a. The dream of sheaves. And so with the brothers raging, God gives Joseph a set of dreams that have the same meaning. As Joseph will later tell Pharaoh when he has two dreams that mean the same thing, “the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.” The first dream that Joseph has is about sheaves. His sheaf stands upright and his brothers’ sheaves are bowed down to his. The brothers interpret this dream as meaning that Joseph would rule over them. The division and rage they were already feeling and they hate him even more. Before they could not speak to him, and now things are worse. b. The dream of the sun, moon, and stars. Then Joseph has another dream and he shares that with his family. Whether it was prudent for Joseph to share these dreams or not has been debated, but these are messages from God and would not only affect him but his whole family and the world. This second dream is about the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him. When Jacob hears the dream his rebukes Joseph. “Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” (Just as a side note. When Jacob says your mother, he is probably referring to Leah as she was the matriarch of the family and because Rachel had died.) But he doesn’t do it out of a completely skeptical heart because Jacob kept the saying in mind. Even though he checked Joseph he did not do so out of complete disbelief. Jacob knew full well that if the dreams were from God, it would happen, even though, at the time, he couldn’t see how it would happen. If Jacob’s response was one of caution his brothers’ response was one of jealousy. c. Ruling and Reigning. After this chapter, the narrative jumps to Judah and the story of where his two sons come from. Since the narrative is focusing on Joseph and how he will rule over his family, why are Judah and his sons important? Like we have encountered so many times already in Genesis, this is foreshadowing. Moses speaks of Joseph’s future rule but then jumps to Judah’s offspring and their future rule. When Jacob blesses his sons he tells Judah that the scepter would not depart from him nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet. His father’s sons would bow down to him. All the nations would bring tribute to Judah and would obey him. Joseph would rule in his generation as his dream foretell, but Judah would reign forever.