Why did Jacob give Joseph a coat of many colors?

We have Jacob's love for Joseph next. We read in verse 3, "Now Jacob loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age." This suggests to us the love of God the Father to His Son Jesus Christ. Twice God opened heaven over His head, and said, "This is My beloved Son." Twice our Lord Himself said, when here on earth, "The Father loveth the Son" (John 3:35; John 5:20); and He is called by the Spirit, "the Son of His love" (Col. 1:13, margin). Precious as this is, we cannot dwell upon it, as there are other points to notice and take up our time.

Israel, we read, made his son "a coat of many colors." This has, evidently, some typical significance. The question is, what does it signify? Scripture itself, I think, supplies the answer. I shall ask you to turn to two passages, Judges 5:30, and 2 Sam. 13:18. In Judges 5 you will see it is "the mother of Sisera" who speaks in the 30th verse. She was awaiting the return of her son from his war with the Israelites. She had not yet been apprised of the fact that he had been slain by the hand of a woman, Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. So, we read, "She looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his chariots?" Her "wise ladies" volunteer to explain the cause of the delay; which, however, she heeds not, but repeats to herself, "Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colors, a prey of divers colors of needlework, of divers colors of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?" Here we have a hint as to the use in Old Testament times of these garments of divers colors. They were worn as marks of distinction, "meet for the necks of them that take the spoil," Sisera's mother says. He should wear this "prey of divers colors" as a distinctive honor becoming such a mighty conqueror as he, she thought. The verse in 2 Samuel reads, "And she had a garment of divers colors upon her: for with such robes were the king's daughters that were virgins appareled." Here we have the many-colored garments again referred to as a mark of honorable distinction, as the attire of unmarried princesses. Such a garment would mark one as a person of noble birth, or of very high standing. And this is what Jacob, doubtless, had in view when he gave to Joseph the coat of many colors. He would have a mark of honor placed upon him to distinguish him from his other sons. Such a mark would attract attention. Everybody would understand the meaning of his many-colored coat.

Verse 3 tells us that Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons. This was Jacob's failure, for love in a family should be thoroughly impartial and concerned about the true welfare of every child. However, above all this, we are reminded in this history that God's love for His Son is necessarily unique. The garment of many colors Jacob made for Joseph (v. 3) is typical of the many features of the glories of the Lord Jesus, for indeed all the colors of the rainbow are involved in giving us some little picture of the attributes of this blessed person in His very nature as the eternal God.

However, the love of Jacob for Joseph drew out the bitter animosity of his brothers. Jacob was to blame for this, or course, not Joseph, but the same thing has happened in many families. In the case of the Lord Jesus, Israel hated both Him and His Father (John 15:24), nor did they have the slightest excuse for this, as Jacob's brethren might have had for hating Joseph.

If, however, the character of Joseph set him apart from his brethren, the love of his father gave him a distinguished place above his brethren, for we read "Israel loved Joseph more than all his children." Moreover Israel bears witness to this place of distinction by clothing Joseph with a coat of many colours — a public testimony to the delight of the father in his son. At once our thoughts travel from Joseph to Christ and the unique place He had in the Father's affections, and the Father's pleasure in bearing witness to His delight in His Son. The very chapter that tells us, "God so loved the world," also tells us that "the Father loves the Son." A measure is given to the love of God for the world, infinite though it be, but no measure is, or can be, given for the Father's love to the Son. The announcement stands in all its majestic dignity. "The Father loves the Son," and faith delights to accept it. But if the Father can furnish no measure for this love, He can bear witness to His love for the Son. Joseph's coat of many colours, the public testimony of his father's love, has its bright counterpart in the opened heavens of the New Testament. Never are the heavens opened apart from Christ, and when opened they always bear some fresh witness to the Father's delight in the all-varied graces of the Son. No sooner has Christ taken His place on earth as the Servant of Jehovah than at once "the heavens were opened to Him" that the host of heaven might look down on a Man on earth of whom the Father can say: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17). A little later and again the heavens are opened, that a man on earth may look up and bear witness to "the Son of Man" in heaven (Acts 7:55-56). Again, the day is not far distant when the heavens will be opened to let the Son of Man come forth in glory as the victorious "King of kings, and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:11-16). Having come forth as King of kings the heavens will again be opened that ascending and descending angels may bear witness to the Son of Man reigning in glory on the earth (John 1:51). On these bright occasions we see our Lord Jesus invested with the coat of many colours. In other words, we see in the opened heavens the Father's delight in Christ as His beloved Son in humiliation, as the Son of Man in heavenly glory, and as the King of kings and Lord of lords, coming forth to reign on the earth as Son of Man in supreme power and glory.

