Encore Post: Israel had not learned his lesson. Like his grandfather and parents. He had favored one of his wives over another and he now doubled-down and favored Rachael’s children over the children of Leah, her female servant and Rachael’s female servants. When God revealed to Moses later with the Ten Commandments that sins travel to the third or fourth generation, he was not kidding!
Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons, because he was born in the patriarch’s old age — and was Rachael’s sons. It did not escape Joseph’s brothers that their father loved him more than any of them — especially when Israel made Joseph a fancy robe (the Hebrew for the phrase “coat of many colors” is uncertain in meaning. It is translated in the Septuagint as “robe with long sleeves”). It didn’t help when God revealed to Joseph in two dreams that he would rule over his family — and used it to torment them.
Eventually, his brothers had enough. The seized him, took his robe and threw him into a cistern. When a caravan came by, they sold Joseph into slavery. Then they tore Joseph’s robe, dipped it in goat’s blood and showed it to Israel. The deceit worked and Israel thought his favorite son dead, killed by a wild beast. He mourned Joseph greatly.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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