The Story of Joseph - 1700 B.C.

Now Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. .... And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

There was a shortage of food in Hebron for all of Jacob's sheep. So Jacob asked all his sons except Joseph and Benjamin, to take the herds to Shechem where there was enough grass for the sheep to feed on. So the brothers packed some food and provisions and took the herds to Shechem. After a while Jacob began to wonder how his sons and flocks were getting on. So he asked Joseph to take some food to them, and see how they were. Then he was to come back home and tell his father, Jacob. Joseph obeyed his father, quickly packing what he needed, and left for Shechem, which was about 45 miles from Hebron.

37:15 And a certain man found Joseph, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence; For I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.

And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;

by Giovanni Francesco

And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

Geographically, Egypt is mostly desert except for the Nile River. The Nile is the greatest river in the world and if it didn't flow through Egypt the country would be just sand. In ancient times only 3% of Egypt was inhabitable, arable land. ....A huge desert is a great natural defensive barrier making Egypt totally isolated and virtually impossible to invade. (The Hyksos invaded it once, then the Assyrians, and finally Alexander the Great. But that's only three times in 3,000 years.) Egypt was the longest-surviving civilization in human history which changed very little in three millennia. Think about how little Egypt changed in 3,000 years to a large extent it's due to its geography.

The Egyptians were also spiritually sophisticated. It was a dark spirituality but not to be lightly dismissed. They were preoccupied with death, which is why they perfected mummification, and their holy book was called the Book of the Dead.

And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard. Joseph worked hard for Potiphar. Everything that Potiphar gave Joseph to do was a success. So Potiphar gave Joseph more and more control over his things, until Joseph was overseer over all of Potiphar's house and possessions..... Things seemed to be going well for Joseph in Egypt, until one day Potiphar's wife asked him to lie with her. Joseph was a good man, obeying God and his commandments above all men.

  .... So he said no. This made Potiphar's wife angry and she thought up a way to make Joseph pay for not doing what she asked. One day only she and Joseph were in the house. She again asked Joseph to lie with her. He refused and ran out the house, leaving his garment in her hand. She screamed, when other servants came she told them that Joseph had tried to lie with her, and that she screamed and Joseph fled. This was a lie, but because of this lie Joseph was thrown into prison.... In prison Joseph was placed in charge of other prisoners. God was still with Joseph and blessed everything that he did.

Even though Joseph was in Pharaoh's prison because Potiphar's wife told lies about him, Joseph continued to work hard and do his best in every job he was given. Before long he was placed in charge of all the other prisoners...One day the Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker displeased him and he had them thrown into prison. The captain of the guards told Joseph to take care of them. So Joseph found them somewhere to sleep. They remained in prison for some time. ..... Then one night both the chief butler and chief baker had strange dreams. When Joseph saw them the next morning they both looked troubled. He asked them why they were so troubled and they told him they had dreamed strange dreams last night, and that there was nobody around to tell them their meaning. Joseph replied, saying, "Do not all explanations come from God?" Then he asked them to tell him their dreams.

The chief butler went first. In his dream he dreamed of a grape vine, with three branches. The vine got flowers on it, then fruit which ripened quickly. Pharaoh's cup was in his hand, so he took some of the grapes and squeezed the juice into Pharaoh's cup and served it to Pharaoh, just like he used to. Joseph told him that the three branches were 3 days. In three days he would be released from prison and again work for Pharaoh. Joseph asked the chief butler to remember him when he was released, and to mention his plight to Pharaoh as he had done nothing wrong and didn't deserve to be in prison.

The chief baker thought that sounded nice, so he also told Joseph his dream. In his dream there were three white baskets on his head. In the top basket were all sorts of sweet breads for Pharaoh. But the birds came and ate the bread from out of the basket. Joseph told him that the three baskets were also three days. In three days Pharaoh would chop off his head and hang him on a tree or cross, and the birds would come and eat his flesh.

Three days later it was Pharaoh's birthday. He made a great feast for all his servants. At this feast Pharaoh gave back the chief butler his job, but the chief baker he hanged. All turned out just as Joseph told them it would. Yet the chief butler forgot to tell Pharaoh about Joseph..... Two years later Pharaoh had two dreams. He dreamt that he was by the river Nile and seven fat cows came up out of the river. Then seven lean and hungry cows came up out of the river. They ate the fat cows, but were still lean and hungry. Then he woke up. After a while he drifted off to sleep and dream again. This time he saw seven good ears of corn. All of a sudden, seven thin ears of corn sprang up from the east wind. The seven thin ears of corn ate up the seven fat ears of corn. Then Pharaoh awoke.

These dreams troubled Pharaoh so he asked his wise men to tell him their meaning, but none could. The chief butler remembered Joseph. He told Pharaoh all about himAnd how Joseph had told the meaning of the chief baker's and his dream, and how it all turned out exactly how he told them it would. Pharaoh sent for Joseph to be brought before him. Quickly Joseph got cleaned up, had a shave, changed his clothes and stood before Pharaoh. Pharaoh told Joseph that he had dreamed a dream and that nobody in his court could tell him the meaning, and asked if Joseph could tell him the meaning of his dream. Joseph said that he couldn't, but God would give Pharaoh the answer to his dream.

Pharaoh then told Joseph the dream. Joseph told Pharaoh that both dreams had the same meaning. The seven fat cows and the seven good ears of corn represented 7 years of plenty. The seven thin and hungry cows and the seven thin ears of corn represent 7 years of famine that will come after the seven years of plenty. The years of plenty will be forgotten because of the seven years of famine. Joseph told Pharaoh that God had sent him this dream to warn him of the coming famine so that he could prepare for it. He also told Pharaoh that he should choose a wise man to set up big store houses and in the next seven years of plenty store up food and grain for the seven years of drought that were to follow... Before the famine hits he has two children, Menashe and Ephraim.

Pharaoh was pleased with Joseph's meaning of the dream, and his advise to store food up for the famine. He could see that the Spirit of God was with Joseph, so he made Joseph second ruler in Egypt. Pharaoh, himself, was now the only one greater than Joseph in all Egypt. He was now the one who had to prepare this country for the seven years of sever famine.