Joseph and His Dreams

Joseph was one of twelve brothers, and his father loved him dearly. He even gave Joseph a beautiful coat with long sleeves, finer than anything his brothers had. And Joseph had dreams, strange, wonderful dreams. In one of them, eleven bundles of wheat bowed down to his bundle. In another, the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed down to him.

When Joseph told his brothers, they did not like it at all. The coat, the dreams, the way their father loved him, it all made them burn with jealousy. And one day, far from home, their jealousy won. They sold Joseph to traders who were travelling to Egypt, and they told their father he was gone.

Joseph arrived in Egypt with nothing. No family, no coat, no home. It would have been easy to think God had forgotten him.

But God had not forgotten him.

Joseph worked in the house of an important man named Potiphar, and he did every job well, because God was with him. Then something unfair happened: Joseph was accused of something he had not done, and he was put in prison. Even there, God was with him. Even there, Joseph kept doing what was right.

One night, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had dreams that troubled him, and nobody could explain them. Somebody remembered that Joseph understood dreams. Joseph was brought from the prison to the palace, and with God’s help he told Pharaoh what his dreams meant: seven years of good harvests were coming, and after them seven years with no food at all. “Choose a wise man,” Joseph said, “and store up grain while there is plenty.” Pharaoh looked at Joseph and said, “There is no one as wise as you.” And he put Joseph in charge of all the land of Egypt.

Years later, when the hungry years came, Joseph’s brothers travelled to Egypt to buy food. They bowed low before the great Egyptian ruler, just like the bundles of wheat in the dream, and they did not recognise him. When Joseph finally told them who he was, they were terrified. But Joseph did not punish them. He wept, and he forgave them.

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive.”

Genesis 50:20

The brothers had meant to hurt Joseph. God had used every step, even the sad ones, to put Joseph exactly where he could save his whole family, and many others besides. God had a plan all along, even in the years when Joseph could not see it.