The Dreamer (Genesis 37:1-11)
Jacob, Joseph’s father, lived in the land of Canaan where Isaac (and Abraham before him) had also lived. The entire family had been there since they returned from Paddan Aram, where Jacob had worked for his uncle, Laban, and where he had married Leah and Rachel. They believed that God had promised this land to them and, although they were currently living amongst the Canaanites, they continued to believe that God would do as He promised and give them the land. Jacob and his sons kept livestock - sheep and cattle - and he was a wealthy man.
The first mention we have of Joseph, after his birth to Jacob and Rachel, is when he was seventeen. He was his father’s favourite son, indicated by the fact that Jacob had given him an elaborately embroidered coat. This did nothing to endear him to his brothers, who began to realise that their father loved Joseph more than them. They had already begun to resent his preferential treatment when, one day, as a loyal and righteous son, he brought a bad report to Jacob about his brothers, the sons of Bilhah (Dan and Naphtali) and Zilpah (Gad and Asher), and their tending of the flocks. Resentment began to turn to hatred.
As if that were not enough, Joseph then had two dreams, in both of which his brothers were bowing down to him. One of the dreams included his mother and father (represented as the sun and the moon) also bowing down to him! Jacob was not impressed. But he must have remembered his own first encounter with God in a dream at Bethel (Genesis 28:10-22), when God had been revealing to Joseph what was going to happen to him, preparing him for his life’s work.
Joseph's dream was entirely true; his father and his brothers would, one day, bow down to him, but he had no idea how or why. God can speak to us today, through His word and through visions and dreams, ‘When the Holy Spirit, who is truth, comes, He shall guide you into all truth; He will tell you about the future.’ (John 16:13-14) When God speaks to us and we do not understand, we just need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us what He means.
The Slave (Genesis 37:12-36)
The next trip for Joseph was to be his last in freedom. His father sent him to check on his brothers, who had gone to graze the sheep at Shechem. It was likely that all of the brothers had gone to graze the sheep, while Joseph had stayed at home with his father. So he left the family home in Hebron and set off. This was no small trip – perhaps one hundred and forty miles – north to Jerusalem then on to Shechem. A man he met on the way redirected him to Dothan, where he had heard the brothers say they were going.
The brothers saw him coming some way off (probably from his distinctive clothing) and saw an opportunity to dispose of him permanently. Reuben (the eldest) dissuaded them from killing him but, instead, they stripped him of his robe and threw him into an empty well. He was still there when some Midianite traders came past. Another brother (Judah) suggested that they might still get rid of him but make some money at the same time. They all agreed that this was an excellent plan, so they sold Joseph but kept his robe to provide later as evidence of some ghastly mishap!
The traders were Midianites, descended from Abraham and his second wife Keturah but, amongst them were also some Ishmaelites, also descended from Abraham through his union with Hagar (the maid of his first wife). Had Abraham and Sarah trusted God fully, these people might never have existed! They were probably travelling on one of the main highways through Canaan called 'The Way of the Sea'. It passed from the North through Gilead, Ashdod and Gaza straight down to Egypt.
Joseph has often been portrayed as a ‘type’ of Jesus; sent into Egypt (symbolic of the world at large) to save the people. In Joseph’s case, it turned out to be salvation from death by famine; in Jesus’ case, it saved all humanity from eternal death by sin. There are many parallels in this story to the events of Jesus' life, including betrayal for pieces of silver. The brothers tore the richly embroidered coat that Joseph had been given by his father, covered it in the blood of a goat and took it back to their father. Jacob recognised it immediately and believed the worst. 'I will die still mourning for my son,'' he said, before breaking down and weeping. (Genesis 37:34-35)
A hopeless situation
The Bible doesn’t go into detail, but we can imagine that the horror and deprivation that Joseph felt on the way to Egypt must have been overwhelming. From being his rich father’s favourite son, he had become a mere chattel, bought with money and on his way to a life of slavery with virtually no chance of freedom again. The collapse of all his hopes for life, wondering what had now become of the dreams that he had so proudly shared with his brothers and his father, must have been almost more than he could bear.
