And he identified it and said, “It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
Jacob's sons hand him a torn, blood-soaked coat and ask him to identify it. In one breath he reaches a verdict that is wrong, and it will govern the next twenty years of his life.
A verdict reached too quickly
His sons handed him an object, not a statement. They let the evidence speak, and Jacob supplied the story himself — without testing it.
L. M. GrantThey ask their father to examine the coat, to make sure it was Joseph's. Of course, in recognizing it he surmised that a wild animal had killed and eaten his son. It seems it did not occur to him to ask them if they found bones in the area or other articles of clothing. For a wild animal would not be so careful as to hide everything else and leave only a bloodstained coat.
His sons planned that silence. They never spoke the lie out loud.
F. B. HoleHis brothers avoided telling a plain lie; they only implied it, and Jacob fell into their trap.
The harvest of an old deceit
His sons used the same trick he had once used on his own blind father.
Hamilton SmithThirty years before, Jacob had deceived his father with "the skins of the young goats." Now, after long years, his own sons deceive him with "a young goat." There may be long years between the sowing and the reaping, but at last the reaping time comes. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small.
The match goes further than the goat. It reaches back to a garment and a blind old man.
F. B. HoleIn Genesis 27 we read how Jacob deceived his blind father, Isaac, by wearing Esau's fine clothes. Since Esau was the elder, that clothing may have been very similar to Joseph's robe of many colours. By fine clothing Jacob deceived his father; by fine clothing his sons deceived him. As he measured out, so it was measured back to him. God's government of His people works with great precision.
What "torn to pieces" meant to him
Two verses later Jacob says he will go down to Sheol, mourning, to his son. Commentators point out that he cannot have meant a grave.
A J PollockThat the word cannot mean the grave here is clear from this passage. Jacob believed his son Joseph was dead. The sight of his son's robe of many colours, dyed red in blood, deceived him, and he exclaimed, "Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces." So he had not the slightest hope of his own body being put in his son's grave, since he did not believe that grave existed at all.
Two fathers, two responses
Jacob's conclusion shut him in. Another believing father, facing the death of his child, went the other way.
Hamilton SmithJacob says, "I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning." But of David we read that he "arose… and went into the house of the LORD and worshipped." Both men are facing the death of a child. One says, "I will go down to Sheol mourning." The other says, "I will go up to the house of the LORD and worship." Yet both were true saints. One looked no further than death and the grave. The other looked beyond death to resurrection.
A hidden witness
The brothers walked away from that scene believing the matter was closed. It was not.
J. G. BellettJoseph's blood is on themselves, however much they try to hide it. The day is coming when their sin will find them out. Then this blood on Joseph's coat will be a swift witness against them.
Their secret held for a very long time. But one witness knew.
G C WillisFor more than twenty years they kept quiet about the goat's blood on the coat, so nobody knew it — but God.
A son counted dead who was alive
Years later the same sons came back with news that overturned his verdict.
C StanleyWhen Joseph made himself known to his brothers, he had been, as it were, dead for about twenty years. Twenty long years had passed since his father had said, "I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning." Jacob had torn his clothes, put on sackcloth, and wept for him. But now Israel said, "It is enough; Joseph my son is still alive." As a picture of Christ, death and resurrection are the two great points.
Summary
- Sown — Jacob once fooled his blind father with a goat and a garment. The same two things come back to him decades later.
- Reaped — the reaping came late, but it came exactly. God's government works with precision.
- Misread — his sons told no outright lie. They handed him the evidence and let him reach the wrong verdict himself.
- Unresolved — Jacob believed Joseph's body was gone, so he expected no grave and no comfort. He mourned downward, where another father worshipped upward.
- Overturned — the blood on the coat stayed a secret for over twenty years. Then "torn to pieces" gave way to "Joseph my son is still alive."