Genesis 37:1-4,12-28 gives us a glimpse of Joseph’s early life. He had been put to work at an early age, as was customary in his culture. Joseph’s responsibility was to work with the sons of Jacob’s concubines. Like many people before him, Joseph had problems at work. He brought a bad report of his brothers to his father, which did not please his brothers. He had a commitment to the truth which overrode the natural hesitancy a young man would have against bearing tales about his brothers to their father. Perhaps he learned that “honesty is the best policy” from watching the own messes his father got into with Laban and Esau. Commitment to the principles of truth, good, right, faith, and work were deeply entrenched in Joseph’s life by the time he had reached seventeen years of age. These attributes would serve him well in later events in his life.

Like Jacob, sometimes our past sins reappear just when we think we have begun to settle and grow in our lives before God. Perhaps we thought we had left behind our marriage struggles, our angry exchanges with a coworker, or our struggles with addiction. We have been encouraged with the work of God’s Spirit in our lives. Yet we discover that we still have moments of struggle and temptation, and we sometimes return to the same old sins in our lives. The Bible is not a story about spiritual superheroes who have “arrived” in their walk with God. It is God’s story of working in people’s lives, redeeming them, and restoring them to wholeness for the sake of Christ.

One day Joseph announced to his brothers that he had dreamed that they were all working together in a field when the sheaves of corn started to bow down to each other. They were upset when Joseph suggested that their sheaves were bowing to his. They asked, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” As we will see later on in Genesis, they were right. Joseph was given a dream through which he believed that God was speaking to him. This principle of faith was nurtured in his young life but was underlined when his father took the whole family back to Bethel.  This action by his father was noticed by Joseph, who was close to his father.

The measure of hatred that his brothers had for him became clear when at his father’s request he journeyed to meet his brothers in Dothan. Because it was the dry season, Jacob’s 10 older sons traveled from Hebron to find grasslands and water for their flocks. Joseph’s obedience to his father was courageous (considering the hostility of his siblings) and complete. When he did not find his brothers near Shechem as expected, he continued to Dothan, about 12 miles away by the roads of the day. When they saw him in the distance, their early hatred and envy became obsessive and the cold, calculated plan to commit premeditated murder was put into operation.

The brothers plotted to kill Joseph and throw him into a pit. Reuben, the oldest brother, convinced them to cast Joseph into a pit alive instead, with the secret hope that he might rescue Joseph later. This move saved Joseph’s life. Pits were dug as reservoirs for water, sloping downward and outward with a narrow opening at the top. A person thrown into one would be unable to escape because there were no handholds or footholds.

There was another reason why his brothers were jealous of Joseph. Jacob made no secret that he loved Joseph more than all his children, because Joseph was the son of his old age. Jacob made Joseph a coat of many colours. The Hebrew phrase for “a tunic of many colours” describes a coat with “long sleeves and skirts” rather than varied hues. Although Joseph’s coat was definitely an ornamental, distinctive garment, the coat was significant for its symbolism, not its beauty: Joseph would be the heir of his father. Joseph’s 10 brothers had coats too. Their tunics were short-sleeved and short-waisted, making it easier for them to do their work. Jacob had not learned that favouritism is not only out of place in a family, but it is also fatal to family harmony and well-being.

Envy had entered the hearts of Joseph’s brothers and even as envy moved the Jewish leaders to crucify Christ, so envy against their own brother led the sons of Jacob to want to kill Joseph. That is why the Bible warns us against envy, jealousy, lust, and other spiritual problems, because they will lead us to do things we never imagined we would do.

Joseph didn’t wear that coat because he wanted to make his brothers jealous. He wore that coat because he wasn’t embarrassed at his father’s affection. It was a symbol of something deeper in Joseph’s life. Whatever good gifts God gave him, Joseph accepted. Joseph serves as a good example for us to follow. Whatever good gifts God gives us because He loves us, we should accept them.

Joseph’s brothers didn’t realize that their actions would put a knife through the heart of Jacob, just like our sins put a knife through God’s heart. Jacob would not be comforted, no matter how hard everyone tried. Every day the ruthless sons of Jacob had to see their father’s sorrow. Every day they were reminded of their act of treachery. Every day the guilt of ruining an innocent life rained down on them like a flood.

The Lord was heavily involved in the making of Joseph and the significance of the story of Joseph. God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham but he added that Abraham’s descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs. God told Abraham that in the fourth generation they would return to Abraham’s land. Before the people would return they had to live somewhere. God chose Egypt for the people to live in, but He also planned a great deliverance for them which made it necessary to get them into Egypt before He could get them out. To get them in God chose Joseph.

