Genesis 37:12

Jacob had many sheep and cattle. His sons fed the sheep at Shechem — the city where they had killed its people. Hebron, high on a mountain, makes us think of heaven; but Shechem makes us think of sin, deception and murder. Jacob's sons left Hebron and their father to feed the sheep down at Shechem. Have we not all left our heavenly Father and chosen this bad world?

Why this return to Shechem? Was it because the purchased land, the family estate, was there? It was a dangerous place to be connected with. It had proved a snare to the whole family, and the Lord had called them away from it. Had Jacob been as watchful as he should have been, we might not now be hearing again of Shechem and of the flocks and the brothers there. Still, it is good to see signs of uneasiness in his mind about it. He sends Joseph to find out how the flocks and the brothers were doing there, as though he had some misgiving about them in such a suspect place. We may take this as the pulse of an awakened soul in Jacob, though that pulse is weak.

Shechem means "shoulder." It speaks of taking up responsibility, which Israel did under law. So the Lord Jesus, sent by the Father, came to the place where Israel was responsible to be, under the law God had given them. Joseph was sent "from the valley of Hebron" (v. 14). Hebron means "communion." This reminds us that the Father sent His Son from the place of close communion. That communion had been the portion of the Father and the Son from all past eternity.

Joseph gives willing and hearty obedience. "Here am I," he answers to his father's command. "So," we read, "he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem." Here we see a picture of the coming of the Son of God into the world. In type, it is the arrival of Israel's Messiah among them. He was "sent" by his father; and in the New Testament we read that "the Father has sent the Son."

Joseph then starts on his mission. He is sure of his father's love and aware of his brothers' hatred… He answered the will of the father, and did not shrink from the post of danger which the father did not fear for him… So Joseph followed this path of service, carrying his father's message and showing his father's concern. He came to Shechem. There his mission met a check: his brothers were not there. Such checks often happen to test how real we are — whether the Father's will is all we want. Joseph's heart was set on finishing the mission. Instead of going home when he could not find them, he waits at his post until he gets news of them.

In his own measure Joseph was like the Lord. He was a vessel of divine wisdom in humiliation that deepened into the shadow of death. His brothers rejected and scorned him most of all, and he was sold to the Gentiles. The very errand of love on which his father sent him to them gave them the opportunity for taking out their hatred on his lowly and blameless head.