Today is Martin Luther King Jr day. Am reminded of a quote from Dr.King that J used to say -
"Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better."
Genesis 37 : Joseph and his brothers
Joseph was born to Jacob when he was old. Also he was the first son of Rachel. Jacob had a special affection for him. This caused jealousy among brothers. To add to this, Joseph used to tell his father about what his brothers did during the day. This infuriated his brothers more.
To make matters worse, Joseph has dreams about him ruling over his brothers. He tells his brothers about his dreams -
"We were all in the field tying up sheaves of wheat, when my sheaf got up and stood up straight. Yours formed a circle around mine and bowed down to it." [37:7]
"I had another dream, in which I saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to me."[37:9]
One day, his brothers had gone to Shechem to tend the flock and Joseph was at home. Seeing that they were getting late, Jacob sends Joseph to find out where they are. Joseph goes in search of his brothers. His brothers see him from a distance and plot to kill him. But Rueben is against killing. So they decide to capture him and throw him into a well. When Joseph comes near, they do their evil deed.
After a while, while they were eating, the brothers see Ishmaelite traders going towards Egypt. Since they don't want Joseph to die, they take him out of the well and sell him to the traders. Rueben is not present when it happens. He is very sad to find that Joseph is not there in the well.
The brothers smear Joseph's robe with goat's blood and take it to their father and tell him that Joseph was killed by a beast in the forest. Jacob gets very sad and mourns for his son's death a long time.
In the meantime, Joseph is sold by the merchants to Potiphar, one of the King's officers.
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