The Scorn of this World

Understanding Opposition through lens of Joseph's Life

Genesis 37:12-36

Do you ever feel like the world is out to get you? Sometimes, when people feel this way, it is paranoia. Maybe you have fallen into this trap yourself, feeling certain that someone you know is mad at you when in reality they are not even thinking about you at all. Frankly, there are a lot of times when the sense that the whole world is working against you is nothing more than self-pity, as if bad things only happen to you. All this to say, there are a lot of times when we feel like we are up against the whole world and in reality we are battling our own flesh. However, sometimes what we feel is the scorn of this world.

When you follow the Lord with your life you will frequently find yourself at odds with this world. If friendship with this world results in enmity with God, then you can count on the fact that friendship with God will result in enmity with this world (cf. James 4:4). If you are in union with Christ through faith, then you will be treated with the same kind of scorn that Christ faced during his earthly ministry (John 15:18-19). Your relationship with Christ and your pursuit of holiness will offend those who are rebelling against Christ and running from holiness. To be clear, not every unbeliever will equally oppose, persecute, and hate every believer. However, the world as a Satanically led and collectively rebellious whole is certainly at odds with God. To follow Christ is to accept the scorn of this world, and Joseph is an example of this principle. Joseph did not invite the hatred of his brothers through foolish behavior. In fact, he was hated for his righteousness and because of God’s call on his life. Joseph faced the scorn of wicked men primarily because of his relationship with YHWH and, as a result, his life teaches us some valuable lessons about facing the scorn of this world.

In Genesis 37:12-36 readers are confronted by the hatred that Joseph’s brothers had for him and forced to contemplate what this hatred teaches them about the scorn of the world. Joseph’s brothers are mentioned 21 times in this chapter, and their disdain for Joseph is a major theme of this passage (vv. 4, 5, 8, 11; cf. Acts 7:9). The hatred that Joseph faced teaches some insightful lessons on the scorn that Christians can sometimes face for their faith.

“Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’ And he said to him, ‘Here I am.’ So he said to him, ‘Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.’ So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’ ‘I am seeking my brothers,’ he said. ‘Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.’ And the man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.”’ So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.’ But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ And Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, ‘The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?’ Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, ‘This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.’ And he identified it and said, ‘It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.’ Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, ‘No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.’ Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.” (Genesis 37:12–36, ESV)

One of the lessons that we learn from this passage is that God not only allows us to face the scorn of this world, he frequently leads us directly into the scorn of this world. The sovereignty of God applies to relationships, persecution, and the difficulties that come from being at odds with the spirit of the age. In Joseph’s case, Genesis 37 shows that God providentially removed Joseph from the protection of his father and actively placed him in a dangerous situation with his brothers.

Jacob had pasture lands spread out in many places at this time, and his ten sons had led his flocks 50-60 miles away from home. Wanting to know the condition of his flocks, Jacob made a stunning miscalculation by sending Joseph to his brothers. They hated Joseph with murderous malice and a jealous obsession. Jacob was acting in ignorance since he did not know the hearts of his ten sons. However, God knew their intentions and he still let Joseph go to them. In fact, God not only allowed Joseph to leave his father’s protection, he directed Joseph right into the hands of his wicked brothers. When Joseph was lost and could not find his brothers, a random and unnamed stranger shows up at that exact moment to tell Joseph where to go. This is either an angelic messenger from the Lord, or it is the providence of God. Either way, God sent Joseph into the hands of his brothers just like he sent Daniel into the lion’s den and just like he handed Christ over to the Romans.

The principle that we see unfolding in this scenario is that God is not only with us in the valley of the shadow of death, he also leads us into the valley in the first place! Why? In the case of Joseph, God sent him into danger so that he would end up in Egypt at just the right time to save his family from the famine that no one knew was coming. In our lives, we don’t always know why God directs us into the dangers of this world, but we can trust that he is working out his plan to fulfill his promises in our lives no matter how intense the scorn of this world might become. We want to be able to explain our pains and blame someone for the scorn that we face, but sometimes God just lets it happen for his good purposes.

Another lesson that we see on display in Genesis 37 is that the world hates us because it hates God’s word. One of the major contributing factors in the scorn that we face is the reality that the world has rejected the word of God. This adversarial relationship with God’s revelation is what produces an adversarial relationship with his people.

