Genesis (Part 3)

We left off with Jacob's homecoming. Now comes my favorite story in Genesis. This is probably because there is a musical called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, so I basically remember the whole story through sing-song. I know, I'm cool.

Jacob has 12 sons (with his two wives AND two of the handmaidens- quite scandalous, but not in those days). Jacob's favorite wife is Rachel and her two sons become his favorite sons. Joseph is the elder of the two sons. To show his love for Joseph, Jacob gives him a multi-colored coat to distinguish him above all the other sons. His brothers become increasingly jealous. (I can't blame them, really- I still get mad sometimes that my little brother has a bigger TV than me!)

Meanwhile, Joseph is having dreams about corn, and dreams about starts. The dreams basically show the brothers bowing down to their brother Joseph, through the use of metaphors. (Joseph's corn is bigger than his brother's corn, etc.) Now the brothers are REALLY mad.

The brothers finally conspire against Joseph and end up selling him to be a slave in Egypt. They tell Jacob, their father, that Joseph was killed by a wild beast and give him Joseph's torn and bloody coat as evidence. Poor Joseph.

Joseph gets to Egypt and is sold to a captain named Potiphar, a very wealthy man. Joseph rises up through the ranks of the servants to become the person in charge of running Potiphar's household. This meant that Joseph was a very trustworthy servant in Potiphar's eyes.

But Potiphar has a wife, and she is evillll....not to mention kind of a ho. She keeps trying to get Joseph to "lie" with her....as in lie on a bed (wink, wink). She gets really frustrated because Joseph keeps spurning her advances, and she frames Joseph for attempted rape. Potiphar is outraged and throws Joseph in jail. Poor Joseph. Bad to worse.

But...this is how cool Joseph is. While in jail, he earns the trust of the guards and evntually rises up to be in charge of all the prisoners. And he's pretty much in jail for life- there was no trial those days, especially for slacves. Anyways, one day two servants of the pharoh are thrown into jail. One is the royal baker and one is the royal butler. They each have a dream that troubles them. Joseph offers to interpret the dreams (remember his dreams about corn and stars?) and tells the butler that he will be restored to his royal position, and tells the baker that he will unfortunately be hanged. These predictions come true, and when the butler is getting ready to go back to the palace, Joseph asks to be remembered to pharoh so that he has a chance of getting out of prison.

So....two YEARS pass and the butler forgets to mention Joseph to the pharoh. But one night the pharoh has disturbing dreams, and the butler remembers Joseph (gee, thanks). Joseph is brough to pharoh to interpret the dreams. Joseph tells pharoh that his dreams mean that Egypt will have 7 years of very good crops, and then 7 years of very bad famine. Pharoh realizes that he needs someone to help him plan for this oncoming catastrophe, and selects Joseph to be his #2 in all of Egypt. From slave, to prisoner, to 2nd only to pharoh- awesome!

After 7 years, as predicted, the crops all fail throughout the land.

Back in Canaan, Jacob and his family are starving, so Jacob sends them to Egypt to buy food from the storehouses that have been set up. The brothers unknowingly come face to face with Joseph when they are buying food. Guess what? Joseph's dreams are brought to pass when his brothers bow down before him!

Well, this is getting a little long, so I'll just say that Joseph eventually tells his brothers who he is. He forgives them for selling him into slavery because now he knows that God's plan was for him to save his family from starvation. Remember, God promised Abraham he would be the father of many nations- he couldn't do that if all of Abraham's great-grandchildren died of hunger. Finally, Jacob and Joseph are reunited, and the whole family moves to Egypt.

And this is the end of Genesis. I promise the other books will go faster! Genesis is just action packed!