Joseph
from shepherd, to slave,
to second ruler of Egypt.
By Joyce Webb 2018
Genesis Chapters 37-47
Joseph was a son of Jacob. Jacob was a son of Isaac. Isaac was the promised son of Abraham.
Jacob has an interesting story. But this is a story of his son, Joseph.
Jacob had 12 sons. He had 2 wives.
Jacob wanted Rachel as his wife. He worked 7 years to get her.
On their wedding day, (the bride wore a veil) Jacob was surprised to find that his bride was not Rachel, but her older sister, Leah.
Leah’s father said that Rachel could not marry before her older sister. So secretly, Leah was covered with a veil and was the bride.
Jacob was angry and upset. He had been tricked.
Leah is an unwanted wife. She is hurt and insulted. She knows that Jacob wanted Rachel. She knows Jacob did not want her.
Jacob has to be nice to her and treat her as his wife.
Leah’s father says that Jacob can have Rachel in a little while after Leah has had her time with Jacob.
So in a short time, Jacob marries Rachel.
Then Jacob had to work another 7 years for Rachel.
Because of the way Leah came into the marriage, and Jacob does not want her, God sees her sorrow and blesses her with children.
Rachel is not able to have children.
In that time, in that part of the world, having children was very important. A woman who could not have children was looked down on.
So even though Leah was not wanted as a wife, she has been
“lifted up” in the eyes of her husband and others—– because she has had children.
Leah has 4 sons.
Rachel still has not had children. Rachel decides to have her woman servant have sex with Jacob, and Rachel will claim the children as belonging to herself.
So Jacob agrees, and the servant woman has 2 sons.
Leah has not had children for awhile, so she decides to have her woman servant have sex with Jacob and she will claim the children as her own.
Jacob agrees, and her woman servant has 2 sons.
Leah begins to have children again, she has 2 more sons and then a daughter.
Finally, God “opens Rachel’s womb” and she has a son. She calls him Joseph.
This makes 11 sons for Jacob.
Jacob leaves this place where his father-in-law lives.
On their way to their new place, Rachel gives birth to another son. But sadly, she dies afterward.
Joseph and his brother, Benjamin, are are two sons of Rachel.
Because Rachel was dearly loved by Jacob, these two sons become his favorites.
When Joseph was 17 he saw 2 of his brothers do something that was wrong. Joseph told his father about it. The 2 brothers were very angry with Joseph.
Later, since Joseph was a favorite, Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors.
This made the brothers angry and jealous.
About this same time Joseph had a special dream from God.
In his dream he was in a field, they were cutting hay.
The hay was gathered into bundles called sheaves. Jacob’s sheaf stood up tall, his brother’s sheaves all bowed down to Jacob’s sheaf.
He had another dream, the sun, moon, and stars all bowed down to him.
Joseph began to tell his family what he dreamed. The brothers did not like what they heard—-that they would be bowing down to Joseph.
In the other dream, the sun, and moon were bowing.
Joseph’s father understood that to mean that he and his wife would be bowing down to Joseph. He did not like that idea.
So Joseph’s family was not happy about these dreams.
Maybe they did not think he had special dreams. Maybe they thought he was making it up.
Anyway, they did not like what they heard. It made more trouble between Joseph and his brothers.
The brothers had gone far from home to take the sheep to new pastures. Joseph’s brothers were much older than he. They were grown men with families of their own.
Since the brothers had been away from home for a long time, Jacob was wondering how they were doing, so he sent Joseph to go find where they were, to see how they were doing, and come back and tell him.
So Joseph went looking for his brothers to see where they had put their tents and were staying with the sheep.
The brothers saw him coming when he was still far away.
They began to talk among themselves. They decided they would kill Joseph. The older brother Reuben, said, “No, do not kill him.”
They finally decided to put him in an empty well. This was a deep hole in the ground that used to have water, but was now empty.
Reuben thought that after the other brothers left, he would get Joseph out.
So when Joseph came near to them, they took him and put him in the well hole.
They took his coat of many colors.
They knew they would have to tell their father something about Joseph, so they decided to tear the coat, and dip it in blood of an animal.
Then they would give the coat to the father, saying that they found the coat like that,—–and —-they supposed that a wild animal had killed Joseph and carried him off.
Before long, a group of men on camels came along. They were traveling to Egypt.
The brothers got a new idea. They would sell Joseph to these men as a slave, and he would be taken to Egypt. Then they would not be guilty of killing him, and Joseph would be gone.
So they sold Joseph to these men.
They took the coat home and told their father the story that they made up about the wild animal getting him.
When Jacob heard the story of his favorite son being killed by a wild animal—- he was so sad and upset. He mourned for a long time.
Joseph is about 17 or maybe a few years older. He is now on his way to Egypt. He will be a slave.
A person can imagine the thoughts Joseph is having—-about his family, his father, his brothers, what will happen to him, who he will be sold to, what he may have to do as a slave.
He had these dreams that his family would bow to him. Now he is a slave.
When they get to Egypt, Joseph is sold to a man who the captain of the guard of the king or pharaoh of Egypt. The captain’s name is Potiphar.
This was a better place than some other places where he could have gone.
The captain’s house would be very nice. They would have plenty of food.
Joseph did not know what all he would have to do. He also did not speak the Egyptian language.
The Bible does not tell about his first few months there, but Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph, and that everything Joseph did, he did well.
As time went on, Potiphar made Joseph the overseer of all of his house and business.
Joseph was a handsome young man, and well built. Potiphar’s wife saw him and she liked Joseph.
She tried to get Joseph to go to bed with her and make love to her.
Joseph would not do it. He told her that her husband trusted him with all that was in his house and he would not break that trust to make love to his wife.
He also said, this was a sin against God.
He would not do it.
Day after day, she tried to talk him into going to bed with her. He would not.
One day, no one was around. She took hold of his coat and tried to pull him to come with her, he slipped out of his coat and left.
She was standing there with his coat. She was very angry.
She began yelling until someone came. Then she began to cry and tell them that Joseph tried to force her to have sex with him—- and she was fighting with him— and ended up with his coat.
They believed her. They told Potiphar. He was so angry with Joseph that he put him in prison.
So Joseph is now in prison. He is a young man, a favorite son of his father, sold by his brothers, sold as a slave, and he has been lied about to his master/boss, and is now in prison.
What about those dreams of everyone bowing down to him?
This prison had other men in it who had lost favor with the king/pharaoh.
The Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor with the keeper of the prison. Genesis 39:21
This is an important verse. Joseph is at the worse place of his life. Bad things have been happening to him for some time. Things keep getting worse.
Yet—the Lord is with him.
He is not alone. God is watching. God knows exactly what is happening to Joseph. All of these “bad” things are part of God’s plan.
After a time the keeper of the prison puts Joseph in charge of the prison.
The king/pharaoh sends two of his workers to the prison—the baker and the chief butler.
One night the butler has a dream. He tells his dream to Joseph.
In his dream he saw a vine with 3 branches with grapes. He was holding the king’s cup.
God gave Joseph the meaning of the dream. Joseph told him that the 3 branches were 3 days. That in 3 days the king would call for him and he would serve the king again.
Joseph said to the butler, when you go back to the king, tell him about me, how I am here —but not because I have done wrong.
When the baker saw that the dream the butler had was a good dream, so he told Joseph of his dream.
He dreamed that he had 3 baskets on his head. The baskets were full of bread for the king. Birds came and ate the bread from the baskets.
God gave the meaning of this dream to Joseph. He said the 3 baskets stand for 3 days. In 3 days the king will call for you, but you will be killed. You will hang from a tree and the birds will eat your flesh.
This was not a good dream.
In 3 days, the king called for both of the men. The butler was back serving the king, and the baker was killed.
The butler forgot about saying anything to the king about Joseph.
Two more years went by. This must have been so hard for Joseph.
Job said one time “He (the Lord) has fenced in my way that I can not pass, and he has set darkness to my paths.” Job 19:8
Psalms 105:17-19 “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him.”
In the margin of some Bibles, there is a note that says in Hebrew the word says “his soul came into iron”
Joseph was 17 or some older went he arrived in Egypt.
He is getting near 30 years old now. (Genesis 41:46 says that when Joseph went before the king, he was 30 years old.)
It has been about 23 years that he has been in Egypt.
He has to be wondering what God has in mind. What about those wonderful dreams? Here he is still in prison.
In each place that God has put Joseph, Joseph has done his best.
He has kept a good attitude. He has done well. God helped him be successful.
God gave him favor with those who were over him. They noticed that Joseph had a special blessing on him.
In each place, he has learned about being a leader. He has learned responsibility. He has been trusted.
His has learned the language. He has learned the beliefs and customs of the land. These people do not believe in the God of heaven that Joseph believes in.
