Examples of People Who Served in the Bible

Joseph is Sold to Egypt (Genesis 37: 12-36):

Jacob was Joseph’s father and Rachel was Joseph’s mother. Joseph’s family lived in Hebron in the land of Canaan. Joseph was the eleventh son out of the twelve children Jacob had. He was the first son his mother Rachel gave birth to for Jacob and was his dad’s favourite child. This made Joseph’s brothers very jealous of him. Jospeh’s father Jacob loved him so much, that he gave him a special coat, known as, the coat of many colours.

Joseph had two very interesting dreams so he shared them with his family members. When he told them what he had seen in his dreams, they were very upset. They told him it looked like he was saying they were all supposed to bow down and serve him. His brothers hated him even more after he told them about his dreams.

When Joseph was seventeen years old, his father Jacob sent him to check on his brothers in Shechem where they were feeding their flocks. Joseph was to check on his brothers and report back to their father on how they were doing. When his brothers saw him a distance away they started to plot to kill him but instead, they decided to throw him into an empty cistern. (A cistern in biblical times was an artificial reservoir used to store water).

His brothers then decided to eat while they were eating they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites who were on their way to Egypt. One of his brothers Judah then suggested it would be better to sell Joseph as a slave rather than to kill him themselves. So they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver and Ishmaelietes took Joseph to Egypt as a slave.

His brothers put goat’s blood on Joseph’s special robe and took the robe back to their father. They told him they had found the coat on the way and Joseph must be dead. Their father was heartbroken and mourned for many days.

In Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar the captain of the guard, one of Pharaoh’s officials.

Joseph Serves in Egypt (Genesis 41: 37-57):

Even though Joseph was a slave, the Lord was with him so he prospered. Joseph’s master also saw God was with Joseph, so Joseph found favour in his master Potiphar’s eyes. He put Joseph in charge of his household and all his belongings. He even lived in Potiphar’s house.

Joseph was well-built and handsome so Potiphar’s wife started to find him attractive. She tried to make Joseph have a sexual relationship with her but Joseph continuously refused. Joseph did not agree to her requests because he knew it was wrong and sinful. One day she found a chance to tell a lie against Joseph. She told her husband that Joseph had tried to make sexual advances towards her because no one else was around. She said she screamed so he ran away. This made her husband Potiphar very angry and he threw Joseph in prison.

Even though Joseph was in prison God was with him. He found favour with the prison warden and Joseph was put in charge of all the other prisoners. While in prison, Joseph interpreted two dreams, that of the King’s chief Baker and the king’s chief cupbearer. They had both been thrown in jail for offending their master. He told the chief cupbearer that the interpretation of his dream was that, in three days the Pharoah would give him his job back. While he told the chief baker that the interpretation of his dream was, in three days the Pharoah would execute (kill) him. Three days later, the events Joseph predicted happened just the way he said they would.

One day, two years later, the Pharaoh had two dreams and needed someone to interpret them. He asked all the magicians and wise men in Egypt to interpret his dreams but no one could. This caused the Chief Cupbearer to remember Joseph. So he told the Pharaoh about Joseph, how he had interpreted his dream while he was in prison and how his interpretation came to pass. The Pharoah then sent for Joseph.

The Pharoah told Joseph his dreams and Joseph interpreted them. Joseph told the Pharoah that his dream meant that Egypt would experience seven years of abundance and plentiful harvest. Which would be followed by seven years of famine. His interpretation caused the Pharaoh to create a new plan. The Pharoah decided to store twenty per cent of the crops harvested in Egypt and put Joseph in charge of this activity. Through Joseph, the nation of Egypt was saved from seven years of famine because of his interpretation (which was given to him by God) of the Pharoah’s dream. The Pharoah then put Joseph in charge of his palace and all his people were to submit to Joseph’s authority. Joseph became the Prime Minister of Egypt, second-in-command, after the Pharoah. 

During the seven years of famine, Joseph predicted, all the world came to buy grains from Egypt. This position made Joseph serve God, his people and others who came to buy food in Egypt during the seven years of worldwide famine.

Ruth Serves her Mother-in-Law (Ruth 1: 1-18):

Ruth was Naomi’s daughter-in-law, she married one of Naomi’s sons. Naomi married Elimelek and they lived in Bethlehem in Judah. There was famine in Bethlehem so they moved to the country of Moab to live with their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. After some time Elimelek died and Naomi’s two sons got married. Mahlon married Orpah and Kilion married Ruth, their wives were both from Moab. After some time both Naomi’s sons died, so she was without her husband and her children.

Naomi heard that God was providing food for her people back home, so decided to return to her home country. She left Moab with her two daughters-in-law to go back to Judah. As they journeyed together, Naomi told her in-laws to return to their own home country because she had no more sons for them to marry. She prayed for God to bless them and that they would find new husbands. They all cried together and hugged each other because they were about to be separated.

Oprah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and started the journey back to her hometown. However, Ruth clung to Naomi and refused to leave her. Ruth told Naomi to stop asking her to leave. Ruth promised Naomi to be with her and care for her until she (Naomi) died, she said in Ruth 1: 16-17(NIV)

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

(Ruth 1:16-17)

After Ruth said this, Naomi saw she was serious and stopped asking her to leave. Ruth remained kind and faithful to Naomi. Thereafter, Ruth returned to Bethlehem with Naomi and all the people loved Ruth for her service.