We all have dreams, don't we?  But, we soon forget about our dreams.   However, long ago some people were given dreams by God that had important meanings.  A young man named Joseph was given two such dreams by the Lord. In both of these dreams God showed to Joseph some things that were to come to pass in the future.  Now Joseph was a son of Jacob, who had fled from Esau after he obtained the birthright from his father, Isaac.

Jacob went to the land of his grandfather's and his mother's people to his uncle Laban.  Jacob stayed at Laban's home for many years and had twelve sons.  Joseph was the second youngest son.  As the sons grew up, they became herdsmen, or keepers of cattle and sheep.

Jacob loved his son Joseph very dearly and Joseph loved God and the promises of God.  In order to show how much he loved Joseph, his father made him a beautiful coat of many colors.  However, this made the other boys very jealous of Joseph.

Joseph had his first dream where he dreamed that he and his brothers were all out in a field gathering grain.  Each of them had gathered up a bundle of grain and Joseph's bundle stood straight up while all the other bundles bowed down toward it.  It might have been better for Joseph if he had kept this dream to himself.  But, in his excitement he told his brothers about the dream.  They understood it to mean that Joseph expected that some day they would all bow down to him, and this made them even more jealous and angry and they hated him even more.

A little later Joseph had another dream.  In this dream, Joseph saw the sun and the moon and eleven stars bow down to him.  Again Joseph made a big mistake and told this dream to his brothers and to his father.  His father was upset because it seemed to mean that at some future time, he, as the father of Joseph, would have to bow down to his son!  Of course Joseph's brothers were made more angry than ever.

Not long after this Joseph's brothers went to a part of the country called Shechem to find better fields for their flocks.  They were too far away from home to come back each night, so after they had been gone for a while, Jacob wanted to find out how they were getting on, and how their flocks were doing.

Now, Joseph was too young to work in the fields with his brothers, so he had stayed at home.  His father asked him if he would go to Shechem to find his brothers and learn how they were getting along, and bring back word to him.  Joseph willingly set out on this errand for his father.   When he arrived he couldn't find his brothers and was wandering around in the fields when a man came up to him and asked who he was seeking.   Joseph replied that he was looking for his brothers and then the man told him that they had gone to a palce called Dothan.

So Joseph travelled farther until he came to Dothan and found his brothers taking care of their flocks.  When his brothers saw him approaching, they decided that they would kill their brother.  They called their brother a dreamer, and instead of letting him go back to his father, they seized him, and were ready to take his life.  But, the oldest son, Reuben pleaded with his brothers not to kill Joseph.  He suggested that they put Joseph in a pit.  Reuben's plan was to rescue Joseph when the others were not watching.

Reuben's brothers agreed to this, but after they had put Joseph into the pit, the brothers noticed a nearby travelling group of Midianite merchants.   So they sold Joseph to them as these Midianites were on their way to Egypt, where rich people bought slaves.  The Midianites took Joseph to Egypt, where he was sold to an officer of the king as a slave.

Then the brothers took Joseph's coat of many colors which his father had made for him and dipped it in the blood of a goat, and returned home to their father.  When their father saw this coat covered with blood he was sure that his beloved son Joseph had been killed by a wild beast.  Years went by, and Jacob thought that Joseph was dead, while all the time his brothers knew that he was a slave in Egypt.

Yes, Joseph's brothers called him a dreamer.  Those two dreams that God gave to Joseph had caused him a lot of trouble.  No doubt his brothers thought that those dreams would now never come true.  After all, how could Joseph ever rule over them now that he was in Egypt working as a slave?  As year after year went by, no doubt Joseph's brothers remembered what they had done, and perhaps chuckled, "We fixed him all right.  He thought we would have to bow down to him, but he was mistaken!"

But, there was one thing Joseph's brothers did not know.  They did not know that those dreams had been given to Joseph by God, and that God would be sure to make them come true.  God always keeps His promises.

It is terrible to be jealous.  Jealousy causes hate and anger and it was jealousy that caused Cain to kill his brother Abel.  And these older brothers of Joseph became jealous of him, and the Bible says that they hated him.  Jealousy you see, always leads people into trouble.  If you have any jealousy in your life, make sure you ask ask Jesus to forgive you and to take away all the anger and hate out of your life!

God bless.