The first notice we have of him is respecting his position in his father's house. "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colours." Thus loved and signalised by his father, his heart was enlarged. Tasting the sweetness of affection its own was drawn out; for nothing generates affection in us so much as the assurance of its existence for us; as it is written, "We loved him because he first loved us." When love asserts its claim, every other claim as acknowledged and valued as only opportunities for its expression. So Joseph's heart in tender age expanded in the genial atmosphere of his father's love; but this, at the same time, exposed him to the envy of those who had proved themselves unworthy of it. "His brethren hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him." While on the one side he learned the tenderness and resources of his father's affection, on the other he suffered reproach and persecution for being so favoured. If the one attracted him to his father, the other painfully warned him that he must be dependent on his affection, for, outside it, and on account of it, he was a sufferer.

Thus, early in life, and in the domestic circle, did Joseph learn (as indeed of all God's servants) the elementary principles of that truth which must sustain him, in the highest services by and by; even that as the loved of God, he is the hated of man. The love of the father, conspicuously indicated by the coat of many colours, must compensate him for the hatred of the brethren; must nerve and prepare him for all their opposition and envy, and this is the first and greatest lesson which the servant of God has to learn on entering his course, that which Christ (of whom Joseph is the type) so fully and perfectly apprehended; He who, ever dwelling in the full consciousness of the Father's love, was thereby enabled to meet unmoved all the hatred and malice of man. And still further, the one who best knows the father's love must be the best exponent of that love — the best qualified servant for the father to send on a mission of interest to those who were ignorant of it. "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Joseph, still bearing out his character of type and servant, is deputed by his father to see how his brethren fared; but before this event there are two intimations given him of the position which he must occupy by and by with respect to these communications. He receives no support from his father, who rebukes him, and this, with the concomitant and increased opposition of his brethren, laid the groundwork of that dependence on God and dependence of man which so distinguished his after course. The prospects which divinely occupy my soul may be ill-received by all around me, even by valued friends and guides; but they are mercifully given in order to confirm the soul, and still more to convince me, when the realisation supervenes, how true and constant has been God's care of me.

Jacob's ten sons were now grown to be men, though Joseph was only seventeen years old, and Benjamin, just a child. Joseph lived with his father in Hebron, a beautiful valley on a mountain. The ten sons were all bad. They fed the sheep, and Joseph told his father of their bad ways. Jacob loved Joseph most, therefore his brothers hated him. Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colours, and they hated him more.

The ten elder sons of Jacob were, in their early days, a source of great trouble and sorrow to their father. Joseph, however, who was the eleventh son of Jacob, as a child, was obedient and faithful, so that he was a great comfort to his father.

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.” Joseph had done them no harm, nay, he loved them, oh, so much: yet he lived among his brethren as one alone. He “was separate from his brethren.” How keenly poor Joseph must have felt it, when he “was feeding the flock with his brethren;” or, if he was at home with them, never to hear a kind word from one of them.

Joseph was worthy of his father’s love, for he was obedient—he was faithful—and he did that which was right. But his brethren, alas, did that which was evil. He could not leave off doing what was right; and they would not leave of doing what was wrong. And they would not love him as he loved them; but “they hated” Joseph without a cause. Joseph had told his father the truth about his brethren, when they had done that which was evil; but we do not read that he ever told his father anything about the hatred they bore to himself. His father appears to have been ignorant of all this.

