A coat of many colors shall adorn my personage throughout my travels to, and throughout, Saudi Arabia. Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors is an epic tale which shall now be told in condensed form, sort of ‘Reader’s Digest’ form.
To begin: Joseph is the son of Jacob and one of twelve brothers. He is given a coat of many colors by his father, which is symbolic of his favor and and hence became an object of his brothers’ jealousy. The brothers decide to sell Joseph into slavery after initially plotting to have him killed.
The “coat of many colors” Jacob gave to Joseph (see Genesis 37:3) is thought to represent the fact that Joseph received the birthright (see William Wilson, Old Testament Word Studies [1978], “colour,” p. 82). Remember that although Joseph was the firstborn son of Rachel, he was the eleventh son born. The other sons of Jacob were the sons of Leah. Joseph was favored by Jacob because of his intense love of Rachael, who died during childbirth at a young age. Jacob never really recovered from that loss, cherishing and adoring Joseph, who was apparently EXTREMELY handsome.
Joseph’s coat of many colors is the most popular of Bible stories for children. The ‘moral’ of the children’s story is focused on jealousy – the brother’s are depicted and green-eyed monsters.
There is much more to the story when it is being viewed as a Christian adult. This Islamic story of Joseph is slightly different, more nuanced and, in my mind, more complete. You shall hear about the Islamic version, taken from the Quran, in a later blog. The Christian version is a complicated account of love, loss, favoritism, hurt, hatred and revenge. It becomes a modern tale because it deals with issues such as parenting, sibling relationships and faith.. But there is the good news, it is a story of hope, because in the end, miraculously it has a happy ending.
The Bible speaks of Joseph’s coat in Genesis 37.3 and Genesis 37: 31-35. Clothing had a different (and greater) meaning in the good (and not so good) olde days. Joseph’s coat was similar to a tunic, made from wool or silk, stretching to the wrist and to the ankles, perhaps very ornately decorated, with jewels sewn into it. Unfortunately my coat of many colors is of cotton and has no jewels. Actually fortunately, if it were made of silk with jewels it would be expensive. If it were made of wool it would be way too heavy to wear in Saudi summers.
Back then, such a coat would be worn only by someone of great privilege, Royalty the best example. People wearing the coat would not be doing the down and dirty physical work – only watching people doing down and dirty physical work. Joseph’s coat signified great favor, giving him the status of Prince. When one considers all of this it is possible to see how valuable, great and significant the coat would be for Joseph, representing unconditional love and favor from his father. But for the brothers, it was a horse of a different color.
Horse of a different color is an idiom meaning another matter entirely, something else. The idiom originated from an unlikely source: At the climax of the magical movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), the hero Dorothy is amazed that the horse pulling her carriage through the Emerald City changes colour. It is, the driver exclaims, “the horse of a different colour”.
To Joseph the coat of many colors representing unconditional love and favor from his father. But to the brothers it was entirely different, it represented lack of love, affection and attention from their father. Looking ahead to the events that followed the coat was a foreshadowing of Joseph’s future as an Egyptian prince. It starts with Jacob’s misguided parenting and ends with the unfolding of a divine plan.
I shall break this to you readers gently – misguided parenting usually just ends up with a mess, not a divine plan. So you parents had best get your parenting in order. I am a very good mother to my growing family – my Nepal daughter, my Philippine daughter, my son from India, my daughter from South Africa and my son from Columbia. I was laughing the other day about the situation.
Me: I have got to start using birth control. This family is getting to be too big. We will not be able to sit at the same table pretty soon and will be forced to rent a hall for our get-togethers.
Back to the coat, which was bloodied by the brothers, presented to Jacob to ‘prove’ the death of Jospeh. The bloodied robe was an instrument of revenge for the brothers, evening a love they always wanted but never got. For Jacob, the coat symbolized loss – loss of Jacob and the loss of Rachel, Joseph’s mother.
Another life lesson from this story is that of jealousy. Jealousy is insidious, creeping up on people, blinding them to the advantages and privileges they have been accorded, instead consuming the jealous souls in hated for another’s misperceived privilege. Jealousy is so powerful, it can be the motivation for muse. Hebrew and Christian Bible examples:
- Cain killed his brother Abel
- Saul literally hunted David to kill him
- The Pharisees were jealous of Jesus’ influence so they killed him
A Biblical injunction against jealousy is found in James 3:16. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice.
Jealousy destroys rational thought. People are so blinded by jealous they an not accept the reality of the situation, nor see any positivity in it, are obsessed with revenge and forgiveness becomes the farthest thing from their mind.
That what happened with Jospeh and his brothers. Jospeh’s gift of dreams was not appreciated, nor seen as positive by the brothers.
Joseph was chosen by God to save Egypt from starvation during a seven year drought This gift of dreams and Jospeh’s qualities of leadership allowed him to make Egypt the strongest and most powerful country in the world of his day.
Joseph had to leave Canaan and go to Egypt to make all of this happen. He came to Egypt, not as a favored son, but as a slave. In Egypt he humbled himself and did good work. Most importantly he had to rely on God, not his father. His spiritual life became unique, not a faith handed down to him by this father.
Of course, I do not consider myself a prophet but there are similarities in my life. I was forced to leave the County of Marin, where I had been much favored and protected. There were the underpinnings of evil, but I chose not to see the.m The discrimination I faced as a Muslim woman caused me to flee – unfortunately to a more evil ‘empire’ – the United Arab Emeritus. I was able to return to Canada, which is not perfect by any way or means, but is not evil to its core and can perhaps be redeemable. The evil of those two so-called United countries became recognized, as there were in my face. (In your face is a slang expression: behaving or done in a direct, often rude way that is annoying and absolutely cannot be ignored: Making you feel shocked or appalled. shocking. appalling.)
This is being written on June 24, 2923 two days prior to my departure for Saudi Arabia. I awoke from a bad dream, both terrified and relieved. Terrified by the emotions in the dream, but relieved that it was just a dream. I was left with an immense sense of insecurity, not knowing exactly what to do. But a brilliant idea came to mind. Walked the few steps to my prayer room and prayed to Allah(SWT) for guidance, for assistance. Then went back to bed, found my iPhone reading an email then immediately knew that I was being guided, being assisted in every way. I had put in effort, done my part by not showing anger, by reaching out in sympathy to a young woman. But such a reward! It shall take more effort on my part, but an appointment had previously been made with CCC coming to transport me. It seems everything might be possible. The hardship was temporary and paved the way to ultimate success.
I looked out the window to see early signs of ‘construction’ – temporary structures. Slowly it evolved. Canadian Champions is being held right outside my window. It looks like a bicycle race, they took off and will return, I suppose. I will not join the celebrants, I have too much to do getting ready and writing etc. etc. etc.
Photographs will be of me in my coat of many colors taken at Travel Guru in Edmonton (not London). Another photo taken in the Legislative Cafeteria in Edmonton where I also made an Instagram reel. There is a photo of the quilter’s exhibition announcement, (the woman who made my coat). The exhibit was at Alberta Craft Council, just down the street. I purchased the coat of many colors a couple of weeks ago and wear it within immense pride.
There is a great deal happening in Edmonton. I am not anxious to leave and will miss my new home, my new friends and all of my kids. It seems my Saudi Sojourn is almost ordained.
