Joseph and his Brothers

As you may recall, Jacob had twelve sons, with the youngest son named Joseph. (This is a different Joseph than Mary’s Joseph, so don’t get them confused—this Joseph lived approximately 2000 years before Jesus was born.)

Jacob doted on Joseph, and his older brothers very much resented this. Adding to their resentment was the fact that the young Joseph had prophetic dreams—dreams that seemed to foretell the future. (Gen. 37: 3-8)  So; what do you do if you are a jealous older brother? You plot to kill your youngest brother, of course—this is the Book of Genesis, after all.

Jacob had given Joseph a coat of many colors, so the brothers decided to murder Joseph and then splash some animal blood on the coat to convince his poor parents that a wild animal had eaten him.

But—after throwing their brother down a pit to starve—the brothers noted a caravan of Egyptians passing by, and decided they could make some money by selling Joseph into slavery instead of outright killing him. (Gen. 37:27)

Joseph may have been a slave in a foreign land, but “the Lord was with him and brought him success in whatever he did.” (Gen 38:3). He wound-up in charge of a courtier’s household—well-respected and causing everyone him to prosper, until fate intervened in the form of the courtier’s wife, who tried to seduce him. Joseph spurned the wife, and she took her revenge by claiming it was Joseph who’d tried to seduce her, instead.  (Gen. 39: 7-15)

Promptly locked-up in an Egyptian prison, Joseph lived several years there, but once again he impressed the chief jailer to such an extent that he was put in charge of the other prisoners.

Meanwhile, the other prisoners became familiar with Joseph’s prophetic abilities—he would interpret their dreams to predict the future—so that eventually, the Pharoah heard news of this talent. Because the Pharoah had been experiencing his own repetitive dream (about seven fat cows being eaten-up by seven skinny cows) he summoned Joseph from prison. (Gen, 41: 1-7).

Joseph explained that the Pharoah’s dream meant Egypt would have seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and so it would be important to store as much grain from the first seven years as a stockpile. (Gen. 42:33)

Pharaoh was so impressed by Joseph that he put him in charge of the project, making him the Prime Minister of Egypt. In one day, he’d gone from a miserable prisoner with little hope to a position of power second only to the Pharoah himself. (Gen 42:37)

Joseph prospered in Egypt until one fateful day when he came face-to-face with his brothers again.  It was the time of famine, and Jacob and his sons had desperately traveled to Egypt, hoping they could beg for some of the very stores that Joseph had put aside to save the Egyptians.

The brothers reconciled—with Joseph pointing out that their terrible actions against him turned out to be a Godsend, since he wound-up saving everyone from the famine.  (Gen. 45:6)

And that’s the end of the Book of Genesis; Jacob’s clan settled in Egypt and things went well for many generations until they didn’t—but that’s a story for another week.