The beloved son
"Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons... and he made him a coat of divers colours. And his brethren seeing that he was loved by his father, more than all his sons, hated him."
Genesis 37:3 to 4
The father's favourite son. Sent by his father to his brothers, and hated by them for it. Jesus: the beloved Son, sent by his Father to his own people. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11).
Stripped and sold for silver
"They forthwith stript him of his outside coat... And cast him into an old pit where there was not water... and sold him to the Ismaelites, for twenty pieces of silver: and they led him into Egypt."
Genesis 37:23 to 28
Stripped of his coat. Sold by his own for silver. Jesus was sold by one of his own twelve: "they appointed him thirty pieces of silver" (Matthew 26:15). And at the cross, the soldiers took his garments.
Between two condemned men
"Two eunuchs, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, offended their lord... He sent them to the prison... in which Joseph also was prisoner."
Genesis 40:1 to 3
Joseph, an innocent man, is locked up with two others. One is restored to life. The other is put to death:
"And he restored the one to his place, to present him the cup: The other he hanged on a gibbet."
Genesis 40:21 to 22
Jesus, an innocent man, was crucified between two thieves. One mocked him. The other asked to be remembered, and Jesus answered: "Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). One saved. One lost.
Raised to the right hand
"Thou shalt be over my house, and at the commandment of thy mouth all the people shall obey: only in the kingly throne will I be above thee... Behold, I have appointed thee over the whole land of Egypt."
Genesis 41:40 to 41
From the pit to the right hand of the most powerful ruler in the world. Second only to the throne. Jesus, after the cross, is raised to the right hand of the Father.
And look at the name Pharaoh gives him:
"And he turned his name, and called him in the Egyptian tongue the saviour of the world."
Genesis 41:45
And his age when it happened:
"Now he was thirty years old when he stood before king Pharao."
Genesis 41:46
"And Jesus himself was beginning about the age of thirty years" (Luke 3:23), when his ministry began.
He saved the ones who betrayed him
Years later, famine drives Joseph's brothers to Egypt for food. They stand before him and don't recognise him. He has total power over them. He could take revenge. Instead:
"Fear not... You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people."
Genesis 50:19 to 20
What his brothers meant for evil, God used to save them. From the cross, Jesus prayed for the men killing him: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). What was meant for evil became the salvation of the world.
The full list
Joseph and Jesus, side by side:
- The beloved son of his father.
- Sent by his father to his brothers.
- Hated by his own without cause.
- Stripped of his garment.
- Put into a pit. Jesus was laid in a tomb.
- Sold for pieces of silver.
- Taken down into Egypt. Jesus was carried into Egypt as a child.
- Falsely accused.
- Placed between two condemned men. One saved, one lost.
- Thirty years old when his work began.
- Raised to the right hand of the throne.
- Named the saviour of the world.
- Not recognised by his own brothers.
- Forgave and saved the very people who betrayed him.
Why this is a big deal
Genesis was written down well over a thousand years before Jesus was born. Yet it holds a man whose life follows the same path, step by step: rejected by his own, sold for silver, counted among the condemned, raised to the right hand, and named the saviour of the world.
Joseph was the picture. Jesus is the one it was a picture of.