When we look at the big picture, Joseph played a pivotal role in God’s plan. The descendants of Abraham would serve in a foreign land 400 years (per Genesis 15) then return to claim the land of Canaan. But Joseph was too close to the events of his own life to see the big picture. His story looks like a hard luck case, a series of events of bad things that happened to him. God was near in Potipher’s house, in prison, and on the throne of Egypt. Joseph prospered in every situation because God’s Spirit was on him. And in the long run it was all part of God’s design, like a large puzzle of which Joseph was an important piece.