Forged through Trial
One of the characters in the Bible that has always interested me is Joseph, the son of Jacob in the book of Genesis. Joseph's story is found starting in Genesis 37 with a story about a dream. In two of Joseph's dreams he sees "We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." (Gen 37:7) The second dream is much like the first except it is the sun, moon and eleven stars which were bowing down to Joseph (Gen 37:9). Joseph's brothers are already jealous of Joseph because of the attention and love that Jacob has for him and these statements fuel even more anger. So much so, that they decide to throw him in a cistern to kill him and then sell him into slavery for 20 shekels of silver (Gen 37:28) How's that for a dysfunctional family! This could have been the very end of Joseph's short life, but God is up to something in this story. R