The story of Joseph is such an incredible story. Even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a follower of Jesus, he is someone worth reading about. The second youngest brother in his family, loved by his father, despised by his brothers to the point where they faked his death and sold him into slavery. He rises up the ranks in captivity, is wrongly thrown in prison, rises again to the point where he becomes second in command of the country he had been taken to. He ends up being reunited with his dad and forgives his brothers, and through him his nation is saved and grows into a people who will enter the Promised Land generations later.

Amazing stuff.

As I’ve been reading through I’ve been struck by how much he went through and all that he learnt from that journey. I’ve listed a few things that he must have learnt on that journey.

• Handling favour – there’s no doubt that Joseph was his fathers favourite. As the the first child of his mother (who was the more loved of all his Fathers wives) his father gave him favourable treatment when compared to his brothers. He was given a special robe which set him apart from his brothers and didn’t seem to have to work as hard as they did. He would have been used to being treated differently from others from a young age.
• Big Dreams – God spoke to Joseph through dreams in ways that seemed unbelievable by others. His brothers never doubted the dreams, or that they could be real, even though they were frustrated he had them. It must have been hard for Joseph to hold those dreams even when others didn’t share his understanding of their meaning.
• Misunderstanding and criticism – Coming off the back of the favour he had and the dreams he shared was misunderstanding and criticism – this is something all leaders know about. Joseph had to learn how to handle his heart in those moments.
• Opposition – similar to the previous point but the misunderstanding and criticism actually resulted in real and extreme opposition. He was throw in a cistern and left for dead before being sold to traders.
• Being faithful – when he reaches Egypt he has a job which he is faithful in. He could have gone there and huffed, but he understood that he had to do what he had to do as well as he could do it. Perhaps he remembered the dreams God had given him earlier in his life and so knew they were ahead of him?
• Growing trust – faithful leaders build trust with people and Joseph increasingly is given more and more trust by his master. A good leader will experience this increase as they serve faithfully where they are placed.
• False accusation – even when leaders are favoured and trusted when false accusations come often they are guilty until proven innocent. This is what happened to Joseph. His masters wife accuses him of wrongdoing and he is made to pay for it by heading to prison even though there were no grounds for her accusation.
• Being faithful – he learns this lesson again in prison. Once more he could have chosen the huffing route, being frustrated at his unjust treatment, but he applies himself again, gains favour again, and builds trust again.
• Courage and wisdom – whilst in prison he has an opportunity to help Pharaoh. It wasn’t an easy ask for him and it took courage to stand before Pharaoh and do what he did. If he had performed the task badly he would have received a fate worse than prison, but Joseph had wisdom and highlighted God, waited on God, and delivered a interpretation that helped Egypt survive the coming years.
• Promotion – once again Joseph is promoted and he remains faithful to God. Often promotion and recognition can change us as people and we begin to become arrogant thinking that we are the reason that things have changed, but Joseph remembers who he is throughout it all.
• Forgiveness and Restoration – When he sees his brother again he forgives and restores them. Whilst he plays a bit of a game with them initially he doesn’t punish them for what they did to him back when he was young. It is clear that Joseph worked hard to fight for forgiveness.

It’s incredible how he handled himself throughout his life.

What a leader, what a faithful man.

Well done Joseph