The Dream Deferred

Genesis 37:12-36

The Detours of a Dream - Week 2

1. _____________ - The Dream of Jacob

So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. (v 14)

Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.  They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."  He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces." (v 31-33)

Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it…Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.  She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins Gen. 27:9, 15-16

2. ____________ - The Dream of the brothers

"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams." (v 20)

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented ^[a] robe for him. (v 3)

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.  All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him. (v 34-35)

3. _____________ - The Dream of Reuben

"Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. (v 22)

While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel [Jacob] heard of it. Genesis 35:22

When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?" (v 29-30)

4. Fulfilling the _________ - The Dream of God

Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. (v 36)

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:1-3

"I am God, the God of your father," he said. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.  I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph's own hand will close your eyes." Genesis 46:3-4)

The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt. Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.  Exodus 1:5-7

Will you let God have all of you today?