Joseph: From Slave to Deputy Pharaoh

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt." (Genesis 45:3-8 NIV)

Through Abraham and Sarah, God promised to raise up a nation to reveal Himself to His world. That covenant extended through their son, Isaac, to his son, Jacob (renamed Israel after he wrestled with God), and then through Jacob's twelve sons. In the Upper Story of redemption, God was working out in history His plan to redeem us. In the lower story of the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, God was using the victories and hardships they faced to both reveal Himself to them and to reveal Himself to us through them.

God had special plans for one of Jacob's sons - Joseph. He was with Joseph as a young man, in spite of jealousy that grew in his family among his brothers because, well, Jacob played favorites among his sons. The sign of Joseph being Jacob's favorite son was an ornamented robe or coat which Jacob gave to Joseph, but not to his other sons. On top of the resentment of his favorite status, Joseph rubbed it in a little by tattling on his brothers when they goofed off. (Genesis 37:2)

God gave Joseph two visions or dreams of his eleven brothers bowing down to him, and then of his brothers and his parents bowing down to him. Somehow he was going to be elevated above them to a place of rulership. His brothers only resented him all the more. One day, when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers and the flocks, their resentment and jealousy boiled over. First they planned to kill their brother, but they thought better of it when the oldest, Rueben, interceded. They decided to sell him as a slave to Ishmaelite traders passing by, took his coat-of-many-colors and dipped it in some blood, then took it to their father and allowed him to draw his own conclusion that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.

Joseph was sold by the Ishmaelites as a slave to Potiphar, the Captain of the Guard to Pharaoh. God was with Joseph in Potiphar's house, demonstrating such leadership and integrity that Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his whole household. But Potiphar's wife sought to seduce Joseph, who would not have any of it. Joseph began to avoid her, until one day they were alone in the house and she begged him to come to bed and he fled, leaving behind his cloak. Potiphar's wife lied to her husband and accused David of assaulting her, and Joseph was summarily thrown into the prison that Potiphar ran for Pharaoh.

God was with Joseph in prison, and he was elevated to head trustee, with the jailor putting him in charge of the other prisoners and everything that happened in the prison. Some time later, Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and head baker fell under the king's wrath, and were put in the same prison as Joseph. Each had a dream, and God gave the interpretation of the dreams to Joseph. The cupbearer would be restored to his position, and the baker would be executed. When the cupbearer was being released from prison, Joseph asked him to remember him and help get him out of prison. But the cupbearer promptly forgot all about the Hebrew slave who interpreted his dream.

Two years later Pharaoh had two dreams which none of his magicians or wise men could interpret. It was then that the cupbearer remembered what Joseph had done while he was in prison, and recommended him to Pharaoh. The king called for Joseph, and God gave Joseph the meaning of Pharoah's dreams: there would be seven years of abundance followed by seven years of severe famine. Even as he gave the interpretation, Joseph suggested a solution: someone should be put in charge of storing up grain in the years of abundance so there would be a storehouse of food during the years of famine.

In what can only be seen as the favor of God on Joseph's life, Pharaoh elevated this slave to second in command in all of Egypt to oversee the administration of storing and distributing the grain. Joseph was essentially named deputy Pharaoh, and given more ruling authority than anyone else in Egypt except Pharaoh himself.

Back in Canaan during the second year of the famine, his family was driven by hunger to seek food from Egypt, when they heard reports that there was food there. When they came to Egypt and were directed to Joseph, they did not recognize him, although he recognized them. Joseph's first dream was fulfilled when his brothers bowed down to him. Joseph messed with them a little, and then finally revealed himself to them. He sent them back to Canaan to bring their father to Egypt where Joseph could provide for all of them during the remaining five years of the famine.

Many of us would play the victim card if we went through the hardships Joseph faced. He was sold as a slave by his own brothers. He was falsely accused of sexual assault and thrown in prison. He languished in prison for two years after he helped the cup-bearer, who forgot about him. And finally he was elevated to deputy Pharaoh at a crucial time in history, when his family might have starved to death in the severe famine. But Joseph understood that God was using all of it to put him in the place where he could, in fact, rescue and protect his family, which would become the nation of Israel.

I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt."

Joseph's life is a prime Scriptural example of how God's Upper Story interweaves with our Lower Stories to accomplish His redemption. Things we experience as hardships are used by God to prepare us for our own future, and to accomplish His greater purposes. Joseph's story also prefigures and points to the full redemption God was planning through His Son, Jesus, coming to earth (Egypt), facing His own hardships (crucifixion) and through the worst thing that could happen to a human being, crushing sin. Then by His resurrection, He put death to death so any and all who choose to trust Him and live their lives for Him are delivered from death to life.

Could it be that our own hardships might serve the same purpose, both in our own stories land in the great Upper Story of God's redemption of all humanity? Might we find the hope and peace Joseph proclaimed to his brothers as we see the hardest things of our lives from a more eternal perspective? Do we believe that Paul had it right in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."?

I pray Joseph's story might bring hope to any of us who have gone through (or are going through) great hardships in life. God is with us, even when all the events of life seem to say He has abandoned us. In the end, He will always work for our good, and for others' good through us. The One who put death to death can preserve us to the end and bring us to eternal life. And that's good news, indeed!