Genesis 37:17-22: Irony.

“17 ‘They have moved on from here,’ the man answered. ‘I heard them say, “Let’s go to Dothan.”’ So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.   19 ‘Here comes that dreamer!’ they said to each other. 20 ‘Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.’ 21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. ‘Let’s not take his life,’ he said. 22 ‘Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.’ Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.” NIV

‘’Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams’’ (20).

There is huge irony in these words. They thought that if they killed Joseph, his dreams could not come true. (In the end, they settled for selling him off as a slave, but they didn’t imagine he would bounce back from obscurity to bother them, any more than from death). Some people thought the same about Jesus. Kill Him, then we’ll hear from him no more! That’s what they thought. For added measure, they put guards outside His tomb, but they could not prevent His re-emergence.

‘Death cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Saviour; He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave He arose…’

‘’Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.’’

 Well they did. They saw them come to pass! What they were not to know at the time was how much they would need them to come true.

Thank God today, that He is in control, and not men.