Joseph's Story

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For those of you who may not be familiar with the story of Joseph, he was the favorite son of Jacob. In fact, Jacob loved him so much that he made him an elaborately embroidered robe.

But as much as Joseph was loved and favored by his father he was hated and despised by his brothers. When he told them about his dream that one day they would all bow down to him, they couldn’t take it anymore. The first chance that they got, they stripped him of his flashy coat and threw him in a pit. Later, a band of Ishmaelites came riding by, and his brothers decided to sell Joseph into slavery.

Down in Egypt Joseph became the personal aide of a man named Potiphar, who was the manager of Pharaoh’s household, putting him in charge of all of his personal affairs. However, Joseph was a strikingly handsome man, and as time went on Potiphar’s wife became infatuated with Joseph and began making advances towards him. But when Joseph resisted, she accused him of trying to seduce her.

Potiphar believed the charges and had Joseph thrown into prison. While Joseph was in prison he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer. Joseph interpreted the dreams and told the cupbearer that in three days he would be restored to his old job, however, the head baker was not going to fair as well. He told the baker that in three days he would be killed.

After he was restored to his old position, the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph until two years later when Pharaoh told everyone about his dreams. The cupbearer confessed that he had forgotten all about Joseph and his dream interpretations. So Pharaoh summoned Joseph from prison, and Joseph interpreted his dreams. He told Pharaoh that the dreams meant that there would be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Pharaoh said to his servants,

“Can we find anyone else like this—one in whom is the spirit of God?” (Genesis 41:38, NRSV)[1]

Pharaoh made Joseph the second most powerful man in all of Egypt. During the seven years of plenty, Joseph gathered up 1/5 of all the produce of the land. When the seven years of famine arrived, people came to Joseph to buy food, including his brothers, who did not recognize him. When Joseph does reveal his identity the family moves down to Egypt. Now we have come to the end of the story. Joseph has treated his brothers kindly, but now that their father is dead, they fear that Joseph will take his revenge; instead he says to them,

“Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” (Genesis 50:19-20, NLT)[2]

That is called redemption—taking one thing and exchanging it for another. S&H Green Stamps were a line of trading stamps popular in the United States from the 1930s until the late 1980s which were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry & Hutchinson company (S&H).  During the 1960s, the company promoted its rewards catalog as being the largest publication in the United States and boasted that it issued three times as many stamps as the U.S. Postal Service. Customers would receive stamps at the checkout counter of supermarkets, department stores, and gasoline stations, among other retailers, which could be redeemed for products in the catalog.[3] 

In the case of Joseph, God took the calamity and injustice of being sold into slavery and turned it into the salvation of his family (and ultimately the salvation of all humankind). From the lineage of Joseph’s brother Judah, Jesus was born. God took something bad and made something good out of it. What the story of Joseph teaches us is that when we’re going through a challenging time we need to withhold our judgment of the situation until we see what God intends to do with it. That is not to say that a bad thing suddenly becomes a good thing, but it can become the best thing.

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[1] The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

[2] Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188. All rights reserved.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26H_Green_Stamps (Accessed April 29, 2020)