The Dreamer

Jacob had twelve sons, but he loved Joseph more than all of them, because Joseph was born when he was already old. He made Joseph a beautiful coat of many colors. And when his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph best, they hated him, and could not even speak a kind word to him. Then Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers: “Listen to this dream I dreamed! We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field — and my sheaf stood up tall, and your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.” His brothers said, “So YOU are going to be a king over us? YOU are going to rule us?” And they hated him even more. Then Joseph dreamed again: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars all bowed down to him. Even his father shook his head at that one — but he kept the saying in his mind.

One day the brothers were far away, feeding the flocks, and Jacob sent Joseph to see if all was well with them. His brothers saw him coming from a long way off — that bright coat! — and before he reached them, they made a wicked plan against him. “Look, here comes that dreamer. Let us kill him and throw him in a pit, and say a wild animal ate him — and then we will see what becomes of his dreams!” But Reuben, the oldest, said, “Shed no blood — just put him in the pit.” For he secretly planned to come back and rescue Joseph for his father. So when Joseph came, they tore off his coat of many colors and threw him into an empty pit. Then they sat down to eat their bread — and looked up to see a caravan of traders coming, their camels loaded with spices, on their way down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain if we kill our brother? Come, let us sell him to the traders — but let us not lay our own hands on him. He is our brother, our own flesh.” So they pulled Joseph up out of the pit and sold him — sold their own brother — for twenty pieces of gold. And the traders took Joseph away, far away, down the long road to Egypt.

Then the brothers killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s coat in the blood, and brought it to their father. Jacob knew it at once: “It is my son’s coat! An evil wild animal has eaten him — a wild animal has carried Joseph off!” And Jacob tore his own clothes and mourned for his son many days, and would not be comforted. But Joseph was not dead. Down in Egypt, he was sold as a slave to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard. He was alone, in a strange land, far from his father — but God had not left him. And his dreams were not finished.