Joseph and the Coat of Many Colours

The Favoured Son

Jacob had twelve sons, but Joseph was his favourite. To show how much he loved him, Jacob gave Joseph a beautiful coat with colours woven through it like a rainbow.

His brothers noticed. And they were not happy.

Joseph also had vivid dreams — dreams that seemed to mean something. In one dream, he and his brothers were bundling wheat in the fields. His bundle stood up tall, and all his brothers' bundles bowed down to it. In another dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars all bowed down to Joseph.

When he told his brothers, they grew angrier still. "Do you think you are going to rule over us?" they muttered. Even his father shook his head, though he quietly kept the dreams in mind.

Sold into Slavery

One day, Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers who were grazing their flocks far away. The brothers saw him coming from a distance — that bright coat impossible to miss — and began to make a terrible plan.

"Here comes the dreamer," one of them said. "Let's sell him."

They grabbed Joseph, stripped off his beautiful coat, and sold him to a group of merchants travelling to Egypt. Twenty silver coins. Then they dipped his coat in goat's blood and brought it back to their father.

Jacob wept for days, certain that a wild animal had killed his beloved son.

But in Egypt, Joseph was sold as a slave to a man named Potiphar, one of the Pharaoh's officers.

Through Every Trial

Joseph could have been bitter. He could have given up. Instead, he worked faithfully, and God was with him. He rose to a position of trust in Potiphar's house — until false accusations landed him in prison.

In prison, he could have lost hope completely. But again, he worked honestly and helped others, and God was with him. He interpreted the dreams of two fellow prisoners, and when one of them was released, Joseph asked him to mention his case to Pharaoh.

The man forgot. Joseph waited two more years.

The Pharaoh's Dream

Then Pharaoh himself had two troubling dreams that none of his advisers could explain. The former prisoner finally remembered Joseph.

Joseph was brought out of prison, cleaned up, and brought before the most powerful man in the world. Pharaoh described his dreams: seven fat cows swallowed by seven thin cows; seven healthy heads of grain swallowed by seven withered ones.

"God is showing Pharaoh what He is about to do," Joseph said. "Seven years of plenty will come, and then seven years of terrible famine. Pharaoh should find a wise man to store up food during the good years so that everyone survives the bad years."

Pharaoh looked at his advisers. Then he looked back at Joseph.

"There is no one as wise as you," he said. "You will be in charge of my palace, and all my people will obey you."

At thirty years old, Joseph — the slave, the prisoner — became the second most powerful person in all of Egypt.

Forgiveness

When the famine came, it spread across many lands. Eventually, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to buy grain — and found themselves bowing before the governor, not knowing it was the brother they had sold.

Joseph recognised them immediately. After testing their hearts and seeing that they had changed, he could no longer hold back. He sent everyone out of the room and wept so loudly that people outside the palace could hear.

"I am Joseph," he said. "Is my father still alive?"

His brothers were terrified. But Joseph shook his head and spoke words they would never forget:

"Do not be afraid. You intended to harm me — but God intended it for good. He planned it so that many lives would be saved. Now hurry, bring my father here."