Yosef (Joseph) rose quickly from forgotten prisoner to second in command of Mitsraim (Egypt), all over two strange visions Pharaoh had of fat and famished cows then plump and withered heads of grain. Behind all this we see the Creator’s hand at work, teaching Pharaoh, Mitsraim and us about where we should put our trust.
The Lord was clearly with Yosef (Joseph) in Potiphar’s house, yet Yosef was framed for jilting an adulterous wife. And the Lord was with Yosef in the prison he was thrown into, interpreting two dreams about the future of the pharaoh’s jailed wine server and baker. The symbols of wine and bread there point to the future life of Yeshua the Messiah.
This isn’t a Bible passage one might want to read to young children, but it is recorded for a profound reason. It gives us another insight into the character of Yehudah (Judah), and the symbols point to King David and the Messiah.
This account of Yosef’s dreams and being sold by his brothers into slavery in Mitsraim (Egypt) is the foundation for the teaching through the rest of Genesis and even the Torah. The life of Yeshua the Messiah on Earth paralleled that of Yosef (Joseph).
We sometimes gloss over long lists in the Bible of hard-to-pronounce names and places. Yet the meanings of names in God’s word are part of the lessons He wants us to learn. The names in this chapter point to reasons why “Esau” and “Edom” are mentioned continually in the prophets as an adversary to Israel.
We boast in our pride, we constantly demand our rights, we put our trust in our government to protect these rights, but we don’t ask God to protect us. Ya’akov (Jacob) needed to return to Beit ’El (Bethel) to fulfill the vow he had made to the LORD when he was fleeing from Esau.
God protected Ya’akov and his entourage from being pursued by those who would have wanted to take revenge on Ya’akov’s family for what happened in Shechem (Genesis 34). He put a great terror on those who wanted to pursue them and convinced them to leave them alone.
Humility and loyalty are underlying teachings of Genesis 33-34. The phrase “women and children first” is held up as selfless chivalry, but it it seems Ya’akov (Jacob) wasn’t so chivalric in his sending his wives and children ahead of him toward what he thought would be his heavily armed and bloodthirsty brother, Esau.
Then there’s the disaster that followed the defilement of Ya’akov’s daughter, Dinah, whose forceable conquering at the hands of a city’s “first son” led to the deaths of all the men and the enslavement of the women and children of that city by the hands of two of Ya’akov’s sons.