Perhaps this is the situation that you find yourself in right now? Have all your hopes and plans collapsed in a sea of debt or pain or grief or fear? Does it seem as though God, who at one time you felt so close to, has now vanished? Are you beginning to doubt that God really is looking out for you, watching over you at all times? Joseph must have felt that his life was over; that there was no longer any purpose to it. Have you felt the same? Be encouraged; the Bible clearly says that God never left Joseph, despite the apparent hopelessness of his situation. If you have asked Jesus to become the Lord of your life, neither will He leave you. (Hebrews 13:5-6)
Joseph arrived in Egypt and was sold to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials and captain of his bodyguard. Things may look very bleak in your life, even impossible. You may be able to see no way out other than death. You may know nobody, have no assets or possessions; but God knows who you are and where you are and, as we have just read, if you are a Christian – born again of the Spirit of God – He is with you, together with you right where you are, in whatever situation you are in right now. Father God can use such times to draw us closer to Him, to open our eyes to His power and reach, to refine and shape our own character and resilience. Let's read on...
Out of the frying pan... (Genesis 39)
Joseph’s master, Potiphar, recognised that God was with him and promoted him, turning over all his personal affairs to Joseph's management. All Potiphar had to do was turn up at meal times! But his wife fancied Joseph - a good-looking man - and continually tried to entice him to bed. Joseph resisted, refusing to sin against her husband and God. When Potiphar came home, she told him that Joseph had tried to seduce her. Potiphar believed her and threw Joseph into prison.
Just when Joseph thought that his life was getting back to some semblance of stability and had perhaps dared to think of the future, the rug was pulled out from under him. Life as a slave was not the best, but prison… Do you recognise the feeling? Have you been there? Are you there now? Just when you thought that you were getting straight, you ended up in a far worse state than before. But God has not left you. Trust Him; never doubt Him! He loves you and, where He is, there is always a future. Perhaps you cannot see it now, but this will be happening for your benefit. Do not let fear overcome you.
God had not left Joseph either. In fact, God had set him up for something truly outstanding. He had a job prepared for Joseph so that, at the right time, he would be in a position to save an entire nation and to provide for God’s people. Perhaps the trial that you are going through is to equip you for the work that God wants you to do for Him in the future. It may be giving you the ability to stick at the job you are doing, or to learn to love someone who you really do not like. Whatever the purpose, trust God with all your heart and mind. (Psalm 37:3-11)
...Into the fire (Genesis 40)
One day, two new inmates arrived at the pharaoh’s prison and were put on the same wing as Joseph. They had been high-ranking officials from pharaoh’s court: his cup-bearer (who got to taste pharaoh’s wine in case someone had poisoned it) and pharaoh’s personal baker. After a while, they each had a dream. The dreams were similar in some ways but signified entirely different things.
God gives dreams and may assign someone particular to interpret those dreams. He will often use men and women who walk with Him and listen to Him to do such things. Does God give dreams today? Indeed He does, as is borne out by Joel 2:28-32. We should expect God to speak into our lives and not limit Him by specifying the ways in which we expect Him to communicate with us. The routes by which we first learn about the Christian faith sometimes lead us to place unconscious limitations on God and what He is able to do. Churches and denominations differ in their teachings, but a common factor with all is to set boundaries on our expectations of how God may be expected to act. Far better to read His word extensively for ourselves and to build up our own picture of who He is and how we can expect Him to intervene in our lives.
God gave the interpretations of these mens' dreams to Joseph and Joseph faithfully passed them on. Events unfolded, just as he predicted they would and his explanations of the meaning of the dreams were fulfilled. If God says that something will happen, we can expect it to happen! Joseph may have expected that his service would not go unrewarded but it took a further two years of disappointed drudgery before Joseph’s situation was abruptly changed. (Genesis 41:14)
By that time, Joseph may have become resigned to a life of endless bad news. We too can become resigned to one disappointment after another. We may not really think that God will do anything for us, but we need to stop and focus on Him, giving Him the whole situation and waiting for His timing to follow its course. Many such situations abound as we read the Bible and see men and women having to learn patience and perseverance in faith.
