AFTER MANY YEARS OF WANDERING,THE JEWS FOUND A NEW HOME IN THE LAND OF EGYPT,WHERE THEIR KINSMAN JOSEPH HELD A HIGH POLITICAL POSITION
You must remember that the Old Testament is really a collection of short and unrelated histories which were put together into one book when the founders of the Jewish nation had been dead for almost a thousand years.Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had been the original heroes of this chronicle.They had dared to push forth into the wilderness and they resembled our own Pilgrim Fathers in their courage and in their perseverance and in their loyalty to their ideals.
But they lived in an age when the Jewish people had not yet learned the use of letters.The account of their adventures was told from father to son,and each new generation added a few details to the greater glory of their ancestors.
It is not always easy to keep to the main line in this record of events.One thing,however,strikes us with great force.The Jews of thirty centuries ago were obliged to face a problem which is familiar to all students of American history.They were shepherds,and as such they were for ever in search of new grazing lands.Abraham left his home and travelled westward to find pastures for his increasing flocks.Often he thought that he had found a home that would support him.Then we see him building a house,digging wells,clearing the ground for a few small farms.But alas!after a few years,there would be a period of drought.Abraham would break up camp and once more be a wanderer on the face of western Asia.
During the life of Isaac,the land of Canaan was regarded more and more as the definite dwelling place of the Jewish tribes.But this era of peace and prosperity did not last long.Jacob himself never remained for very long in one spot.When he was quite an old man,the prolonged dry seasons had made Palestine almost uninhabitable,and the Jews were forced to leave Asia and move over into Africa.This time,the absence from the land of their choice was of very long duration.But they never lost sight of the old home and returned at the earliest possible opportunity.
And this was the way the story was told when the old men gathered around the city walls of the little Jewish towns and spoke of the mighty deeds of their grandfathers.
Jacob,you will remember,had married two sisters.The name of the elder one was Leah,and she had ten sons.The name of the younger one was Rachel and she had only two sons,Benjamin and Joseph.
Now it happened that Jacob was very fond of Rachel,but did not care much for Leah.Quite naturally he loved the children of Rachel more tenderly than those of Leah,and it seems that he showed his preference quite openly when all the children were together at the dinner table or out in the fields.This was not very wise.It is not good for little boys to know that their father likes them better than their brothers.It is apt to spoil them.
As Joseph was a particularly bright child,much cleverer than his half-brothers,he soon became a great nuisance around the house.He knew that he would not be punished,whatever he said or did,and he made the best of his opportunities.For example,one morning at breakfast,he announced that he had had a wonderful dream.
“What was it about?”the others asked.
“Oh,nothing much,”he answered.“I happened to dream that we were all out in the field,binding sheaves,and my own sheaf was standing right in the middle.But your sheaves were standing all around in a large circle,bowing very low to my sheaf.That was all.”
The brothers may not have been very bright,but they understood what Joseph meant and they did not like him any better for it.
A few days later Joseph tried again,but this time he went too far,for he even annoyed his father,and as a rule,Jacob thought that everything Joseph said or did was quite funny and only another sign of his cleverness.
“I have had another dream,”Joseph said.
“What was it this time?”the other members of the family asked,a trifle wearied.“Something more about sheaves?”
“Oh,no.This time it was about the stars.There were eleven stars in the Heavens and they and the sun and the moon all bowed to me.”
The eleven brothers did not feel flattered.Neither did the father,who thought of Joseph's dead mother.He warned his young son that a little more modesty would not be amiss.
But he could not help spoiling the boy,for soon afterwards he bought him a lovely coat of many colours,and of course,Joseph must put this on and walk about in it to show the other brothers what a very superior sort of person he really was.
Well,you can easily understand what happened in the end.
At first,the brothers merely laughed at Joseph.Then they got annoyed.Finally,they hated him,and one day,when they were all out in the fields near Shechem,and when the father was far away,they took Joseph,stripped his fine coat off his back,and threw him,howling and fighting,into an empty pit.
Then they sat down to think.After all,they could not very well kill their brother.That would be going a little too far.
Neither did they want him around the house.
But Judah had a bright idea.
The Jews lived near the high-road which led from the valley of the Nile to the valley of Mesopotamia.Caravans were passing through their country all the time.
“Let us sell Joseph,”Jodah suggested,“and then we take his coat and tear it up and smear some blood over it and we tell our father that a lion or a tiger came and ate Joseph up,and we divide the money,and no one is any the wiser.”
A short time later,a caravan of Midianites came by on their way from Gilead to Egypt,carrying spice and myrrh for the embalmers of the Nile.
The brothers told them that they had a young slave for sale.After some bargaining,they sold their brother for twenty pieces of silver.
That is how Joseph happened to go west.The brothers,however,returned home.They stuck to their story very faithfully,and all eleven of them lied like one man.
