Wilderness Day 12 Lost, Alone, Forgotten: Digging Deeper

Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
The Questions
1) Why Joseph?
2) Why would Joseph tell his brothers about his dreams if he knew they created tension? (verses 4-5)
3) Why did his family even care about his dreams? Why was a dream so offensive? (verses 8-9)
Genesis 37:1-9
Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 These are the family records of Jacob. At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended sheep with his brothers. The young man was working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought a bad report about them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons because Joseph was a son born to him in his old age, and he made a long-sleeved robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him. 5 Then Joseph had a dream. When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 “Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said. 9 Then he had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
Original Intent
1) Why Joseph?
Joseph was probably thinking the same thing, except he was asking “why me?”. Joseph had no control over where he fell in his family’s birth order or the fact that his father favored him more than his brothers. Yet, here he was, having dreams that seemed to indicate he would hold a position of authority over his brothers. In reality, at least at this point, Joseph’s dreams only seemed to result in harsh treatment and hatred from his family. Honestly, we don’t know, nor is it possible to know, why God chooses to use the people He calls for His purposes. Scripture is full of story after story of God using people who appear disqualified, ill-equipped, sinful, or arrogant. Consider Abraham, David, Peter, and Paul as a handful of examples. Did God use them for mighty work? Yes! Did they begin there? No. Were their lives strewn with stupid choices and disobedience and sin? Yes! Like Joseph, these were not the obvious choice for a huge assignment from God; nonetheless, they were God’s chosen ones. God is supreme and sovereign, and He often works in ways that don’t make sense to anyone else, least of all the person being used. In fact, Isaiah 55:8-9 emphasizes this truth, “My (God’s) thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways.” Joseph and his family likely had more questions than answers as they navigated Joseph’s dreams and tense family drama. Especially when you consider the winding road Joseph would travel to finally see God’s appointed dreams fulfilled.
2) Why would Joseph tell his brothers about his dreams if he knew they created tension? (verses 4-5)
Honestly, I have no idea! Likely, Joseph was simply being a 17-year-old boy who clearly didn’t understand when to keep his mouth shut and not provoke others. Or perhaps, some teenage bravado influenced his decision to push back against his brothers with his dreams of authority over them. However, knowing the end of the story like we do, verbalizing his dreams and documenting them is vitally important to the larger story of God’s chosen people and centrality of the gospel. Joseph sharing his dreams was the tipping point of the dominoes in a way. This one act of seemingly immature judgement led Joseph to being sold into slavery, which brought him into Egypt at just the right time to provide for his family and the whole country. In turn, this action established God’s people in Egypt, providing them a place to flourish for many decades before the next major event of Hebrew slavery, and ultimately, their freedom. All of this pointed far forward to Christ freeing us from the slavery of sin when He was crucified on the cross, taking the punishment we deserved for our sin. When you think it through, Joseph’s decision to share his dreams set much of God’s plan for His people in motion. If you’ve never explored Joseph’s storyline, I encourage you to make time to read through Genesis and Exodus to see how God used Joseph’s life for His glory.
3) Why did his family even care about his dreams? Why was a dream so offensive? (verses 8-9)
In early biblical history, dreams were viewed as divine messages. Prior to Christ’s ascension and the Holy Spirit’s descension into the hearts of Christ-followers, those who feared God didn’t have direct access to Him through the Holy Spirit. God used dreams to communicate with His people before the onset of prophets in the timeline of Israel’s history, but even after the time of the prophets, we still see occasional dreams showing up as God’s method of directing His people. (Matthew 2:13) We know this because some, like Joseph, were also given the ability to interpret dreams. (Genesis 41:12-13) For Joseph’s family to have both a dreamer and an interpreter was kind of a big deal and only served to provide further reasons for Joseph’s brothers to be jealous of him. Apparently, sibling rivalry was alive and well even in biblical times.
Everyday Application
1) Why Joseph?
Isn’t this the question we all have? Why him? Why her? Why me? Jealousy, pride, comparison, fear of being left out or left behind are real struggles with insecurity, identity, and sin that impact us all on different levels. Today, we have the luxury of knowing the end of Joseph’s story. Even if we don’t see the end of our stories and there are a lot of missing pieces from our perspective, we can confidently know God has a plan He will faithfully fulfill. We can choose to trust God when we find either ourselves or others experiencing circumstances that seem to make no sense whatsoever. Personally, there have been times in my life when I was confident God was telling me to do something that made no sense from a human perspective. Perhaps the biggest example was when I clearly heard God tell me to quit my high paying, long term job. This was absolutely senseless from a worldly perspective, but I knew without a doubt this directive had come straight from God. Choosing to follow and obey God during these times can be a lonely place, especially when others don’t understand. I can also tell you from personal experience that deciding to take that step of faith and obey is completely amazing as the Lord will radically grow our faith!
2) Why would Joseph tell his brothers about his dreams if he knew they created tension? (verses 4-5)
I can relate to Joseph and his desire to share his dreams. When I was confident God was leading me to quit my stupid job, there was nothing I wanted more than to share His prompting with others, especially my husband. But, like Joseph’s brothers, he didn’t understand. He didn’t mock or provoke me like Joseph’s siblings; he understood I had been deeply convicted and was willing to support me, but he lacked my personal experience of hearing from the Lord in a real and personal way. By his own admission, there was a tinge of jealousy present as well. He wanted God to tell him the same thing, which didn’t happen for my husband or for Joseph’s brothers. In studying Joseph’s story, we can learn how to respond when friends or family share big dreams or convictions from the Lord with us. Our first responsibility is to come alongside them and help them seek the Lord and His Word together. If hearing from the Lord runs counter to what Scripture teaches, we have a responsibility to lovingly point this out. If dreams and plans do align with biblical principles, we can encourage and support one another, watching to see what God will unfold in their lives for His glory!
3) Why did his family even care about his dreams? Why was a dream so offensive? (verses 8-9)
For people living in the western hemisphere, dreams, visions, and interpretations don’t carry as much weight as they did in ancient cultures. Often, we view dreams as nothing more than neurological stories occurring while we sleep. However, in some cultures, dreams are largely significant and carry heavy spiritual connotations. In eastern cultures, where dream messages are more common, many true followers of Jesus came to Christ through a dream encounter. This should encourage us to see how God uses different means to draw people to Himself. For every dream or vision, we must rely on the truth revealed in Scripture in order to gain trustworthy insights. Only when we view a dream through the lens of God’s Word can we gain solid understanding of God. Whether you’ve had a spiritual dream or not, God speaks to all genuine Christ-followers through His Spirit who lives inside us. In John 14:26 Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” Many of us have dreams from God that He has planted in our hearts and souls. These desires are birthed from His Spirit and He guides us to follow these. If you have dreams like this, share them with believing friends, asking them to pray with you for wisdom as you seek the Lord. Many say God doesn’t speak today, but I beg to differ. God speaks, but we often do a poor job of recognizing His voice because we don’t practice listening to Him through reading His word and praying. Psalm 46:10 (ESV) calls us to “Be still, and know that I am God.” James 4:8 instructs, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” Why not make time to be quiet and listen?
What do YOU think?! Share Here!
Missing the connection to our other Journey Study?
Catch up with Lost, Alone, Forgotten!
Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
Digging Deeper Community
Share What You’ve Learned!
Pray Together!
Join us in the GT Facebook Community!
Our Current Study Theme!
This is Wilderness Week Three!
Don’t miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to receive every GT Journey Study!
Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
Memorize It!

Download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!
Tap and hold on your mobile device to save.