Chapter 20—Joseph in Egypt
This chapter is based on
Genesis 39
to
41
.
Meanwhile, Joseph with his captors was on the way to Egypt. As
the caravan journeyed southward toward the borders of Canaan, the
boy could discern in the distance the hills among which lay his father’s
tents. Bitterly he wept at thought of that loving father in his loneliness
and affliction. Again the scene at Dothan came up before him. He
saw his angry brothers and felt their fierce glances bent upon him. The
stinging, insulting words that had met his agonized entreaties were
ringing in his ears. With a trembling heart he looked forward to the
future. What a change in situation—from the tenderly cherished son
to the despised and helpless slave! Alone and friendless, what would
be his lot in the strange land to which he was going? For a time Joseph
gave himself up to uncontrolled grief and terror.
But, in the providence of God, even this experience was to be a
blessing to him. He had learned in a few hours that which years might
not otherwise have taught him. His father, strong and tender as his
love had been, had done him wrong by his partiality and indulgence.
This unwise preference had angered his brothers and provoked them
to the cruel deed that had separated him from his home. Its effects
were manifest also in his own character. Faults had been encouraged
that were now to be corrected. He was becoming self-sufficient and
exacting. Accustomed to the tenderness of his father’s care, he felt
that he was unprepared to cope with the difficulties before him, in the
bitter, uncared-for life of a stranger and a slave.
Then his thoughts turned to his father’s God. In his childhood
he had been taught to love and fear Him. Often in his father’s tent
he had listened to the story of the vision that Jacob saw as he fled
from his home an exile and a fugitive. He had been told of the Lord’s
promises to Jacob, and how they had been fulfilled—how, in the hour
of need, the angels of God had come to instruct, comfort, and protect
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him. And he had learned of the love of God in providing for men a
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