God’s mercy and Joseph’s paid off

Joseph, son of Jacob, was Abraham’s greatgrandchild. As a teenage boy, Joseph had two strange dreams. In the first dream, he and his brothers were binding sheaves of grain in a field. Suddenly his sheaf stood up and his brothers’ sheaves bowed down to it. In the second dream the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to him. When he told his brothers about these dreams, they became jealous of him.

One day Jacob sent Joseph to go and see whether all was well with his brothers who were grazing their father’s flock. When they saw him, the brothers said “Here is the dreamer!” and they planned to kill him. One of the brothers called Reuben persuaded them not to kill him and the brothers ended up selling him to some Ishmaelites who were travelling to Egypt. In Egypt Joseph was sold to a senior official of Pharaoh called Potiphar.

Joseph did his work so well that Potiphar put him in charge of everything he owned. Joseph was also well-built and handsome. Consequently Potiphar’s wife desired to go to bed with him and made her desires known to him, but Joseph resisted saying he couldn’t do such a wicked thing to his master and to God. One day she tried to force him and he ran away from the house, leaving his cloak in her hands. She then twisted the story and told her husband that Joseph had attempted to rape her. Joseph was thrown into prison. While in prison he earned a reputation for being able to interpret dreams. When Pharaoh had dreams that disturbed him, Joseph was called to interpret the dreams and he told Pharaoh that the dreams meant that the country was going to experience seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He explained to Pharaoh what should be done to avoid hardship during the seven years of famine. Pharaoh then appointed Joseph to be in charge of all Egypt and all the plans.

The seven years of famine affected the whole region including Canaan where Joseph’s family lived. Jacob sent his other children to Egypt to buy food. The whole family subsequently went to settle in Egypt at the request of Joseph. The number of Israelites who initially settled in Egypt was 70. By the time Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt 430 years later, the number of adult men alone, excluding women and children, was 600 000.

The story of Joseph has much to tell us about how God calls people and about leadership. In the case of Abraham, God came to Abraham and told him to go to another land. In the case of Joseph, the call came as extreme adversity. The young man must have been traumatised to be sold by his own brothers to an alien people who were to take him away from his land of birth. It was only when the famine came and his own family was saved by the plan he had devised for Egypt that Joseph himself was able to say to his brothers: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). We sometimes go through experiences whose significance we are not aware of until we look back later and see the hand of God in our lives.

When God calls us, he gives us gifts. From a very young age Joseph had the gift of seeing visions through dreams. This developed into his ability to interpret dreams, and it is largely this gift that led to his powerful position in Egypt through which many lives were saved. But Joseph was also a great leader and an accomplished manager. He managed the seven years of famine so ably he gained the respect of both Pharaoh and the people.

An important quality that Joseph had was that he was a virtuous and morally upright man. Someone else might have fallen prey to Potiphar’s wife, but Joseph resisted her at great cost. Someone else might have taken revenge on his brothers, but Joseph forgave them, recognising that what they had done was part of God’s plan.