ACCEPTING THE FATHER’S LOVE “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all of his children because he was the son of his old age. Also, he made him a tunic of many colors” Genesis 37:3
Joseph could have had a tough time accepting his father’s gift. He had done absolutely nothing to earn it. He could have thought that proudly wearing such a beautiful and ornate robe would anger some of his brothers whose hearts were not rooted in love and decided not to wear it. Many people have a hard time accepting gifts with no strings attached. They either want to pay something for it, or they feel obliged to return the favor in the future. Martin Luther put it this way, “If God were willing to sell His grace, we would accept it more quickly and gladly than when He offers it for nothing.” But Joseph did not hesitate to gladly receive and wear the gift of his father. His brothers gave him a very tough time simply because Joseph had accepted his beloved position. One day, while his brothers were out tending the flock, Joseph was asked by his father to go see if all was well with them. After heading out, the Bible goes on to
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say that his brothers, “saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him” (Gen 37:18). They said things like, “Let us now kill him and cast him into some pit and we shall say some wild beast has devoured him” (Gen 37:19). So they “stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into the cistern” (Gen 37:23-24). What an interesting detail in this story! Joseph did not come in just any old robe. Joseph came in the richly ornamented robe of his father’s love! He was not intimidated by what other people thought of his beloved status. The first thing his brothers thought to do, because of their anger towards him, was to strip him of that beloved status. In their hatred and resentment they went for the jugular hoping that Joseph would have an identity crisis and never identify with his father’s love again. A little later they would sell him as a