This is meant to be a fun reading (with some commentary) for all ages through Scripture. Please do not take this as a substitute for reading through the Bible on your own.
Laban, Jacob's uncle, finally agreed to let Jacob go with his family. Jacob now had the most difficult part of the journey ahead of him: going home to face his brother Esau once again. Jacob, for one of the few times in his trickster life, feels a bit of apprehension.
It is in this moment, as he gets ready to see Esau, that Jacob encounters a stranger. We do not know who this mysterious person is, though it is often believed that this stranger is God. The two of them wrestle, and they continue until daybreak. When the stranger fails to prevail over Jacob, he hits him in the hip, knocking it out of joint for the rest of his life. Yet Jacob holds fast and tells the stranger that he not let go until the stranger blesses him. It seems Jacob knows who the stranger really is, for latter he will say that he saw God face to face and survived. The stranger acquiesces and gives Jacob a new name: Israel or “One who has strived with God.” Jacob’s new name Israel is the mark of the new nation his family will become. His striving with God is also a reminder that we sometimes wrestle with God, and in doing so we can still come away with God’s favour and blessing, though never unchanged.
A miraculous thing happens when Israel and Esau meet again. Far from being angry, Esau greets his brother with open arms. It is a truly remarkable and admirable act of forgiveness and letting love win out over hurt.
Israel and his family now settle into a new home. It is at this point that Rachel gives birth to her son Benjamin before dying. Jacob is in grief, and honors the memory of his wife by dotting on his boy Joseph, the first son Rachel gave birth to.
One of the ways that Israel does this is by giving Joseph an amazing technicolor dream coat. Rather, he gave him a coat with many colors. Perhaps it was simply a long sleeved coat. We don't actually know for certain. Regardless, this is a coat that would have been extremely difficult to make and expensive. Thus it would have been something that made Joseph feel entitled. This is really the kind of thing you do when you want to spoil somebody.
The result is that Joseph became a brat. He lorded over his brothers, all but Benjamin being older than him. He bossed them around at every turn. In other words, he annoyed his brothers to no end.
Though Joseph was foolish and bratty, the sin was not his alone. His brothers could tell how much Israel loved Joseph over them. They hated him for that.
Joseph also had a unique connection to dreams, although he unfortunately used it poorly in these early years, adding to the ill-will his brothers felt towards him. In one of these dreams, he and his brothers were gathering wheat together into what are called sheaves. In the dream, his sheave stood up and then all his brothers' sheaves gathered around and bowed to it. He told his brothers this dream. They realized quickly that this dream was meant to say Joseph would rule over them, and they hated him for his arrogance.
Then Joseph had another dream, where the Sun and the Moon and eleven stars all bowed down to him. He told this dream out loud, foolishly in front of his father as well. Israel, for once, chastised his son saying would even Joseph's own parents bow down in front of him?
The hatred Joseph's brothers felt towards him only grew until an opportunity for revenge presented itself. One day, when Israel's sons were out tending the flock, Israel decided to send Joseph out to see how they were doing, and report back to him. Joseph, having a knack for tattling on his brothers, was more than happy to do as his father wished.
Now Joseph's brothers had gotten in trouble before thanks to Joseph narcing on them to their father, so when they saw him coming they were annoyed and furious. They decided to finally get back at their brother. Yet instead of normal sibling rivalry and in-fighting, they decided to take a more drastic and violent approach.
Reuben, the oldest and thus more reasonable of the lot, decided to tamp things down before it all got too out of hand. He instead suggested they throw Joseph in a pit to let him stew on things a little bit. Then the plan was Reuben would come back after all the other brothers had left, and hopefully cooled down, to grab his brother Joseph. That way the brothers could let their frustration out and no one would come to actual physical harm.
You may be thinking "throwing someone in a pit seems a little extreme" and you would be right, even though Joseph was an annoying little brat. Harm generally comes from such extreme measures like this, and that was the case in this scenario.
The problem with Reuben's plan was that he had to leave, only for a moment. At that point, slave traders were passing by on their way to Egypt. Even though Joseph was their brother, these boys did something horrible and despicable. They sold Joseph to the traders.
Then they took their brother's robe, whether long-sleeved or technicolored, and made it look like he got eaten by a wild animal. Reuben was beside himself when he learned what happened, yet he let the brothers continue with their lie, perhaps thinking that it might, in some way, might lead to less pain for their father than if he knew the truth.
Israel, who in this brief moment is called by his old name once again, is of course despondent to lose Joseph, his favorite son of his favorite wife. Yet his full response to grief will be one we explore later as we now turn our attention to Joseph.
Joseph, on being sold, became a slave in the household of the Egyptian Captain of the Guard, Potiphar. Joseph, unsurprisingly, is changed by his experience with his brothers, and he works very hard. Not only that, but God was with him this whole time, watching over and protecting him in this strange and foreign land. The result was that everything Joseph did was successful, and he rose in station and honor in Potiphar's house.
However, he also caught the eye of Potiphar's wife and the lady of the house. What she asks of Joseph is wrong, and he tells her so while making clear his loyalty to her husband, who has been good to him. She keeps insisting, though, to the point that Joseph has to flee the room, leaving his coat behind.
She knows she has done wrong, but wants to hide it. She claims Joseph was the one in the wrong, and that he ran out after she screamed. The result is Potiphar has Joseph, his slave, arrested.
Yet even in this darkness, God did not forget Joseph. He continued to do good work, even in prison. The result was the head jailer gave Joseph a lot of responsibilities and treated him well.
God also helped Joseph develop his gift for dreams, specifically the interpretation of them. There were two prisoners of the Pharaoh there with Joseph, the cupbearer and the baker. Both had angered Pharaoh thus both were imprisoned. Joseph got to know both to the point that one day they both shared their troubling dreams with him.
The first was the dream of the cupbearer. He had dreamed of three vines with grapes growing on it, and he took the grapes, pressed them, and poured them into Pharaoh's cup. Joseph tells him that this dream means in three days the Pharaoh's anger will lift and he will be restored to his former place at Pharaoh's side. Joseph also asks the cupbearer to remember him when he returns and try to help Joseph find his own freedom.
Then the baker tells his dream. In his dream, he had three baskets of baked goods stacked on his head, yet the birds kept pecking at them. Joseph interprets this dream that in three days Pharaoh will sentence the baker to die.
In three days time, the Pharaoh's birthday in fact, all happens as Joseph interpreted. Yet the cupbearer forgot about Joseph and his message, and so Joseph remained in jail.