Joseph has had to work through his own doubts and fears and wonderings as to why all these things have happened to him
He has had to decide what attitude he will have about it.
He has had to decide whether to keep trusting God—- and keep faith and a good attitude or not. —–It would be easy to become angry and bitter.
God is working in his heart and spirit. God is testing him.
God is seeing if he is willing to submit to God’s discipline and learn.
God has a big job for Joseph to do. He wants Joseph to be ready.
The king/pharaoh has a dream. It is a very strange dream. He called for his wise men to come and tell him the meaning of his dream. They did not know what it meant.
The butler heard about it. He remembered Joseph.
So he told the king that when he was in prison, Joseph told him and the baker what their dreams meant and things happened just as Joseph said.
The king/pharaoh sent for Joseph to come before him.
Can you imagine what Joseph would be thinking when the word came for him to go to the Pharaoh?
Pharaoh told Joseph his dreams:
He was standing by the river. There were 7 fat well-fed cattle there. Then there came 7 thin under-fed cattle came. The 7 thin cattle ate up the 7 fat ones.
Then he saw 7 ears of corn that were full and healthy. Then he saw 7 ears of corn that were thin and had few kernels. The thin corn ate up the full ears of corn.
Joseph listened to the dreams. He told Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” Genesis 41:16
Joseph lets Pharaoh know that telling the meaning of dreams it is not his own ability. He tells Pharaoh that it is God who will give him the meaning.
In Egypt, the Pharaoh was thought to be God. They believed he came from the sun, and was given special ability and was a god.
Joseph is talking about God who was someone other than Pharaoh.
Pharaoh who was “god” did not know the meaning of his dream —-but Joseph’s God knows.—- This is a new idea for Pharaoh.
Joseph tells him that the meaning of the 7 fat cattle and the 7 fat ears of corn mean 7 years of good crops. They will have 7 years when everything will grow well and they will have extra.
Then 7 years of famine will come. Things will not grow. There will be little rain. There will be little food.
Joseph tells Pharaoh that he should find men who are wise and good leaders.
They should gather the extra food and crops of grain of corn, barley, etc. and save it in a safe place so they can give it out later when it is needed.
Pharaoh listens. He decides to make Joseph the person to be in charge of gathering the food and saving it. He is to be in charge of all the people who will help him.
Pharaoh says of Joseph: “Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the spirit of God is?” Genesis 41:38
Pharaoh also sees that there is something special about Joseph.—-A special “spirit” is with Joseph. — God is with him. —-God gives him favor with the leaders.
Pharaoh makes him a leader second to himself . So Joseph is the second in being a ruler over Egypt.
Pharaoh dressed Joseph in beautiful robes. He put a gold chain on his neck.
Pharaoh took the signet ring off his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger.
He put Joseph in the king’s chariot. He had Joseph taken through the streets with servants announcing that Joseph is the second leader of the kingdom. The people are told to bow down.
Pharaoh gave a woman to Joseph to be his wife.
Joseph begins to gather the food and grain for the next 7 years. He builds storehouses to keep it. He has many people working for him.
Then after 7 years things began to slow down. The crops did not grow well. There was less grain and food. As time went by, people were coming to Joseph asking for food.
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Back in Joseph’s home land where his father and brothers lived, they were having a hard time, too. Finally, things were very bad. They heard that there was food in Egypt.
Jacob called his sons together and told them that they needed to go to Egypt to get food. So all of the brothers went except Benjamin who was the youngest and also his father’s favorite.
The men were all married with wives and children. They all needed food. So they were willing to go. They took silver money to pay for the food.
When they arrived in Egypt they were taken to the place of a ruler. When they went in to see him,—— they all bowed down before this ruler.
The ruler was Joseph, but they did not recognize him.—- But Joseph knew who they were.
Joseph spoke in the Egyptian language. He dressed and looked like an Egyptian. Hebrew men wore beards. Egyptian men shaved.
Joseph was now 39 or 40 years old. He was no longer a 17 year old that his brothers remembered.
Joseph decided he would test them. After all these brothers had hated him enough to sell him as a slave.
Joseph told them that he thought they were spies come to see how bad things were in Egypt.
They said, “No, we are not spies. We are brothers, the son of one man. We are 12 brothers, the youngest is at home, and one brother is no more.”
Joseph said, “No, you are spies. To prove you are not, you send one of your brothers to go get your youngest brother—- and bring him here to see me.— I will keep the others of you in prison here.
