Joseph is seventeen, the son of Jacob's old age, and Israel loves him more than all his children and makes him a tunic of many colors. Joseph dreams that his brothers' sheaves bow to his sheaf, and that the sun, moon and eleven stars bow to him. His brothers hate him and cannot speak peaceably to him. When Joseph comes to them at Dothan, they say, “Look, this dreamer is coming!” They strip off his tunic, throw him into a pit, and sell him to Ishmaelite traders for twenty shekels of silver.
Genesis 38 interrupts the story to follow Judah, who leaves his brothers and marries a Canaanite. The chapter is painful: Judah fails to keep his promise to his daughter-in-law Tamar, and she exposes his sin. Yet Judah confesses, “She has been more righteous than I.” This is the beginning of Judah's change, and from Tamar's son Perez comes the line of David and of Jesus Christ. God's grace works even through broken family stories.
In Egypt Joseph is bought by Potiphar, captain of the guard. Four times chapter 39 tells us that the LORD was with Joseph. Potiphar's wife tempts him day by day, and Joseph refuses: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” When she grabs his garment, he flees and leaves it in her hand. For his faithfulness he is thrown into prison. Yet even there, “the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy.”
In prison Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's chief butler and chief baker, saying, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” The butler is restored and the baker is hanged, exactly as Joseph said. Joseph asks the butler to remember him, “Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” Two full years pass. Psalm 105 says of this season, “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.”
Then Pharaoh dreams of seven fat cows eaten by seven gaunt cows, and seven plump heads of grain swallowed by seven thin heads. The butler finally remembers Joseph. Joseph is shaved, changed and brought before Pharaoh, and his first words point away from himself: “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” Seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh sets Joseph over all the land of Egypt at thirty years old. Joseph names his sons Manasseh, for God has made him forget his toil, and Ephraim, for God has made him fruitful in the land of his affliction.