“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also, he made him a tunic of many colors.”
Genesis 37:3

I was getting fitted for a suit for a wedding when the tailor said, “The clothes make the man!” If that is true, what are we to say about this man, Joseph, and the different garments he wore? Throughout his life, we find various types of garments mentioned that were either put on him or torn away from him. What can we learn about Joseph and his garments?

The coat of many colors, or his tunic, was a special robe given to him by his father. It certainly made a statement and was a symbol of his father’s favor! As followers of Jesus Christ, we too are favored by our Father through His grace and ought to live in the good of this grace each day of our lives. These garments of favor became garments of suffering as his brothers resented the favor shown toward Joseph (Gen. 37:23-24). As we wear the garments of His grace, Peter reminds us, “Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12).

While in Potiphar’s house, Joseph was attacked by Potiphar’s wife, and she caught him by his garment and sought to use it against him, accusing him of attacking her. But this garment was a garment of integrity for Joseph. While he still suffered, his integrity did not. Again, Peter reminds us, “For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God” (1 Peter 2:20).

Joseph exchanged his prison garments, which we might call garments of testing, for garments of exaltation (Gen. 41:14, 42). This only reminds us that when we honor the Lord in our testing and trials, putting Him first, He will honor us!

The last garment that Joseph changed was what I will call the garment of faith. He gave instructions for his body to be taken back to the land of promise (Gen. 50:24-26). As believers, “We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:1, 4).

Anchor For Today:
Whatever garments we may wear along life’s journey—whether of favor, suffering, testing, or exaltation—may we walk in faithfulness to the Lord, knowing that one day we will be clothed with glory in His presence!