Fifty Shades of Grace Chapter 4

Chapter Four—A Dreamer Becomes a Prince

One of Jacob’s sons was a young man by the name of Joseph. His mother was Rachel—the pretty wife that Jacob loved best. Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons and he gave him a robe of many colors—the kind of robe that a prince would wear. It was not the kind of thing that a shepherd would wear. Shepherds were always doing dirty work and rescuing lambs from lions and bears and getting all muddy and bloody. It would not do at all for them to wear a fancy schmancy robe. So obviously Joseph was not a shepherd like his brothers. He got to stay at home and live off the wealth of his dad and do easy stuff like run errands. How do you think his brothers felt about that?

Well his brothers did not like that one bit! And then Joseph made things even worse. He had two dreams. The dreams were actually kind of silly and didn’t make sense, but God gave Joseph the ability to interpret dreams and he told his brothers that a day would come when they would see that he really was a prince and they would bow down to him! Now they were really mad. It was bad enough that their father dressed him like a prince, but this was really going to his head. They decided to do something that would take him down a peg. 

One day “Prince Joseph” was sent on an errand by his father. He was supposed to find his brothers. At first he couldn’t find them, but eventually he did. They saw him coming from a distance—they knew it was him because nobody had a robe like that! They knew this was their chance to get rid of him. Some of them wanted to kill him, but they couldn’t agree so they threw him into a pit. One of his brothers wanted to rescue him later when no one was looking, but while he was gone, the other brothers took off his robe and sold him to some people who were on their way to Egypt. 

Joseph Sold Into Slavery

Imagine how Joseph must have felt. He was only 17 years old and he was taken to a foreign country where he would not know the language and he would never see his father and brothers again. In Egypt he became a slave and worked for a man named Potiphar. 

Meanwhile his brothers had to go back home. They decided to trick their father and tell him lies about Joseph. They tore up Joseph’s robe and dragged it through blood and mud and let their father believe he was eaten by wild animals. His father Jacob was never the same after that. He was in so much pain that it hurt other people just to see him or be around him. 

Joseph worked hard in Egypt and he learned the language in no time at all. He was a very handsome boy and Potiphar’s wife thought he was really hot. She tried to make him fall in love with her too, but he kept telling her to stay away. Finally she told her husband that Jacob tried some hanky panky with her and that made Potiphar upset. He was more upset with his wife than with Joseph, because he trusted Joseph, but he had to punish Joseph to save face. So Joseph was thrown in prison for something he didn’t even do! How fair is that? 

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

While Joseph was in prison, he used that gift that God had given him a long time ago—when he was just a teenager. Do you remember what it was? He had the ability to interpret dreams. So he interpreted dreams for other prisoners. After a while they got out, but Joseph was still in prison. Then one day, the King had a dream and nobody could interpret it. That’s when one of the other prisoners remembered Joseph. He told the King about Joseph and sure enough, Joseph interpreted the King’s dreams. The King was so impressed that he made Joseph the ruler over all of Egypt! So Joseph became a Prince after all. He got another new robe and this time it was for real. He got a ring too and he could make laws for the people. 

After a while God sent a famine that affected the whole world. But Joseph had been storing up grain in Egypt because he knew that God was going to do this. So everyone in the world had to come to Egypt to buy grain. They had to buy it from Joseph. Do you think maybe Joseph might be the savior of the world who would restore Eden? 

He was not the one, but he was a picture of the one who would one day come. But Joseph did save some people. Do you know who they were? They were his own brothers! They were getting very hungry down in Canaan and so Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain. When they got there Joseph recognized them but they did not recognize him. Joseph tested them to see if they were sorry for what they had done. He gave them grain but kept one brother back until they returned with his youngest brother Benjamin. When he finally told them who he was, they were really scared. They thought he might try to get even. 

Joseph greets his brothers

But Joseph was kind to them and he asked them to go back to Canaan and get his father and all their families and come live in Egypt where there was plenty of food. So they all came up and lived in the land of Egypt to be near Joseph and they all lived happily ever after. Well, not really. Eventually they all died and their great grandchildren became slaves in Egypt. But even that was grace.

Evidence of God's Grace to Me: