joseph reminds us that even in our darkest moments, when we feel abandoned in the cistern of life, God is still working His divine plan. Just as Joseph's suffering led to the salvation of his family, and ultimately points to Christ's sacrifice for our sins, our own trials often serve a greater purpose. When we find ourselves gripped by envy, favoritism, or seeing others as less than human, let us remember that each person bears God's image. In a world that constantly tells us we need more—more status, more possessions, more power—the truth is that our deepest fulfillment comes through a vibrant, intimate relationship with God. As we leave today, may we seek His heart, pray for eyes to see others as He sees them, and trust that even when the path seems unclear, He is guiding our steps toward redemption. For in the end, like Joseph, our story isn't about human success, but divine sovereignty working all things together for good.