According to the timeline of Genesis, Joseph was born 3,129 years after Creation. If the date of the Exodus was 1491 B.C., as many scholars believe, then Joseph was born ~1960 B.C. Joseph was the eleventh son born to Jacob (whose name had been changed to Israel by God). Jacob had children by four different women: Rachael and Leah, his wives; Bilhah and Zilpah, his wives' servants whom they allowed Jacob to wed when they got into a "baby contest." Rachael was the woman that Jacob had truly loved and he had only married Leah when he was tricked by his father-in-law, Laban. His beloved Rachael only had two sons, Joseph and the last brother, Benjamin. Rachael died while giving birth to Benjamin and so Joseph and Benjamin were special to Jacob and thus favored over the other brothers. That God wants us to study this story is very evident by the fact that the creation of the entire world only merits two chapters in the book of Genesis while Joseph's life receives fourteen!

The story begins when Joseph is seventeen years of age. Two things happened that year of significance. First, Daddy Jacob presented Joseph with a "coat of many colors." As colored cloth was expensive in those days, to wear such a coat meant that a person was very important and did not have to engage in physical labor. It also caused the older brothers to think that Jacob intended to bypass all of them and give the birthright (the main part of the inheritance) to Joseph. While the brothers were out working in the fields, Joseph stayed around the house in his fancy coat and drawing the ire and jealousy of his older brothers. Then the second significant event happened: God began to give Joseph dreams. In it his brother's harvest bowed down to his, and the sun, moon and eleven stars (representing the father, mother, and eleven brothers) bowed down to Joseph. This set the elder brothers' jealously on such a fire that one day when Joseph was sent out into the field to check on his older brothers, they set upon him and cast him into the bottom of an old pit. They intended to kill him until Reuben the firstborn talked them out of it and instead they sold Joseph as a slave for twenty pieces of silver to some "merchant men" who were traveling to the wealthy country of Egypt to sell goods. Meanwhile the brothers took Joseph's "coat of many colors" and, dipping it into goat's blood, lied to their father saying that Joseph had been eaten by a wild beast.

There are two very important lessons to be learned by these events. 1.) God will always bless someone else who is seemingly undeserving as a test to see if you will get jealous or not. 2.) Things in life are rarely as they seem to be at first glance. These two themes are intertwined within this part of Joseph's story. It was God who allowed the death of Rachael to make Joseph favored in Jacob's eyes. It was also God who began to give Joseph dreams of the others serving him. But the "coat of many colors" was not proof that Jacob was going to automatically give the birthright to Joseph. In fact, when the actual birthright was later doled out, we find that it was only the elder brothers' evil conduct as a result of their jealousy that caused them to be passed by and Judah received the actual birthright. Actually, Joseph did not receive any portion of the inheritance but rather his two sons! Jealousy always assumes the worse and God will often allow something to seem as something else just to see if you will choose to drink from the bitter waters of jealousy. The place where all of this happened was called "Dothan" which means "two wells." In James chapter 3, he likened jealous speech to being a choice between a bitter well and a sweet one! Remember when God blesses someone that is undeserving and it seems as if you are loosing everything important, that you are at a place of "two wells" and God is simply wanting to see if you will drink from the well of jealousy or from the well of trusting in God! Also, do not be so quick to assume the worse. Jacob never questioned the brother's story and never checked on his flock to see if they had fooled him with the blood of a goat. He simply accepted the death of his precious son with finality. Even if the devil makes the circumstances look like your dream is dead, then realize that is rarely as it seems! If God said that the others would bow down to him, then Joseph cannot be dead! Yet many people choose the path of Jacob in living for God and quickly accept the negative as final in their life when it simply is not so!

Meanwhile, Joseph was sold in Egypt as a slave to a man named Potiphar who was an officer of Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. God blessed everything that Joseph did and Potiphar quickly made Joseph head over all of his house and land. As a result, God blessed Potiphar's house even more abundantly. Potiphar's wife began to lust after Joseph and one day when nobody else was around, she propositioned him. Joseph ran from the house as quick as he could but while leaving, Potiphar's wife grabbed his coat. Her pride hurting from his rejection, Potiphar's wife then proceeded to lie to her husband and claimed that Joseph tried to rape her. Potiphar was so furious when he believed the false report that he had Joseph cast into prison!

What Joseph did NOT do teaches us an important lesson. He did NOT sulk or have a pity party or question God. The scripture says that he began to help the jailer with his duties and the jailer made Joseph the head of all of the prisoners. When he did so, God blessed the jailer so much that Joseph was performing all of his duties and the jailer could simply get paid for relaxing! There are then two more important lessons from Joseph's life that we can learn: 3.) Do what is right in secret even if honesty will cost you your position or job. 4.) God will often allow you to experience some success after a test only to place you within a trial again just as a test to see if you will get bitter or trust Him! If you go into the situation with the realization that it is only a test, then you can make the most of the situation and will eventually come out of it! If you accept it as final, then you are sealing your own fate! Once again, whatever it takes, never get bitter and never stop serving and trusting God! Pass the test and the blessings will come! The best way to show God that you are trusting in Him is to treat kindly and help those who are the very ones keeping you within your trial!

One day both Pharaoh's butler and baker offended him and were cast into the same prison with Joseph. Genesis 40:4 says that the "captain of the guard" placed Joseph with them in the prison. Because we know that Potiphar was the "captain of the guard" (Genesis 37:36), then we know that Potiphar obviously later realized that his wife's story was false and helped Joseph. Probably because of his wife's influence, Potiphar did not release Joseph from prison, yet God had a plan to elevate Joseph despite the evil power of Potiphar's wicked wife! This brings us to one of the most important lessons in Joseph's story: 5.) If you refuse to become bitter and will trust God through any situation, then it does not matter if important people have it out for you, God will deliver and exalt you! But you must NOT get bitter and you MUST continue to trust God!

The butler and the baker both had dreams and came to Joseph for the interpretation because they realized that he had a relationship with the Almighty God! Joseph interpreted the butler's dream to mean that he would soon be restored to his former position and the baker's dream to mean that he would be hanged at the same time. Joseph begged the butler to make mention of him to the Pharaoh when the dream came true. Three days later, on Pharaoh's birthday, the interpretations came true exactly as Joseph had said it would happen: the butler was restored and the baker was hanged. Unfortunately, the butler forgot about his promise to Joseph to mention him to the Pharaoh for two full years! Here are two more lessons to be learned: 6.) To be exalted like Joseph, people must be able to see that we have a relationship with Almighty God from our actions in the worst circumstances! 7.) People will usually let you down because they are human, but keep trusting in God because He will NEVER let you down as long as you keep your spirit right! Ask yourself this question: when you have the worst day of your life and the worst circumstances happen, do your actions show other people that you have a close relationship with God or do they prove otherwise?! To be exalted like Joseph, we must respond to adversity like Joseph!

After two years, God caused Pharaoh to have several dreams. In one seven healthy cows were eaten by seven skinny cows. In another seven good ears of corn were devoured by seven weakly and thin ears of corn. After the second dream, Pharaoh called for all of his magicians and sorcerers and was dismayed to find that none of them could interpret the dream. It was then that God triggered something in the butler's memory and he told Pharaoh of how Joseph had correctly interpreted his dream two years before. Pharaoh called Joseph out of the prison. When praised, Joseph refused to accept any glory and gave all of the credit for interpreting dreams to God. Joseph then listened to the dream and told Pharaoh the interpretation. The land of Egypt was being warned by God that they were about to have seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. That the dream had come twice was proof that it would happen immediately. Joseph then suggested that Pharaoh store up a fifth of the harvest of the seven good years so that Egypt would have enough food for the seven lean years. Pharaoh was so pleased with the interpretation and suggestion that he made Joseph to be second-in-command of all of Egypt and placed him over the storing and distribution of the harvests! Because Joseph trusted God, he literally went from the prison to the palace! And we find that Joseph was not only well liked by those who worked for him, but that he made wise and correct decisions in his new found position. Which brings us to our next lesson: 8.) The reason that God places us in trials and tests before He exalts us is to teach us what we need to know to be successful in His perfect will for us! If God would have given Joseph the second-in-command of Egypt shortly after giving him the first dream at the young age of seventeen, Joseph would not have been able to flourish and wisely rule as God wanted. It was the lessons of the slavery and prison that taught Joseph how to be a leader in God's will! As one preacher said: "there is a school of brokenness that few Christians enter and even fewer graduate, but everybody wants the blessings that come with the diploma!" The reason that God follows a dream and calling with trials is to shape and mold us to be able to survive and flourish in the place that He has prepared for us! Joseph was thirty years old when he became the second-in-command of Egypt. He had been in training for 13 years!

