Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: Judah marries a Canaanite, Joseph finds favor in Egypt but then is wrongfully imprisoned, after which he is given favor in prison and interprets dreams.
Before continuing on with the story of Joseph, we read a little story about Judah. He has a friend of the Adullamites that he goes to visit. He sees a "daughter of Canaan," marries her, and have three sons. It is said of the first that he was wicked, so the Lord kills him. This son had married a woman named Tamar, and when his eldest son dies, Judah tells his second son to marry her so his brother can have an heir. However, the other son feels like the child would not be his, so he has a way of ensuring Tamar doesn't conceive. This "displeases the Lord," and He kills him, too. Judah promises Tamar that he will allow his youngest son to marry her once he is grown. He is not fulfilling his promise, so when he travels out of the city, Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute. Judah propositions her, and she asks him what he will give her in exchange. He says he will give her a goat, and she asks for his seal, cord, and staff as a pledge. He agrees, and they sleep together. She leaves and heads back home. When he sends his friend to retrieve them, she is nowhere to be found, and no one has ever heard of her. Three months later, word comes to him that his daughter-in-law is pregnant ("having played the harlot"), and he orders for her to be brought out and burned. As she is being brought out, she sends a message back to Judah along with his articles, saying "By the man to whom these belong, I am with child. Please determine whose these are." He realizes what has happened and says that she was right in her actions because he did not fulfill his promise to her to give her his son. She gives birth to twins (there are details about their birth.)
Meanwhile, in Egypt, Joseph is living in Potiphar's house and serving him, and the Lord has blessed Joseph and made him successful. Everything he touches prospers, and the whole household is blessed because of him. Seeing this, his master has put him in charge of everything and trusts Joseph implicitly so that nothing happens without his approval. Joseph is also very handsome, and Potiphar's wife takes notice. She propositions him, but he refuses to "do this great evil and sin against the Lord" by sleeping with his master's wife. One day, he is working alone in the house, and she grabs him by his garment and tells him to sleep with her. He runs out of the house, leaving his garment behind. Then, she calls the men of the house and tells them that he tried to rape her. Keeping the garment in her hand as proof, she relays the same story to her husband when he gets home, who is enraged and throws Joseph into prison.
The Lord is with Joseph in prison and shows him mercy and makes whatever he does prosper. He has favor with the keeper of the prison and is put in charge of all the other prisoners.
One day, two of the Pharaoh's servants are thrown into prison, the chief butler and chief baker. One night, they both have dreams. The next morning, they are perplexed, and Joseph asks them what's wrong. They tell him there is no one to interpret their dreams, to which he says that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God and to tell him the dreams. In the butler's dream, there is a vine with three branches that sprout grapes, and he takes the grapes and pours them in Pharaoh's cup. Joseph replies that the three branches are three days, and that within three days Pharaoh will reinstate him. Joseph only asks that the butler remember him and mention him to Pharaoh when he is restored. He tells him that he was stolen from his land and wrongly imprisoned. Hearing the positive dream, the baker relays his, in which there are three baskets of bread on his head from which birds are eating. Joseph says that in three days, Pharaoh will have him hanged, and the birds will eat his flesh.
Three days later, it happens just as Joseph says, but the butler does not remember Joseph.
Thoughts/Questions:
Judah was the main culprit in the whole Joseph situation. He was jealous of him, but clearly lacking in the character to be like him. Tamar must have known the kind of man he was to think her plan would work. Isn't that always the way with jealousy? People want what someone else has but aren't willing to do what they did to get it (as Joyce Meyer often points out.) That is why you don't want someone to be jealous of you. In that state, they are completely unreasonable!
Joseph is blessed wherever he goes because God is with him. Because of who he is, not where he is. We need to remember that and stop complaining about our lack of resources! He was resourceful in every circumstance.
God can help us to interpret dreams, our own and the dreams of others. We should think about that more often. I remember reading how in many Native American tribes, it was a custom to ask everyone at breakfast about their dreams.
No matter who forgets you, God never will!