8.) December 6, 2020 Joseph Gen 37:3-4, 20, 24, 28 41:25, 29-30a, 57
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long ornamented tunic. When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his brothers, they hated him so much that they could not say a kind word to him. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. So when Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the long ornamented tunic he had on; then they took him and threw him into the cistern. Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are now coming throughout the land of Egypt; but seven years of famine will rise up after them, when all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. Indeed, the whole world came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, for famine had gripped the whole world.
(Joseph foreshadows Joseph of the Gospels—both are dreamers and both saved lives by going to Egypt. Does selling someone for pieces of silver make you think of anything?)
Dreams got me into trouble and dreams saved my life. When I told my brothers about how they would someday bow to me, they threw me in a cistern. When I explained Pharaoh’s dream to him, I was freed from jail. Both times I told the truth. My brothers did bow when they came for food, which had been stored because of Pharaoh’s dream. Because of me, all of Jacob’s (Israel’s) family, slaves, and flocks came to Egypt. The course of history was altered. We survived the famine, but in the end were subjected to slavery. Yet from this, good came.Thought: Help me to be open to how God may move in my dreams.