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18, ESV)

“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10, ESV)

In the case of Joseph, a big part of his brothers’ disdain can be traced back to their own broken relationship with YHWH. Their father, Jacob, had removed foreign gods from his household (Gen 35:4), but not until most of his boys were old enough to get a dangerous taste for idolatry. In fact, it seems as though Joseph is the lone member of the family who accepts his father’s reforms and joined in whole-hearted worship of his father’s God. There may very well have been tension between siblings about this issue. Whether or not this is the case is up for interpretation, but what is undeniable is that Joseph’s brothers despised the dreams that Joseph received from the Lord. As Joseph approached his brothers in the field “They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.’” (Genesis 37:19–20, ESV)

Joseph had received two dreams from God that indicated his brothers would have to come to him in order to be fed and that his entire family would end up following his leadership. Despite his brothers’ skepticism, these dreams were not random manifestations of Joseph’s hidden ambitions; they were revelation from God. Before God gave his people the entirety of his word, he occasionally revealed his plan to them in the form of dreams. This is what happened with Joseph, and it is likely why Joseph was so eager to tell his family about these dreams. Joseph was not being boastful when he told his brothers about his dreams; he was sharing the word of God with his brothers. All this to say, Joseph’s brothers hated him, in large part, because they hated the word of God.

The same thing still happens today. Maybe you have shared the truth with your family and now you are the black sheep at family gatherings. Maybe you had to take a stand for the truth at work and it affected your advancement within the company. Or, maybe you have seen godless rioters storming church gatherings and you are scared that the same thing could happen at your church. The reality behind all of this animosity toward Christianity is that the world does not want the truth that the church is called to proclaim. In fact, the world is violently and vociferously trying to suppress the truth.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18, ESV)

We certainly do not want to earn the ire of this world through foolish, ungodly, or cowardly behavior, but we should also expect scorn when we preach and live out the truth.

Another lesson we can learn from the hatred of Joseph’s brothers is that God restrains wicked hearts from doing worse things to his people. As real as the scorn of the world may be, it would be a lot worse if God were not restraining the evil of this world. What we see going on in our culture today is not so much the proliferation of evil as it is the removal of restraint. God has increasingly removed impediments to sin as a judgment against the collective evils of our society. Were it not for the remaining restraints that God has allowed to stay in place, our culture would devolve even further into anarchy and insanity.

Even in the dire situation with Joseph that we read about in Genesis 37, things could have been much worse if it were not for the restraint of the Lord. For instance, Jacob’s oldest son, Reuben, had an inexplicable moment of moral restraint which prevented his brothers from committing murder. While Joseph begged for his life from the bottom of a pit (cf. Gen 42:21), Judah’s greed restrained his brothers from killing Joseph and instead they sold him into slavery. The whole episode is an awful display of human depravity, but it would have been even worse if God had not restrained the wickedness of Joseph’s brothers. This is what God does for his people when he limits evil, and it reveals several important theological truths:

• The restraining grace of God reveals the sinfulness of sin, because as bad as things are, without the restraint of God the devastation of sin would be even worse.

• The restraining grace of God reveals the patience of God, since the Lord patiently restrains sin rather than immediately condemning sinners (he does, in his perfect timing, eventually condemn sinners who do not trust in Christ).

• The restraining grace of God reveals his lovingkindness toward his elect. Undeservedly, he limits our rebellion against him so that we can come to Christ for forgiveness. Think about Joseph’s brothers. He kept these men from murdering Joseph so that he could save them from starvation through the ministry of their brother.

There is one more lesson we can learn from the hatred of Joseph’s brothers: God sovereignly uses evil deeds to accomplish his good purpose. This is one of the more prominent and most frequently occurring themes of Joseph’s life, and it begins in Genesis 37. What his brothers did to him was egregiously wicked, which is why Reuben tore his clothes when he found out about it. However, rather than repenting of their sin, Reuben and his brothers covered the whole thing up. Ironically, they used a goat to deceive the man who had deceived his father with a goat. They convinced Jacob that Joseph had died and, what’s more, that they did not have anything to do with it. These men allowed their father to experience the grief of losing a child, and they allowed their brother to be sold into slavery.

In modern terms Joseph’s brothers were guilty of kidnapping, assault, human trafficking, and conspiracy. What they did was demonstrably evil by virtually any standard, and yet, God orchestrated it all for a good purpose. This is not some modern reinterpretation of the circumstances; this is exactly how Joseph viewed this tragedy:

“His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, ‘Behold, we are your servants.’ But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.’ Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.” (Genesis 50:18–21, ESV)

This is the truth that is at the heart of Joseph’s life, and it is at the core of the Christian faith. The story of the gospel is the story of God using the evil acts and intentions of man to provide sinners with a substitutionary sacrifice for their sins:

“for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” (Acts 4:27–28, ESV)

Thinking back on the scorn of this world, when God’s people face the rage of the nations they must steadfastly trust in the gracious hand of God, “who is good and does good” (Ps 119:68). This is true when your brothers beat you up and sell you into slavery. It is also true when a godless mob storms your church. God is at work when we face the scorn of this world.

*Photo Credit: Denny Burk X post