How Did Life Affect Joseph's Life

Joseph was the eldest son of Jacob and Rachel, but 11th of all of Jacob’s children. Because he was the eldest son of Jacob’s favorite wife, Joseph was his father’s favorite child. Jacob gave him a fantastic “coat of many colors.” However, his father’s favoritism caused his older brothers to become jealous of him.
Joseph had an ability to interpret dreams. One dream of his was about him and his family tying up sheaves of wheat in the field, and suddenly Joseph’s sheave stands up and the others make a circle around it and bow down. Another was simply a dream in which the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow to him. These dreams only caused his brothers to hate him even more, and even his father scolded him after the second dream saying, “What kind
of a dream is that? Do you think that your mother, your brothers, and I are going to come and bow down to you?”
Not too long after that, his brothers despised him so much they decided to kill him while they were tending the sheep at Dothan. Fortunately, one of his brothers, Reuben, saved Joseph’s life by convincing his brother to just throw Joseph in an empty well and take his coat and dip it in goat blood. After that they brought Joseph’s once colorful coat, now ripped and stained in blood, to Jacob and he despaired greatly, as his favorite son had supposedly died. In reality, Joseph had been thrown in the well. Shortly after he was thrown in the well his brothers saw some travelers in the distance with their camels loaded with spices and goods they pulled him out of the well and sold him to those traders for twenty silver pieces. The traders were traveling to Egypt and Joseph was taken with them. When they arrived in Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers. Fortunately, God was with Joseph, and He made him successful. Potiphar was pleased with Joseph, and so Joseph became his personal servant, in charge of all of Potiphar’s possessions. Unfortunately, after Joseph rejected Potiphar’s wife’s advances she accused him of rape and he was imprisoned. Thankfully, God was still with Joseph in the prison, and the prison master appointed Joseph to be in charge of all the other prisoners. Most importantly, Joseph demonstrated his ability to interpret dreams in the prison, and after two years was released from jail and brought to Pharaoh to interpret Pharaoh’s peculiar dreams. One involved seven skinny cows consuming seven fat cows, and the other seven weakened ears or corn devouring seven healthy ears of corn. Joseph interpreted these as that there would be seven years of bountiful harvests and then seven years of famine. The Pharaoh made him the governor of Egypt, and he instructed the people to store up some of the grain for the seven years of famine.
Joseph’s words proved true, and after the seven prosperous years there was a drought and famine lasting for seven years.
All of Mesopotamia was affected by this, and only Egypt had known to prepare for it. As a result, many foreigners traveled to Egypt to buy food, and Joseph, being in charge of distributing all of the food, saw his brothers again, but they didn’t recognize him. Joseph created a plan to reveal himself to his brothers, and it involved framing them of stealing. He prepared a feast for them, and after it was over he filled their sacks with grain and slipped a gold cup into his brother Benjamin’s bag. The next day, a messenger searched their bags and accused them of stealing the goblet. This caused them to return to Joseph, and they proclaimed they would be willing to remain as slaves to Joseph, who then divulged his real identity to them. He explained to them they did not need to feel guilty that they had sent him there, as he said it was God. Also he told them to go get Jacob and the rest of his family and have them move to Egypt, for he could protect them there. Joseph is extremely important in the Old Testament because if he didn’t interpret dreams and save the continent from famine, none of Mesopotamia’s descendants would be alive
today.