Genesis 37:6

Next comes the record of Joseph's two dreams. It is striking how large a part dreams played in his history. Before the story reaches its climax, Scripture records no fewer than five, and every one of them contained a prophecy. So the finger of God produced each dream, touching the sleeper's unconscious mind. Each one marked a Divine intervention — indeed, a revelation of secret things.

Joseph spoke the truth about their evil ways, and his father loved him. That made him hateful to the sons of the servant mothers. The special robe Jacob gave him did not soften their harshness, and neither did his two dreams. "Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?" Was it wise or fitting to tell his dreams to those who had no love for him? That may be a question. But the dreams were of God, just as their effect on his brothers was of the enemy.

Now, in Joseph's case, we see that he in no way relaxed his testimony because his brothers refused his first dream. "Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more" … "Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers." This was simple testimony founded on divine revelation. But this testimony brought Joseph down to the pit. If he had held back his testimony, or blunted its edge and power, he might have spared himself. But no — he told them the truth, and so they hated him.

The dreams speak of Joseph's future supremacy, and that gives the brothers a fresh motive for envy and hatred. He had been a witness against them of their evil; now he is a witness to them of his future glory. They will have neither one nor the other. The Lord did the same. He witnessed against the evil of the world and bore witness to His coming glories. Like Joseph, He drew the world's hatred upon Himself. Before the assembled leaders of Jerusalem the Lord speaks of His coming glories: "From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power." A furious outburst of hatred follows that confession. Priests and elders unite to spit in the face of the Son of God.

In Joseph's first dream he tells his brothers that he and they were binding sheaves of grain in the field: his sheaf arose and stood erect, and those of his brothers all bowed down to his sheaf (v. 7). Joseph probably did not understand that God meant the dream as a prophecy: his brothers would one day bow to his authority. Genesis 42:6 tells us they did. Of course, the most vital lesson here is that all Israel will yet bow to the Lord Jesus, whom they have despised and hated.

We may not doubt that God had a gracious purpose here. He was exercising Joseph's spirit and strengthening his heart for the distress and many troubles that would be his portion before those remarkable foreshadowings came true… The brothers could not easily forget dreams so simple and striking, dreams that touched nearly the whole family. Still less could the sufferer forget them. In the middle of much grief and shame, he remembered the visions of strange dignity that awaited him within his lifetime and theirs.