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The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies
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THE DREAMCOAT
BOY
All Bible references are to the Anglicised New International Version
(NIV-UK)
You intended
to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish
what is now
being done, the saving of many lives.
― Genesis 50: 20 ―
A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL musical with a surprising title, based on an Old
Testament story,was produced in London in 1968. You may have seen the show,
which is still running ― ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’
― written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim
Rice.
The Joseph of the story was the eleventh son of a man called Jacob, and
this boy was his favourite. He had all the charm and good nature of his mother
Rachel, Jacob’s best-loved wife, who had died after giving birth to Benjamin,
the youngest son. The ten older brothers resented the fact that Joseph was given
favours and privileges that they wanted themselves. Their father was somewhat
unwise in showing his favouritism, even presenting Joseph with a beautiful and
costly embroidered coat of many colours ― not the sort of extravagant garment
normally worn by sheep farmers and their families. Does this seem a trivial
matter for young men to complain about?
‘It isn’t fair!’ This is the familiar outcry of children ― and of adults
also ― who feel deprived of some favour or benefit that another person has.
Unhappily, a spirit of jealousy and resentment sometimes arises in families,
between brothers or sisters, and this can persist for many years into adulthood
and can sour relationships for everybody involved. What happened to Joseph was
an extreme example of jealous hatred, and the happiness of the whole family was
destroyed for many years.
The Dreamer
Most people these days dismiss
dreams as unimportant, a sensible view. Yet in Bible times dreams were often
considered significant, and there is no doubt that God through dreams conveyed
information about future events to selected individuals. Joseph was evidently
one of them and he had the gift of interpreting their hidden meaning, which got
him into more serious trouble with his brothers. Had he been older and wiser he
might have foreseen their reaction, but he was only 17. One morning he could not
resist telling them of his strange dream.
‘We were binding sheaves of grain
out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your
sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it’ (Genesis 37: 7). The brothers
sneered and probably said something like, ‘If you imagine that
some day
you’ll rule over all of us then you are definitely dreaming!’. Their hatred of
Joseph became even more violent.
Still not having learned to be cautious Joseph later
told them of another dream. Their father also heard about it.
‘“Listen,” he
said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were
bowing down to me”’ (Genesis 37: 9). His brothers muttered
amongst themselves and their feelings against him grew more cruel
and
bitter. Even Jacob became uneasy about Joseph’s dreams of greatness, and often
turned the matter over in his mind.
Murder?
Jacob was a very wealthy farmer whose extensive flocks
needed from time to time to be moved many miles to fresh pastures, the ten older
sons being in charge of the operation. As an occasion arose when they had been
absent rather longer than usual, Jacob asked Joseph to go in search of them and
bring him news of their well-being. They had travelled much further than usual,
but Joseph found them at Dothan, a rich pastureland near a popular trade route
to Egypt.
They saw him coming. In his splendid colourful coat, he
was recognised afar off, and the sight of him so stirred up their bitter
antagonism that they resolved to rid themselves for ever of their father’s
favourite. They would kill Joseph, hide his body, and show their father the
bloodstained coat as evidence that a wild animal had attacked him. But Reuben,
the oldest brother, was uneasy and persuaded the others not to commit murder. He
hid Joseph in a dried-out water cistern nearby, privately intending to rescue
the boy later and see him safely home to his
father.
Another brother had a different idea. Judah saw an
approaching caravan of traders on their way to Egypt. ‘Why not sell this dreamer
to these Ishmaelites’, he suggested, ‘rather than have his blood on our hands?
After all, he is our brother.’ Reuben was out of earshot, but the others all
agreed, so Joseph was sold to the merchants for 20 shekels of silver, and in
Egypt he was sold again ― to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the
guard.
Sent to Prison
For some years Joseph served his
master loyally and earned his trust. But Potiphar’s wife had taken a great fancy
to the handsome young man, and when he constantly refused her immoral advances
she spitefully told her husband that Joseph had tried to seduce her. Through no
fault of his own Joseph was sent to prison, with no prospect of release. Yet
even in captivity he earned the respect and trust of the prison governor and
some of the other inmates. Joseph’s trust in God never faltered, and the time
came when a remarkable event occurred which would change his life for
ever.
Elevated to High Office
It was
Pharaoh’s birthday, but he was far from happy. His wise
men had
been called to explain a dream that haunted him, but they
had failed, and he was distraught.
A servant who had once been in
prison remembered Joseph’s gift of explaining dreams, so Joseph was summoned to
the palace and put to the test. The Lord did not fail him, and when Joseph
declared that there would be seven years of bumper crops in the land, and then
seven years of crop failures and famine, the King saw the truth of the
interpretation. When Joseph counselled him to appoint a capable officer to
organise an intensive storage of crops during the first seven years, and sell
carefully during the hungry years to prevent the starvation of many people,
Pharaoh knew he could find no wiser and more capable man than Joseph. So he
appointed him Prime Minister of all Egypt, second in authority only to
himself.
Corn in Egypt
As well as the Egyptians, tribes
from surrounding areas benefited from Joseph’s wise administration during the
famine, among them a family of 10 brothers from Canaan. He knew them
immediately, but over the years of his exile, and probably now more than 30
years of age, he had so changed in appearance and manner that he was quite
unrecognisable to them. They respectfully bowed before him, and his heart
stirred within him as he wondered if they ever regretted the evil they had done.
He resolved to treat them kindly but to put them to the test. Questioning them
carefully he learned that his father, Jacob, believed him dead and could not be
comforted, declaring that he would carry his grief even to the grave. Benjamin,
Joseph’s younger brother, had remained at home.
Joseph’s tactics in testing his
brothers are described in detail in Genesis chapters 42 ― 44, and in chapter 45
the moving story of his making himself known to them is told. At first they were
greatly shocked and alarmed, but Joseph wept great tears of joy at their reunion
and said:
‘“Come close to
me. . . . I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! … do not be
angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God
sent me ahead of you. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me —
you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I
will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. . .
. Tell my father about all the honour accorded me in Egypt and about everything
you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly”’ (Genesis 45, beginning
verse 4).
Joseph was
large-hearted enough to acknowledge that the
consequences of his brethren’s jealousy and hatred had resulted in the saving
of many people from starvation and the preservation of his father’s family, which in
time became the great nation of Israel.
And surely he smiled with some
amusement as he remembered his beautiful ‘dreamcoat’, which had in reality
foreshadowed the costly robes of a great minister of state, second only to the
Pharaoh of all Egypt.
____________
Copyright
September 2009 ukbiblestudents.co.uk
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