Before we can dig in to Joseph and his character we must understand the circumstances surrounding his birth. He was conceived through a competition between two sisters. Rachel and Leah. We all understand sibling rivalry, right? If not, then I suggest you look up the song, "Sibling Rivalry" on the Simpson's Sing the Blues album released in 1990. Man I'm old. Anyway, with these two daughters of Laban it is understandable since they came from a father who used tricks the way he did. Instead of being upfront about their custom to not marry off the younger daughter before the older daughter, he tricked him into marriage with Leah (Gen 29:16-27). He tried to get over on him again with the flock of goats (Gen 30: 25-43). What he did was try and prevent Jacob from yielding a return on the investment with the flock, but God did not allow that to happen. Laban displayed some questionable character in this situation and blatantly tried to misuse Jacob. A parent's behavior influences their children. As a parent I know how powerful of a tool behavior modeling is. Laban modeled selfish behavior so that was what Rachel and Leah knew. Obviously God used this trickery for His good purpose, but I hope you see my point here.

These factors turned the already potentially volatile relationship, which naturally can occur between wives who share a husband, into a baby race. Not only that, but remember, they were sisters. Rachel, realizing she would not be able to have children gave Jacob her maid, Bilhah (Gen 30:1-8). Bilhah bore Dan and Naphtali. So, Leah responds by giving Jacob her maid, Zilpah. Zilpah then bares Gad and then Asher. So, then what happens next? Well after Rachel convinces Leah to give her Reuben's mandrakes in exchange for a night with Jacob, which produces Issachar. Leah then goes on to give birth to Zebulun then Dinah. Then God does what He does, and answers Rachel's prayers by showing her he had not forgotten her. She then gives birth to Joseph (meaning "May he add") for she said that,

Gen. 30:23-24 (NLT) - "God has removed my disgrace... may the Lord add yet another son to my family."

I think it is interesting to note that Benjamin was born next, which in part was one fulfillment of his name. Now, there is a ton of cultural factors like, marriage customs, maidservants, and old customs of polygamy we're not even going to touch. We'll save that good stuff for another study. This is all about Joseph. In the spirit of Historical Narratives/Biographies, we're going to try and stick to emphasizing his destiny and character. The fact that Joseph was born into this environment is ironic considering who he became and the path in which he took to get there. You would expect any child born in the kind of environment that lends itself to twisting and turning things in your favor despite integrity would fall in line. He did not. Joseph seemed to learn from the mistakes of the 11 siblings before him and chose to live with a high moral character. Perhaps the fact that Jacob loved Rachel more and possibly showed her and her children more attention helped. But never the less, Joseph definitely showed from the time he was born till the day he died, his path was chosen by an unwavering loyalty to God. There is no doubt about that.