God can step into a life at any age and immediately begin to work out His plan for our future destiny.
The account of Joseph’s life begins in Genesis 37, where we’re told at once that he was a young man of seventeen. It seems that God takes hold at an early age of someone with a significant call on their life. (For those interested in Biblical Numbers, Jacob also lived for seventeen years in Egypt. Genesis 47:28)
Once Joseph is introduced, we’re told about a series of events that caused friction between him and his older half brothers.
2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them (told tales on them to their father). Genesis 37
The rift between Joseph and his brothers centred around Jacob, their father.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
The brothers became very bitter towards the young Joseph.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream I had: 7 we were binding sheaves of corn out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered round mine and bowed down to it.’
It seemed like everything Joseph did angered his brothers even more. Dreams were to be a very significant part of his life, but he antagonised his half brothers by sharing his dreams. We need to learn wisdom before sharing anything God gives us.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him… 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Joseph continued to share his dreams and antagonise his brothers.
The next part of the Bible’s account begins with Jacob sending Joseph to see how his brothers were as they grazed the flocks.
14 So he said to him, ‘Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.’ Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.
That was to be the last time Jacob saw Joseph for at least thirteen years (Joseph was 30 years old when he began to serve Pharaoh Genesis 41:46). He went to find his brothers and was sold into slavery in Egypt.
We could rightly say how unjust and wicked his brothers were to do such a thing, but God’s hand was in the whole affair.