But then he put them all in prison for 3 days.
After 3 days, he let them out and told them, “I fear God, —-so I will let you go home, and I will keep one of you here in prison.
You go home with the food you need, —-and when you come back again, —with your youngest brother, —I will let the other brother out of prison.”
The brothers began talking to each other. They said: “We are guilty for what we did to our brother.
We saw how upset and afraid he was when he begged us not to sell him. We would not listen to him. This is the reason all this is happening to us now.”
Rueben said: “I told you not to do evil against him. You would not hear. So his blood is required of us.”
They did not know that Joseph who was standing there could understand everything they said.
Joseph was talking to them using an interpreter. He did not want them to know who he was yet.
When he heard what they were saying, tears came to his eyes and he turned and walked away. Then he came back to them.
Joseph kept Simeon in prison.
Joseph told the servants to fill sacks with grain for the brothers. Then he secretly told the servants to put the men’s money back in their sacks when they tied the sacks.
The men went on their way back home. On their way—- they had need of the grain to feed their animals,—- when they opened a sack—- they found their money. —-Each sack had their money in it.
This made the men be afraid. They felt God was punishing them more.
The Egyptian ruler called them spies, kept their brother, and now their money is in their sacks.
Will they be blamed for being thieves, now?
When they got home, they told their father, Jacob, all that happen with the Egyptian ruler.
After a time, their food was gone and they needed more food.
They told Jacob that they needed to go back again. And they had to take Benjamin with them.
Jacob was upset. He said , “Why did you have to tell him about Benjamin?”
They said that they were afraid when the ruler talked so hard to them— and called them spies.
They were trying to make the ruler understand that they were just family men, and they explained about their family.
Rueben told his father, “I will be responsible to bring Benjamin home again. If I do not, you can kill my two sons.”
Jacob would not let them take Benjamin.
Finally, they needed the food so much—– that Jacob had to let them take Benjamin —–because they all needed food or they would all die.
So the brothers took double the money, —and they took gifts of spices, honey, myrrh, nuts, and dried fruit.
When the brothers arrived in Egypt—– and were brought before Joseph, —-They all bowed down before Joseph—– Joseph saw Benjamin was with them.
Joseph told his servants to make a big dinner and take the men to his private house for the meal.
When the brothers were taken to the private house—- they were very afraid. —-They felt something really bad was about to happen to them.
They said to the servant at the house, we have money to pay for the food.
We have extra money, because the last time, when we got home, we found our money was in the sacks of grain. —-We do not know how it got in there.
The servant told them not to be afraid. —Everything was okay. —They had paid their money before and it was all okay.
Then Simeon was brought out of prison to the house.
The brothers were made ready for the meal. ——Servants washed their feet and gave them water. —–They also took care of the donkeys that the men had ridden on.
The men waited in the house. Then Joseph came in. The men all bowed down before Joseph.
Joseph talked to them through the interpreter. Joseph asked them how their father is.
The brothers said that father is fine. Then they bowed down before Joseph again.
The Joseph looked at Benjamin. He asked the brothers, “Is this your younger brother?” They said , “Yes”. Then Joseph said: “God be gracious to you , my son.”
Joseph knew he was going to have tears again, so he left the room quickly. He cried in his room.
Then he washed his face and went back to the main room. He told the servants to serve the food.
Joseph ate at a table by himself, because the Egyptian people would not eat with Hebrew people.
Since Joseph was acting as an Egyptian all these years, he did as the Egyptians did.
The brothers—being Hebrews—-ate at another table.
As the brothers looked around at their table they saw that they had been seated the oldest to the youngest around the table.
They wondered how that happened to be. How could the ruler or the servants know who was the oldest and youngest?
Also, Benjamin was given 5 times as much food and drink as the other brothers were given.
Joseph watched to see what the brothers would do when they saw this. He was pleased to see that this did not bother the brothers. They were not jealous.
Then Joseph told the servants to put the men’s money back in their sacks of grain again. And to put Joseph’s silver cup in Benjamin’s sack of grain.
The men stayed overnight, then the next morning they left.
They probably were wondering why they had been treated to this wonderful meal in the private house of the ruler.
The men had just left the city, when one of the Egyptian servants came riding up to them. He said that one of them had stolen the ruler’s silver cup.
The brothers could not believe this. None of them took anything. They told the servant this.
