So Esau moved to Seir but Jacob continued living in the land of his father Isaac. And just like their rivalry, another one was brewing between the sons of Jacob.

A combination of Jacob’s love for Joseph and Joseph’s innate nature of telling on his brothers caused friction in the house of Israel. Jacob did not help matters when he made an ornate robe for his favourite son Joseph causing further drift among the siblings.

One day Joseph came to his brothers and narrated an unconventional dream which could only be interpreted as his elder brothers would one day bow down to him.

In another similar dream, he even saw his father and mother along with his brothers represented by celestial objects. All this did not sit well with his brothers who grew more and more jealous of him but his father kept the matter in mind.

One day, Jacob sent Joseph to check on his sons who had gone all the way to Shechem to graze their flocks.

Here comes that dreamer! ” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him

But Reuben wanted to save Joseph and being the eldest was able to convince his brothers to some extent.

They stripped Joseph of his robe and threw him in an empty cistern. While they debated among themselves whether or not to kill him, they saw a caravan of merchants approaching them. Immediately, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver.

Reuben was not present for the sale and was shocked when he learned what his brothers had done . He tore his clothes and started to mourn while the brothers plotted on how to fool their father Jacob.

They slaughtered a goat, dipped the robe in its blood and took the robe to their father and made him connect the dots. Jacob immediately recognized his son’s garments and went into mourning putting on a sackcloth and could not be comforted by any of his sons and daughters.

Questions Discussed in this Podcast –

V3 Why did Jacob love Joseph more than any of his other sons? Benjamin was born to him even at a later age.
V8 Why did Joseph tell his brothers about his dream especially when he used to tell on them to his father?
V9 Cant dreams be just dreams or are these dreams from God?
V10 Was Rachel alive at this time?
V12 Are the brothers now not afraid of the Shechemites?
V15 Who is this mysterious man?
V21 Why does Ruben want to save Joseph when all of his brothers wanted to kill him?
V35 On seeing Jacob’s immense grief, that went on for many days, why didn’t the children confess and tell him about what they had done?

Summary : Jacob was fooled in a very similar way like he fooled his own father all those years back.
Is this Karma or something from God that is happening to him?