Summary of Joseph

There is nothing negative recorded about Joseph in the Bible. He was the first child Jacob had by Rachel.

Early in his life, his father evidently treated him with favoritism. He also had a dream in which sheeves representing his brothers bowed down to him. His brothers thought that Joseph had too high of an opinion for himself.

Even though God had shown Joseph that he was special in some way, he didn't know in what way. When things began to go against him, he must have wondered if he had misinterpreted God's plans for him. His brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. His master's wife falsely accused him of trying to rape her, and, as a result, Joseph was thrown into prison.

Even though it didn't look like God was opening doors of opportunity for him, Joseph kept doing his best, and he always rose to the top in every environment he found himself. He rose to the top in Potiphar's (his master) household; he rose to the top in prison, and the jailor gave him special responsibilities. In the New Testament, Jesus said that whoever can be trusted with little things can also be trusted with greater things, but those that can't be trusted with little things won't be given larger responsibilities.

Finally, God began to change his conditions. Because he had interpreted dreams for Paraoh's servants in prison, he was called on to interpret Paraoh's dreams, and he prophesied that a famine would come in seven years. Maybe God needed Joseph in Egypt and in prison to get him into Pharaoh's presence.

When Paraoh saw that Joseph had unusual wisdom, he put him in charge of all Egypt in preparation for the famine he had prophesied.

Years later, when the famine had spread over the earth, Joseph had built up large stores of grain in Egypt. Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt, so he sent his sons, Joseph's brothers, to Egypt to buy grain. They bought grain from Joseph, but they didn't recognize him, and he didn't tell them who he was during their first two visits.

When he finally did reveal himself to his brothers, he told them to go back to Canaan and get their families and their father. He explained to them that, even though they had sold him into slavery out of bad motives, God had planned it for good. He could look back on his life and see that God had been working toward this end the whole time.

His brothers went back to Canaan and brought their families and Jacob to Egypt. Jacob met Pharaoh, and Joseph provided a good land for them to live in. After Jacob died in Egypt, Joseph had his body prepared for burial and then they took it back to Canaan for the burial. Once their father was dead, his brothers were afraid that Joseph would take revenge on them, but he assured them that he really did believe God had let everything happen for a reason and that he wouldn't harm them. Just before he died, he told the Israelites that some day they would migrate back to Canaan, and he asked that they take his bones with them.

Joseph's life is like Jesus' life in at least three ways:

1. there is no record of sin in his life just as Jesus was sinless
2. he was rejected by his brothers just as Jesus was rejected by the Jews
3. he went to another place (Egypt) to prepare a place for his family just as Jesus said he was going to heaven to prepare a place for us.

These parallels with Jesus make Joseph into a picture of Jesus. Old Testament pictures of Jesus, like this one and like Abraham's near sacrifice of his only son, are called "types" of Christ. If we read the Old Testament carefully, we see that it is full of types of Christ. The whole book is about Jesus in one way or another.

Material taken from Evangelbabtist.org