Read with Me
Genesis 37:12-17 (HCSB)
His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I’m sending you to them.”
“I’m ready,” Joseph replied.
Then Israel said to him, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.
A man found him there, wandering in the field, and asked him, “What are you looking for?”
“I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph said. “Can you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”
“They’ve moved on from here,” the man said. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
Listen with Me
Joseph, being young, seventeen years old, and precious to his father, Jacob, was generally allowed to stay close to home with his brother, Benjamin, when his older siblings took the family flocks to the far pastures. But in this instance, his brothers had been gone longer than expected, so Jacob decided to send Joseph to make sure that all was well.
The trip from Hebron to Shechem was around thirty-five miles, making it a two-day journey. But when Joseph arrived, he checked all the usual pastures and found no recent sign of his brothers or the flocks. That was when a helpful man who knew the family told him that he had heard them say that they were going to go to Dothan, several miles further north, in search of better grazing.
The additional distance meant that it would be early the following day before Joseph finally reached their camp. But that was fine with him. He was committed to completing the task he had been assigned. So, he stared immediately for Dothan.
Pray with Me
Father, even at seventeen, Joseph was a conscientious young man, willing to do whatever was necessary to complete the task he had been given. That personal trait would continue to be evident in his life over the next several decades, enabling him to survive the hardships that lay just ahead of him, and later helping in the meteoric rise that You had planned for him. Thank You, Lord, for this wonderful model. Amen.