His Coat

View daily reading plan: Genesis 37.1-4

“Israel loved Joseph” (Gen 37.3). Jacob’s love for Joseph was genuine, but it was rather sentimental; it was “because he was the son of his old age”. The show of favouritism created prejudice against Joseph as his brothers saw him in his special coat while they wore their short shepherd’s tunics.
 
Jacob should have known better. He must have had memories of the unhappiness created by his father’s preference for his brother Esau, and his mother’s partiality towards him. Parents must learn that to have favourites in the family is to set one against the other, and to make unfavourable comparisons between siblings will inevitably foster jealousy and resentment.
 
By contrast, God’s love for His Son was  totally warranted; it was “because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (Jn 10.17). That love was eternal, from “before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17.24), but it was expressed here in time, for example, at the Lord’s baptism; “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3.17). This was heaven’s verdict on the hidden years at Nazareth, when He grew up “before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground” (Is 53.2).
 

Friday, 26 January, 2024