A Biblical Story: Joseph and the Brothers Who Sold Him

The book of Genesis tells one of the longest single stories in the entire Bible. It runs from chapter 37 to chapter 50 — fourteen chapters of one man's life, and how that one man learned what it means to forgive the people who did him the deepest harm a person can suffer.

That man was Joseph. And his story is here for a reason.

The Wrong That Started It

Joseph was the eleventh of twelve sons born to a man named Jacob. His father loved him more than the others, and he did not hide it. He gave Joseph a coat of many colors. He gave Joseph favor at the table. He sent the other brothers out to the fields while Joseph stayed home.

The brothers resented it. They resented him. And when Joseph was seventeen years old, they decided to do something about it.

They were tending the family flocks far from home when Joseph came out to check on them. They saw him coming from a distance. By the time he arrived, they had already decided what they were going to do.

They threw him in a pit. They debated whether to kill him outright. In the end, they sold him to a passing caravan of slave traders for twenty pieces of silver. Then they took his coat of many colors, dipped it in goat's blood, brought it home to their father, and let him believe Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.

The brothers went home. Joseph went to Egypt.

The Long Years

Joseph spent the next thirteen years of his life paying for a crime he did not commit.

He was sold to a man named Potiphar in Egypt. He served faithfully and rose to be the manager of Potiphar's entire household. Then Potiphar's wife falsely accused him of attempting to assault her. Joseph was thrown into prison.

He spent years in that prison. He interpreted dreams for fellow prisoners. He waited. He kept faith. He did not, as far as Scripture tells us, curse God or his brothers. He simply kept doing the next right thing in front of him.

Eventually, his dream interpretations reached Pharaoh. Pharaoh had been having dreams no one could explain. Joseph was called out of the prison, interpreted the dreams (seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine), and Pharaoh — recognizing the gift — appointed Joseph as second-in-command over all of Egypt.

He was thirty years old. He had been a slave or a prisoner for thirteen years. And now he was in charge of preserving grain for an entire region against a famine no one else saw coming.

When the Brothers Showed Up

The famine came. It hit Egypt. It hit harder in Canaan, where Joseph's family still lived. They ran out of food.

Jacob sent his sons — the same brothers who had sold Joseph — to Egypt to buy grain. They arrived at the gates of the granary and were brought before the second-in-command of all Egypt to make their case. They did not recognize him. Twenty-two years had passed. He was wearing Egyptian clothes, speaking through a translator, ruling over a foreign land. The brother they had sold for twenty pieces of silver was unrecognizable.

Joseph recognized them immediately.

He could have done anything in that moment. He had the absolute power of Pharaoh's right hand. He could have imprisoned them. He could have executed them. He could have refused to sell them grain and let their families starve. He could have revealed himself and demanded an apology and a full reckoning. Any of that would have been within his rights, by any human standard.

He did not do any of it.

He tested them. He wanted to know if they had changed — if they would protect his younger brother Benjamin the way they had failed to protect him. They passed the test. They demonstrated, over a long sequence of events, that the men who had sold a brother into slavery were not the men who now stood in front of him.

Then he wept. He sent everyone out of the room except his brothers. And he said the words that put this story in the Bible forever.

"I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life."

He forgave them. He fed them. He brought their entire family — father, brothers, wives, children — to live in the safest part of Egypt while the famine ran its course. He saved the lives of the men who had tried to end his.

The Verse to Carry

The line that holds the entire story together comes near the end, in Genesis 50. Joseph's father has died. The brothers are afraid that now, with their father gone, Joseph will finally take his revenge. They send a message begging for mercy.

Joseph's response is one of the most important verses in the entire Old Testament for anyone trying to learn how to forgive.

"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."

You meant it for evil. God meant it for good.

That is not a denial of what was done. Joseph names it plainly — what they did was evil. He does not pretend it was a misunderstanding or a small thing. He calls it what it was.

But he also names something else. God was working in it. God was using the evil to do something the brothers could not have done on their own and certainly did not intend. God turned the betrayal into a position. The position into a preparation. The preparation into the salvation of an entire family during a famine that would have wiped them out.

The forgiveness was not naive. It was clear-eyed. It saw the evil and trusted God anyway.

What This Story Teaches

For anyone carrying a wound from someone who wronged them, the Joseph story holds three lessons.

First, the time you spend in the pit is not wasted. Joseph's thirteen years of slavery and prison were the preparation for the position he was going to occupy. The hard years are part of how God shapes the person who is going to do the work later.

Second, God can work redemption out of evil that other people intended for harm. You do not have to deny what was done. You do not have to pretend it did not hurt. You only have to trust that God is bigger than the evil, and that He can use even this for good.

Third, forgiveness, when it finally comes, is freedom. Not for the people who wronged you — though they may benefit too. For you. Joseph wept when he finally said the words. He had been carrying that weight for twenty-two years. Releasing it released him.

A Prayer to Pray With This Story

Lord, the brothers sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver. Joseph spent thirteen years paying for a crime he did not commit. He kept faith in the pit, in the prison, in the foreign country. He let You shape him through the long years. He forgave when the chance came.

I do not have Joseph's patience. I do not have Joseph's faith. But I have the same God Joseph had. So I bring to You the name of the person who has wronged me. I do not ask You to send them to a pit. I ask You to do for me what You did for Joseph — turn what they meant for evil into what You can mean for good.

Free me from the weight of carrying them. Use the years I have spent in the pit for something I cannot see yet. Make me ready, when the time comes, to weep and forgive.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

If you would like to be prayed for by name, our 24/7 prayer line is (833) 994-2437. Email [email protected]. We will pray for you, and if you tell us, for the person who wronged you, by name.