Joseph is one of the most beautiful types (symbols) of the Lord Jesus Christ in the OT, though the Bible never labels him as a type. A. W. Pink lists 101 correspondences between Joseph and Jesus, and Ada Habershon lists 121.

God's purpose is that we become like His Son and so as we see Joseph as a type of Christ, we also see him as an example to us.

Joseph presents, in the main features of his life a complete contrast to Jacob. As the one shows us the fruit of the flesh, though in a saint, the other gives us the fruit of the Spirit (F W Grant).

The word for stranger can also mean "sojourner" or "alien." The Lord had promised that this land would become a permanent possession of Abraham’s family (12:7). To the third generation that promise was still not realized. Jacob and his family were still aliens in the land.

Joseph, [being] seventeen years old We come now to a deeply interesting type, or rather a series of types, in the history of Joseph. As we have seen already, Joseph was born of Rachel in Padan-Aram while Jacob was away from his place and his country (chapter #30:22-25). This seems to speak of the fact that Christ came in at a time when Israel was not really in the possession or enjoyment of the land of their inheritance. They had lost the kingdom, and, although they were under God’s providential care, they were not in possession of the inheritance. (C. A. Coates)

The first verse has told us that he dwelt in the land in which his father had been a stranger. In this he was moving ahead of God's purpose and hence presently God permitted circumstances to move him and his sons into Egypt, and thus all came to pass that had been predicted to Abraham in Genesis 15: 13, 14.

Here we may see a type of many a trying experience that intrudes itself to our Christian lives. God intends us to be strangers in the world that exists today. If we settle ourselves down and become dwellers, we may very easily find ourselves carried down into a spiritual Egypt and enslaved therein. So let us take the warning of this Scripture to heart. F B Hole

This is the tenth time this Hebrew phrasing is used in Genesis (see the list at 2:4).

This is one of the few places the Bible gives the age of a person at a certain event (see also 12:4). Usually, it records only the length of a person’s whole life.

Service comes before glory in the plan of God.

Joseph like many of God's great servants learned how to rule by shepherding sheep.

Moses kept the flock for 40 years before he led God's flock, Israel, through the wilderness.

David kept his father's sheep before God called him to shepherd His people Israel.

The shepherd would love his sheep, care for them, feed them and even die for them.

The Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd.

Though in service, Joseph was very near his brethren, in his integrity he was very far from them. Like the Saviour who was the friend of sinners (Matt. 11:19) yet separate from sinners (Heb. 7:26). He was separated not isolated from men.

The typical ruler for God is ever the shepherd. But He is with the children of the bondmaid, —a significant expression of Israel’s condition, perhaps politically as well as spiritually, when our Lord came in the flesh (F. W. Grant).

The Lord was hated for exposing the sin of His brethren.

Jacob publicly acknowledged his love for Joseph. So too, God the Father acknowledged His love for His Son publicly.

Jesus Christ was the Son of God’s eternity. From all eternity He was God’s Son.

The only other occurrence of this word in the Hebrew is in 2 Sam. 13:18-19, "And she had a garment of divers colours upon her: for with such robes were the king’s daughters that were virgins apparelled. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her. And Tamar put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying."

David's daughter was marked out from others as royalty. She was a princess.

Jacob marked out Joseph is far greater than all the other brothers by this coat of many colours. God confirmed Jacob's choice of Joseph by means of two dreams.

Yet Jacob should have remembered what parental favoritism does to a family. It had separated him from his loving mother (27:1-28:5), and it would separate Joseph from Jacob.

Joseph's two dreams therefore not only foretold his own glorious future in Egypt, but also foreshadowed the supreme glory of Christ. F B Hole

The two dreams thus set forth the supremacy of Christ over things on earth and things in heaven to the remotest bounds of the created universe (Hamilton Smith).

The first dream reminds us of the Lord as the Firstfruits from the dead, the pre-eminent One, the Firstborn from the dead.

The second dream reminds us of the Lord as the head of all creation, the Last Adam.

The scene of the first dream was agricultural (v. 7). There may be some hint here of the manner in which Joseph’s authority over his brothers would be achieved (cf. 42:1-3). His sheaf of grain was upright while their sheaves . . . bowed down to his. The scene of the second dream was celestial (v. 9). The sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowed down to him. In ancient cultures these astronomical symbols represented rulers. The dream, then, symbolically anticipated the elevation of Joseph over the whole house of Jacob (Joseph’s father, the sun; his mother, the moon; his 11 brothers, the stars, v. 10).

That these dreams came from God, there is no question; and certainly the assurance that one day he would rule helped to keep Joseph faithful during those many years of testing in Egypt. Note that the first dream had an earthly setting, while the second dream was set in heaven. This suggests Abraham’s earthly children (the Jews) and his heavenly seed (the church). Joseph’s brothers did one day bow down to him! See also 42:6; 43:26; and 44:14.

They hated him for his character, they hated him for his coat, and now they had a third reason now, for his dreams.

The dream was a divine revelation that they would all own the greatness of Joseph.

The Lord Jesus was hated for declaring how every one will acknowledge His greatness one day. Christ must have the first place in everything.