The dreams came true just as Joseph had spoken and eventually the entire area was in famine and there was no food except in Egypt! The surrounding countries began to come to Egypt to purchase food and the land where Jacob and his eleven sons were living was no exception. The famine finally became so extreme that Jacob sent his oldest ten sons into Egypt to buy food but refused to let Benjamin, who he thought his only surviving son of the beloved Rachael, to travel. When the older brothers came to the place to buy food, Joseph was the seller, however, the brothers did not recognize the older Joseph in the Egyptian clothing. Joseph recognized them immediately and quickly realized that Benjamin was not with them. He accused them of being spies so that he could find out more information about them. They protested and said that they were not spies but were all sons of one man and that they had one brother who was still with their father and one brother who had died. Of course, the brother that they thought dead was really the one that they were bowing before thus fulfilling the original dream of Joseph! Joseph told them that the only way that he would sell them food was if one of them stayed prisoner in Egypt while the others brought back Benjamin as a proof that they were not lying. The brothers began to speak to each other in Hebrew thinking that Joseph could not understand them. They realized that they were reaping the effects of their sin thirteen years after it had happened, but they did not realize that Joseph was listening to them! He gave them food, kept Simeon in prison until they returned with Benjamin, and then secretly placed their money back in the sacks of corn even though they did not discover this until almost home.

Now we learn the lesson of why jealousy is warned against so strongly in the scriptures. 9.) If you allow yourself to become jealous, you will reap the effects for decades afterward! It was over thirteen years later that the elder brothers are facing this crisis! This is why we must guard ourselves from lying, jealous, and deceitful behavior even when we do not understand God's ways!

Daddy Jacob was not keen on the idea of allowing his beloved Benjamin out of his sight. It took the famine getting much worse before he finally assented to let Benjamin go with the brothers back to Egypt to buy food and free Simeon. Jewish history teaches us that it was Simeon who actually bound Joseph and placed him in the pit in the beginning. So Simeon experienced exactly what he had done to Joseph! When he finally let them go, Jacob sent the brothers with double money and gifts for the "head of the treasury" who was actually Joseph! Simeon's imprisonment teaches us another important principle: 10.) You will eventually experience the same type of treatment with which you treated others! Use this principle to your advantage by showing mercy and forgiveness to others!

When the brothers returned to Egypt with Benjamin, they were astonished to discover that Joseph refused to accept their double payment and invited them to a dinner at his house. They still did not realize who he was. Even when they were seated at dinner in their birth order and Benjamin was given a second helping of everything, they still did not recognize Joseph. They had believed a lie so long that when the truth was in front of them, they could not see it! This is an important principle to learn about human nature: 11.) If you want to believe something enough, you can convince yourself of it so much that you cannot see the truth, but that does not make it right or truth! There are many people who have rejected the clear-cut message of God's Word so adamantly that they have convinced themselves of a lie. The scripture says that those who reject the truth to "believe a lie" will be damned (II Thessalonians 2:10-12)! We must believe what the scripture say, even if it contradicts our traditions and ideology.

After the supper, Joseph sent the brothers away with their money secretly placed again in their sacks of corn, but this time he placed his royal silver cup in the bag of Benjamin. When the brothers got a few miles out of town, Joseph sent his soldiers after them. When the soldiers searched the bags, they found the silver cup in the bag of Benjamin and arrested him to bring him back to Joseph. Renting their clothes and cursing their bad luck, the other brothers went with him to try to talk him out of keeping Benjamin and thus killing their father with a broken heart! Frantically they tried to explain to Joseph what the loss of Benjamin would to Jacob and how that he had barely survived the death of Joseph years before! When Joseph realized that they really cared for Benjamin and their father, he realized that they had changed and repented of their evil deeds. He cried out for all of the Egyptians to leave the room and to leave them alone. Then he began to weep -- so loudly that the Egyptians heard him outside -- and he finally revealed to them the truth! The brothers were speechless when they heard him speak in Hebrew that he was Joseph! Our key verse reveals the lack of animosity and maturity of Joseph:

What an amazing attitude of someone who refused to get bitter and who trusted God completely! Joseph had the authority and the ability to have all of his brothers killed, but realized that God had taken all of the evil in his life and turned it into the salvation of his family in this great time of need! What would happened if Joseph would have gotten bitter in the pit or bitter in the prison? His family would have been lost to the famine! 12.) What we view as "low points" and trials in our lives are actually opportunities to trust Him completely so that we can be the ones to save our families! If you will trust God, you will eventually realize the hand of God in all of the events of your life as bringing the very salvation of those whom you love the most! When people turn on us, we must forgive them and not allow ourselves to grow bitter because by doing so we become the very ones that can save them and reach them! Notice that Joseph exhibited true forgiveness by releasing them of all debt. He would not charge them money for the food and refused to punish them at all. The only reason that he accused them as being spies and such was to have an excuse to learn more about them and to see if they loved Benjamin or treated him the same! 13.) True forgiveness is the complete release of any "debts" owed to you! As soon as Joseph realized that they had forgiven and repented of their wrong doings, then he was willing to forgive them! This is exactly how God forgive us: He will forgive us of any debt as long as we are willing to forgive "every man."

When Daddy Jacob was told that Joseph was alive, he did not at first believe. It is just human nature to quickly accept the negative and refuse to believe the good report! The entire family moved to Egypt where they were given the land of Goshen which was the land fertilized by the flood waters of the Nile and the choicest land in Egypt! God blessed Joseph and the children of Jacob or -- as they came to be called -- the children of Israel. Seventeen years after entering the land of Egypt to be reunited with his lost son, Joseph, Jacob called all of the children together, blessed them, and died. Judah was given the birthright, but Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, were given equal portions with their uncles and thus became the heads of two tribes of Israel. God not only used Egypt to save Jacob and his sons, but over the next four hundred and thirty years, the children of Israel multiplied until they numbered in the millions! God would then use Moses to take them out of Egypt (called the Exodus) and to the Promised Land that He had given them.

Before Joseph died, he called the leaders of Israel together and prophesied that God would take them back to the Promised Land and made them promise to take his bones with them when they went! Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years old in ~1850 B.C. His story was written down for us by Moses. His life stands as a monument of what God can do with someone who trusts Him completely!

Joseph's life is a beautiful type of the life of Jesus Christ. Here are just some of the parallels: Both were sold for silver by people whom they loved; Joseph by one of the twelve sons of Jacob, Jesus by one of His twelve disciples. Joseph was thirty years old when he began service in the king's house; Jesus was thirty years old when He began His public ministry. In order to escape the death from the famine in the world, Joseph's brethren had to come to him and ask for food; in order to escape the sure death from the spiritual famine of this sin-filled world, we must come to Jesus Christ for our "bread from heaven." Both brought salvation by submitting to the actions of those who put them down and then turned and not only forgave those that persecuted them but brought salvation to them personally! Joseph was never more like Jesus when he had the opportunity to bring judgment and instead granted life. Of course, when the devil said that Jesus was dead, in actuality Jesus was alive and bringing life to all of those who realized the fact! Even the land of Dothan, the place of two wells, and the place where the decision had to be made to sell Joseph or release him finds it antitype in the Jewish leaders decision to crucify Jesus! The fact that Joseph refused to allow his bones to stay in Egypt is a beautiful type of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is also interesting to note that the time period before the butler's restoration to his position perfectly corresponds with the three days that Jesus spend in the grave. The fact that Joseph served Benjamin a double portion finds it's antitype in that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will give an inheritance to those who become "sons of Gods" through being born of the Spirit! The "coat of many colors" that became stained with blood is a type of the flesh that God became in order to shed His blood!

Another type occurred when Jacob was blessing Joseph's two sons, he placed his right hand upon the youngest and his left hand upon the eldest signifying that the birthright would be given to the youngest. This fits in with a theme throughout scripture of the youngest becoming greater and goes along with Jesus' teaching that "he who is least in the kingdom of God shall become the greatest." It is also a type of how our old man (who we were before we were "born again") must serve the new man in Christ (who we are after we are "born again)!

Most casual readers do not realize that Potiphar was the "captain of the guard" who was also in charge of the prison (compare Genesis 37:36 with 40:3). Also Jewish history teaches us that the reason that Simeon was held prisoner in Egypt was because he was the one who actually cast Joseph into the pit in the first place. When Joseph was called from prison to see Pharaoh, the scriptures record that he "shaved his beard" (Genesis 41:14). A clean shaven face, at that time, was a sign of slavery or servitude and this shows that Joseph approached Pharaoh with the heart of a servant. The dreams of Pharaoh of the skinny cows eating up the fat cows is a great parable teaching us not to allow the bad in life to eat up the good things. In that so many people focus on the negatives that they scarcely remember the positives. History backs up the Biblical account of Joseph's life and the Pharaoh around this time would have been Osirtasin I, the second king of the 12th Egyptian Dynasty. Egyptian history records a severe famine that lasted seven years during Osirtasin's reign and also records another leader who saved Egypt by careful planning. This undoubtedly answers to Joseph.