Joseph was the 11th son of Jacob (Israel), first son of Rachel. He was a favored son, which brought hatred from his brothers. (He lived with his family in Canaan, with his brothers as shepherds.) It's Joseph's dreams (Genesis 37:5-10) that he shares with his brothers that stirs up even more hatred in them to want to kill him.
The dreams being told to his family seemed to encourage the circumstances that would make the dreams a reality. He was a favored son which brought hatred by his brothers and telling his dreams to his brothers of his future exaltation made things worse. Eventually the dreams would come true.
The intervention of 2 brothers delivered Joseph from being killed by his brothers, but he was sold into slavery and ended up in Egypt. God would work things out for Joseph so that he would eventually become second ruler in Egypt. From that position, he would become the agent that people depended on for their lives due to a severe famine. This famine would lead to an encounter between Joseph and his brothers who come seeking food in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph was governor over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. 7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, "Where do you come from?" And they said, "From the land of Canaan to buy food." 8 So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 9 Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them … Genesis 42:6-9
Joseph would eventually reveal himself to his brothers.
I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. … And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Genesis 45:4-8
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Genesis 50.20
The evil Joseph’s brothers did was their own doing, but God limited it and used it to accomplish His plan in fulfilling His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). Joseph softened the guilt of the evil of his brothers toward him by attributing to their evil actions the Divine plan to save the family of Jacob (Israel) in a time of severe famine, and we know that it was in Egypt that God created the people of Israel for His purposes, delivering them in a mighty way from bondage—to become a continual reminder of their special relationship to God as a people and nation.
The sovereignty of God can be seen in that God both allows and limits evil to accomplish His purposes: Joseph's brother wanted to kill him, but his brothers Reuben and Judah intervened, and he was sold to be a slave, eventually ending up in Egypt and becoming 2nd in power to Pharaoh over Egypt. God knows what man will do, and that seems to figure into what God has determined; therefore, God incorporates the measure of free will that man has into what God has determined will come to pass.
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