We can assume that the brothers, until the outbreak of hunger, because of which they went to Egypt, were not quite bad. After all, their father had an extensive farms, herds and servants, he passed on his experience to them, they started families, had children. From the human point of view, their path of life lead upward or at least was not going down significantly.
On the other hand, Joseph's path kept falling lower and lower. He was first rejected by his own brothers and sold to his half-brothers, the Ishmaelites. They dragged him away and sold him to total foreigners, Egyptians. From a beloved son with an exceptional position in his father's house, he became a slave without rights. But that was not the end yet - in Egypt, which stands for "this world" in Scripture, he was condemned and found himself in the most degrading place: in a prison among criminals. And in the end he was abandoned and forgotten even by the prisoners...
Joseph's path led from the heights to the lowest position on this earth. He is thus a prototype of Christ, who "came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (John 1:11). He who was "in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross" (Phil 2,6-8). And he "was numbered with the transgressors." (Is 53:12)
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
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