A Personal and Inspirational Story From 4,000 Years Ago About A Slave Overcoming Adversity

My name is Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

I was born 4,000 years ago in Canaan where modern day Israel is located. My father Jacob had two wives, my mother Rachel and her sister Leah, and two concubines, Zilpah and Bilhah. My father only wanted to marry my mother Rachel, but on their wedding night in the darkness, my grandfather Laban substituted his other daughter Leah for Rachel. When the sun came up the next morning, my father woke up to find that he had married the wrong woman! My mother Rachel later died giving birth to my little brother Benjamin.

My eleven brothers are evil. My brother Reuben slept with my father Jacob’s concubine. My brothers Simeon and Levi, on hearing that Shechem, the son of the ruler of a city, had raped my sister Dinah, killed all the men of the city. My brother Judah slept with a prostitute who turned out to be his widowed daughter in law for whom he had refused to find a new husband. Her name was Tamar and she gave birth to my twin nephews who are also my twin grandnephews in law, Perez and Zerah.

When I was seventeen and shepherding flocks with my brothers, I told my father about what a bad job my brothers were doing. Of my eleven brothers, I was my father’s favorite because I had been borne to him in his old age. He loved me more than the others. He even made me an ornate robe. As a result, my brothers were jealous and hated me and would not speak kindly tom me. Perhaps you’ve heard about my ornate robe in the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”.

Ever since I was young, God would communicate to me through dreams. I once told my brothers about one dream in which we were binding sheaves of grain in the field when my sheaf rose and stood upright, while my brothers’ sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it. My brothers hated me even more and asked, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” I had another dream in which the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me. I told my father and my brothers about it. My father rebuked me and my brothers were jealous again.

One day, my father sent me to check on my brothers who were out shepherding flocks. I travelled a long distance to find them, and when they saw me coming in the distance, they plotted to kill me! But when they saw some merchants taking goods to Egypt, they sold me to the merchants for twenty shekels of silver.

My brothers dipped my Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in blood and told my father Jacob that they had found it. My father concluded that a ferocious animal had devoured me. He swore that he would mourn my death until he joined me in the grave.

The merchants who bought me took me down to Egypt. They sold me to Potiphar, the captain of the guard and one of Pharaoh’s officials in Egypt. While living in Potiphar’s house as his slave, God was with me and gave me success in everything that I did. I found favor in my master Potiphar’s eyes. I was in charge of everything Potiphar had and God blessed everything Potiphar had.

I was a very handsome man and Potiphar’s wife took notice of me. She said, “Come to bed with me!” I refused because to go to bed with her would have been a wicked thing and a sin against god. But day after day, Potiphar’s wife kept speaking with me. One day, when the house was empty, Potiphar’s wife grabbed my coat and said, “Come to bed with me!” I dropped my coat and ran out of the house. Potiphar’s wife accused me of attempting to rape her! My master Potiphar was burning with anger. He took me and threw me in prison among the king’s prisoners.

While I was in prison, God was with me. God granted me favor in the eyes of the prison warden and gave me success in everything I did. The warden put me in charge of everything he had including all the prisoners. One day, Pharaoh threw his chief cupbearer and chief baker in my prison. They each had a dream which I correctly interpreted with God’s help. I predicted that the chief cupbearer would be restored to his former position and that the chief baker would be executed. What I predicted took place. I told the chief cupbearer that I was innocent and I begged him to remember me when he got out of prison. He forgot about me.

Even after going through these horrible experiences, I never whined, complained, or murmured. I never cursed God or ceased to believe in Him.

One night, Pharaoh had two dreams that troubled his mind, and none of the magicians and wise men of Egypt could interpret them. The chief cupbearer remembered me and I was called before Pharaoh. God enabled me to correctly interpret Pharaoh’s dream: that there would be seven years of great abundance followed by seven years of severe famine. I also laid out a plan that Pharaoh could adopt to avoid the ruin that would come with the seven years of famine. Pharaoh was so impressed that he made me Prime Minister of Egypt, second only to him in the whole land. During the seven years of abundance, I bought grain, and during the seven years of famine, I sold grain.

The famine was so great that it hit Canaan where my father Jacob and my brothers were living. My father sent my brothers to Egypt because he had heard there was grain there. But he kept my little brother Benjamin with him because Benjamin had replaced me as his favored youngest son. When my brothers arrived and came to me to buy grain, they did not recognize me and they bowed down to me just as I had dreamt many years ago. Speaking to them through an interpreter, I accused them of being spies. When they told me that my little brother Benjamin was still in Canaan, I threw my half-brother Simeon in prison, and sent them back to Canaan with bags full of grain. I demanded that they bring me my little brother Benjamin to prove they were not spies.

At first, my father Jacob refused to let his favored youngest son Benjamin go to Egypt, but the famine was going to last for seven years, and finally he relented. My brothers came back to Egypt, this time with my little brother Benjamin, and again they bowed down to me as I had dreamt many years ago. I filled their bags with grain and placed a silver cup in my little brother Benjamin’s bag. I then accused my little brother Benjamin, my father’s new favorite, of having stolen my silver cup. I told my brothers that as punishment I would keep Benjamin as my slave. But when my brother Judah offered to take Benjamin’s place as my slave, I could no longer control myself.

I spoke to my brothers in their language:

“I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Gen 45:4b-8a)

I invited my entire family of 66 persons to move from Canaan to Egypt to survive the famine. My father Jacob, who was 130 years of age, wept for a long time when he met me for the first time in decades. After my father Jacob died at 147 years of age, my brothers were afraid I’d hold a grudge against them and pay them back for all of the wrongs they had done to me. Once again, they threw themselves down before me and said, “We are your slaves,” just as I had dreamed many years before.

I reassured them and I spoke kindly to them:

“Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” (Gen 50:19b-21a)

So I lived in Egypt along with my brothers and their families until I was 110 years old. On my deathbed, I made my family, the Israelites, swear an oath to me that when God would come to their aid and take the Israelites up out of Egypt to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that they would carry my bones up from Egypt.

My name is Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. This is the story of my life. If you want to learn more about me, read the Book of Genesis.