The Biblical Story of Joseph

"Joseph: Providence in the Pit"

A Treatise on Divine Purpose in the Life of a Flawed Man

He was favored.
Then he was hated.
Then he was sold.
Then he was forgotten.
Then he was raised.
All by the hand of God.

Joseph didn’t start strong.
He started spoiled.
Favored by his father,
but full of himself.

"I dreamed a dream!"
He couldn’t help but say it.
Twice.
To brothers who already despised him.
He had the coat.
He had the favor.
He had the words.
But he didn’t have the wisdom.
Not yet.

God gave the dreams.
But Joseph tried to wear them like a crown.
God had to bring him low
before He could lift him up.

The pit wasn’t a detour.
It was design.
Providence doesn’t always feel like purpose.
Sometimes it feels like betrayal.
Like iron chains.
Like silence in a dungeon.

But it’s still God’s plan.

God works in the darkness.
He builds leaders in prisons.
He molds kings in obscurity.
He kills pride with delay.

"The word of the LORD tried him."
(Psalm 105:19)

Joseph rose, but not by ambition.
He didn’t climb — he served.
He didn’t push — he endured.
He waited.
He listened.
He humbled himself.

When Pharaoh called,
Joseph didn’t brag.

"It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
(Genesis 41:16)

That’s not the voice of a 17-year-old dreamer.
That’s the voice of a man who’s been broken
and built back up by grace.

Joseph ruled Egypt.
But he never ruled for himself.
He preserved a nation.
He rescued a family.
He fulfilled the dream —
but he gave all the glory to God.

Joseph wept when he saw his brothers.
Not in anger.
In mercy.
He didn’t crush them.
He didn’t curse them.
He embraced them.

His brothers feared revenge.
Joseph gave them grace.

“You meant evil against me,
but God meant it for good.”
(Genesis 50:20)

There it is.
The summary of providence.
The seed of Romans 8:28.
The melody of Calvary.

Man’s evil.
God’s plan.
A Savior emerges.
Not Joseph.
But the one who came through his line.

Joseph was not Christ.
But Joseph pointed forward.
Not by perfection,
but by pattern.

Rejected.
Falsely accused.
Exalted.
Forgiving.

Sound familiar?

Still — let’s not blur the lines.
Joseph was clay.
Christ is the Potter.

Joseph was spared.
Christ was crushed.

Joseph ruled over Egypt.
Christ rules over Heaven.

Joseph saved grain.
Christ saves souls.

Joseph fed the hungry.
Christ satisfies forever.

So no, Joseph is not the Redeemer.
But he shows us how God works
to get the Redeemer here.

Providence isn’t always sweet.
It often starts in a pit.
Through betrayal, lies, injustice, and delay.

But providence never fails.

God doesn’t need polished vessels.
He uses cracked ones.
He fills the low.
He humbles the proud.
He exalts in His time.

What does Joseph teach us?

That suffering is not wasted.
That silence is not absence.
That waiting is not wandering.
That God's plan is not fragile.

You don’t have to understand the path
to walk in obedience.

You don’t have to see the end
to trust the process.

Joseph is the proof:
God's will can hurt.
But it will never harm.
His providence can confuse.
But it will never fail.

So trust Him in the pit.
Trust Him in the prison.
Trust Him when the dream seems dead.

Because the dream was never about you anyway.
It was about God’s glory.
And God’s glory always rises.

Even from a pit in Canaan.
Even from a cell in Egypt.
Even from a cross on Calvary.

Soli Deo Gloria.