I cannot imagine what it was like for Joseph. Imagine being sold to strangers and coming to the realization that you’d likely never see your family again, not to mention wondering how you would be treated. Turns out, Joseph was sold to these Ishmaelites, who turned around after arriving in Egypt and sold him to a wealthy and powerful man named Potiphar (Genesis 37:36).

The Bible takes a quick break from Joseph in Genesis 38 to learn about Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers. It’s not a pretty chapter but one from which we learn how evil certain sons of Judah were. In fact, so evil that the Lord literally put him to death (Genesis 38:7). There is tremendous evil and violence in the Old Testament concerning many within what would become the nation of Israel. This fact actually supports the integrity of the Scriptures because it does not show Jewish people then in the best light. Surely, if the Old Testament was not written by God, but written only by men from their own perspective, they would have done everything to showcase Israelites in a much better light. Instead, we see the opposite. God unabashedly points out the flaws of many who were part of His chosen people.

Genesis 39 brings us back to Joseph and...