Joseph

The name Joseph means, “The Lord will add” and it was a very common name in biblical times. Even though there are many different Josephs mentioned in the Bible, there is one Joseph whose story stands out—the son of Jacob. Despite facing many difficult circumstances and evil people, Joseph remained true to God and generous to other people. As a result, God made him extremely successful and used him to save the whole Hebrew race.

JEALOUS BROTHERS

In the Old Testament, Joseph was Jacob’s eleventh son and the firstborn son of Rachel. Rachel named the boy Joseph, which meant, “May He add.” This showed Rachel’s desire that God would give her another son after Joseph (Genesis 30:24).
The Bible does not tell us anything more about Joseph until, at the age of seventeen, we read about him tending his father’s flocks with his brothers (Genesis 37:2). Joseph was the favorite of his father, Jacob, since he was the son of Jacob’s old age (Genesis 37:3) and the firstborn son of his favorite wife. Because of this favoritism, Joseph’s brothers hated him. Their envy towards Joseph only got worse when Jacob gave Joseph a ground-length, long-sleeved, multicolored robe (Genesis 37:3-4). (We know what type of robe this was because of paintings archaeologists have found in the tombs of Khnumhotep and other royalty.) The animosity of his brothers increased even more when Joseph revealed to them he was having dreams where his brothers would one day bow down before him (Genesis 37:5-11). Because of this, when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers and the flocks near Shechem, his brothers tricked him and sold him to a caravan of traders going down to Egypt (Genesis 37:25-28). Joseph’s brothers then took his robe, dipped it in goat’s blood, and brought it back to Jacob, who was overwhelmed with grief when he concluded that Joseph had been killed by wild animals (Genesis 37:31-35).

IMPRISONED IN EGYPT

In Egypt, Joseph was sold to an Egyptian officer of the guard named Potiphar (Genesis 37:36), who eventually put Joseph in charge of his entire household. Soon, however, trouble arose because of Potiphar’s wife, who was attracted to Joseph and tried to seduce him (Genesis 39:6-10). Joseph persistently resisted her advances, saying that to comply with her wishes would be a disservice to his master and a sin against God (Genesis 39:9). One day, however, Potiphar’s wife grabbed Joseph’s coat and asked him to sleep with her. Joseph ran away but left his coat behind. With Joseph’s coat as her evidence, Potiphar’s wife accused Joseph of attempted rape and Potiphar believed her (Genesis 39:19). Joseph was put in the king’s prison (Genesis 39:20), where Pharaoh’s butler and baker were also confined. While in prison, Joseph, with God’s help, interpreted these men’s troublesome dreams. As Joseph had predicted, the baker was executed and the butler was restored to royal favor (Genesis 40:21-22).
Two years later Pharaoh had dreams that his magicians and wise men could not interpret. The butler, remembering Joseph, had him summoned from prison. God revealed to Joseph that the dreams foretold seven years of abundance in Egypt, followed by seven years of great famine (Genesis 41:25-36). Pharaoh, impressed with Joseph’s interpretation, made him ruler of Egypt, second only to himself (Genesis 41:39-44). Joseph was given a new name, Zaphenath-paneah, and a wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera (Genesis 41:45).

PROMOTED TO RULER

Joseph was thirty years old when he became ruler of Egypt. During the seven years of prosperity, he was in charge of gathering the extra food and supplies for the seven years of famine to come (Genesis 41:53-56).
Back in Palestine, the famine became severe because they had not stored good away. Joseph’s father Jacob sent all his sons, except Benjamin, his youngest son, to Egypt to purchase grain. When his brothers appeared before Joseph and bowed down to ask him for grain, they did not recognize him. However, Joseph recognized them and remembered his dreams of years before (Genesis 42:8-9). After listening to the report of their family, Joseph accused them of being spies (Genesis 42:9-14) and insisted that they leave one of their brothers as a hostage and return with Benjamin to verify the truthfulness of their report (Genesis 41:19-20). Simeon, the oldest of the brothers, was bound and left in Egypt while the other brothers went back to get Benjamin (Genesis 41:24).

REUNITED

When the famine got much worse in Palestine, Jacob asked his sons to go back to Egypt to buy more grain (Genesis 43:1-2). This time, Jacob reluctantly agreed to the conditions that the Egyptian administrator had placed on them. He allowed Benjamin to go with them (Genesis 43:11-13). When they arrived in Egypt, they were taken to Joseph’s house, where they were reunited with Simeon and a meal was prepared for them (Genesis 43:33). Joseph finally disclosed his identity and declared that God had commanded him to preserve their lives (Genesis 45:4-8). After this reunion, Joseph made arrangements to send for Jacob. Joseph provided wagons and provisions for the return journey (Genesis 43:21). When Jacob was almost to Egypt, Joseph went out to meet him, and another great reunion took place (Genesis 46:28-29). He also presented his father and brothers to Pharaoh, who allowed Jacob’s entire family to settle down in the land of Goshen (Genesis 47:6).
When he learned that his father was ill, Joseph took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to him for his blessing. Joseph arranged his sons around Jacob so that the older brother, Manasseh, would receive the blessing of the firstborn. Jacob, however, crossed his hands and with his right hand on Ephraim gave him the greater blessing (Genesis 48:14-20). He also gave some land to Joseph that Jacob had won from the Amorites in battle. When Jacob finally died, Joseph made the funeral arrangements, and after the customary rites were performed, a great funeral procession went to Canaan, where Jacob was buried by his sons in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron (Genesis 50:1-12).
When Joseph was 110 years old, he called his brothers and told them that he was about to die. He made them take an oath that when they returned to Canaan they would take his bones with them. Joseph died, was embalmed, and was placed in a coffin in Egypt (Genesis 50:26). Many years later, during the Exodus, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him from Egypt (Exodus 13:19). Joseph’s remains were eventually buried at Shechem in a piece of land that Jacob had bought when he was alive (Genesis 33:18-20).

Fast Facts

Who?
Who was Joseph? Joseph the son of Jacob was a man of God whose story we read in Genesis.
What?
What does “Joseph” mean? “Joseph” is a Hebrew name that means, “God will add.”
Why?
Why did Joseph’s brothers in the Old Testament hate him? Joseph was his father’s favorite son and so his brothers were jealous.
Where?
Where did Joseph go after he was sold into slavery? Joseph went to Egypt where he eventually became the second most powerful man in Egypt, after Pharaoh.
When?
When did Joseph become so powerful? After Pharaoh had terrible dreams that he could not interpret, Joseph interpreted them for him.
How?
How did Joseph save his people? Joseph was able to prepare the nation of Egypt for a famine by storing grain through the years of good harvests that preceded it. When Palestine was devastated, the family of Jacob, the future Israelites, moved to Egypt.

Digging Deeper

Amorites
Canaan
Egypt
Famine
Goshen
Palestine
Shechem

Life Links

Dreams

People Profiles

Asenath
Benjamin
David
Ephraim
Jacob
Manasseh
Pharaoh
Potiphar
Potiphera
Rachel
Simeon

Wacky Wit

HEADLINES


SEVEN SKINNY COWS


Don’t get too fat and happy, says Pharaoh’s new #2. Our seven-year boom will be followed by a time of famine.


by Joseph Jacobson

“It’s like a dream,” the farmer told me as he watched his slaves bundle up more sheaves than he’s ever seen in one harvest.
“Funny you should say that,” I replied. For it was a dream that got me where I am today-Pharaoh dream of fat and skinny cows coming up out of the Nile. The interpretation seemed clear to me. We’ll see seven years of bounty, but if we don’t plan wisely, our national dream will turn into a nightmare.

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