Joseph’s dreams

The Bones of Joseph

Lois Tverberg
Bones laid to rest

by Lois Tverberg

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.” – Exodus 13:15

The Bible shares a detail about the Israelites made their great departure of Egypt that we might see as minor – that Moses brought the bones of Joseph along with them. In Genesis it is recorded that Joseph knew that God would take his family out of Egypt and asked to be taken with them:

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.” So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. – Gen. 50:24-26

To us it might seem minor, but this detail adds a remarkable amount of continuity and closure to Bones laid to restthe greater story of Joseph and the family of Israel in Egypt. Joseph was the first of the family to go
down into Egypt, and he was exiled there by his own brothers’ hatred. Now, just as his own family sent him down there, his family would need to carry him back out again. Or another way of looking at it is that Joseph had brought his whole family down to Egypt to rescue them from famine, and once again he would be with them when God rescued them from oppression.

In his early years, Joseph had dreamed of being a ruler, but this was the reason his brothers hated him and sent him into bondage. In spite of years of prison and dashed hopes in his own dreams, in faith he interpreted the Pharaoh’s and his servants’ visions, and his accurate interpretation was why Pharaoh set him free. At the end of Joseph’s life, he had one last “dream” – that God would bring his whole family out of Egypt and into the land he ultimately promised, and God fulfilled that one too.

In a sense, once Joseph was sold into bondage, that was the very beginning of the captivity of the family of Israel, because for the next 400 years, at least one of their family was not free to live in the land God gave them. Joseph was allowed to bury his father in Israel, but had to return to Egypt to be buried, showing his (temporary) loss of claim on God’s promise. (See “Enslaving Themselves.”) But when God did come to rescue Israel and they took even Joseph’s bones, it showed that not one person who had waited faithfully on the Lord was left behind when God came to rescue his people.

Photo: Tomas Castelazo

Joseph’s Dreams

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Then Joseph told his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you? – Genesis 37:9-11

God spoke audibly to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but in Joseph’s life, God never spoke aloud, but instead communicated through dreams. The first time was when Joseph was 17 and he dreamed two times that he would rule over his family.

Owen Jones - Joseph dreams of stars

The dreams were probably initially interpreted as Joseph’s belief that he should be the favored “first born” son of the family, who would have been given authority over the family after the father’s death. Of course, the older brothers were jealous and enraged. His second dream was that he would even reign over his parents, which went beyond the idea that he would just receive the blessing from his father, but that he would become a national leader. His brothers were furious.

It surprises us to read that as soon as Joseph had Joseph Dreamsthe two dreams, he told his brothers, which caused their extreme anger, which led to his later imprisonment and suffering. Why would he do such a thing, knowing how angry they would get? Some think that Joseph had been spoiled to the point where he was completely insensitive to how his words would affect others. But others point out that in that day, when a person had a clear vision from God, he was expected to share it with others, no matter how it impacted his own life. Joseph had told Pharaoh later when he had two dreams with the same message that “the matter had been firmly decided by God, and God would do it soon” (Genesis 41:32). If Joseph believed that his own two dreams were sure to happen, he probably felt obligated to tell others.

Joseph’s statement to Pharaoh that when one has two dreams, God would be sure to act on on them soon is loaded with irony. At the time Joseph said those words, he had been living in a dungeon for more than two years, and the two dreams in his own life had gone unfulfilled for 13 years. During that time he had been sold into slavery, sent to prison under false charges, and hadn’t seen his family in years. The fact that Joseph could be so sure of God’s answers after years of waiting is a tremendous testimony to his faith. More importantly, if Joseph had given up on God’s answers to dreams during that time, he wouldn’t have interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, and he wouldn’t have been given the authority to rule that finally caused the fulfillment of his own dreams!

It was by being obedient in the face of dashed hopes that God was able to cause Joseph’s greatest hopes to come true. In the same way, often it is only when we keep on in faith, persevering without evidence, that God can finally cause miracles in our lives as well.

Photo: Owen Jones