Josef

The life of Joseph

Our life is like a jigsaw puzzle. we always see only single parts, but never the whole picture until the end.

Joseph's life shows us this very clearly. he too didn't know in the beginning why he was experiencing this or that, but he trusted in God. He knew: God is leading me right; he knows the whole picture.

Joseph:

The Dreamer Genesis 37

A faithful slave Genesis 39:1-20

In prison Genesis 39:20-40, 23

Pharaoh's dream Genesis 41

God's miraculous ways Genesis 43-45, 24

The reunion Genesis 45:25-50:26

The Dreamer

Jacob now dwells in the land God promised to his fathers. He owns huge flocks, which are tended by his servants and sons.

Jacob loves all his sons, but Joseph, whom he still received in old age, he prefers to the others and gives him a princely dress. Therefore his brothers envy him, and because Joseph often accuses them to their father, they hate him.

"Do you know what I dreamed this night," he begins to report one morning, "We were tying sheaves in the field. My sheaf straightened and your sheaves bowed to mine." His brothers scoff, "Do you want to be our king?" From that day on, they hate him even more.

Some time later, when Joseph tells him, "The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to me," Jacob rebukes him, "Are you saying that I and your mother and your brothers should bow down to you?" But he remembers the words. Did not God also once speak to me through a dream: - should it perhaps be so with Joseph?

Soon after, Jacob sends Joseph to the flocks to ask how the brothers are doing. At last, after a long wandering, he finds them. The brothers see Joseph coming recognize him from afar and decide to kill him. Only Reuben, the oldest, is against it. He manages that Joseph is only thrown into a dry well, from which he wants to free him later. But God has another plan for Joseph. A caravan of Ishmaelites comes by and the brothers sell them their own brother as a slave for 20 pieces of silver.

Now the brothers slaughter a goat and dip Joseph's dress in the blood. Thus they have it brought to their father. Jacob recognizes the dress and thinks a wild animal killed Joseph. For a long time he mourns for his beloved son. So this arose from the brothers' hatred of Joseph: they sold their own brother as a slave and deceived their father.

How could it have come to this? Where was the root of this hatred?

• A faithful slave
• In prison
• Pharaoh's dream
• God's wonderful ways
• The Reunion

These sections are recorded in their entirety in the document: Joseph.pdf.

Source credits:

Content and images: BESJ-Jungschar Volketswil, Elisabeth Baumann

copyright: www.besj.ch

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