A key figure in the closing chapters of the Book of Genesis, Joseph is known for several things: his “coat of many colors,” being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, and for his remarkable ability to interpret the dreams of the Egyptian Pharaoh. But when the author of Hebrews looks back on the life of Joseph in Hebrews 11 (the so-called “hall of faith”), Joseph is remembered for something we often forget. “By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones” (Hebrews 11:22).

Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob. Rachel was his mother. Joseph became the apple of his father’s eye and the recipient of the famous multicoat–a gift from his father, provoking great jealousy on the part of his brothers. Joseph even had the nerve to claim he had a dream in which his older brothers bowed down to him. When Jacob sent the seventeen year-old upstart Joseph to find his brothers, they plot to kill him. One of his brothers, Reuben, talked the others into throwing Joseph down a well, knowing that he (Reuben) would return later and rescue him. Instead, Joseph was sold to traders, who took Joseph into Egypt, where he was sold again to Potiphar. While in Potiphar’s care, God was with Joseph, who thrived. Through a series of remarkable events, including interpreting Pharaoh’s dream (Genesis 41), Joseph became viceroy over all of Egypt.

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