Joseph

Genesis 37-50

The story of Joseph spans chapters 37 to 50 of Genesis and has a number of aspects that point us to Jesus. I only have space to highlight a few in brief here and the whole account is worth some study and reflection.

Firstly, Joseph is rejected, betrayed and sold by those closest to him. The story begins with Joseph as his father’s favourite which annoys his 11 other brothers (37:3,4). He also has some dreams in which he sees his family bowing down to him. He shares these dreams with his family (37:5-11). These revelations are not well received and the brothers see an opportunity to kill Joseph (37:18ff). In the end he is not killed but is sold to some foreign traders for 20 shekels of silver (37:25-28).

If we look forward to the events of Gethsemane we see Jesus is betrayed by one of His closest friends, Judas, for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16). Upon being arrested by the authorities following this betrayal, He was then abandoned by those closest to him (Matthew 26:47-56).

Secondly, Joseph is wrongly convicted. After being sold into slavery Joseph ends up in the house of Potiphar (Genesis 39) where he serves as overseer in the house. Potiphar’s wife wrongly accuses Joseph of sexual exploitation and he is thrown into jail (39:7-23).

Jesus, too, is wrongly accused and during His trial it is even said by Pilate, ‘I find no guilt in Him’ (John 18:38). However, He is sentenced to death – an unjust punishment for a crime He didn’t commit.

Thirdly, Joseph is involved in the salvation of many. Through an interesting series of events that leads to Joseph becoming in charge of the nation of Egypt and developing a system for storing up food in the good years to help them through years of famine, the story concludes with the nations coming to Egypt to get food in order to stay alive. The account concludes with Joseph saying to his brothers, ‘You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive’ (50:20).

Exactly the same could be said of Jesus: His betrayal, conviction and murder was meant for evil, but through it God preserved or saved many people (Acts 3:13-16).

Further reading    Matthew 26:14-27:26      Acts 3:11-26

Worship Video

To think about:

Have you ever experienced a time of rejection or betrayal?  How did you deal with it?

Creative Response

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