Have you ever been “blind-sided” by a supposed friend?

Joseph’s father had sent him on an errand, to check on ten brothers shepherding the flocks and herds a long way from home.

Joseph was “blind-sided” by ten of his brothers.  All of them were older.  They saw him approaching and decided to kill him.  Reuben said not to shed his blood.  So what happened when Joseph reached his brothers?

(NASB) Genesis 37:23-24 “So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him;
24 and they took him and threw him into the pit.  Now the pit was empty, without any water in it.”

Joseph was unsuspecting.  He was doing the job his father sent him to do.

Picture seventeen year old Joseph approaching his brothers.  He probably was relieved to find them; he had searched for them in various fields.  He expected a welcome, a drink of water and food.

Joseph was grabbed by his brothers and stripped of his beautiful many-colored coat and thrown into a dry pit.  No mention is made of broken bones.  He certainly would have suffered the effects of hitting the bottom of the pit.

Unsuspecting Joseph met real adversity; he was hated by his older brothers.

As he lay at the bottom of that pit, he could smell the meat being cooked and not one bite was offered to him as his brothers ate their meal.

There at the bottom of the pit he could hear his brothers’ words.  They decided not to kill him but sell him as a slave to a passing caravan.

Joseph was helpless, he was not able to defend himself or call out for his father’s protection.

Was Joseph silent?  No!  He cried out to his hate-filled brothers.
Many years later his brothers acknowledged his pleading with them.

(NASB) Genesis 42:21 “Then they (brothers) said to one another, ‘Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen…”

~ Take it to heart ~

When an unsuspected enemy makes your life miserable and gives you great distress, to whom do you turn?

What does the living God of the Holy Bible say?
(NASB) Isaiah 45:22-23 “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
23 ‘I have sworn by Myself,
The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back,
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.”