The Dreamer and His Brothers
Joseph was seventeen, the son of Jacob's old age and the son his father loved most. Jacob made him a coat of many colours, and his brothers hated him for it. They could not speak peaceably unto him (Genesis 37:2–4).
Then Joseph dreamed. His brothers' sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him. Shalt thou indeed reign over us? his brothers asked, and they hated him yet the more (Genesis 37:5–11). Joseph dreamed he would rule over his brethren. He did not yet know the road. That rule would come about by rejection and suffering.
Jacob sent him to check on his brothers, and he found them at Dothan. They saw him coming: Behold, this dreamer cometh. They plotted to kill him. Reuben talked them into a pit instead, hoping to rescue him later. They stripped off his coat, threw him into an empty pit, and sat down to eat bread. When a caravan passed, Judah proposed a sale.
“And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript 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.”
“Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.”
They dipped the coat in goat's blood and let their father draw his own conclusion. Jacob mourned and refused to be comforted (Genesis 37:31–35).
In Egypt the LORD was with Joseph (Genesis 39:2). He rose in Potiphar's house, refused his master's wife, was falsely accused, and was thrown into prison. There he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's butler and baker, and then the butler forgot him for two full years (Genesis 41:1). At last Pharaoh dreamed, and Joseph was brought out of the dungeon and set over all the land of Egypt. He was thirty years old (Genesis 41:46).
Famine drove his brothers to Egypt, and they bowed before the governor without knowing him. After testing them, Joseph sent everyone else from the room, wept aloud, and said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt (Genesis 45:4). Years later, when their father died and the brothers feared revenge, Joseph wept again and spoke the words that sum up his life.
“And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.”GENESIS 50:19–21 · KJV
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For Deeper Study
- Joseph: Beloved, Hated, ExaltedAmazon F. B. MeyerA classic devotional biography that traces God's providence through each chapter of Joseph's life.
- Joseph: A Man of Integrity and ForgivenessAmazon Charles R. SwindollAn accessible study of Joseph's character, suffering, and forgiveness, from Swindoll's Great Lives series.
- The Study of the TypesAmazon Ada R. HabershonA classic 1898 introduction to the types. Habershon lists more than a hundred parallels between Joseph and Christ; read them with the restraint this article urges.
- Typology: Understanding the Bible's Promise-Shaped PatternsAmazon James M. Hamilton Jr.A careful recent study of how Old Testament patterns point to Christ. The author writes as a Calvinistic Baptist.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Is Typology?
God filled the Old Testament with pictures of His Son: real people, events, and institutions He designed to point forward to Jesus Christ, who fulfills and surpasses them all.
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