We can’t help but think of Jesus when we see the way Joseph was treated by his brothers.
Jacob, in Genesis 37:13, sent the 17-year-old Joseph on a danger-fraught mission. His brothers would move the flocks to greener fields as the summer progressed. It was reported they were near Shechem, 60 miles north. Yikes! Shechem was the place where Jacob’s sons executed the inhabitants! That hardly seems like a good idea. But when Joseph arrived, he learned the brothers had moved 14 miles further, by Dothan (v 17). The brothers saw him coming to them in his special coat. It’s the dreamer, they said with disgust. “Let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!” (v 20). Solomon would later write, “Jealousy [is] as cruel as the grave” (Song 8:6). Reuben, the eldest, intervened and suggested he be thrown into a pit alive so they would not be guilty of murder. This they did, and then sat down to a meal, ignoring Joseph’s cries. Reuben’s plan was to return later and help Joseph escape, but while occupied elsewhere, the other brothers saw a Midianite caravan of spice traders heading to Egypt, and Judah suggested they sell their brother into slavery. Then, like the coat used to fool Jacob’s father, the brothers dipped Joseph’s special coat in goat’s blood and tricked the old patriarch into thinking his beloved Joseph was dead (Gen 37:31-34). They continued the dishonesty in seeking to comfort him, “but he refused to be comforted.” Meanwhile Joseph was sold to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers. Much later, Stephen would conclude: “The patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him” (Acts 7:9). Yes, the Lord may not bring us immediately out of our troubles, but He promises to be in them with us.