Meant It For Good
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Genesis 37-50 - The Story of Joseph
Read 37:2b - Joseph is a tattle-tale. Read 37:3 - Jacob shows that Joseph is his favorite, which doesn't help matters any. Read 37:4 - They hated his guts. Read 37:5-8.
1 Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
2 This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors.
4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more.
6 So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed:
7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.”
8 And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
One day when Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers again, they decide they've had enough of him and decide to kill him. When Reuben talks them out of homicide, they throw him into a pit without water, mockingly ignore his pleadings while they eat a meal--and then sell him to some Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. They tear up his tunic and soak it with goat blood, and show it to Jacob and allow him to draw his own conclusion that he was killed by a wild beast.
Joseph winds up being sold to Potiphar, a wealthy military aristocrat. God blesses Joseph's hard work as a house slave so that Potiphar makes him the head steward of his entire estate.
Things are fine for about ten years until "Mrs. Robinson" (Potiphar's wife) gets the hots for Joseph (who's a stud) and comes on to him with amazing subtlety: "Lie with me" (39:7). Joseph declines, but she persists day after day and finally grabs his skirt-towel.
Joseph flees from the house (possibly the first biblical streaker), and she claims he tried to rape her. Joseph is fortunate Potiphar doesn't execute him--but he is thrown into jail (a horrible hole-like dungeon where prisoners slowly rotted).
God upheld Joseph and something about his attitude caught the eye of the chief jailer. He made Joseph his top prisoner in charge of serving the other prisoners. Then Pharoah's chief cupbearer and baker get thrown into jail for reasons unknown. One night they both have dreams which disturb them. God enables Joseph to explain the meaning of their dreams (EXPLAIN), which is fulfilled three days later. He asks the cupbearer to put in a good word for him with Pharaoh, but once he gets out the cupbearer forgets all about his promise. So Joseph rots in jail for two years.
Then an amazing thing happens. Pharaoh has a dream about 14 cows which no one can explain. The cupbearer remembers Joseph and recommends him--and Joseph is ushered into Pharoah's presence. God enables him to explain the dream as a prediction of seven years of bumper crops followed by seven years of famine--and counsels Pharaoh to find someone who will organize and execute a grain storage system. Pharaoh says, "I'm looking at the best man" and so in one day Joseph goes from jail to Prime Minister of Egypt.
Joseph spends the next seven years getting married and starting a family, and executing his grain storage plan.
Then the famine hits.
It's at this point that the plot thickens and the tension between Joseph and his brothers is resumed. The famine is severe in Canaan, so one day Jacob says to his sons, "You knuckleheads! Why are you staring at one another? Get your lazy behinds down to Egypt and buy some grain before we starve!"
They go down and are sent (like everyone else) to Joseph, and they bow down to him (fulfilling 37:7). Joseph recognizes them, but they don't recognize him (almost 40; Egyptian dress; position).
Joseph accuses them of being spies and says he won't believe they're not unless they bring their youngest brother to him. Not realizing he can speak Hebrew, they say in his presence: "Great! This is what we get for killing our brother."
Joseph locks Simeon up and sends back home with just enough grain to make it home and back. But he's not doing this to get back at them because he weeps privately over this encounter.
When they God get home, Jacob goes hysteric ("I've already lost one son, I've got another rotting in jail--and you want me to entrust my youngest to you?") and refuses to let Benjamin go. But they get hungrier, and when Jacob tells them to return to Egypt for more grain, it's their turn to refuse ("Oh no, not without Benjamin!").
Finally Jacob agrees, and they go back to Joseph with Benjamin. Joseph releases Simeon, dines with them (against Egyptian custom), and is so moved by seeing Benjamin that he has to remove himself from the room to weep.
The next day, Joseph loads them up with grain but has his servant hide his favorite silver cup in Benjamin's suitcase. After they leave, he sends his security guards to pull them over and say, "So this is how you repay my master's kindness--by stealing his favorite cup?" They are offended and say, "You can kill whoever you find it on!" They search the luggage, and when the cup falls out of Benjamin's suitcase, they are beside themselves!
They are cuffed and put in the cruiser, and when they are brought before Joseph, Judah says: "What can we say? We are being punished for God for our past sins." He begs Joseph to make him a slave rather than take Benjamin because he can't bear to break his father's heart.
Read the climax (45:1-8)
1 Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Make everyone go out from me!” So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
2 And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it.
3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence.
4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.
6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.
7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.