JOSEPH'S DREAMS

It was not long before Joseph had two extraordinary dreams. In the first dream, Joseph saw himself and his brothers, each binding sheaf of grain. But then his brother's  sheaves encircled his sheaf and bowed down to it as it stood erect. In the second dream, the sun, the moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to Joseph.  (Genesis 37:6, 7, 9) What should Joseph do about those strange and vivid dreams?  

The dreams came from Jehovah God.  They were prophetic in nature, and God meant for Joseph to pass along the message they contained. In a sense, Joseph was to do what all the later prophets did when they related God's messages and judgments to His wayward people.

Joseph tactfully said to his brothers:  "Please listen to this dream that I had.  His brothers understood the dream, and they did not like it one bit.  They answered:  " Are you really going to make yourself king over us and dominate us?"  The account adds: "So they found another reason to hate him, because of his dreams and what he said." When Joseph related  the second dream to his father as well as his brothers, the reaction  was not much better.  We read:  "His father rebuked him and said to him: 'What is the meaning of this dream of yours? Am I as well as your mother and your brothers really going to come and bow down to the earth to you?"  However, Jacob kept thinking the matter over.  Might Jehovah be communicating  with the boy? -Genesis 37:6, 8, 10, 11.

Joseph was neither the first nor the last servant of Jehovah to be asked to relay a prophetic message that would prove to be unpopular and even lead to persecution. Jesus was the greatest of such message bearers, and he told his followers:  "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." (John 15:20) Christians of all ages may learn much from the faith and courage of young Joseph. 

Next time: HATRED COMES TO A HEAD

From the Watchtower magazine, 2014