This is the general idea, as his mother was now dead, or he must have had the dream before his reaching Canaan in his seventh year, ten years before this. The Jews have noted this, as showing a dream, not properly a prophetic vision; but this is clearly a prophecy. JND

The sun and moon represented Jacob and Leah (Rachel had died)

Joseph's brethren had no faith but Jacob had enough faith to realise that there might be something behind the dreams.

Just as they ridiculed Joseph’s message, so they also ridiculed Jesus. In fact, nailed to His cross were the words: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

They wanted to rob him of the place that God had appointed him just as the Jews moved by envy wanted the place given to the Lord Jesus by the Father.

They thought his dreams would come to nothing just as those Jews thought they had got rid of Christ but how wring they were.

Reuben, as the firstborn son and principal heir, had the most to lose if Joseph’s dreams came true (see 35:23). Yet Reuben intervened to spare Joseph’s life. This was something of a contrast with his earlier wicked actions (35:22).

Just as there were different measures of guilt with the brothers so too there was with those who crucified the Saviour. All were guilty but not to the same degree.

The sin of the Jews was greater than that of Pilate. The sin of Judas was the worst of all.

Herod having found no fault in Christ sent Him back but Pilate went further and handed Him over to crucifixion even though he protested three times that he found no fault in him.

Reuben's words remind us of what the Jews said to Pilate.

So they handed the Saviour over to the Gentiles to be crucified just as Joseph was handed over to the Ishmaelite.

In some way the likes of Reuben can be seen in men like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who did not consent to the deed of those who condemned the Lord to death.

When the Lord Jesus on several occasions had displayed his power and grace, men sought to strip Him of His glory and call Him names. They would also strip Him of His clothes and crucify Him.

It was customary to crucify a person naked. The clothes were divided amongst the executioners.

The coat was the inner garment whereas the others were outer garments.

Adam and Eve were naked before they brought sin into this world. Clothes are the result of sin so the Saviour was made naked so that we might wear His robe of righteousness.

The pit was a cistern, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Without water in the pit, Joseph could only survive a few days.

Jeremiah too suffered when he was cast into the pit. But for him the pit was filled with water and mud and he would have drowned in the mire.

Joseph's pit was dry and he would have died of thirst.

But the death that men reserved for the Lord Jesus was far worse.

In Psalm 40 that speaks of the resurrection of Christ, we hear Him say,

The hypocrisy of Joseph's brothers is seen again in the Pharisees who handed Jesus over to Pilate for crucifixion yet thought it wrong to defile themselves so that they might eat the Passover.

Judas too hypocritically took into his mouth the Passover sop that the Lord gave him and went out to betray the Son of Man.

We also see in this type how the soldiers gambled for the Lord's clothes at the foot of the cross.

History does indeed repeat itself; because each generation is but the repetition of the one before it: as Ahab, Israel’s worst king, was but after all, what his name signifies, his "father’s brother" (F. W. Grant).

Ishmaelites were descendants of Abraham by Hagar (16:15) and the Midianites (37:28) descended from Abraham by his concubine Keturah (25:2). The term Ishmaelites became a general designation for desert tribes, so that Midianite traders were also known as Ishmaelites. Joseph was treated harshly by his brothers; but being sold for 20 shekels (8 ounces of silver) and taken to Egypt, he was preserved alive.

What Judah did to Joseph was repeated by Judas who sold the Saviour for thirty pieces of silver and has been continued by that nation to this day which has abandoned themselves to the worship of mammon.

There is a difference between the type and the antitype. Joseph like Isaac was rescued from actual death but it was not so for our Lord Jesus.

In Isaac as a type of Christ we see the God ward side of the cross, whereas in Joseph as a type of Christ we see the man ward side of the cross. It was a pit of suffering.

It was bad to sell him for twenty pieces of silver, but this was not the full extent of the wrong, ; for the same cruel hearts which thus disposed of a holy and loving brother did not scruple to inflict the deadliest wound on their aged father. Sin against the brother, and sin against the father— such is the sorrowful conclusion of this chapter of Joseph’s story (William Kelly).

Just as Jacob had deceived his father by using a kid of a goat so too his own sons use the same to deceive him. Jacob used its skin, his sons used its blood. Jacob had tried to improve his lot wit his father by wicked means and his sons do the same. Years may pass by but it is certain that we reap what we sow.

God had to deal with Jacob to make him into Israel and likewise, God will deal with his sons so that there will be a nation.

Esau's garment is called "goodly raiment," and as he was the elder it may have been something very similar to Joseph's "coat of many colours." By goodly raiment Jacob deceived his father: by goodly raiment his sons deceived him. As he meted out so it was measured to him again. God's government of His people works with great precision. F B Hole

Jacob was as completely deceived as his own father was.

They hypocritically weep with Jacob.

Sheol never means the grave though it is sometimes translated as such. It means the world of the dead. The righteous went into "upper Sheol" and the wicked went to the "lowest Sheol"(Deuteronomy 32:22).

(Note: if there is a lowest Sheol, there must by inference be an upper Sheol.)

Jacob thought that Joseph was in the intestines of an animal having being devoured so he was certainly not saying that he would join Joseph in some grave.