The Spirit Of Potiphar

The story of Joseph in the Bible is a lesson in resilience, courage, tenacity and forbearance in the face of adversity.

Joseph was born into a family plagued by sibling rivalry and envy. His mother, Rachael, was the preferred choice of his father, Jacob, but he was tricked into marrying her less attractive sister, Leah by his father-in-law. On top of that, Rachael was barren for a long time and suffered greatly from taunts from her own sister about her inability to have a child. Eventually, God remembered Rachael, and she had a son named Joseph. Little wonder then, that the love of Jacob for Joseph, became a source of envy and jealousy among his own brothers, as Jacob favored him over and above his older brothers. In addition, Joseph gave Joseph a beautiful coat of many colors. In their culture, the first-born son is usually accorded this honor, but Reuben, the first-born son was by-passed, and the honor was given to Joseph, even though he was the 11th child out of 12 sons.

Joseph was also a dreamer, as God showed him his future as a leader in the family. He has two dreams, where he saw his brothers and even his own father and mother bowing down to worship him. He shared these dreams with his brothers and parents, further making him the target of more hatred by his brothers. Also, anytime Joseph was sent by his father to check on the welfare of his older brothers as they took care of their father’s animals in the fields, he sometimes came back with negative reports about them to their father. Joseph was therefore seen by his brothers as a “Dreamer, a Favored Son and Blabbermouth “

No wonder that his brothers hated him so much!

With so much going on in the family, it's no surprise that when the opportunity presented itself to the brothers of Joseph, they decided to do away with him once and for all.

One day, his father sent him to check on his brother's welfare and when they saw him from afar, they conspired to kill him. In Genesis 37:17-19:

“So, Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams. "NIV

You can imagine the shock that Joseph got when his own bothers grabbed him, removed his beautiful coat and threw his into a cold and waterless pit! That was certainly not the reception he had hoped to receive from his own brothers.

In Genesis 37:23-27:

“So, when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed”. NIV

So, Joseph was sold by his own brothers for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. There, he was bought as a slave by a man named Potiphar. Meanwhile, his brothers killed a goat, dipped Joseph’s beautiful coat in its blood and presented it to their father, Jacob. They told him that they had found the coat on the way, making it look like a wild animal had killed Joseph. Jacob was devastated, as he believed that his most beloved son had been killed by a wild animal.

Thus, we see the deception in the linage of Jacob, who had also tricked his own father, Issac and stole the birthright of his brother, Esau. This pattern of family deception started in Genesis 20:2-13 when the family Patriarch, Abraham, lied to King Abimelech that Sarah, his wife, was his sister. This was to prevent him being killed and his wife Sarah taken by King Abimelech. This family pattern repeated itself again in Genesis 26:8-11 when Issac, Abraham’s son lied to King Abimelech that Rebekah was his sister and not his wife.

Back to the story of Joseph, he was sold as a slave to the house of Potiphar, who was a captain of guard to Pharaoh. Here we see the hand of God at work in the life of Joseph. God was working quietly behind the scenes, shaping the life and destiny of Joseph, guiding him along the right path that will lead him eventually to the palace. When his brothers sold him into slavery, they probably thought that he will die in slavery, unknown and unsung. However, as the saying goes: