Joseph Forgives His Brothers

Joseph's story fills the last chapters of Genesis. This retelling covers how it starts (Gen 37) and its turning point (Gen 45:1–15); the chapters in between are summarized.

Jacob, also called Israel, had twelve sons by four mothers, and he openly loved Joseph, the son of his old age and of his beloved wife Rachel, more than the rest. He gave Joseph an ornate robe that marked him as the favorite. The brothers' resentment grew into hatred. Joseph didn't help: he reported their bad behavior to their father and told them his dreams, where their sheaves of grain and then the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed to him.

When Jacob sends seventeen-year-old Joseph to check on his brothers in the pastures, they see him from far off and plot to kill him. Reuben talks them into throwing him into a dry cistern instead, intending to rescue him. While Reuben is away, Judah proposes selling Joseph to a passing caravan headed for Egypt. They sell him for twenty pieces of silver. They soak his robe in goat's blood and let their father conclude a wild animal killed him. Nothing can console Jacob.

In Egypt (Gen 39–44), Joseph is sold as a slave, falsely accused, and imprisoned. Yet the text keeps repeating that God stayed with him. God gives him the ability to interpret dreams, and Pharaoh makes him governor over all Egypt to prepare for seven years of famine. When the famine comes, his brothers arrive to buy grain and bow before him, just as the dreams said, without recognizing him. Joseph tests them, and Judah, the brother who once sold him, offers to become a slave in place of their youngest brother, Benjamin. The brothers have changed.

That is when Joseph breaks. He sends out his servants and weeps so loudly the Egyptians hear. He tells his brothers who he is. They are too stunned and afraid to answer. He calls them closer and tells them not to be angry with themselves: God sent him ahead of them to keep many people alive. He names the evil they did, but he sees God's larger purpose in it. He tells them to bring Jacob to Egypt, where he will provide for the whole family. Then he embraces Benjamin, and kisses all his brothers, weeping, and at last they are able to talk.

Joseph shows two things about God. First, God can bring good out of evil without approving the evil. Second, real forgiveness is costly, honest and generous. Christians have long seen Joseph as a picture of Jesus: rejected by his brothers, sold for silver, and then becoming the one who saves them.