It doesn’t mention it explicitly, but Joseph did end up marrying a foreign wife, the daughter of a priest of a false god (41:45) This hurt his relationship with his brothers.

Perhaps a lack of sensitivity, a lack of maturity, and maybe some amount of pride combined to make him keep telling his brothers his dreams about his own dominance over them (37:6-11). Weaknesses: Hard to identify any firm ones. To me, this demonstrates a softness, which would be an unusual characteristic for someone who had had such a hard life. He really cared about family and about life. He was deeply stirred (43:30, 45:1-2) and wept on several occasions. This enhanced his natural gift of shrewdness and discernment. Special traits: God gave Joseph the power to interpret dreams (40-41).

God used Joseph to keep the line of the Messiah alive. If Joseph and his family died there would have been no Israel. Through him much of Egypt was saved from the famine as well as Israel. It is probable that most of Joseph’s immediate family would have died off unless he ended up in Egypt and able to divert the famine catastrophe. Place in history: Joseph holds a huge place in the history of Israel, Egypt, and all believers. Eventually he became second-in-command over all of Egypt, making him a world-leader and practically adopted royalty. Joseph must have been multilingual to carry on conversations with the various people in Egypt. He excelled at this both under Potiphar and at the jail. Under Potiphar he was a steward, a manager of Potiphar’s estates. Training and occupation: Joseph appears to have began as shepherd and errand boy under his family. This was while Jacob was still with Laban. After Leah had already born several God finally opened up Rachel’s womb and she gave birth to Joseph. Both desperately desired to bear children for their husband. He lived approximately 1900 B.C.Įvents surrounding birth: Rachel and Leah were in a struggle over who would be loved most by Jacob. This is just east of the Salt Sea and south of modern day Jerusalem. When and where he lived: At the beginning of the story Joseph and his family were living near Hebron. His family had a godly heritage and worshiped the true God, though they also committed a number of serious sins. This led to much jealousy on that part of Joseph’s brothers. His father loved him more than all the rest of his children and gave him a special multi-colored coat. At the time Joseph was sold into slavery he was the youngest of all his brothers. His father and his brothers were shepherds, like Isaac and Abraham before them. Both the tribe of Manasseh and Ephraim were descended from Joseph. Joseph was one of the patriarchs of Israel. Meaning of name: Either “May the Lord add” or “He has taken away”Īncestry and family life:, Isaac, Abraham.

Prophet in bible in tamil letters