Lesson 11 - From Home to Egypt
In you, O HOLY ONE, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
The Joseph story is one of the best-known stories of the Hebrew scriptures. Joseph's mother, Rachel, has died, and the boy is being reared by a doting father in a household where there are eleven other sons, the children of four mothers. From the opening lines of Genesis 37, it is clear that we are being presented with a new kind of biblical story. This is a historical romance, a long and complex account of how the hero; Joseph, hated by his brothers, was sold into slavery by them, only to prosper in Egypt and later on to be the savior of the very brothers who had disposed of him. Unlike the other stories of Genesis, the Joseph narrative is long, complex, and devoted almost exclusively to the fate and fortunes of one of the sons of Jacob, the son of Jacob's beloved wife Rachel.
The setting for most of the story is the delta region of Egypt, and the time is probably the period of the Hyksos occupation of lower Egypt, from about 1700 to about 1550 B.C. But as the story opens, Jacob, a prosperous sheep owner is in Hebron, with flocks located over large parts of the land of Canaan. His sons supervise the care of these flocks. Joseph, we learn, had been assigned to help with the flocks of his half brothers, the four born to the servant-girls Zilpah and Bilhah. These four are at odds with Joseph because he reported unfavorably on their behavior to his father Jacob.
All the brothers, however, had reason to be at odds with Joseph, because Jacob favored him above all the others. One special example was the coat Joseph wore---an unusual one, longer than was customary, and with sleeves to cover Joseph’s arms (the most common outer garment was a cloak, made without sleeves). This coat is called a "coat of many colors" in many translations, following the old Greek translation called the Septuagint.
But there are more reasons for the brothers to feel hostile toward Joseph. He is a dreamer, and the dreams he reported to the family seem to indicate that Joseph is destined to become the most prominent member of the family. Later on we learn that Joseph is gifted as an interpreter of dreams, a gift that helps him to fame and wealth in Egypt.
All of this information about Joseph and his conflicts with his brothers sets the stage for the opening event in our story. The brothers have been gone for some time, grazing the sheep in the central hill country, north of the city of Shechem, in the region of the town of Dothan. Jacob sends Joseph to find out how the brothers are faring and then to return to him in Hebron. We can see that Joseph does not really work at the task of the shepherd. In fact, when he arrives at Shechem and does not find the brothers, he is simply wandering around in a field when someone asks him what is wrong and then tells him to go to Dothan to find his brothers.
As Joseph locates his brothers in the region of Dothan, they decide that their opportunity to be rid of this dreamer and troublemaker has finally come. They plot to kill him and make it appear that a wild animal actually took his life. Instead, when Joseph arrives, at the urging of the eldest brother, Reuben, they put him into a pit, alive, and they sit down for their evening meal. During the meal, Ishmaelite traders, on their way to Egypt, pass by. At the suggestion of Judah, the brothers agree to sell Joseph to these traders, and they do so-for twenty pieces of silver, apparently the going price for slaves who are being collected for resale.
Reuben intended to come back to the pit and rescue Joseph, but when he returns, Joseph has already been sold. As the eldest son, Reuben will surely be blamed the most by Jacob. So the brothers decide to deceive their father by dipping the cloak into the blood of a goat and taking it back to Jacob as evidence that a wild animal has taken Joseph's life. We can feel the irony in this deception: Jacob had deceived his father with the use of skins placed on his arms so that he could be identified by blind Isaac as the hairy son, Esau. Now the brothers deceive Jacob with this cloak made of skins. And the very garment that showed all the brothers that Jacob favored Joseph over them.
Jacob laments for Joseph continuously. The brothers try to console their father, but they cannot. This fact underscores just how much more Jacob cares for Joseph than he does for the other sons. But the beloved son has disappeared.
How realistic and true to life this story of family jealousy and intrigue is! We do not need to know a great deal about the life of shepherds to feel the power and the authenticity of this story. A gifted boy, one whose talents make him unfit for the outdoor life of his brothers, has extraordinary powers for sizing up situations, identifying motives of people, using administrative skills to accomplish desirable ends. The gifts show up first of all in Joseph's ability to read the signs of the times. The other family members cannot help but resent these gifts, for they elevate Joseph at the expense of the rest of the family. Bu in fact it will be those very gifts that will save Joseph's life in Egypt and make it possible for Joseph to save his family and all Egypt as well.
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Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.
This is the story of the family of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves.
But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.
Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, "Listen to this dream that I dreamed.
There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf."
His brothers said to him, "Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.
He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, "Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, "What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?"
So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem.
And Israel said to Joseph, "Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them." He answered, "Here I am."
So he said to him, "Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me." So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. He came to Shechem, and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, "What are you seeking?" "I am seeking my brothers," he said; "tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock."
The man said, "They have gone away, for I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan.
They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer.
Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams."
But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, "Let us not take his life."
Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him"--
[Reuben said this so] that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore; and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
Then Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?
Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers agreed.
When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. He returned to his brothers, and said, "The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?" Then they took Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.
They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said, "This we have found; see now whether it is your son's robe or not."
He recognized it, and said, "It is my son's robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces."
Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said, "No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning." Thus his father bewailed him.
Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.
Question Answers
There are two different traditions being represented. One referred to Jacob as Jacob and the other referred to him as Israel. The editor of the final story as we have it, included both versions and combined them. This occurs often in the scriptures.
There are three possibilities offered in the scripture for what happened to Joseph.
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Again we have multiple traditions. There were 3 different stories being circulated as to how Joseph ended up in Egypt and the editor combined them all into the same story, with no concern that they were not consistent with each other. Only the last one takes into account how he ends up with Potiphar.
Which is true? --We have no way of knowing which is the most historically factual. We don't even know if any of the Joseph saga is historically factual. But all three versions help to convey the truth that God is active in our lives and has a plan for establishing God's empire; a plan that even uses the evil acts of humans to its benefit.
To begin with, you may notice that there is nothing about a "multi-colored" coat mentioned in the scripture. That was a creation of 20th century art.
The coat that was given to Joseph was a long robe with sleeves. The significance of the long robe with sleeves was that it was a sign of a manager -- de boss. Joseph had been a helper to his brother but now Joseph had been assigned to oversee, to manage his brother's work. As the scripture relates, his reports to his father did not reflect favorably upon his brothers. And this time when he comes to see how they are doing, they are off partying in a nearby city. Knowing that they would get in trouble when the message of their behavior returned to their father, they decided to get rid of the messenger. It wasn't just jealousy that motivated their actions -- they were trying to save their rear.