Most of us know the story of Joseph and his brothers. The coat of many colors or his strange dreams may come to mind. For those familiar with the biblical narrative, it is the story of how he was sold into slavery by his brothers and later reconnected with them in Egypt. The image of brothers reuniting after years of separation—especially after the betrayal of selling one of their own—brings tears to the reader. It is a heartbreaking story.
But hidden within that narrative is the land of Egypt and its people. To most of us, Egypt is simply the foreign land where Joseph finally finds himself a Prince after years of suffering. Is that all it is?
The stroy opens with Jacob sending his son Joseph to check on his brothers. But his brothers come up with a scheme to kill him. But he is thrown into a well at the bidding of his brother Reuben with the hope of being rescued later. However, when Judah sees Ishmaelites passing by, he suggests selling Joseph to them. So, the boy is sold. But who were these Ishmaelites?
Remember Abraham, the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob. Abraham had another son, Ishmael, born to an Egyptian woman named Hagar. Sarah asked Abraham to send Hagar and her son Ishmael back to Egypt and he did. After they ran out of water, Hagar left her son alone to die because could not watch him die in her hands. But the angel appeared to her and told her to pick him up for the boy will become a great nation. Eventually Ishmael had twelve princes in Egypt. These are the men who bought Joseph and took him there. In a sense, Joseph was among his own kin, though they were from the line of Hagar rather than Sarah. Did they later realize they just bought another descendant of Abraham?
What is telling about this story is that descendants of Abraham occupied Egypt long before Moses led the Israelites toward the promised land. Moreover, Joseph’s rise to power as a prince in Egypt occurred within the land where the descendants of Ishmael were already established as princes. Did God not promise Hagar to make them into a great nation as well?
The current divisions between the people of the Holy Land are saddening. Their histories have been interconnected since time immemorial, yet we have become accustomed to viewing them as entirely divided. The descendants of Abraham occupied Egypt, and there is no record of them leaving that land; instead, they expanded their influence. It was God’s design that through Hagar, another great nation of Abraham would be born. God is always working in mysterious ways; ours is to ponder them.
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From the E-Crier of August 20, 2026. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter.