COMMENTARY.
Innocent youth. It is impossible not to love the innocent and obedient Joseph, who did not follow his brothers’ evil example, and who was such a joy to his father! Nothing is more beautiful than a holy, untarnished youth. God’s blessing rests on him as it did on Joseph; for it was on account of Joseph’s holy and innocent youth that God chose him for such high things. He who passes his youth in innocence, and is a joy to his parents, will look back to his young days with pleasure, even when he is an old man. On the contrary, if a man stains his beautiful youth with sins and vices, and is a grief to his parents, the memory of his early days will be as a gnawing worm to him for the rest of his life.
Revealing the faults of others. Now, was it nice or right of Joseph to tell his father about his brothers’ sin? One says ‘Yes’, and another says ‘No’; and both are apparently right. If Joseph had taken pleasure in revealing his brothers’ sin, and had hoped to bring punishment on them by doing so, he would have acted very wrongly. He would also have sinned, had he revealed the wrong done to anyone but his father; for that would have been a sin of detraction. Joseph, however, had no bad intention, when he told his father what he knew, but acted out of true love both for God and his brothers, in order that his father might warn them and exercise supervision over them, and that thus his brothers might mend their ways, and not offend God any more. The revelation being necessary, it was Joseph’s duty to make it. If he had kept silence about his brothers’ sin, he would have shared the guilt of it. Had he not told his father, he would have been to blame, if his brothers had sinned again in the same way. You can learn an important rule from Joseph’s conduct on this occasion: Never reveal the faults of others without necessity; but you must (and more especially, if you are asked) reveal them to those who have the right to know, such as your parents, masters &c.; and this, in order that the wrong-doing may be stopped.
Dreams. Joseph’s dreams are called supernatural, because they were sent by God, and had a prophetical meaning. God has often shown men His will by means of dreams. Take, for example, the three kings whom God commanded in a dream not to return to Herod (New Test. VIII). Such dreams are supernatural, because they have a hidden meaning, and God reveals His will through them. It might happen, even now, that God should make known something to some holy person by means of a dream; but in a general way, dreams mean nothing, and are quite ordinary and natural. We possess the teaching of Jesus Christ, by which to know the will of God; and we must pay no attention to dreams and omens, or we shall sin by superstition.
The power of passion. The example of Joseph’s brethren shows us, once more, to how many sins one passion can lead. The beginning of these men’s sin was envy. Hatred, abusive language, and thirst for
