Genesis 37 – Joseph Sold Into Slavery
November 4, 2025
Genesis 37 begins the final major section of the book of Genesis - the story of Jacob's second-youngest son Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers. Although the brothers had initially intended to kill Joseph, they decided to sell him as a slave instead. Despicable as the brothers' maltreatment of Joseph was, their jealousy was due to their father Jacob's favoritism of Joseph and his younger brother Benjamin - the sons of Jacob's favorite wife Rachel - over the elder sons of Jacobs other wives. This favoritism caused trouble in Jacob's family just as Jacob's mother Rebekah's favoritism of Jacob over his twin brother Esau had years before.Yet all of the players in this little drama were unknowingly acting in accordance with God's sovereign plan to use Joseph in Egypt to rescue the nation of Israel (Jacob) out of starvation in Canaan so that Jacob's son Judah could become the forebear of King David and ultimately Jesus of Nazareth through whom God fulfilled His promise to Jacob's grandfather Abraham that through his seed all the families of Earth would blessed.