They said: “Who ever took it let him die, and we will be servants, too.” They said this because they knew no one of them had taken it.
The Egyptian servants opened each sack. In Benjamin’s sack he found the silver cup.
The men were in shock !—- How did the cup get in the sack?
They knew they were all in big trouble, and especially Benjamin.
They remembered how their father did not want Benjamin to come. They remembered the promises they made to bring Benjamin back home safely. Now what would happen to Benjamin?
The men were so upset they ripped their clothes to show how much sorrow they had.
They all went back with Benjamin to see the ruler.
They bowed down before Joseph. Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Did you think I would not find out?”
The men said, “What can we say? God is punishing us for an evil thing we did long ago.”
Then Judah told him about how their father had 2 sons of this one woman. How one was now dead, and Benjamin was the only other son of this woman.
How the father was so sad to lose the one son, and his grief would be so great if he would lose this second son of this wife.
He told how they promised their father that they would be sure to bring this son home with them. If they did not bring Benjamin home, they were afraid that this would be too much sorrow for their father.
Finally, Joseph heard enough. He told all his servants to leave the room. Then he told the men in the Hebrew language
I am your brother, Joseph!
The brothers could not believe it at first. They just looked at him.
Joseph said, “I am your brother who you sold into Egypt years ago.
But do not be full of sorrow.—- Do not be afraid.— It was part of God’s plan to save your lives.—– I have been the leader who has saved food here in Egypt.
I have been made second in rule to the Pharaoh in all the kingdom.
The famine will last 5 more years. —-God sent me here to save our families.
It was not you who sent me here,— it was God and God’s plan.
What you did as an evil thing—– God used it for good.
Go tell my father that I am alive.
Bring our father and all your families here to Egypt—– for there will be 5 more years of famine.
Joseph hugged his brothers and kissed them, and cried, and cried.
Then they were all talking about all these things.
The servants heard about the brothers. They told Pharaoh that Joseph’s brothers have come to Egypt for food.
Pharaoh told Joseph to have his family come to Egypt. —-He would give them some good land to live in.
So the brothers went back home to tell Jacob.— How happy Jacob was to learn that Joseph was alive and that he would see him again.
The 11 brothers and their families, —Jacob and his wife, all their servants, –all their animals, —and all their things went to Egypt.
When they were getting nearer to the city, Joseph went out to meet his father. When he saw his father, he hugged him for a long time and cried.
Joseph brought Jacob to meet the Pharaoh.— Pharaoh asked him what he did for his work.— Jacob and his sons kept sheep.
So Pharaoh gave them the land of Goshen to live. –This was good land out in the country. (The Egyptians did not like shepherds.)
Pharaoh asked Jacob: “How old are you?”— Jacob answered, “I am 130 years old.”
Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and then they left and went to the land they were given.
Jacob’s family and those born to them for generations live in Egypt——for about 400 years.
After Joseph died, and a new Pharaoh came to rule—– this new Pharaoh did not remember anything about Joseph.
He sees the Hebrew people out in Goshen—- as a very large group of people— who are not Egyptian —-and believe differently than the Egyptians do.
Because their were so many of them, —he is worried—- that if there should be a war happen in Egypt —-that the Hebrews would join the enemies— and fight against the Egyptians.
So the new Pharaoh makes the people work as slaves for him.
He sends soldiers to make them work. They are forced to build two cities for the Pharaoh.
They are slaves for hundreds of years. Then finally in God’s time he sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt.
But that is another story.
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We learn from Joseph that God’s plan can take us through hard and difficult times.
Bad things can happen to us, but we are still in God’s plan.
God’s promises——can take a long time—-before they happen.
Joseph had to be ready—to be the ruler of all of Egypt—as second in power.
It took time—for Joseph to learn—the things he needed for that job.
He had to learn well the language,—the customs,—the beliefs of the people.
He had to have the trust and respect of the people and the other leaders.
He was a Hebrew, but he spoke and dressed like an Egyptian. Many of the Egyptians probably had darker skin,—-but there were lighter skinned people, too.
Joseph had been given wonderful dreams. He would have been easy for him to become angry and bitter —with disappointment when all those bad things happen to him.
But Joseph kept a good attitude —-and waited patiently for God’s timing.
Joseph forgave his brothers—- for what they did to him.
Joseph saw — how God used that bad thing.— It put him in a place where he could save his family during the time of famine when there was no food.
Let us look at Joseph’s example—- and think about our own lives— and how we can learn those same lessons.