But God knew all about it. And the Lord would not allow Joseph’s heart to be cast down with overmuch sorrow. He caused Joseph to dream a dream. He dreamt that himself and his brethren were binding sheaves in the field, and his sheaf arose, and stood upright, while all his brethren’s sheaves bowed to his sheaf. Joseph told this dream to his brethren. Perhaps, he hoped that they would be pleased to hear his dream: but they only hated him the more. A second time he dreamed, and in this second dream, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to him. He told his father this dream, as well as his brethren. And his father at first “rebuked him,” but he “observed the saying.” And his brethren envied him.

At the outset he is presented to us as the son specially beloved of his father on the one hand, and as dissociated from the evil ways of his brothers on the other. The former fact was signalized by the "coat of many colours," and the latter by Joseph bringing to his father the evil report of the doings of the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. Thus is foreshadowed the unique Sonship of the Lord Jesus and His refusal of and separation from the evil ways of men.

As a result a complete breach supervened between Joseph and his brethren. Knowing human nature it is just what we should expect in such a situation. The more it was manifest that he was specially beloved of his father, the more they hated him. To begin with their hatred affected their speech — they "could not speak peaceably to him." Later their hatred flared up into wicked action. But we see at once a type of the One of whom Psalm 69 speaks prophetically "They … hate Me without a cause;" and again, "I am become a stranger to My brethren, and an alien to my mother's children."

Next there follows the record of Joseph's two dreams. Now it is remarkable how large a part was played by dreams in his history, since, before the climax is reached, no less than five are recorded, and every one of them contained a prophecy. Each of them therefore was produced by the finger of God touching the unconscious mind of the sleeper, and marked a Divine intervention, and indeed a revelation of secret things.

Separation hadn’t been the choice of Joseph or his father. Joseph and his father Jacob had a very close relationship and they shared their concern for Joseph’s brothers. Unfortunately, the brothers were involved with improper things, and Joseph in faithfulness to his father had to report to him their evil ways. These reports, along with his dreams and father’s favouritism, caused his brethren to hate him. In spite of Joseph’s care and concern for his brethren, they plotted and found a way to get rid of him. The message sent home to father in the form of a coat dipped in blood prompted Jacob to believe some wild beast had killed his son.

It was not possible for brethren to dwell together in unity with such different lifestyles and goals. But Joseph’s brothers wished to go their own ways even though they were not united in their willful ways. As we read their history we see many problems between them. But they were quite united in wanting to get rid of Joseph. His honesty and uprightness, along with his dreams and special place of affection with father, seemed to be too much for them. So the exclusion comes from their side.

Of Joseph it is written “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a coat of many colours” (Gen. 37:3). Because of his father’s love for him, and the favour shown, Joseph became the object of his brethren’s hatred (verse 4). the hatred typified in Joseph’s brethren was seen in its fullest expression in the hatred of the Jews to the Son of God in Manhood.

The special place that Jesus as God’s Son has in His Father’s affections is also typified by Jacob’s love for Joseph. Israel had twelve sons, but there was one who had a special place in his heart, and this was Joseph, and the affection of Jacob for Joseph was shown in that “he made him a coat of many colours” (Gen. 37:3). God in His wondrous grace has brought His saints into relationship with Him as children and as His sons, and has given us “the Spirit of His Son…crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6), but we must never forget that the Son has His own peculiar place in the bosom of the Father that is His alone. His eternal relationship with the Father as the eternal Son is only His, but He has come into Manhood as Son that we might be sons with Him before the face of the Father.

Even as the coat of many colours belonged only to Joseph, so there are glories that belong to the Son alone. As Son of Man He will come out “in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels’ (Luke 9:26). Personally, the Son is “the Firstborn of all the creation,” and “the Firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:15, 18), and this as God’s “dear Son” (verse 13); and if we are His brethren, according to the Father’s purpose and grace, He takes His place as “the Firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). We may have the privilege of sitting with Him upon His throne, but the throne is His, and He is the appointed heir of all things, in all things having the pre-eminence.