Yesterday afternoon, I was listening to music from my playlist and heard a couple of songs from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (AKA Donny Osmond). That got me thinking about Joseph and his story. A boy who grew up favored by his father and, somewhat understandably, hated by his brothers. Whacked over the head by those same brothers and thrown into a pit, who then convince their father he’s dead. Sold as a slave to some passing traders (some of the brothers voted to kill him, so I guess that was the better outcome). Found a position as good as possible in the household of a wealthy Egyptian. That Egyptian’s wife accuses him of rape, and he’s thrown into prison. Spends years in prison, forgotten and abandoned. And people say the Bible is boring!
How quickly Joseph went from favorite to forgotten! And all because of a many-colored coat. If ever there was a story that started with promise and unraveled into chaos, it’s Joseph’s.
He was the golden boy—Jacob’s favorite son, wrapped in a coat of many colors. Why does the “color” matter? Making colored clothing required dyes or pigments, and they were expensive and rare. Most working people of the time wore coats that were the color of sheep’s wool (white, tan, or brown). Joseph’s coat didn’t have just one color; it had “many” colors. You can almost see him strutting around in it, twirling the sleeves, basking in the glow of favoritism. His brothers noticed, of course. It’s hard to miss when your little brother has his own custom wardrobe while you’re stuck wearing the same bland tunic day in and day out.
“Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons… and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more… they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.” (Genesis 37:3–4).
Then came Joseph’s dreams—grand, prophetic, and perhaps delivered with a little too much enthusiasm: “I dreamed that you all bowed down to me!” (Joseph may have needed a lesson in sibling diplomacy.)
Before long, the coat was ripped off, the brothers’ jealousy boiled over, and Joseph found himself at the bottom of a pit. The favored son became a forgotten nobody overnight. So much for the grand dreams.
But here’s the thing: Joseph’s story teaches us that God’s plans often travel through pits before they reach palaces. The journey from promise to fulfillment rarely takes a straight line. Sometimes we’re not ready for the coat yet—because God is still shaping us to wear it.
Faith often begins in the trenches: when you turn to God because you’ve got nowhere else to turn. God reaches us and comes closest to us when we’re lost in a proverbial pit, because when we’re there, we’re totally concentrated and dependent on him. There are no distractions … just us and God. Our dreams aren’t dead—they’re just being refined and deepened.
Most of us know that feeling. We have our own colorful hopes and confident prayers, only to find ourselves in a dry season, wondering, “What happened?” The pit can feel like failure, but sometimes it’s just preparation. God is light, and yet God’s presence can be found in the darkest places. There is no place in our lives that is too dark for God. When we can see the point or the purpose, God sees the ending.
So if you find yourself in a pit today, remember Joseph. The story isn’t over. God’s work often begins where our plans fall apart.
Prayer: Lord, when life takes me from the mountaintop to the pit, remind me that you haven’t forgotten me. Take my pride, but not my purpose. Help me trust that you are still weaving my story, even when I can’t see the next chapter. Amen.
