Brother Joseph and the Road from Slave to Governor

Joseph was the youngest son of Jacob, and also the most loved.  He had several brothers, all of whom were jealous of Joseph.

Joseph also had a gift: he could, through God, interpret dreams.  He told his brothers of a dream he had which he interpreted to mean all of his brothers would bow down and worship him.  So his brothers came up with a scheme to, at first, kill him, then they decided to sell him as a slave to an Egyptian captain of the king's palace guards.

The story of Joseph is a long one, starting with chapter 37 and ending with the final chapter of Genesis, chapter 50.

Joseph may start out as a slave, but the Egyptian captain realizes that God works through him and appoints him to be the head of his household.  By a bizarre twist of fate, the captain's wife tries to seduce Joseph and he kept refusing until she framed him by saying he was trying to rape her.  Her husband threw Joseph in prison.  Over the next two years, the Egyptian king had two dreams no one could interpret.  He heard about Joseph and called for him.

Joseph interpreted the dreams to mean there will be seven years of abundance followed by seven years of great famine.  The king then appointed Joseph as governor of Egypt and in charge of storing up as much food as possible during the abundant years to keep them through the famine years.

This story is interesting at its basic level.  Joseph went from a pretty easy life to one of slavery, only to emerge as the head of a nation.  This takes us through chapter 41.  Next time we'll cover more on Joseph as his reign of governorship during the fourteen years of abundance and famine.