Genesis 37:25-28 – Joseph sold to Egypt

Lonely and writhing in pain Joseph was left all alone in the pit. His incessant cries of help went unheeded by his cruel brothers. They continued their jokes and laughter and carried on in their feasting, unmoved by the ghostly wails of their brother down in the pit. Their plan was to eat and move on and leave Joseph to die in that pit. Again as providence would have it, there appeared an unexpected caravan. Quickly Judah thought of a solution. Verse 25 tells us that Ishmaelites traders came from Gilead with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh, on their way to Egypt. Immediately Judah thought of a better solution. He suggested that they should sell Joseph to slavery. Some sense seemed to have come to Judah. He felt that after all Joseph was still their own flesh. So in the absence of Reuben, he mooted the idea that they should sell Joseph and the brothers listened to him.

Slave trade was big business in Egypt. The Midianites was probably anticipating a big profit from the twenty shekels of silver they had paid for Joseph, when they arrived in Egypt. So the brothers pulled him out of the pit and Joseph was sold. The princely Joseph who came to his brothers dressed in a multi-coloured tunic was now a naked slave bound for Egypt. He was a victim of his brothers’ resentment for the way their father had treated them. We all know that he did not deserve such treatment from them. His greatest mistake was that he assumed that his brothers had nothing against him.

The issue is: where was God in all these? Why didn’t God warn him when he was in Shechem? Why did the man find him and told him of his brothers’ new location in Dothan?  Why didn’t God just allow Joseph to return home from Shechem? Why didn’t the event just end as Reuben had intended? For he wanted to save Joseph later and return him home. Why must the Ishmaelites appear in that caravan at such a critical time? These and many more probing questions could be raised. All we can say is that God had it all worked out. For Joseph’s path was already ordained. This poor slave would one day rise to a high position in Egypt to preserve the lives of many in the world, including his father’s and siblings’. Our advantage is that we know where this story was moving toward. But Joseph was clueless as he was bound for Egypt. Thankfully like Joseph, our lives are also in God’s hand. Difficult circumstances of life are not there to get us down. Just as Joseph’s life was honed, built and readied to fulfil God’s destiny for him, so also will ours be shaped and made ready to fulfil our destiny in God. Praise the Lord!