The Pit Can’t Cancel the Promise: Walking Without Worry
Matthew 6:24–34 ║ Genesis 37:14–19
New Testament
Matthew 6:24-34
The Father Cares for Our Needs
24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Old Testament
Bereshit (Genesis) Chapter 37
12 His brothers left to pasture their father’s flocks in Shechem.
13 Israel said to Joseph, “Now your brothers are pasturing in Shechem. Come, I will send you to check up on them.” Joseph replied to him, “Here I am.”
14 Israel said to him, “Please go and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring me back a report.” He thus sent him on the journey that would fulfill the profound vision of Abraham, who was interred in Hebron. Joseph arrived in Shechem.
15 A man found him wandering in the fields. The man questioned him, saying, “What are you looking for?”
16 He replied, “It is my brothers that I am looking for. Please tell me where they are pasturing.”
17 The man answered, “They have distanced themselves from such brotherly sentiments, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dotan [“legalities”],’ seeking some legal pretext to kill you!” Joseph followed his brothers and found them in Dotan.
18 They saw him from afar, and before he reached them, they conspired against him to put him to death.
19 Simeon said to his brother Levi, “Look, here comes that dreamer!
20 So now let us go and kill him and throw him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’” But God said, “We will see which succeeds: your plans or his (i.e., Joseph’s) dreams!”
21 Reuben heard his brothers’ plan and rescued him from their hands, as follows: He said, “Let us not strike him a mortal blow!”
22 Reuben said to them, “Do not shed blood. Throw him into this pit here in the desert, but do not lay a hand on him!” Reuben suggested this in order to rescue him from their hands and bring him back later to his father.
CHIASTIC CENTER
A. Jacob sends Joseph in trust (37:13–14)
B. Joseph wanders, exposed and uncertain (37:15)
C. A man asks: “What are you looking for?” (37:15–16)
D. Joseph seeks brothers, not safety (37:16) ← CENTER
C’. Brothers abandon brotherhood; choose Dotan (37:17)
B’.Brothers see Joseph from afar (37:18)
A’. Brothers conspire to kill the dreamer (37:18–19)
Center: Joseph’s orientation is relational, not strategic. Everything else flows from this.
QUESTIONS
Why does Joseph continue after being warned?
How does fear disguise itself as wisdom in Dotan?
What does Matthew 6 expose about the brothers’ behavior?
What would “seeking first the Kingdom” look like in Joseph’s situation?
Where does modern faith confuse preparation with control?
WORD STUDY
1. הִנֵּנִי (hineni) — “Here I am”
Text: Genesis 37:13
This is the language of availability, not analysis.
It means:
I am present
I am responsive
I am not negotiating terms
Teaching Insight:
Faith begins where control ends. Advent obedience answers before outcomes are known.
2. תֹּעֶה (to‘eh) — “wandering”
Text: Genesis 37:15
This verb implies exposure and vulnerability, not rebellion.
Joseph is not lost morally; he is lost geographically.
Teaching Insight:
Wandering does not negate calling. God often meets us after certainty collapses.
3. דֹּתָן (Dotan) — “legalities / pretexts”
Text: Genesis 37:17
Dotan represents:
rationalized violence
procedural justification
fear wearing the clothing of wisdom
Teaching Insight:
Anxiety rarely acts alone; it recruits logic to legitimize harm.
4. חֹלֵם (cholem) — “dreamer”
Text: Genesis 37:19
The brothers do not name Joseph; they reduce him.
Calling him “dreamer” removes his humanity.
Teaching Insight:
Fear dehumanizes before it destroys. This is why Jesus warns that worry becomes a master.
5. Advent— “arrival under tension”
Conceptual Texts: Isaiah 40:31 ║ Genesis 37:14–19
Derived from Latin adventus (“coming toward, arrival”), Advent names the season when promise is in motion but not yet visible. Biblically, Advent is lived before it is named—seen in those who move forward under divine sending without clarity of outcome.
Like qavah, Advent assumes strain:
movement without guarantee
obedience without resolution
trust formed under delay
Teaching Insight:
Advent does not cancel tension; it consecrates it. To live Advent is to walk stretched between promise and fulfillment, refusing to snap, retreat, or seize control. God’s arrival is not rushed—but it is certain.
