Jacob was not perfect. He lied, he cheated, and he risked other people’s lives for his own sake. He also had a problem with picking favorites. In Genesis 29, he was tricked into marrying both Leah and Rachel and we are told he loved Rachel more. This led to strife in the family. Now, in Genesis 37 we are told that he’s playing favorites with his kids, too.

Jacob loved Joseph more than his other children and he had no problem showing it. He gave Joseph a special robe and, similar to Rachel and Leah, it caused strife in the family. In fact, Joseph’s brothers hated him. Playing favorites always leads to heartache and resentment and can even lead to hatred.

Now, Joseph didn’t make things any easier on himself. He had some dreams. One was some sheaves of grain his brothers and he were binding where his sheave rose up and his brothers’ sheaves all bowed down to his. His brothers didn’t care for his sharing that dream. Then he had a second dream where the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to him (he had eleven brothers). This time even his father took issue with the telling of the dream.

Between the robe and the dreams, Joseph’s brothers decided to kill him. His oldest brother, however, managed to spare his life and just sell him into slavery to some Egyptians who were passing by. I guess that better?

Working Good from Bad
The amazing thing in this story is that despite Jacob’s favoritism, Joseph’s pride, and his brother’s hatred, God worked through this. He caused Joseph to eventually become the 2nd most powerful person in Egypt who saved his family and all of Egypt from a severe famine and then moved his family into a lush area of Egypt where God blessed his family with great prosperity.