Joseph stood out from his brothers. He dared to be different, There is a great contrast between the life of Joseph and the lives of his brothers. The beautiful coat that he wore symbolized his distinctiveness and was the kind of coat royalty would wear. It was the sign of noble birth.

If there is anyone who should stand out for distinctiveness, it is those of us who are children of God. When we display our nobility, not arrogantly, but boldly, the world will resent our nobility, and the world will try to squeeze us back into its mold. That’s what Joseph’s brothers tried to do to him. They tried to make him conform, but he had been transformed, and he would not conform. God had a plan for him. God said, “Joseph, you’re going to be different. You’re distinct.” God says the same thing to us today. We are different, We are distinct.

Joseph was a man who knew his worth in the Lord. That deep, inward esteem came from an undying dream from God. Earthly adversities could not override the power of the dream and the unmerited favour of a father. Joseph didn’t crack and cave in like so many others. When we know our worth in Christ, it changes everything!

We can learn a few lessons from Jacob’s family and Joseph’s adversity:

1. No enemy is more subtle than passivity. When parents are passive, they may eventually discipline their children, but by then the delayed reaction is often carried out in anger.
2. No response is more cruel than jealousy. If it is allowed to fester, it leads to devastating consequences.
3. Anyone who is indulging in the poison of envy should consider the damage it caused in Jacob’s sons.
4. Joseph’s brothers fell into the trap of believing that a lesser evil was justified if it was done instead of a greater evil. They thought highly of themselves for committing a lesser sin. That was a big mistake, and it is a mistake we as Christians must avoid. Sin is sin regardless of the self-righteousness with which it is committed.
5. Joseph was separated from his family and spent time in prison in Egypt. Jacob grieved over the loss of Joseph for over 30 years. Even his brothers suffered the defilement of their consciences and the hardening of their hearts against further sin.
6. God rules over all sin. God worked above the sin of Joseph’s brothers and through it to accomplish His purposes. This does not give us a license to sin. Instead, we must depend on God’s grace to prevent sin.

Like Joseph, we are guaranteed to experience some failure on the road to fulfilling God’s plans for our lives. That’s why we need to prepare ourselves for the times of testing that are certain to come our way. If we have God-given dreams as Joseph did, our dreams will be challenged.

If we look at the rest of Joseph’s life, we can see that God was with him and gave him success in everything he did. Joseph’s life of hardship led to him becoming second in command over Egypt. God used Joseph to save people from a terrible famine, including his whole family and people from surrounding nations.

It was a long and winding road for Joseph from being a young dreamer to becoming the chief administrator of Egypt. Why did he have to go through such a long and painful process? Why did it take years of suffering to prepare him for living the dream he had in his youth? The answer lies in the nature of what it means to commit yourself to a dream. It’s how the dream gets inside us. Until that happens, we’re in no position to try to go out and see that vision realized in life. We can’t hope to bring compassion to the world if we don’t have compassion in our hearts for other people-all of them. We can’t hope to bring peace to the world if we haven’t yet become peace-toward everyone.

Jesus came to suffer and die for our sake, and through that path of many hardships He rose in victory over death and ascended to heaven, where He now rules over all the earth. His path through suffering has led to blessings for all of us.

No one deserves the pit. But if we are in one, Joseph wants us to know that God is there with us. Because that is true, its awfulness may become the stuff of better days. We might not become a great leader like Joseph was, but we will have our own miracles. We will breathe again, love again, forgive, and be forgiven.

Bibliography

1. Jeremiah, David: The Jeremiah Study Bible: New King James Version (Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing; 2013; pp. 32-33)
2. Briscoe, D.S., & Ogilvie, L.J.: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Vol. 1: Genesis (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson; 1987; pp. 293-297)
3. MacArthur, J.F. Jr: The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers; 2006)
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8. Alan Wright, “The Man Who Knew His Worth (Part 2).” Retrieved from www.sharingthelight.org
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13. Mary Luti, “Prayer at the Pit.” Retrieved from dailydevotional@ucc.org
14. Jeremiah, David: God Meant it For Good: The Life of Joseph, Vol. 1 (San Diego, CA: Turning Point for God; 2006;2014; pp. 43-50)
15. Bruce Epperly, “The Adventurous Lectionary-The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost-August 13, 2023.” Retrieved from www.patheos.com/blogs/livingaholyadventure