A new chapter (Genesis 41)
The Bible often supplies little details that speak so eloquently. Suddenly, Joseph is needed urgently because the pharaoh has had a bad dream and nobody knows what it means, but the cup-bearer has remembered someone who may be able to help. To emphasise the gulf between Joseph and the one who needs his help, we learn that Joseph is brought from a dungeon and has to shave and be given new clothes before he can appear before pharaoh. This audience before the most powerful man in the land was to change the history of the world!
Joseph revealed God’s interpretation of the pharaoh’s dreams: that there would be seven years of incredible plenty followed by seven years of famine, and that God would bring this to pass very soon. God also gave Joseph the wisdom to suggest to the pharaoh what should be done about it. (Genesis 41:33-36) Inevitably perhaps, the pharaoh immediately appoints Joseph to take charge of the necessary arrangements. As he said, "Are we going to find anyone better than this man? He is obviously filled with the Spirit of God. (Genesis 41:37-41) God, of course, had planned the whole thing but, to Joseph, the sudden change must have been shocking. He was now the most powerful man in the land after the pharaoh himself.
When Joseph thought about it, he must have recognised that this was the beginning of the fulfilment of the dream that God had given him all those years before in his homeland of Canaan. All of a sudden, it seemed that those years had not been wasted after all but had suddenly taken on a new meaning. His life now had purpose and direction. The pharaoh placed his own signet ring on Joseph’s finger as a symbol of his authority and dressed him in fine linen, putting a gold chain around his neck. At just thirty years of age, he had entered the service of a king.
Joseph went out and began travelling all around the land, making preparations for what was to come. Similarly, God has chosen you and me 'from before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight' and now Jesus delegates His authority to us, to make disciples of all nations. (Matthew 28:18-20) It had taken thirteen long, hard years to shape Joseph's character and to order world events to the point where Joseph and his destiny were to meet.
From this, we can draw the lesson that we should not give up, wherever we happen to be in our walk with God. He has not finished with us yet and neither has He finished shaping events in the world to coincide with our destiny. He has chosen us from before the beginning of creation and has given us His authority - like a signet ring. In an instant, God can change our trouble and suffering for joy and fruitfulness. Let us never doubt Him, for He is faithful and will fulfil His promise to us if we let Him.
A reunion (Genesis 42 and 43)
During the seven years of plenty, Joseph collected the excess grain and put it in store, in anticipation of the seven years of famine to come. Just as God had said, the famine duly arrived and Joseph was able to provide for the people by selling the stored grain. But the famine did not just affect Egypt; it affected all the nations round about, including Canaan where Joseph’s family lived. Without this provision, they would have died, but God had put in place the very man who could save them. Jacob heard that there was food available in Egypt and sent ten of his sons (not Benjamin) to buy grain.
God has a way of making us face up to things in our past. He doesn’t do it to punish us, but to make it right between us and those we may have affected. As Christians, it is far better to resolve these things before we die, for there will come a time for us all when we have to give an account of our lives and actions directly to God. (2 Corinthians 5:9-10) This 'judgment' is not about whether or not we are believers, but is an opportunity for God to give credit where it is due. What will we have built on the foundation of our faith in Jesus Christ during our lives? (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)
So, God, in His mercy, brought Jacob's other children face to face with their guilt at selling Joseph and the deception of their father over the fate of Joseph. Everything was laid bare. They did not receive what we might say they justly deserved. It would not have been pleasant to face up to these things, but God had a plan for the whole family as part of the building of His nation and it required that they should all be saved from the famine. God has a plan for you and for me, too, and He is not willing that any person should be eternally lost. (2 Peter 3:9- 10)
Hence, the brothers were brought to face Joseph for the first time in many years - except that they didn't actually recognise him at all! Nonetheless, their assurance that, ‘Your servants are honest men’ does not quite ring true! ‘Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father and one is no more’. So they thought anyway, but it wasn't actually true. And Joseph decides to put their 'honesty' to the test, requiring them to go and fetch the youngest brother.
