Seeing the Lord in the Joseph Story (08/24/25)
One of the best known and most loved stories
in the Word is that of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph was the second youngest of Jacob's twelve sons. When he began to grow up he became his father's favorite son, and Jacob made for him a beautiful coat of many colors. Because of their father's partiality for him, and certain dreams which foretold that Joseph would become a greater man than they, his elder brothers grew to hate him; and one day, after he had become a young man, they saw an opportunity, as they thought, to get rid of him for
ever, without their father suspecting that they had anything to do with it.
Joseph was sent by his father to his elder brothers as they were feeding the flocks. It
was a lonely place, and they quickly decided to kill him. Reuben, the eldest, persuaded them instead to cast him into a pit; and when Joseph came, that is what they did, first stripping him of his precious coat. Reuben then went away, intending to return secretly to rescue Joseph; but while he was away, the brothers sold him as a slave to some merchants who were going to Egypt. When they had done this, they killed a kid, dipped Joseph's coat in its blood, and took the coat back to their father;
saying that they had found it on the way, and that some wild beast must have killed their brother.
When Joseph had been brought into Egypt,
he was sold to the captain of the guard and became a slave in his household. There he worked hard, and because he was faithful and honest he became the steward of his master's house and was entrusted with the charge of the entire household and all the other servants. But Joseph's days of trouble were not yet over. His master's wife was wicked, and when Joseph refused to take part in her wickedness because that would be a sin against God and evil against the master who trusted him, she accused
him of a crime he had not committed, and he was cast into prison. There he remained for some years. But even in prison Joseph served the Lord faithfully, and the Lord was with him, so that he was trusted to look after the others who were there with him.
[For the angels, this story is [not primarily] about Joseph at all! It is a story about the Lord which tells how He was received when He came into the world; how He was rejected by the church and tempted; and how afterwards He became the Lord of heaven and earth.
That story has now been unfolded for us in [our theology] and when you grow up you will be able to read it for yourselves in a work called Arcana Coelestia (Swedenborg).
It is in connection with the Lord that we would have you think of the story of Joseph's life, and then think about his words to his brothers:
"You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, that I might save this great people alive." From the moment He was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane until His body was crucified, everything that was done to the Lord by His enemies was meant only for evil.
But the Lord meant it for good, and that was why it was allowed to happen. The Lord knew that only by allowing these things could He finish the work He had come on earth to do and thus become the Savior of everyone. He knew that only in this way could He save us, not from the death of the body through hunger, but from the death of the spirit which comes when the bread of
heaven can no longer be received.
If you will think about [as you grow] the older you get the more will you understand how great the Lord’s love is
for us, that He was willing to be born on earth, to suffer, to die, to rise again, and to forgive all His enemies. You will understand why the angels rejoiced when His great work was ended. (Henderson, NCL 1967)
