January 6 - Joseph

January 6 - Joseph

When Joseph was born, his father realized that God was no longer angry with him.  So, his name means ‘remover’ because God removed his reproach. It also means ‘increaser’ because God had given him another son.  Joseph liked the naming process!

Joseph might have been a bit spoiled by his parents.  The first born son of his father’s favorite wife? Oh yah … spoiled.  So, he taunted his brothers.  Made them crazy!  His dreams were prophecies of his leadership, but he didn’t have the maturity to recognize how holding that information over his brother’s heads might make them angry.  First chance they got, they sold him off to a group of Ishmaelite merchants.  They let their father think he was dead and figured they had gotten away with something.

Joseph’s life continued to get interesting.  He was sold as a slave to an Egyptian and it wasn’t so bad, until Potiphar’s wife decided to put the moves on the young man.  When he rejected her, she accused him anyway and he ended up in prison.  He interpreted some dreams for a couple of people, then when needed by Potiphar, they brought him out.  His amazing relationship to God, gave him insight into the coming years.  Seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.

During the famine, his brothers ended up in front of him looking for some assistance.  He played a few games with them, but finally asked them to bring his father and the entire family to Egypt.  The reunion was awesome.

Joseph extracted a promise that when he died, he would be returned to the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He was embalmed and placed in a coffin (Gen. 50:26).  Those bones were still around when the time of the Exodus came and carried by the Israelites for forty years until at last, he was buried in Schechem, in a plot of ground that Jacob had purchased (Joshua 24:32, Genesis 33:19).