A test of honesty
Often, when we begin to face our sin for the first time, we are not quite honest. We may tell the bare bones of the story, but skate over our true involvement in it. We need to understand that God can see the end from the beginning in our lives, just as Joseph knows what is true in this situation. We cannot fool God, so let’s determine right now that we will be honest before God and our fellow Christians as we start to sort our lives out. After all, these are the people who will love us and help us.
Joseph demands to see Benjamin and insists that one of them (Simeon) should remain in captivity in Egypt as a surety until the brothers return. The brothers now know that their half-truth answers will have to be re-visited when they come to redeem Simeon and they set off back for Canaan. At their first stopping point, they realise that their money has been put back into their sacks. Now they really do not know what to do. The evidence before them would suggest to anyone else that they have not been honest with Joseph (not having paid him as they should have done).
They don’t know who they have been dealing with and they certainly don’t know his character. Isn’t that the same with us? Yet, God’s character is the same: He is just but, over-riding the justice is His love and mercy, as well as His generosity and forgiveness. Why do we hesitate to surrender our lives fully to Him?
There was more anguish for their father, Jacob, when they returned. He had now ‘lost’ another son (Simeon) and now there will be no more food unless he sends Benjamin, his ‘special’ son. Jacob put off making a decision until the time came when they needed more food desperately. There was no alternative; Benjamin would have to accompany them to Egypt if they wanted to survive. When they arrived, they were taken into Joseph’s home and they were terrified. They owned up to having found the money in their sacks after the last visit but heard that there was none missing (so far as Joseph’s steward was concerned).
A reconciliation (Genesis 44 and 45)
This time, Joseph found the meeting very difficult and he left the room to weep, only returning in time for the banquet. And then it was time to go. The bags were packed and, once again, unknown to the brothers, the money paid by them for the grain was replaced in their sacks. However, in Benjamin’s sack was placed Joseph’s own private cup. The bags were loaded onto their donkeys and Joseph's brothers took their leave at the break of day. They had gone hardly any distance outside the city when they were pursued by Joseph’s steward. Upon being searched, the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. They were all taken back to Josephs’ home, where Judah offered that they should all become Joseph’s slaves. Joseph would have none of it, insisting that only Benjamin should stay. (Benjamin was Joseph's full brother; Rachel had been mother to them both.)
Now the full implications of the brothers’ wrong-doing in selling Joseph began to emerge. Judah admitted the full story and confessed that their father, Jacob, would not be able to survive another such tragedy. He offered to be taken as a slave himself in Benjamin's place. Joseph then called his brothers over and revealed to them his true identity. In an act of incredible forgiveness, he told them that he regarded their treachery simply as part of God's plan to enable the whole family to survive. (Genesis 45:4-8)
When we come to Jesus and give our lives to Him, He forgives us and explains to us why it was necessary for Him to die and to go before us into heaven, so that He could defeat Satan and lead us triumphantly into the presence of our heavenly Father. ‘Yes, it was God who sent me here, not you! And He has made me a counsellor to Pharaoh, and manager of this entire nation, ruler of all the land of Egypt’. Joseph had gone ahead to prepare a place for all his family just as Jesus has done for us. (John 14:2-3)
A place to call home
Now all that remained was for the family to be reunited in a safe place where there was enough food for them, pasture for their cattle and capacity for growth. This was to be their home for the next four hundred years. The pharaoh sent wagons for the whole family, including wives and children and all their possessions and Jacob - plus sixty-six people - made the trip to Egypt, to the land of Goshen that the pharaoh had set aside for them.
This was to be a temporary home for them, but heaven is to be an eternal home for us. Joseph was an earthly provider for his family; Jesus is an eternal provider for us. The pharaoh was their benefactor; God is our heavenly Father. Where shall we spend eternity? We are spirits with souls (mind will and emotions) and we live in a body. One day our bodies will die; but our true essence - our spirit - will live on, either in heaven (with God) or in hell (a place of torment and separation from God). The Bible is quite clear: God does not send people to hell; we all make our own decision.
If we don’t want anything to do with God or Jesus in this life, why would we want to spend eternity with Him? Therefore, we have a decision to make and one that only we can make for ourselves. What’s it to be: everlasting life with God or everlasting separation from God? "Choose you this day who you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord!" (Joshua 24:15)
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