Jacob had twelve sons, but Joseph was his favorite. Joseph was born when Jacob was already elderly, the son of Rachel, the wife he loved most. Therefore, Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons.

To show his special love, Jacob had a long tunic with long sleeves made for Joseph, with many colors. It was a beautiful tunic, unlike anything his other sons had. It was a prince's tunic, not a shepherd's.

When Joseph's brothers saw that special tunic, they became envious. They worked hard in the fields, caring for the sheep, while Joseph received gifts from their father. The envy grew in their hearts like a weed.

Joseph's brothers began to hate him so much that they could no longer speak peacefully with him. Every time they saw that colorful tunic, they felt anger and envy.

But then something happened that made the situation even worse. Joseph began to have dreams - very special dreams that God was showing him about the future.

One day, Joseph told his brothers: "Listen to the dream I had: We were in the field, binding sheaves of grain. Suddenly, my sheaf rose and stood upright, and your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf."

The brothers were furious. "Do you intend to reign over us?" they said angrily. "Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and his words.

But Joseph had another dream, and he told it to his brothers as well: "I had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

When he told this to his father and brothers, even Jacob rebuked him: "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"

His brothers were jealous of him. But his father kept all these words in his heart, wondering what they might mean.

One day, Joseph's brothers went to pasture their father's flocks near Shechem. Jacob said to Joseph: "Your brothers are pasturing the flocks near Shechem. Go visit them and see how they are doing."

Joseph obeyed his father. He put on his colorful tunic and went to look for his brothers. He walked for a long time until he found them in Dothan.

When the brothers saw Joseph from afar, even before he came near them, they began to plot to kill him.

They said to one another: "Here comes the dreamer! Come, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns. We will say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall see then what becomes of his dreams!"

But Reuben, the eldest brother, heard this and tried to save him. "Let us not take his life," said Reuben. "Shed no blood! Throw him into this cistern in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him."

Reuben wanted to save him from their hands to return him to their father. He planned to take Joseph out of the cistern later, when the others weren't watching.

When Joseph came near his brothers, they seized him. They stripped him of the long-sleeved tunic he was wearing - that beautiful colorful tunic they so envied.

Then they took him and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was empty, there was no water in it. Joseph fell to the dark bottom of the pit, crying for help, but his brothers didn't care.

After throwing Joseph into the cistern, the brothers sat down to eat, as if nothing had happened. Their hearts were so hardened by envy that they felt no pity for their brother suffering at the bottom of the pit.

As they ate, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, which they were taking to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers: "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come! Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh."

His brothers agreed. When the Midianite merchants passed by, they pulled Joseph out of the cistern. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And the Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt.

When Reuben returned to the cistern to take Joseph out, he discovered that he was no longer there. He tore his clothes in distress. He went back to his brothers and said: "The boy is not there! And I, where shall I go?"

But the other brothers had already made their terrible plan. They took Joseph's tunic, killed a young goat, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the long-sleeved tunic to their father with this message: "We found this. See if it is your son's tunic or not."

Jacob recognized the tunic and exclaimed: "It is my son's tunic! A wild beast has devoured him! Joseph has been torn to pieces!"

Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned his son for many days. All his sons and daughters came to console him, but he refused to be comforted, saying: "I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol."

And so Joseph's father wept for him. The brothers had to live with the lie they had created, seeing their father's suffering every day.

Meanwhile, Joseph was being taken to Egypt, bound together with other slaves. He was alone, frightened, far from home. Everything he knew - his father, his home, his land - was being left behind.

But Joseph didn't know that God had a plan. The dreams he had were not just dreams - they were God's promises about the future. And God was with Joseph, even in that very difficult moment.

The colorful tunic had been taken from Joseph. He was now a slave. But God had not abandoned him. Joseph's journey was just beginning.

In Egypt, the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. Joseph became a slave in the house of a powerful man, in a foreign land, speaking a language he barely knew.

But this would not be the end of Joseph's story. It was just the beginning of something much greater than he could imagine. God's dreams for Joseph would still be fulfilled, in ways no one expected.