I had a really clear picture of what this year was going to look like. Projects were lined up. Wheels were in motion. My long held dream of working as a director was coming true.
Then everything shut down.
Rehearsals were cancelled. Shows postponed. We held our breath waiting for normal to return. I cried with my children over our broken dreams. We prayed and talked about God and how He is good. About how he brings good from the bad and beauty from ashes. How He is our rock, the anchor holding us fast through the storms of life. Things started to open up again. We made some plans. Then everything shut down again and our dreams were dashed a second time.
Now Joseph had a dream…
Joseph was the 11th and favorite son of Jacob (whom God named Israel). Genesis 37 tells us that Joseph tattled on his brothers and that his father gave him a robe of many colors, a very costly gift. Neither even endeared Joseph to his older brothers. In fact, verse 4 says, “they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.”
In this context, Joseph has his first dream.
“Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, ‘Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.’ His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?’ So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.” (Genesis 37:5-8)
I can’t help but notice, Joseph shares his dream, but it is his brothers who do the interpreting.
The Bible doesn’t tell us at this point if Joseph knows what his dream is about, but it’s not hard to imagine what a 17 year old shepherd might expect his life to look like. His family is wealthy, and though by birth order he is next to last, perhaps he will take his father’s place as head of the family some day. Not a bad future to look forward to.
His brothers had a different idea. They threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery. What was going through that young boy’s mind as he made the long journey from his home to Egypt? Did he watch his dreams fade away with the landscape and grieve over what would have been? Could he hope in the future he’d been promised when his present looked so bleak?
Interpretations Belong to God
In chapter 39, the Bible picks up Joseph’s story again. He is a slave in the household of Potiphar, an important government official, and he is doing very well.
“The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.” (Genesis 39:2)
A few years have gone by and the young shepherd enjoys the trust and favor of his boss. Here we get a glimpse of Joseph growing in maturity as a man of integrity and faith. The lady of the house tempts him, but Joseph resists, both out of respect for the man who has been kind to him and honoring the God of his people. Potiphar’s wife accuses him and he is thrown in prison, but again, God is with him.
But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. (v. 21)
After a time, two of Pharaoh’s officials are thrown into prison with Joseph and each have troubling dreams.
At this point in his life, Joseph could not be further from the dreams he had as a boy. There might have been a chance to return home, as a successful, favored servant of an important government official. But not now. Not from prison. But Joseph is not bitter or broken. He recognizes God as the author and interpreter of dreams. “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” (Genesis 40:8)
He has learned that though his own dreams have not yet come to fruition, God has never left him.
Joseph remembers the dream
Years pass. Joseph is eventually remembered by the cupbearer, and is given an opportunity to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, which is a warning of the famine coming to the land. Pharaoh elevates him to governor and gives him a wife because he sees that Joseph is filled with the Spirit of God (Genesis 41:37). Joseph sets to work again, storing up grain, planning for the future. He gives his two sons Hebrew names, showing that he has not forgotten God or his people.
The famine reaches Canaan and Joseph’s brothers travel to Egypt to buy grain. As they kneel before the great leader, second only to Pharaoh, unrecognizable from the brother they sold into slavery so many years ago, Joseph remembers his dream (Genesis 42:9).
I doubt very much that 17 year old Joseph knew all along that he was going to rise to power in Egypt. There must have been moments along the way where he wondered what it was all about it. But over the course of his life, the many ups and downs, from the pit in Canaan to the palace in Egypt, Joseph learned to trust in God, not the dream.
God’s Good Purpose
“But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today’.” Genesis 50:19-20
Summer is in full swing but fall is quickly approaching. Our community is opening slowly, and like Joseph, we are looking forward with hope. Not in the dreams God has placed on our hearts, but in God himself, who never leaves us.
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
That’s beautiful, Jaime, thank you! Joseph is one of my favorite stories of hope (in the face of crumbling circumstances), too.