In this week’s Torah portion of Miketz, “at the end,” Joseph, who has lingered in prison for many years is finally freed and brought before Pharaoh. The Torah notes something so incidental it seems like a trivial detail to include: 

“Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh” (Gen. 41:14). 

Joseph “changed his clothes.” 

When Joseph is first introduced, he is the favored son of the covenant family. The son of Jacob, and heir apparent. While his family are shepherds, Joseph is regal, adorned in a colorful long-sleeved garment. Even Joseph’s dreams attest to the fact that he is not like his brothers, after all they will one day bow to him. 

While Joseph languished in prison those thirteen long years, he would have worn the garments of a prisoner. In Genesis 41:14 he is delivered out of that pit, he shaves his face and he changes his clothes. The word for clothes in this verse is שִׂמְלָה/śimlâ, meaning garment, apparel or wrapper. Joseph in an instant, after years of waiting will see the outer wrapper of his identity changed. Yes, he will take on a more regal appearance, but after these many years of suffering, the outer wrapper will actually reveal the inner changed man, as you will read next week. Yet, the change is not complete.

Jacob placed the long-sleeved garment on Joseph before Joseph was prepared to wear it. The Torah says of Pharaoh, “Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck” (Gen. 41:42). 

What Joseph’s dream could not reveal when he was seventeen were the years of brokenness he would endure before a foreign Pharaoh adorned him in that regal wrapper. When Joseph changed his clothes before meeting Pharaoh, we are taught that Joseph was a changed man. Yet, his transformation was not yet complete, as it would take a king to set him and adorn him for his mission. 

In Ephesians 4:17-32, the apostle Paul is summarizing the hallmarks of the messianic life: turning away from previous condition of the mind, and embracing something that is contrary to your nature, the new nature in Christ. Paul does this with the language of clothes, as he writes, “clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly”…(4:24), and “therefore, stripping off falsehood”…(4:25). 

The language of clothing, of getting dressed and undressed, is something we can all relate to; so it is an effective picture for our understanding of the process of sanctification. In Ephesians 4:29-32 Paul describes how the new clothing looks, “the getting rid of,” and he concludes the section by writing, “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted; and forgive each other, just as in the Messiah God has also forgiven you.” 

Just as Joseph put on new garments from the king to signify his new position as the viceroy of Egypt, the Body of Messiah must also put on new garments, Messiah Himself by the Holy Spirit, as Paul writes in Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (cf. Gal. 3:27). 

When Joseph was young, the garments of his dreams were neither his nor were they him. It was only after Joseph traveled through the depths of human pain and suffering that the word of a king raised him up. While Joseph did his best to make himself presentable before Pharaoh, it was not until Pharaoh clothed him in garments of glory that Joseph’s outer wrapper matched the new inner man. While Joseph saw himself in those dreams all those years before, the Joseph who was to come was not him at all, it was who he would be after the King of Glory led him through all the years of trial in order to prepare him to be called and appointed by an earthly ruler. 

Dear reader, Messiah Yeshua/Jesus has called you and appointed you. You have been clothed, not in garments of your own choosing, but His glorious garments of righteousness. The Holy Spirit has wrapped you in Messiah Himself. You, during those years of waywardness and sin, would not recognize that person you are today in Him. You may have tried to make yourself acceptable before the King of kings, but it is only when He calls you, and adorns you in His garments of righteousness that you are able to walk out and be the new man to a community in need (Eph. 3:16-21). You have been made new. Amen. 

Maranatha. Shalom.